In March of 1899, when the smoke of trees and grass burning to make fields for the year's crop hung like haze over the high mountains, a lonely pair of Americans 
made their way to Haka in the Chin Hills, a village of three hundred thatch-roofed houses and the home of the most powerful chiefs of that area. Arthur Carson was a tall and lean man, the kind of man who could, and did, build a house with his own hands. Laura Carson was stout and jolly, a maternal tupe who could love the unlovely. They had come to bring the healing and redeeming power of Christ to almost 250,000 people. They had been working among the Asho Chins in Thayetmyo and now came to work in the Chin Hills.
As they penetrated farther into the hills, their hearts sank, for the Chins seemed so underprivileged that they wondered whether any gospel on earth could lift them. But they took comfort, hoping that when they reached Haka, they could find more promising material on which to work. On the fifteenth of the month they were welcomed by three British officers who kindly put them up for a few weeks in an empty stone hut, and here they saw that the Hakas, chiefs and all, were exactly like the other Chins. Before going to bed the first night, Laura wept for weariness and disappointment. "How can I possibly stay here a lifetime?" she tearfully asked. Arthur told her, "Don't talk that way. Things will look brighter in the moring." Then he added the most revealing comfort of all. "Laura, remember our motto, "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." With that thought they went to bed and rose the next morning determined to give their lives for Christ to win the Chins.
What Arthur and Laura Carsons and their Karen helper, Thra San Win, began that spring morning at the turn of the century, was to win for Christianity a large group of tribes on the border of India and Burma, in an area of 13,000 square miles of mountains, people whom time had passed by. The Chins were not cannibals nor headhunters like their cousins the Nagas to the north, nor they were savages. But they were unlettered mountain people, without money, living on a barter system, a lucky few possessing flintlock guns but many using bow and arrow, in the Iron age to be sure but their iron implements limited to knife, axe and hoe. The Chin Hills is a remote area, for from lines of outside communication, and so separated culturally from the Burmans of the plains that to this day, sixty years later, Chins still speak of "going down to Burma."
The story of Christian mission in the Chin Hills falls into four periods. We can distinguish them as: The Entering Church--the time of the pioneers, say the first ten years, to the death of Carson and arrival of Herbert Cope; 1899 to 1908.
The Emerging Churches--from the death of Carson to about 1924 when the young churches achieved self-support.
The Edification of the Churches--from 1924 to 1941, when World War II stopped missionary work. During this period the churches entered almost every part of the northern Chin Hills.
The Energized Churches--from 1942 to the present. This period has seen the churches, on their own, sending missionaries to every part of the Chin Hills, the perfecting of church organization, and a tremendous increase in numbers. Capable trained national leaders took over from foreigners in this period.
I.The Entering Church, 1899 to 1908
As long as Baptist Churches endure in the Chin Hills, the names of Arthur and Laura Carson will be remembered. But from the very beginning Sgaw Karen workers from Bassein and Henzada shared with them the burdens of the work. With the Carsons came Thra San Win who became an evangelist in the Haka area. Very soon afterward came Thra Shew Zan to work at Khawsak in the Siyin Valley, in Teddim area, remembered as the man who persuaded the first converts, Thuam Hang and Pau Suan and their wives, to become Christians. With Thra Shwe Zan came Thra Po Ku who started teaching and preaching at Teddim and then at Tonzang where lived the greatest chief in the northern area, also Maung Gone who started work at Laizo in the Falam district.
The third group of Karen teachers and evangelists gave a second worker in the Falam area, Thra Po Aye at Lumbang, just north of the Manipur River at a strategic spot, and three more workers for Haka area; branching out to the south, Maung Lun at Zokhua; to the west, Maung Kya at Thlantlang; and for the little school at Haka, Thra Kyi Ghine.
Meanwhile at Haka, Carson had purchased thirty acres of rolling pine woods, built a school and a house, and plans were under way for a doctor to come and minister to the appalling medical needs. In 1902 Dr. E. H. East reached the new mission station, but soon had to return to America for health reasons. He returned in 1904 with his new bride and with money to construct a 20 bed mission hospital at Haka. In this year the first converts had made their decisions for Christ, but their baptism had to await Dr.East's visit to the Siyin Valley. On May 11, 1905, Dr.East baptised Thuam Hang and Pau Suan and their wives in a natural rock-bound pool in the little stream between Khawsak and Thuklai villages. Doubtless at the time the little band of Christians could not envision the scene fifty years later when over 5000 Christians were together at Khawsak for the jubilee of the first conversions. But in 1904, persecution for the faith was a real possibility.
The first convert in the Haka area, where the missionaries were stationed, came a few months later. In 1905, a schoolboy working in the East home, Shia Khaw, decided for Christ and on the first day of the new year he was baptized in a large artificial pond on the mission compound. In the same year, 1906, in September, Thang Tsin became the first baptized convert in the Zanniat tribe, an important group in the Falam area around Lumbang. In March on the next year the first Ngawn convert, also in Falam area, Tsong Kham by name, was baptized.
Thus after sever years of working, Christians were baptized in all three areas of the northern Chin Hills, that is, in Tiddim, Falam, and Haka. Nothing had been done to the far south in Matu and Kanpetlet, nor in Paletwa which was to become a field of the Anglican Church; and indeed it was not until 35 years later that the Christian gospel was able to penetrate the far southern areas with a continuous ministry of evangelism.
The first period ended with the untimely death of Arthur Carson of appendicitis on April 1, 1908. Dr. East buried him beneath the pine trees at Haka and covered his grave with cement in which he embedded a stone slab cut in the shape of the Chin Hills district, to symbolize that portion of earth for which this pioneer lived and died. He had lived to see one hundred converts baptized and two churches formed a new station and hospital established, the Haka language reduced to writing, and the beginning of literary work. Mrs. Carson remained for twelve years longer and continued the work until compelled by ill health to go home in 1920.
II. The Emerging Churches, 1908-1924
The missionary work was strengthened soon after Carson's death by the arrival of Herbert J.Cope and his wife in Haka a few days before Christmas in 1908. Mrs.East had had to go home to America before their arrival, and her husband had to leave because of sickness the next year, so for a year Laura Carson and the Copes only were on the field. In 1910, with the arrival of Dr. and Mrs.J.G.Woodin for the hospital in Haka to take the place of the Easts, the pattern was set for mission work for the next forty years: two mission station. The Copes moved one hundred miles north to Tiddim and established a station in that strategic center. Thus with two stations, the Copes in Tiddim for evangelistic work, and in Haka, the Woodins for medical, and Mrs. Carson for taching, the Good News began to spread throughout the whole Chin Hills area.
The period from the death of Carson to about 1924, when the Chin pastoral ministry became self-supporting, was a time of slowly emerging churches. The Gospel began to take root in many villages. In 1915 there were 150 Christians, and at the annual Association meeting there were 80 present. Three years later the Haka area alone had 600 baptized Christians and 8 churches, and 200 baptism were reported in 1919 for the whole Chin area. Mrs. Carson's translation of the four Gospels and Acts appeared in 1920, and also the Haka hymnal of 126 songs. There was no attempt in this period to begin theological training in the Hills. Candidates for the ministry were sent to Insein, near Rangoon, and the first Chin graduate of the Burman Seminary finished his work in 1921.
A real disappointment during these years was the failure of the medical program. The Easts had been able to stay only one term and the Woodins also were able to give but one term of service to the Chins. Mrs.Woodin was never well in Haka, and finally in 1915 Dr. and Mrs.Woodin transferred to Bhamo, thinking that perhaps a lower altitude would suit her better. The hospital had never been popular with the Chins. Due to ignorance of modern medicine, they put their trust in the ancient system of sacrifices and propitiations to the spirits, bringing patients to the hospital only as a last resort, and thus many died in the hospital. So, perhaps in disappointment that the medical service was not better received, no doctor was sent out to replace the Woodins. For a time the hospital limped along as a dispensary, and was closed finally in 1920. The building was used as a school until destroyed in World War II.
The program of Christian school continued and more Karen teachers came up to help, among them Thra Phe Gyi and Thra Benny for Haka, and a bit later Thra Aung Dwe for Haka, Thra Sun Tun for Falam, and Thra Sein Po, Kyaw Khin, and Thra Maung Manung for Tiddim. These Karens were more than schoolmen. They brought a definite Christian impact on their schools and villages, and were evangelists as well as teachers. Dr.Cope has said this about the Karen workers:
"We owe everything to the Karens. We do not know what we would do without them. When Mr. Carson first came up he brought three or four Karens with him and from that time on, with a few exception, they have proven splendid men on whom one could place no end of responsibility. For a long time they were the only evangelists here. They went out to strange villages where no preparations had been made for them and where they were threatened direly. The first Chin Christians came seven days' journey from Haka where a Henzada Karan, Thra Shwe Zan, worked alone, seeing the missionaries only once a year. The Chin preachers were put under these Karens and some of our finest workers were trained by them. They learned the language, learn the ways of the people, and won their confidence. In the first literary work I did, it was the Karens who hepled me. In the school work as well we have Karen Headmasters, and they proved as valuable ther as in the evangelistic work."
During this period, when Christianity was but a tender reed in strength, many of the young Christians had to meet and overcome persecution. There were many examples of superb courage. Tsong Kham, the first Ngawn convert, in Bualkhua, Falam area, was beaten brutally and taken as a slave with his wife and children. His property, house, and farmland were taken away and confiscated by the chief. The chiefs and the upper classes of Chin society were almost universally opposed to the Christian message, perhaps sensing correctly that it meant a revolution in human relationship. The Karen evangelist, Thra Po Ku, who had been invited from Tiddim to Tonzang in 1906 by chief Hau Chin Khup in order that the chief might learn Burmese, was expelled seven years later when the old man learned that he was losing tribute. As some people under Thra Po Ku's taaching inclined toward Christianity, they gave up their drinking bouts and their animist feasts, thus reducing the amount of tribute beer and meat delivered to the chieftain. Hau Chin Khup felt it in his pocketbook. When, therefore, in 1913 some Christian young people accidentally violated the spirit altar at Tonzang, he ordered Thra Po Ku back to Tiddim.
The same chief, continuing his opposition, gathered together the village headmen and councillors of his area in 1920 and exacted an oath the "We...the headmen, councillors and the villageres should not become Christians, nor our families, relatives and friends and even our children, generation after generation; and those who abolish this promise and become Christian should be fined 99 rupees, the cost of a mithan, a buffalo, and a pot of beer". This spirit was typical of the ruling caste, up to very recent times.
Another important step was taken in 1922 when the government, British at that time, took over the mission schools under an agreement where by Dr.Cope became Honorary Inspector of Schools. Many of the Karen schoolmaster accepted government employment, and, while this agreement relieved the mission of heavey expenses, it did not materally affect the Christian witness of the schools, since most of the teachers were Christians. Dr.Cope was given a generous travel allowance to enable him to visit all the schools. As he was an untiring traveller, sometimes staying on tour for three months at a stretch away from home, he had a fair income from the government source, and with the money he ran a newspaper in Tiddim for a dozen years.
In about the year 1924--it is difficult to fix the exact date for this sort of thing--the tithes and offerings of the Chin Christians reached the point of paying for their Chin pastors, and thus we can say that the churches had achieved self-support. This is indeed a landmark in the emergence of churches, and this date rightly ends on period and ushers in a new.
III.The Edification Of The Churches. 1924-1942
It is unfortunate that English speaking peoples have almost dropped the word "edify" from their vocabulary. An edifice is a solid building, usually of stone or brick, and so "edification" means solidly strengthening and firmly building. This third period was a time of such building. From 1924 to World War II was a time of gathering strength and producing the two indispensable books, the New Testament and the Hymnal.
Dr. and Mrs. Chester U.Strait came to Haka in 1925 to begin two long terms of service. After first getting the language, he began a Bible School in 1928 for the training of pastors for the rapidly growing work in the south. During his second term he began New Testament translation in earnest. It was not possible to incorporate Mrs. Carson's work (The Gospels and Acts) because of changes in spelling and because he had decided to follow the Greek and English rather than the Burmese, so it was a wholly new translation. Working mostly with Saya Sang Ling, the pastor of the Haka church, he averaged ten verses a day for years, working mostly in the mornings.
The finished Testament, published by the Mission Press in Rangoon, came out in 1940, just before Mr.Strait went home on regular furlough. He also enlarged the Haka hymnal to 283 songs, with a catechism in the back. It was published in 1937.
Dr.J Herbert Cope meanwhile continued his long ministry during this third period. In all, Cope gave 30 years to the Chin mission and accomplished a spectacular amount of work. In addition to continual touring he managed to translate and publish the New Testament and the Hymnal in the Kamhau language of Teddim (1936), and to write no fewer than 35 small textbooks in several languages for the schools. For his services, he received from the British Government in 1927, the Kaisar-I-Hind medal.
Dr.Cope died on June 11, 1938, at Haka while on tour. He was succeeded by Franklin and Phileda Nelson who had little more than learned the Teddim language when the storms of war disrupted even the Chin hills. In 1941 at Christmas the Japanese bombed Rangoon and this was followed soon by the Japanese invasion and conquest of Burma in 1942. Phileda Nelson evacuated to India in March and her husband followed in April, and thus this third period came to an end in April, 1942, with the missionaries gone from both Tiddim and Haka, and with the young Christian churches facing the unknown future without missionary leadership. But they did have the New Testament in two languages and the hymn book in five languages, and they had a body of earnest pastors and over 4000 baptized believers. And they had the resources of the Spirit of God, and thus equipped they entered into a most remarkable period of revival.
IV. The Energized Churches: 1942 to present.
From April 1942 to February 1946, there was no foreign missionary present in the Chin Hills, yet it was a time of signal advance. Japanese soldiers occupied certain parts of the Chin Hills including the large village of Haka, Falam, and Tiddim, and there was severe fighting in 1944 and 1945 in the Tiddim area when the British and the Indian troops fought back into Burma. The governmental school systems were disrupted by the Japanese, of course, but in the hundreds of tiny villages, relatively untouched by the war, life went on almost as usual. The war years revealed the solid foundation laid by the American Baptist Mission in developing national leadership and self-support, and thus during the war years the Christian continued and even much increased thier zeal. In fact, deprived of foreign money and leadership, and thrown in full reliance on the Spirit, they entered into a time of revival. This period came very near to being a time of "mass conversion." From 4000 before the war they increased to 9000 at the end, and by the time of 50th Year Jubilee celebration in Haka in 1949 the count stood at well over 18,000 baptized members. New baptisms ran over two thousand per year for ten years.
A very important event took place during the war, the beginning of mission work originated and sustained by the Chins themselves. The Thantlang area in Haka, knowing of the needs of the Matu area to the south, sent down two evangelists, That Dun and Pa Hrek, to begin work among the Matu tribe. They encountered many difficulties but succeeded in establishing a flourishing work among a backward people who, in 1944, were much like the northern tribes had been forty years earlier. For a period of some years the Haka Association supported That Dun and Pa Hrek until finally the area was strong enough to pay its own pastors. The Zo-Matu Association was formed in 1956, only twelve years after evangelization began.
As soon as possible after the war the missionaries returned. The Nelsons came to Tiddim in February, 1946, and a new family, Robert and Elizabeth Johnson came out to Haka in May of that year. Their most pressing tasks were to see that Bibles and song books were reprinted to care for the great increase of Christians who desired them, and to help train the pastors better.
During the war, the great numbers of new converts made it necessary to take on more workers. Thus men were appointed "preachers" (full time unordained workers) and "helpers" (part time un-ordained workers on a lesser salary) who had little or no formal training, and some of whom had only a 2nd or 4th grade education. The very important task of giving these workers a Biblical foundation was undertaken by Nelson with a four-year course in Tiddim and by Johnson with a three-year course in Haka. These Bible schools took in one large class and carried it through to graduation without taking on more students. They filled a definite need and were the predecessors of the present Zomi Baptist Theological School at Falam, which is a four-year course taught in English for the training of village pastors.
In 1948 a change took place in the method of financing the work. For decades the pattern was for all the Christian churches to collect tithes and offerings during the year. When the Association time came in February, the money was carried to the annual meeting and counted. All pastors and other workers were paid from this common fund. It was not a Baptistic way of doing things, but in the early days it was the most practical way of ensuring some sort of a fair distribution.
As the year went along, this system developed some serious flaws. Every new workers made another inroad into the treasury; hence the older pastors tended to resist the addition of workers lest their share of money be lowered. Second, the Association annual meeting tended to become more and more a place for argument as to which area was poorest and in which place the cost of the living was highest, so as to adjust the salary scale to help those in difficult places. Third, some churchs and some areas were suspected of withholding some of their money, giving an incorrect report to the Association. Fourth, there was a general feeling that some areas were easing down on their own contributions and expecting the richer areas to carry them along.
In order to cut down the growing disharmony, a new system was inaugurated in 1948 and worked like a charm. From that date on, each Association was responsible for salaries and pensions of its own pastors and workers. This move was called "dividing the treasury" and it resulted immediately in a spurt of larger giving in Haka and Falam areas, which had been lagging. Far from impoverishing certain pastors, as some had predicted, it almost immediately raised salaries as the Christians rose to the occasion. To care for certain special needs, such as the evangelists in Matu and in the Hualngo area of Falam, a "General Fund" was begun. Each parish--that is, the villages under the care of one pastor--was asked to contribute 1/20th of the annual income to the General Fund in addition to a certain amount to the Association. From this practice grew up five years later the pattern for the Zomi Baptist Convention.
In 1949 the Jubilee celebrating the first years of missions in the Chin Hills was held at Haka. In spite of the dislocation caused by the various insurrection which took the lives of many Chin soldiers and cancelled plans to have down country leaders visit Haka for the event, the Jubilee was attended by over five thousand people, and during the meetings a baptismal service for 373 persons was arranged. The report that year listed 18,467 baptized members in the churches.
In 1951 both the Nelsons and the Johnson went home on furlough. Plans were laid then to begin two new projects: a hospital in the Lumbang area and a Bible School in Tiddim. Franklin Nelson planned to conduct the Bible School under a new plan. It was to be a permanent institution, with a 4-year course, using English as the medium of instruction, and with applicants only of 6th standard, raising to 7th standard pass as soon as possible. It had been apparent for years that the churches could hope to progress only as well trained leadership was provided. As for the hospital, the mission society appointed a doctor, and plans were under way to begin as soon as he arrived.
However, the government declined to issue an entry visa for the doctor, and the plans for the hospital could not be carried out. Also, the government refused reentry visas to the Nelsons, and so from 1953 to the present the Johnson have been the only mission family in the area.
In anticipation of the Nelsons' return, the Bible school began in Tiddim in 1953 on schedule, with Rev.S.T.Hau Go, B.A.(Hons), M.R.E, a graduate of Eastern Baptist Theological Seminary, as the principal, and with a class of sixteen. Due to a heart attack, Hau Go was unable to continue the next year, so the school moved to Haka and was for five years under the leadership of the Johnsons, before moving in 1959 to Falam to a set on new buildings. At that time the school, renamed the Zomi Baptist Theological School, came under the principalship of Rev. David Van Bik, the second USA trained Chin worker. Van Bik studied in Berkeley Baptist Divinity School, California, for two years before taking this new responsibility. The School continues in Falam now with two teachers' houses and a combination classroom-hosted building. The normal enrollment is up to 25, with about one-third girls. The entrance standard has been raised to 7th pass for young men, and 7th standard fail for girls. The four course is taught in English to the graduates will have access to a large body of Christian literature, and also because no one of the 45 Chin dialects is dominant outside of its comparatively small area.
This fourth period, from 1942 to the present, which has witnessed such a mass movement into the church, has also seen the perfecting of the organization of the churches. A formally organized Convention, taking in the several Associations, was the logical outcome of the "general fund" of 1948. The Chin Convention, called the Zomi Baptist Convention. ("Zo-mi" being the chin' name for themselve), was formed in 1953 with a provisional constitution: Rev. S.T Haugo was elected the first General Secretary. The following year, 1954, at khawsak very fittingly, at the Jubilee of the first converts. Thuam Hang and Pau Suan, just fifty years after the first conversions, the delegates adopted the Constitution and re-elected Hau Go for a three year term. The convention was formed of four Associations, namely, the Tiddim Baptist Association, the Falam Baptist Association, the Haka Baptist Association, and the Kale Valley Baptist Association. An Executive Committee of 22 members was formed to care for business between the Triennial Convention meetings.
The plan was still followed of requiring all churches to contribute 1/20th of thier tithes to the central organization. This has since been raised to 1/15th, as the needs of the Convention grow, especially for the support of the theological school. The money is used for evangelistic work, Bible training, women's work, and some aid to needy pastors. It should be mentioned, however, that the American churches make a grant of money to the Convention for salaries, etc., so in this respect the ZBC is subsidized. the local churches are self-supporting; it is only the overhead organization that depends on foreign help.
Hau Go served until 1957 and was then succeeded by Rev. Mang Khaw Pau, a son of first convert Thuam Hang. The General Secretary occupies a bungalow built in Falam on the Zomi Baptist Convention compound, which also houses the Theological School and the Zomi Baptist Press.
The local Association have developed into important groups. In addition to the original four in the Convention, four others have been added. The Zo-Matu Association joined in 1957 and the Kuki Baptist Association in 1959. Three now have full-time paid secretaries. Tiddim led the way with Kam Khaw Thang, a graduate of the Burma Divinity School, Insein, in 1957. The Haka Association chose Nun Tum in 1961, and the Falam Association chose Kyon Bil the same year. Associations have annual meetings usually in February or March, and most have smaller executive committtees to carry on business during the rest of the year.
In literature production, two presses have been secured and are in operation. In Falam the Convention has the Zomi Baptist Press with one full-time worker and an 8x 12 inch press. It publishes a monthly news magazine, the "Zomi Christian," and some pamphlets and books. In Haka the Association has the Deirel Press with one full-time worker. At present this press has only a hand machine, but plans are underway to secure a larger press. It also publishes Sunday School literature and books, but no newspaper. The Tiddim Association is now in the process of securing a press also. The reason for separate Association presses is the different languages used in each area, and the difficulty of proofreading work done in Rangoon.
A beginning has been made at last on Old Testament translation. In 1959 the books of Genesis and Exodus, translated by R.G.Johnson and David Van Bik, were published by the British and foreign Bible Society, London. At the present time these two workers are continuing the translation of the Old Testament in the Haka language, and Kam Khaw Thang, former secretary of the Tiddim Association, has been set apart for work on the Old Testament in the Tiddim language. E.Kyon Bill, another graduate of the Divinity School in Insein, is doing a revision of the New Testament in the Falam Language.
In the field of education, the government is progressing well, but cannot yet put primary schools in every village. Baptist people are running a course of privately financed school. The mission has for many years helped 45 such Christian primay schools and 17 Christian middle schools. The first Christian high school called the Zomi Baptist Academy began in Tiddim in 1958. Rev.S.T.Hau Go is the principal of this school.
The fourth period, the time of the Energized Churches, the time for leadership by the national Christians, is still with us. The 1962 reports of the churches of the Zomi Convention show 38,376 baptized believers in the Living Christ, with 556 churches, 88 ordained pastors, 68 un-ordained preachers, 6 women workers, 8 Associations, and a mission field--Kanpetlet. There were 2425 new baptisms during the year.
By Rev. Robert Johnson ( 1915-2009)
(The Last American Baptist Missionary in Chin State.)
made their way to Haka in the Chin Hills, a village of three hundred thatch-roofed houses and the home of the most powerful chiefs of that area. Arthur Carson was a tall and lean man, the kind of man who could, and did, build a house with his own hands. Laura Carson was stout and jolly, a maternal tupe who could love the unlovely. They had come to bring the healing and redeeming power of Christ to almost 250,000 people. They had been working among the Asho Chins in Thayetmyo and now came to work in the Chin Hills.As they penetrated farther into the hills, their hearts sank, for the Chins seemed so underprivileged that they wondered whether any gospel on earth could lift them. But they took comfort, hoping that when they reached Haka, they could find more promising material on which to work. On the fifteenth of the month they were welcomed by three British officers who kindly put them up for a few weeks in an empty stone hut, and here they saw that the Hakas, chiefs and all, were exactly like the other Chins. Before going to bed the first night, Laura wept for weariness and disappointment. "How can I possibly stay here a lifetime?" she tearfully asked. Arthur told her, "Don't talk that way. Things will look brighter in the moring." Then he added the most revealing comfort of all. "Laura, remember our motto, "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." With that thought they went to bed and rose the next morning determined to give their lives for Christ to win the Chins.
What Arthur and Laura Carsons and their Karen helper, Thra San Win, began that spring morning at the turn of the century, was to win for Christianity a large group of tribes on the border of India and Burma, in an area of 13,000 square miles of mountains, people whom time had passed by. The Chins were not cannibals nor headhunters like their cousins the Nagas to the north, nor they were savages. But they were unlettered mountain people, without money, living on a barter system, a lucky few possessing flintlock guns but many using bow and arrow, in the Iron age to be sure but their iron implements limited to knife, axe and hoe. The Chin Hills is a remote area, for from lines of outside communication, and so separated culturally from the Burmans of the plains that to this day, sixty years later, Chins still speak of "going down to Burma."
The story of Christian mission in the Chin Hills falls into four periods. We can distinguish them as: The Entering Church--the time of the pioneers, say the first ten years, to the death of Carson and arrival of Herbert Cope; 1899 to 1908.
The Emerging Churches--from the death of Carson to about 1924 when the young churches achieved self-support.
The Edification of the Churches--from 1924 to 1941, when World War II stopped missionary work. During this period the churches entered almost every part of the northern Chin Hills.
The Energized Churches--from 1942 to the present. This period has seen the churches, on their own, sending missionaries to every part of the Chin Hills, the perfecting of church organization, and a tremendous increase in numbers. Capable trained national leaders took over from foreigners in this period.
I.The Entering Church, 1899 to 1908
As long as Baptist Churches endure in the Chin Hills, the names of Arthur and Laura Carson will be remembered. But from the very beginning Sgaw Karen workers from Bassein and Henzada shared with them the burdens of the work. With the Carsons came Thra San Win who became an evangelist in the Haka area. Very soon afterward came Thra Shew Zan to work at Khawsak in the Siyin Valley, in Teddim area, remembered as the man who persuaded the first converts, Thuam Hang and Pau Suan and their wives, to become Christians. With Thra Shwe Zan came Thra Po Ku who started teaching and preaching at Teddim and then at Tonzang where lived the greatest chief in the northern area, also Maung Gone who started work at Laizo in the Falam district.
The third group of Karen teachers and evangelists gave a second worker in the Falam area, Thra Po Aye at Lumbang, just north of the Manipur River at a strategic spot, and three more workers for Haka area; branching out to the south, Maung Lun at Zokhua; to the west, Maung Kya at Thlantlang; and for the little school at Haka, Thra Kyi Ghine.
Meanwhile at Haka, Carson had purchased thirty acres of rolling pine woods, built a school and a house, and plans were under way for a doctor to come and minister to the appalling medical needs. In 1902 Dr. E. H. East reached the new mission station, but soon had to return to America for health reasons. He returned in 1904 with his new bride and with money to construct a 20 bed mission hospital at Haka. In this year the first converts had made their decisions for Christ, but their baptism had to await Dr.East's visit to the Siyin Valley. On May 11, 1905, Dr.East baptised Thuam Hang and Pau Suan and their wives in a natural rock-bound pool in the little stream between Khawsak and Thuklai villages. Doubtless at the time the little band of Christians could not envision the scene fifty years later when over 5000 Christians were together at Khawsak for the jubilee of the first conversions. But in 1904, persecution for the faith was a real possibility.
The first convert in the Haka area, where the missionaries were stationed, came a few months later. In 1905, a schoolboy working in the East home, Shia Khaw, decided for Christ and on the first day of the new year he was baptized in a large artificial pond on the mission compound. In the same year, 1906, in September, Thang Tsin became the first baptized convert in the Zanniat tribe, an important group in the Falam area around Lumbang. In March on the next year the first Ngawn convert, also in Falam area, Tsong Kham by name, was baptized.
Thus after sever years of working, Christians were baptized in all three areas of the northern Chin Hills, that is, in Tiddim, Falam, and Haka. Nothing had been done to the far south in Matu and Kanpetlet, nor in Paletwa which was to become a field of the Anglican Church; and indeed it was not until 35 years later that the Christian gospel was able to penetrate the far southern areas with a continuous ministry of evangelism.
The first period ended with the untimely death of Arthur Carson of appendicitis on April 1, 1908. Dr. East buried him beneath the pine trees at Haka and covered his grave with cement in which he embedded a stone slab cut in the shape of the Chin Hills district, to symbolize that portion of earth for which this pioneer lived and died. He had lived to see one hundred converts baptized and two churches formed a new station and hospital established, the Haka language reduced to writing, and the beginning of literary work. Mrs. Carson remained for twelve years longer and continued the work until compelled by ill health to go home in 1920.
II. The Emerging Churches, 1908-1924
The missionary work was strengthened soon after Carson's death by the arrival of Herbert J.Cope and his wife in Haka a few days before Christmas in 1908. Mrs.East had had to go home to America before their arrival, and her husband had to leave because of sickness the next year, so for a year Laura Carson and the Copes only were on the field. In 1910, with the arrival of Dr. and Mrs.J.G.Woodin for the hospital in Haka to take the place of the Easts, the pattern was set for mission work for the next forty years: two mission station. The Copes moved one hundred miles north to Tiddim and established a station in that strategic center. Thus with two stations, the Copes in Tiddim for evangelistic work, and in Haka, the Woodins for medical, and Mrs. Carson for taching, the Good News began to spread throughout the whole Chin Hills area.
The period from the death of Carson to about 1924, when the Chin pastoral ministry became self-supporting, was a time of slowly emerging churches. The Gospel began to take root in many villages. In 1915 there were 150 Christians, and at the annual Association meeting there were 80 present. Three years later the Haka area alone had 600 baptized Christians and 8 churches, and 200 baptism were reported in 1919 for the whole Chin area. Mrs. Carson's translation of the four Gospels and Acts appeared in 1920, and also the Haka hymnal of 126 songs. There was no attempt in this period to begin theological training in the Hills. Candidates for the ministry were sent to Insein, near Rangoon, and the first Chin graduate of the Burman Seminary finished his work in 1921.
A real disappointment during these years was the failure of the medical program. The Easts had been able to stay only one term and the Woodins also were able to give but one term of service to the Chins. Mrs.Woodin was never well in Haka, and finally in 1915 Dr. and Mrs.Woodin transferred to Bhamo, thinking that perhaps a lower altitude would suit her better. The hospital had never been popular with the Chins. Due to ignorance of modern medicine, they put their trust in the ancient system of sacrifices and propitiations to the spirits, bringing patients to the hospital only as a last resort, and thus many died in the hospital. So, perhaps in disappointment that the medical service was not better received, no doctor was sent out to replace the Woodins. For a time the hospital limped along as a dispensary, and was closed finally in 1920. The building was used as a school until destroyed in World War II.
The program of Christian school continued and more Karen teachers came up to help, among them Thra Phe Gyi and Thra Benny for Haka, and a bit later Thra Aung Dwe for Haka, Thra Sun Tun for Falam, and Thra Sein Po, Kyaw Khin, and Thra Maung Manung for Tiddim. These Karens were more than schoolmen. They brought a definite Christian impact on their schools and villages, and were evangelists as well as teachers. Dr.Cope has said this about the Karen workers:
"We owe everything to the Karens. We do not know what we would do without them. When Mr. Carson first came up he brought three or four Karens with him and from that time on, with a few exception, they have proven splendid men on whom one could place no end of responsibility. For a long time they were the only evangelists here. They went out to strange villages where no preparations had been made for them and where they were threatened direly. The first Chin Christians came seven days' journey from Haka where a Henzada Karan, Thra Shwe Zan, worked alone, seeing the missionaries only once a year. The Chin preachers were put under these Karens and some of our finest workers were trained by them. They learned the language, learn the ways of the people, and won their confidence. In the first literary work I did, it was the Karens who hepled me. In the school work as well we have Karen Headmasters, and they proved as valuable ther as in the evangelistic work."
During this period, when Christianity was but a tender reed in strength, many of the young Christians had to meet and overcome persecution. There were many examples of superb courage. Tsong Kham, the first Ngawn convert, in Bualkhua, Falam area, was beaten brutally and taken as a slave with his wife and children. His property, house, and farmland were taken away and confiscated by the chief. The chiefs and the upper classes of Chin society were almost universally opposed to the Christian message, perhaps sensing correctly that it meant a revolution in human relationship. The Karen evangelist, Thra Po Ku, who had been invited from Tiddim to Tonzang in 1906 by chief Hau Chin Khup in order that the chief might learn Burmese, was expelled seven years later when the old man learned that he was losing tribute. As some people under Thra Po Ku's taaching inclined toward Christianity, they gave up their drinking bouts and their animist feasts, thus reducing the amount of tribute beer and meat delivered to the chieftain. Hau Chin Khup felt it in his pocketbook. When, therefore, in 1913 some Christian young people accidentally violated the spirit altar at Tonzang, he ordered Thra Po Ku back to Tiddim.
The same chief, continuing his opposition, gathered together the village headmen and councillors of his area in 1920 and exacted an oath the "We...the headmen, councillors and the villageres should not become Christians, nor our families, relatives and friends and even our children, generation after generation; and those who abolish this promise and become Christian should be fined 99 rupees, the cost of a mithan, a buffalo, and a pot of beer". This spirit was typical of the ruling caste, up to very recent times.
Another important step was taken in 1922 when the government, British at that time, took over the mission schools under an agreement where by Dr.Cope became Honorary Inspector of Schools. Many of the Karen schoolmaster accepted government employment, and, while this agreement relieved the mission of heavey expenses, it did not materally affect the Christian witness of the schools, since most of the teachers were Christians. Dr.Cope was given a generous travel allowance to enable him to visit all the schools. As he was an untiring traveller, sometimes staying on tour for three months at a stretch away from home, he had a fair income from the government source, and with the money he ran a newspaper in Tiddim for a dozen years.
In about the year 1924--it is difficult to fix the exact date for this sort of thing--the tithes and offerings of the Chin Christians reached the point of paying for their Chin pastors, and thus we can say that the churches had achieved self-support. This is indeed a landmark in the emergence of churches, and this date rightly ends on period and ushers in a new.
III.The Edification Of The Churches. 1924-1942
It is unfortunate that English speaking peoples have almost dropped the word "edify" from their vocabulary. An edifice is a solid building, usually of stone or brick, and so "edification" means solidly strengthening and firmly building. This third period was a time of such building. From 1924 to World War II was a time of gathering strength and producing the two indispensable books, the New Testament and the Hymnal.
Dr. and Mrs. Chester U.Strait came to Haka in 1925 to begin two long terms of service. After first getting the language, he began a Bible School in 1928 for the training of pastors for the rapidly growing work in the south. During his second term he began New Testament translation in earnest. It was not possible to incorporate Mrs. Carson's work (The Gospels and Acts) because of changes in spelling and because he had decided to follow the Greek and English rather than the Burmese, so it was a wholly new translation. Working mostly with Saya Sang Ling, the pastor of the Haka church, he averaged ten verses a day for years, working mostly in the mornings.
The finished Testament, published by the Mission Press in Rangoon, came out in 1940, just before Mr.Strait went home on regular furlough. He also enlarged the Haka hymnal to 283 songs, with a catechism in the back. It was published in 1937.
Dr.J Herbert Cope meanwhile continued his long ministry during this third period. In all, Cope gave 30 years to the Chin mission and accomplished a spectacular amount of work. In addition to continual touring he managed to translate and publish the New Testament and the Hymnal in the Kamhau language of Teddim (1936), and to write no fewer than 35 small textbooks in several languages for the schools. For his services, he received from the British Government in 1927, the Kaisar-I-Hind medal.
Dr.Cope died on June 11, 1938, at Haka while on tour. He was succeeded by Franklin and Phileda Nelson who had little more than learned the Teddim language when the storms of war disrupted even the Chin hills. In 1941 at Christmas the Japanese bombed Rangoon and this was followed soon by the Japanese invasion and conquest of Burma in 1942. Phileda Nelson evacuated to India in March and her husband followed in April, and thus this third period came to an end in April, 1942, with the missionaries gone from both Tiddim and Haka, and with the young Christian churches facing the unknown future without missionary leadership. But they did have the New Testament in two languages and the hymn book in five languages, and they had a body of earnest pastors and over 4000 baptized believers. And they had the resources of the Spirit of God, and thus equipped they entered into a most remarkable period of revival.
IV. The Energized Churches: 1942 to present.
From April 1942 to February 1946, there was no foreign missionary present in the Chin Hills, yet it was a time of signal advance. Japanese soldiers occupied certain parts of the Chin Hills including the large village of Haka, Falam, and Tiddim, and there was severe fighting in 1944 and 1945 in the Tiddim area when the British and the Indian troops fought back into Burma. The governmental school systems were disrupted by the Japanese, of course, but in the hundreds of tiny villages, relatively untouched by the war, life went on almost as usual. The war years revealed the solid foundation laid by the American Baptist Mission in developing national leadership and self-support, and thus during the war years the Christian continued and even much increased thier zeal. In fact, deprived of foreign money and leadership, and thrown in full reliance on the Spirit, they entered into a time of revival. This period came very near to being a time of "mass conversion." From 4000 before the war they increased to 9000 at the end, and by the time of 50th Year Jubilee celebration in Haka in 1949 the count stood at well over 18,000 baptized members. New baptisms ran over two thousand per year for ten years.
A very important event took place during the war, the beginning of mission work originated and sustained by the Chins themselves. The Thantlang area in Haka, knowing of the needs of the Matu area to the south, sent down two evangelists, That Dun and Pa Hrek, to begin work among the Matu tribe. They encountered many difficulties but succeeded in establishing a flourishing work among a backward people who, in 1944, were much like the northern tribes had been forty years earlier. For a period of some years the Haka Association supported That Dun and Pa Hrek until finally the area was strong enough to pay its own pastors. The Zo-Matu Association was formed in 1956, only twelve years after evangelization began.
As soon as possible after the war the missionaries returned. The Nelsons came to Tiddim in February, 1946, and a new family, Robert and Elizabeth Johnson came out to Haka in May of that year. Their most pressing tasks were to see that Bibles and song books were reprinted to care for the great increase of Christians who desired them, and to help train the pastors better.
During the war, the great numbers of new converts made it necessary to take on more workers. Thus men were appointed "preachers" (full time unordained workers) and "helpers" (part time un-ordained workers on a lesser salary) who had little or no formal training, and some of whom had only a 2nd or 4th grade education. The very important task of giving these workers a Biblical foundation was undertaken by Nelson with a four-year course in Tiddim and by Johnson with a three-year course in Haka. These Bible schools took in one large class and carried it through to graduation without taking on more students. They filled a definite need and were the predecessors of the present Zomi Baptist Theological School at Falam, which is a four-year course taught in English for the training of village pastors.
In 1948 a change took place in the method of financing the work. For decades the pattern was for all the Christian churches to collect tithes and offerings during the year. When the Association time came in February, the money was carried to the annual meeting and counted. All pastors and other workers were paid from this common fund. It was not a Baptistic way of doing things, but in the early days it was the most practical way of ensuring some sort of a fair distribution.
As the year went along, this system developed some serious flaws. Every new workers made another inroad into the treasury; hence the older pastors tended to resist the addition of workers lest their share of money be lowered. Second, the Association annual meeting tended to become more and more a place for argument as to which area was poorest and in which place the cost of the living was highest, so as to adjust the salary scale to help those in difficult places. Third, some churchs and some areas were suspected of withholding some of their money, giving an incorrect report to the Association. Fourth, there was a general feeling that some areas were easing down on their own contributions and expecting the richer areas to carry them along.
In order to cut down the growing disharmony, a new system was inaugurated in 1948 and worked like a charm. From that date on, each Association was responsible for salaries and pensions of its own pastors and workers. This move was called "dividing the treasury" and it resulted immediately in a spurt of larger giving in Haka and Falam areas, which had been lagging. Far from impoverishing certain pastors, as some had predicted, it almost immediately raised salaries as the Christians rose to the occasion. To care for certain special needs, such as the evangelists in Matu and in the Hualngo area of Falam, a "General Fund" was begun. Each parish--that is, the villages under the care of one pastor--was asked to contribute 1/20th of the annual income to the General Fund in addition to a certain amount to the Association. From this practice grew up five years later the pattern for the Zomi Baptist Convention.
In 1949 the Jubilee celebrating the first years of missions in the Chin Hills was held at Haka. In spite of the dislocation caused by the various insurrection which took the lives of many Chin soldiers and cancelled plans to have down country leaders visit Haka for the event, the Jubilee was attended by over five thousand people, and during the meetings a baptismal service for 373 persons was arranged. The report that year listed 18,467 baptized members in the churches.
In 1951 both the Nelsons and the Johnson went home on furlough. Plans were laid then to begin two new projects: a hospital in the Lumbang area and a Bible School in Tiddim. Franklin Nelson planned to conduct the Bible School under a new plan. It was to be a permanent institution, with a 4-year course, using English as the medium of instruction, and with applicants only of 6th standard, raising to 7th standard pass as soon as possible. It had been apparent for years that the churches could hope to progress only as well trained leadership was provided. As for the hospital, the mission society appointed a doctor, and plans were under way to begin as soon as he arrived.
However, the government declined to issue an entry visa for the doctor, and the plans for the hospital could not be carried out. Also, the government refused reentry visas to the Nelsons, and so from 1953 to the present the Johnson have been the only mission family in the area.
In anticipation of the Nelsons' return, the Bible school began in Tiddim in 1953 on schedule, with Rev.S.T.Hau Go, B.A.(Hons), M.R.E, a graduate of Eastern Baptist Theological Seminary, as the principal, and with a class of sixteen. Due to a heart attack, Hau Go was unable to continue the next year, so the school moved to Haka and was for five years under the leadership of the Johnsons, before moving in 1959 to Falam to a set on new buildings. At that time the school, renamed the Zomi Baptist Theological School, came under the principalship of Rev. David Van Bik, the second USA trained Chin worker. Van Bik studied in Berkeley Baptist Divinity School, California, for two years before taking this new responsibility. The School continues in Falam now with two teachers' houses and a combination classroom-hosted building. The normal enrollment is up to 25, with about one-third girls. The entrance standard has been raised to 7th pass for young men, and 7th standard fail for girls. The four course is taught in English to the graduates will have access to a large body of Christian literature, and also because no one of the 45 Chin dialects is dominant outside of its comparatively small area.
This fourth period, from 1942 to the present, which has witnessed such a mass movement into the church, has also seen the perfecting of the organization of the churches. A formally organized Convention, taking in the several Associations, was the logical outcome of the "general fund" of 1948. The Chin Convention, called the Zomi Baptist Convention. ("Zo-mi" being the chin' name for themselve), was formed in 1953 with a provisional constitution: Rev. S.T Haugo was elected the first General Secretary. The following year, 1954, at khawsak very fittingly, at the Jubilee of the first converts. Thuam Hang and Pau Suan, just fifty years after the first conversions, the delegates adopted the Constitution and re-elected Hau Go for a three year term. The convention was formed of four Associations, namely, the Tiddim Baptist Association, the Falam Baptist Association, the Haka Baptist Association, and the Kale Valley Baptist Association. An Executive Committee of 22 members was formed to care for business between the Triennial Convention meetings.
The plan was still followed of requiring all churches to contribute 1/20th of thier tithes to the central organization. This has since been raised to 1/15th, as the needs of the Convention grow, especially for the support of the theological school. The money is used for evangelistic work, Bible training, women's work, and some aid to needy pastors. It should be mentioned, however, that the American churches make a grant of money to the Convention for salaries, etc., so in this respect the ZBC is subsidized. the local churches are self-supporting; it is only the overhead organization that depends on foreign help.
Hau Go served until 1957 and was then succeeded by Rev. Mang Khaw Pau, a son of first convert Thuam Hang. The General Secretary occupies a bungalow built in Falam on the Zomi Baptist Convention compound, which also houses the Theological School and the Zomi Baptist Press.
The local Association have developed into important groups. In addition to the original four in the Convention, four others have been added. The Zo-Matu Association joined in 1957 and the Kuki Baptist Association in 1959. Three now have full-time paid secretaries. Tiddim led the way with Kam Khaw Thang, a graduate of the Burma Divinity School, Insein, in 1957. The Haka Association chose Nun Tum in 1961, and the Falam Association chose Kyon Bil the same year. Associations have annual meetings usually in February or March, and most have smaller executive committtees to carry on business during the rest of the year.
In literature production, two presses have been secured and are in operation. In Falam the Convention has the Zomi Baptist Press with one full-time worker and an 8x 12 inch press. It publishes a monthly news magazine, the "Zomi Christian," and some pamphlets and books. In Haka the Association has the Deirel Press with one full-time worker. At present this press has only a hand machine, but plans are underway to secure a larger press. It also publishes Sunday School literature and books, but no newspaper. The Tiddim Association is now in the process of securing a press also. The reason for separate Association presses is the different languages used in each area, and the difficulty of proofreading work done in Rangoon.
A beginning has been made at last on Old Testament translation. In 1959 the books of Genesis and Exodus, translated by R.G.Johnson and David Van Bik, were published by the British and foreign Bible Society, London. At the present time these two workers are continuing the translation of the Old Testament in the Haka language, and Kam Khaw Thang, former secretary of the Tiddim Association, has been set apart for work on the Old Testament in the Tiddim language. E.Kyon Bill, another graduate of the Divinity School in Insein, is doing a revision of the New Testament in the Falam Language.
In the field of education, the government is progressing well, but cannot yet put primary schools in every village. Baptist people are running a course of privately financed school. The mission has for many years helped 45 such Christian primay schools and 17 Christian middle schools. The first Christian high school called the Zomi Baptist Academy began in Tiddim in 1958. Rev.S.T.Hau Go is the principal of this school.
The fourth period, the time of the Energized Churches, the time for leadership by the national Christians, is still with us. The 1962 reports of the churches of the Zomi Convention show 38,376 baptized believers in the Living Christ, with 556 churches, 88 ordained pastors, 68 un-ordained preachers, 6 women workers, 8 Associations, and a mission field--Kanpetlet. There were 2425 new baptisms during the year.
By Rev. Robert Johnson ( 1915-2009)
(The Last American Baptist Missionary in Chin State.)
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