Today, the 11th January 2015, marks the 121st anniversary of the arrival of Rev.James Herbert Lorrain and Rev.Frederick William Savidge in Mizoram to devote their life as missionaries to the unreached Mizo people a.ka. Lushais.
Three years before the arrival of the two pioneer missionaries to these head-hunting Mizo people, a Welsh missionary by the name of Rev.William Williams had the privilege of becoming the first missionary to set foot in the Lushai hills. According to Carol MacNeill, BMS missionary in Zaire, due to unsettled conditions, Rev.Williams was only able to remain in Mizoram for about a month.
Lorrain and Savidge first entered Mizoram as missionaries of the Arthington Aborigines Mission but later joined the Baptist Missionary Society (BMS) and devoted all their effort to disiple the people of Mizoram who were living in darkness. The BMS mission in Mizoram was concentrated in the south while the northern hills were taken up by missionaries of the Welsh Presbyterian Mission. Prior to the advent of the missionaries, the Mizo people had no alphabet, hence no written language. Today, virtually the entire Mizo peoples have been evangelised and Mizoram boasts a high percentage of literacy – 91.33%
The Mizo people were nomadic warring tribes headed by sovereign village chiefs. They inhabited what the British government termed the Lushai Hills. The British-India government’s expansion toward the east often resulted in clashes with the Lushai tribes on whose hunting grounds the foreigners encroached. On the 27th January 1871, a history-changing event took place in Alexandrapur that would forever change the destiny of the Mizo people.
A Scottish tea garden manager by the name of James Winchester was killed in a raid by the men of Sailam village chief Bengkhuaia and Mr.Winchester’s five-year old daughter Mary Winchester was taken captive into the unknown hills.
According to Carol MacNeill, “[Mary] had settled down to a happy Lushai childhood! She had been given into the care of a kindly village couple whom she came to love and it was not long before she was speaking the language, learning to weave...Little Mary Winchester had no idea of the extent to which public interest within Britain had been aroused by her capture, nor that three army units had been mobilised to rescue her. When at last the army reached her, early in 1872, sadly destroying villages and killing many people on the way, it was the great difficulty that they persuaded her to leave her ‘granny’ and accept her ‘freedom’ ...
The military expedition to rescue Mary Winchester began to open up the Lushai hills to the outside world. With the eventual imposition of British rule in 1893, came the peaceful conditions which enabled Christian missionaries to work in the Lushai hills. Many years later in a letter to pastor Vanchhunga, the grandson of her ‘dear granny’, Mary wrote, “My father’s blood was the price paid for you Lushai Christians.”
An interesting account of the incident and aftermath written by Mary Winchester in her old age can be read here.http://www.mizostory.org/mizostory/Mizo_Story_1.html
At Mortdale-Oatley Baptist Church www.mobc.org.au, we have adopted the Great Commission given by Jesus found in the Gospel according to Matthew 29:19, "Therefore go and make disciples of all nations..." as this year's motto recognising that we Christians need to shine the light of God's Word beyond our mono-cultural boundaries.
May we, like those men and women of faith and courage, take Matthew 28:19 to heart and be part of the great privilege of making "disciples of all nations"!
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