So back in India I asked one of my best friends, Abraham to write a guest blog for me. He would say no and then I would ask him to write something again and he would solely right “something”.One night he sent me this blog that he has so kindly taken the time to write about the amazing community he lives in and God-willing the place I will move after college graduation! So here it is!! Also, anything in parentheses is a note from me! Ok, now here it is!
“Hi I am Abraham, one of the Liaison for the GAP Year U-Squad at Sielmat, India. My Friend Colleen ask me to write something for her blog. So here it is…
“SOMETHING”
The U-Squad Stationed at Sielmat Village, a small village in Churachandpur, Manipur. So let me tell few things about this Village.
The Village is about 1 Kilometer long from the National Highway.
This village is about 60 years old.
There are about 300 houses today.
There is 1 Hospital,
2 Schools,
2 Bible Colleges,
2 Churches,
2 Lakes (Fish Ponds),
1 Water Supply Tank,
1 Field/Playground,
1 Community Bell,
1 Prayer Mountain,
1 River,
3 Bridges (West, North, South),
1 Community Hall,
1 Cemetery,
14 small shops,
2 Tea Hotels,
1 Elecronic Repair Shop,
1 Pharmacy,
1 Book Store,
1 Welding Shop,
Many Pastors (Retired and Active),
1 Stationery,
1 Fabric Printing shop,
1 Beauty Salon,
1 News Paper Agency.
There are few Government Workers. Most of the people are Mission workers or self employed.
The village is the Head Quarters of one of the many denomination of the Hmar people.
There are many languages used by different community group/tribes in this town.
Hmar is one of them.
Some words in Hmar languages
Greetings (Hello/How are you?) = I DAM AM?
Goodnight/ Goodbye = MANGTHRA
I Love You = Ka Hmangai Che
I Miss You = Ka Ngai Che
The squad arrived to this village on the 6th of January, I went to the airport to pick them up. So, the first month was like trying to know each other. I lead different teams each day of the ministry. There are 7 teams but only 4 liaisons, 1 liaison would lead 1 or 2 teams depending on the ministry location. So after 1 month, I have known most of them by names.
Let me tell how I met Colleen, like really know each other and be close friends. We met each other several times during the ministry, but not actually GOP yet. (GOP is the slang word for gossip in Hmar.) The Church Youth Department build a recording studio, so, during the inauguration Colleen and her friends (Madeline and I) came at the studio. The youth started recording and we start GOPing. We talk and laugh, there was one time when we even disturb the Sound Engineer, Haha! So from that night I became good friend with Colleen and Madeline. These two girls are very funny, Colleen would talk and keep talking, and Madeline would listen and smile and laugh. There was one time I ask Colleen to keep silent so that I can speak to Madeline….But that doesn’t work well…Colleen starts talking again. I like people who talk and laugh out loud. One of the liaison Vala also join the GOP Group, the four of us get along well. So for the past two weeks we hangout whenever we have time. Last night (written while we were still in India) we went to the recording studio and we recorded Colleen’s laugh. It was hilarious. About Madeline…She is cute, doesn’t speak much, but she like to listen to people and she likes to smile. I like her more when she told us about how she wants to work with an organization who fights against Human Trafficking. She has a good heart.
The other day we went on a hike to Saidan Mountain, there is a Cross on top of the mountain. This cross was put up by Dr. Rochunga Pudaite in the early 90s (1992/93) I was a little boy. My mom went to the mountain the day the cross was made. Dr. Rochunga Pudaite is a second generation Christian who loves the Lord. In 1910, a Wales Missionary, Watkin R Roberts, came to Senvon village, one of the Hmar Village. Rev Chawnga Pudaite, father of Dr. Rochunga Pudaite is one of the first few people who accept Jesus. From this village the Gospel spreads like wild fire reaching many villages in the southwest of Manipur. When Rochunga was a young boy, his father Chawnga sent him to school in Churachandpur (the place where we are living) so that one day Rochunga would translate the Bible into Hmar Language. So, Dr Rochunga Pudaite walk 96 miles in the jungle from Senvon.
Back to the Squad…the squad is hosted by ‘ Bibles for the World’ (Dr Rochunga Pudaite was the President till his death in October 2015. His Son John Pudaite is now the President.) We hosted 8/9 teams since 2014.
Things i like about the Team
– They love the Lord
– They are obedient and Punctual
– They are kind
– Nice people to hangout with
– I like their willingness to leave their comfort zone to serve the Lord
Some Comments on the Team
– They smell like secondhand (In India most clothes are sold on the side of streets and are mostly secondhand clothes, so most shopping is like thrift shopping! It’s super fun to search through hives piles just to find a fun shirt or a jean jacket! AB would joke that we smelled like second hand because we bought so many clothes that our entire wardrobe was second hand clothes!)
– They are much stronger than i thought (we did manual labor moving tons of bricks in our two months on Sielmat and the locals were always shocked at how many bricks we would pick up at one time haha)
– They are Beautiful/ Handsome
There are many thing to learn from the team, I love them all.
Excerpt from Wikipedia
Rochunga Pudaite (4 December 1927 – 10 October 2015) was an Indian minister of Hmar descent who translated the Bible into the Hmar language[1] and founded Bibles for the World. He was a renowned speaker and an evangelist. His organisation, Bibles For The World, has allowed distribution of the Christian Bible to millions of people around the world, by mailing Bibles in different languages to them.
At the close of the 19th century, the British branded the Hmar people of northeast India as “the worst headhunters”. In 1871, that tribal group beheaded over 500 tea plantation workers and some British soldiers.[2] Then, on 4 February 1910, a missionary from Wales named Watkin Roberts, armed with a copy of the New Testament, arrived in the area where the tribal group lived.[3] He spent just five days with the Hmars, teaching them about God, focusing on the Gospel of John. Through that lone missionary visit, Chawnga, the father of Rochunga Pudaite, was introduced to the teachings of Jesus.[4]
Chawnga and a few tribesmen believed in what they learned and became dedicated Christians. Chawnga believed that his son Rochunga could be God’s instrument to bring the Bible to the Hmar tribe in their own language. To prepare himself for that task, Rochunga studied at St. Paul’s Cathedral Mission College in Kolkata and the University of Allahabad. To study Biblical Greek and Hebrew, he attended Glasgow Bible Training Institute, now International Christian College (Scotland), and then Wheaton College (Illinois).
In 1958 Rochunga completed the translation of the New Testament from Greek into the Hmar language. It was a task that included creating a romanized script for Hmar.[5] The checking and editing work and printing took another two years. When the Hmar New Testament was finally printed in 1960 the initial five-thousand copy run sold out within six months.[6] Pudaite later facilitated Bible translations for other tribal languages.
In 1956 while he was studying at Wheaton, Rochunga had a chance to meet Watkin Roberts and was able to report to him that the work Roberts had done among the Hmar tribe was flourishing.[7]
In 1958, Ro (as he came to be called) was named Executive Director of the Indo-Burma Pioneer Mission.[8] In 1968 the organized was renamed Partnership Mission.[9]In 1973, that ministry—which was then located in Wheaton, IL—became Bibles For The World. Today, Bibles For the World is headquartered in Colorado Springs, Colorado.[10] The ministry focuses on Bible distribution, child sponsorship, and the India Children’s Choir. In 1976,Malone University in Canton, Ohio, bestowed on him the honorary Doctorate of Laws, and in 2000, Dallas Baptist University bestowed on him the honorary Doctor of Divinity.[11]
Rochunga Pudaite’s biography is recounted in James Hefley’s book God’s Tribesman: the Rochunga Pudaite Story (Holman, 1977), in Joe Musser’s book Fire on the Hills (Tyndale House Publishers, 1998), and in the film Beyond the Next Mountain.
Pudaite is the author of The Education of the Hmar People (Indo-Burma Pioneer Mission, 1963), My Billion Bible Dream (Thomas Nelson, 1982), The Dime that Lasted Forever (Tyndale House, 1985), The Book That Set My People Free (Tyndale House, 1988) and The Greatest Book Ever Written (Hannibal Books, 1989).
Rochunga Pudaite died at a Colorado hospital on 10 October 2015. His legacy lives on.”
