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HISTORY OF CHRISTIANITY IN INDIA : M. M. NINAN In January 11, 1894 Mizoram pioneer missionaries Rev. J.H. Lorrain (Pu Buanga) and Rev. F.W. Savidge (Sap Upa) arrived in Mizoram from England, United Kingdom bringing with them the gospel of Jesus Christ that has since changed the history of Mizo people. Pioneer message-bearers to the unreached tribes This was the situation awaiting two missionaries, J H Lorrain and F W Savidge, who entered the region in 1894 with the backing of the ‘Arthington Aborigines Mission’. The strategy of the Arthington mission was to send out missionaries two-by-two to unevangelised tribes. Within four years, Lorrain and Savidge learnt the Lushai language, translated Luke, John and Acts and published a Lushai grammar and dictionary. In 1897, the Welsh Calvinistic Methodists extended their work to Lushai, so Arthington withdrew his workers to avoid the duplication of missionary resources. However, Lorrain and Savidge desired to stay in the area and so formed their own mission, the ‘Assam Frontier Province Mission’, staying in the northeastern state of Arunachal Pradesh. In 1901, the Welsh mission agreed to cede the work in the south Lushai Hills to BMS. The BMS India Secretary wrote to Lorrain and Savidge suggesting that they return to Lushai under the auspices of BMS, and they arrived at Lunglei in March 1903. Evangelism Mizo-style In Lunglei there was an existing Christian community of 125 who had been converted by Welsh missionaries during visits from their station further north. Lorrain and Savidge began by preaching a traditional evangelical message of salvation from sin, but found that the Mizos had ‘no sense of sin and felt no need for such a Saviour’. So they changed their approach to fit in with the Mizo worldview, proclaiming Jesus as the vanquisher of the devil and his powers – and found a radically different response. 236
HISTORY OF CHRISTIANITY IN INDIA : M. M. NINAN News of the revival that had swept through Wales spread to the Welsh mission field to the north of the Lushai Hills and encouraged prayers for a similar revival in Mizoram. The pace of conversions quickened noticeably, with chiefs professing <strong>Christianity</strong> and whole villages turning to Christ. Until 1913 there was no organised church life because believers were scattered in over 80 different villages. Lorrain’s approach was to appoint the most mature Christian in each village as a ‘Sunday school superintendent’, charged with teaching all the other believers basic doctrine, hymns and reading skills. Thus the Sunday school became a key agent of both education and evangelism. The duty of every convert to bring others to Christ was stressed from the outset. All converts were taught to tithe their crops to the church, which supported four evangelists from 1905. Thus an unorganised church was already self-propagating and self-supporting. In his reports to BMS, Lorrain emphasised that they were not making Mizo Christians like western Baptists, but developing a national Lushai church. The church-planting strategy adopted in Mizoram attracted the admiration of the rest of the BMS India mission; it was imaginative and had transcended denominational boundaries. In the years following World War One, Mizoram was experiencing the most spectacular example of church growth in any BMS field in the 20th century. Between 1919 and 1924, the total Baptist community grew from 3,670 to 8,770, and church membership from 1,017 to 3,198. With what must have felt a great weight of achievement behind them, Savidge retired in 1925 and Lorrain in 1932. These pioneers were replaced by two couples that were to serve the Mizo church continuously almost to the close of the missionary era there: Horace and Betty Carter (1930-59) and Frank and Florence Raper (1932-61). The Baptist churches continued to grow during the 1930s and 40s. By 1949, the Christian community was over 31,079 strong and church membership stood at 12,133. In 2008, the Baptist Church in Mizoram reports a membership of 120,589 in 410 local churches. Education, healthcare and translation The work of communicating the gospel was not only down to the missionaries. The first Sunday school superintendents evolved into elders in charge of village congregations and the first native pastor, Chuautera, was ordained in 1914. 237
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PREFACE This book is the result of
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Kolla Varsham (Malayalam Era) HISTO
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