Our Story

Chin is a name of peoples that inhabit the hilly land embedded between India and Burma. Having distinct identity and culture, Chins have a belief that there is Khuazing, a being who is superior to all other beings—natural and supernatural—and controlling the whole cosmos with supreme power. However, Chins did not feel that they needed to worship the Supreme Being because She/He is the good that would never harm them unless they are too cruel, but protect them from evil power. They call upon His/Her name only in times of danger and justice. They rather made their sacrificial offerings to other spiritual beings that would harm them if they don’t appease them. Chins’ belief system and culture are very compatible to Moses’ laws. Some even claim that Chin must have been a lost tribe of Israel, while others believe that God has revealed himself to Chins through their culture. However, Chins did not know the God as revealed in Jesus Christ until the end of the 19th century.

In late 19th Century when American Baptist Convention sent out missionaries throughout the world, a couple of missionaries, Arthur and Laura Carson, arrived Chin Hills in late 1898. They spent the rest of their life at Halkha (also Haka), a town in central Chin Hills. It was the Carsons that put Chin language in use by nurturing the orthography which was initiated beforehand by A.G.E. Newland, a British administrator and ethnographer. Successive missionaries carried out the mission work until all American Baptist Missionaries were kicked out of the country by Ne Win’s regime in early 1960’s.

Churches of Chins, amidst the religious discrimination constantly practiced by the Ne Win’s government, felt that they had the Great Commission to fulfill—to bring the Good News to their fellow Chins in the south. A large scale mission named Chins for Christ in One Century was started in 1983. Men and women, young and old, spent a part of their life going (untrained) to the fields where the harvest was ready and no one to reap. The 16-year mission was concluded by a Gospel Centenary Celebration in Spring, 1999 at the base of Carson's tombstone. [Our senior pastor was the chief speaker at that jubilee.] The high majority of Chins are Christians now.

In the country where Adoniram Judson was imprisoned, religious pressures and persecution have been going on against Christians throughout the time of successive Buddhist regimes. Religious freedom has slowly come close to culmination [see article below]. Chin churches are of the main victims of the persecution. That is going from bad to worse since the time of country-wide uprising in 1988 when several thousands of lives were spared for the sake of democracy and people’s freedom, in stead of which we got gun-shots and threat. That situation compelled us to seek asylum and refuge to the US government.

We thank God for having prepared a land of freedom for those who do not have religious freedom. We thank the US government for sharing us the freedom it achieved hardly by the sweat and blood of its brave sons and daughters.

More readings:
1. Fleeing Burma Where Life Is At Risk And Liberty Curtailed
2. Memories Of A Land Not Forgotten
3. Why I Believe in the Christian God
These articles are in the Articles section of http://robawm.com