One day In 2006 my wife answered the telephone and immediately found herself engaged by a young man who was calling from India as a telemarketer for a major satellite television company. She repeatedly attempted to politely brush him off but because he was very good at his job, she couldn’t seem to get rid of him, so, I took the phone from her (the man of the house was going to show her how it’s done) and the next thing I knew I was stuck on the phone with him. I became increasingly frustrated with this foreigner who had the nerve to invade the sanctity of my home. As my irritation mounted, I became more and more rude until something suddenly happened that stopped me in my tracks. He mentioned that he was a Baptist like me. I was suddenly flooded with feelings of shame that I had felt so justified in mistreating this stranger because I considered him to be a foreigner who was stealing American jobs.
In order to salve my conscience, I immediately changed my tone and began to ask questions about him and his people. As it turned out, this boy who was 22 years old at the time is named Rinchuingam Shimray, (Achui, for short) and is a member of the Naga tribes of Northeast India. As I sat on my porch swing Achui began to unfold the fascinating story of the conversion of the Naga people from violent headhunters to Christian stalwarts. As we continued to talk periodically, he educated me on these very interesting people who were once steeped in animistic religions until American Baptists risked their lives to evangelize them in the late 1800’s.
Today there are several million Nagas who are not only majority Christian but also predominantly Baptist. Because they are Christian and their physical appearance is very similar to Chinese, they suffer greatly at the hands of both Hindu radicals and the Indian government. One of the states that they occupy in Northeast India is actually called Nagaland (or Nagalim) and their national motto is “Nagalim for Jesus”. Nagas speak English primarily, and greatly appreciate America as the people who brought them the gospel and literacy. Nagas place a great value on education and achievement. This was recently demonstrated as a young Naga man received a Nobel prize.
With the passage of time my family’s relationship with Achui has grown. We have watched him mature from a young single man living in the big city of New Delhi to a dedicated husband, father and Deacon at his local church.
Over the years Achui and I have shared many long personal conversations and attempted to help and support each other as we were able. Most notably, when I was being considered for appointment as District Judge in Jefferson County Alabama Achui fasted and prayed. Later, as I ran for re-election, he would ask people to vote for me whenever he made telemarketing calls within Jefferson County.
It was always a goal and a desire for the two of us to meet in person but the timing and finances never seemed to line up. Finally, this past fall I felt the Lord leading me to travel to India, so when I shared this with Achui he was delighted and immediately responded that he happened, at that very time, to be organizing a conference for a group of Naga graduate students and that if an American was going to be speaking it would encourage greater attendance. So, right then and there we decided that I would come to New Delhi in October 2018 and speak on Christian leadership at this conference.
After arriving in New Delhi and spending the night with Achui’s family, he and his precious wife, Thivei, and I set out for the conference which was to be held in the city of Dehradun which lies in the foothills of the Himlayas. The time I spent with the Nagas, especially Achui and his family, was priceless and the conference was a great success. Over 90 Naga graduate students enjoyed 5 days of intense worship and study and by the time the conference ended between 30 and 40 professions of faith in Christ had been made.
After visiting India and seeing the sincere love of Jesus and zeal for evangelism among the Nagas it is clear that the Lord would have Faith Fortress come alongside these precious brothers and sisters to equip and encourage them in their ministry to surrounding people groups. Although many of them come to New Delhi to find work, the Naga region of the Northeast is very uniquely situated to be the hands and feet of God to that part of the world as they are land-locked by non-Christian people groups. To the north of the Naga lands is Atheist China, to the west is Hindu India, to the south is Muslim Bangladesh and to the east lies Buddhist Myanmar.
I truly thank god for bringing Achui and myself together in this very unlikely friendship and I pray that He will do a mighty work in India through Faith Fortress as we develop an ongoing relationship with the Nagas providing support, training and funding for missionaries. If you feel the Lord is leading you to assist in this endeavor in any way please reach out to us through the contact page of this website. If you do not feel led to go but would like to take part in sending others then please consider making a donation through our paypal option.
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