Biblical Perspectives of Loving and Caring for Own People – IV

Jesus Says ‘Go Rather to the Lost Sheep of Israel’

                Jesus was born in the Jewish community just as it was prophesied in the Old Testament Scripture. He is called “Son of David, the Son of Abraham” in Mathew 1:1. David, king of Israel, and Abraham, the father of faith, were prominent characters in the history of Israel (Jews). Jesus had twelve special Jewish disciples to whom He gave special training for HIs mission during His earthly ministry.

The ultimate purpose of Jesus’ coming into the world was to pay the penalty of sin. Jesus said, “For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.” (Mark 10:45).

However we read in the Gospel account of Mathew 10:5-6 like this, “These twelve Jesus sent out and commanded them saying, ‘Do not go into the way of the Gentiles, and do not enter a city of the Samaritans. But go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.’”  And also in Mathew 15:24 Jesus said, “I was sent only to the lost sheep (people) of Israel.” Isn’t it strange to know one of the primary concerns of Jesus was for His own people?

Contextually, the first occasion was said while He was commissioning the twelve disciples for the first time to preach the good news of the kingdom of God (cf. Mathew 10:7).  Usually this is called the Limited Commission (only for Jews) in contrast to the Great Commission (for all people) in Mathew 28:19,20 (cf. Mark 16:15,16; Luke 24:47; John 20:21). And the later occasion was while responding to a Canaanite woman (a Gentile), who came to ask Jesus to heal her daughter, who was suffering terribly from demon-possession (cf. Mathew 15:22). Jews considered themselves as special people of God so they neglect and hated Gentiles. They viewed Gentiles as sinful people in comparison to themselves. (Jesus abolished the enmity between Jews and Gentiles when He died on the cross, cf. Eph. 2:14,15).

This brief background helps us, somehow, to understand the difference between Jews and Gentiles in the earthly days of Jesus. But the point I want the readers to keep it mind is Jesus’ command, “Go rather to the lost sheep of the household of Israel.”  Here Jesus is teaching a lesson to His disciples to love and care first for own people. Here we see Jesus wanted His own community to receive the first privilege from His ministry. Apostle Paul agrees to what Jesus says. He writes, “I am not ashamed of the Gospel, because it the power of God for salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile.” (Romans 1:16).

How many of us think that it is one of the first priorities to love and care our own people as far as an aspect of biblical teaching is concerned? Jesus taught the disciples to do so. Are we doing and teaching others to do so? Of course, it does not negate our responsibilities to love people other than our community. But if we don’t love our community and care for their needs according to our ability, what can we expect to do for others? We did not choose our community, bud God did, and He did it purposefully. As Jesus said to His Jewish disciples, He may be saying to you now ‘go rather to the lost people of your community’ before you go to others. May the Lord enable us to do our responsibility for our people!

“Better Late Than Never!”

PRC Drama of 2010

ANNOUNCMENT AND CANCELLATION

On 24 June 2010, the state government decided to issue Permanent Residential Certificate (PRC) to non-APST. This was press released three months later on 7 Sep. Few criteria were made:

• Seven groups living in Lohit and Changlang (Yobin was among them).
• Should be living prior to 1968.

This announcement invited strong reactions from all walks of life. Notable among them were: AAPSU, Tangsa Cultural and Literary Society (TCLS), All East Siang District Student’s Union and a host of other organizations. See other organizations that protested. The readers’ forum of Arunachal Times in the month of September was filled with PRC topics.

Finally the decision to grant PRC was revoked on 29 Sep.

REACTIONS

As a reaction to the dismissal of the PRC order, two organizations namely All Lekang Youth Student Union and Lohit and Changlang Development Forum (LCDF) raised question. A rally was organized at Mahadevpur.  The LCDF then demanded the CM for re-notification of PRC. One of the highlights initiated by LCDF was a clash at Namsai on 23 October. There was violence, shops were destroyed. Army had to intervene.

In between I heard rumors that this case is being taken up at the Guwahati High Court.

But we should remember the Yobin never participated this rally. PRC was not our demand.

OUR RESPONSES

Though there was no “official” response from our community leaders, a few of us mentioned our stand.

• Every one need  to be clear by Liahey (Readers’ Forum AP Times, 27 Sep) stated we demand for ST not PRC.
• Yobins be return their rights by Philip and Phuyosa (Readers’ Forum AP times, 2 Oct). They questioned the rational for clubbing Yobin issue with other communities of Arunachal Pradesh.
• In response to Taba Ajum’s article by Barak (Readers’ Forum AP Times, 30 Sep). He challenged why PRC should benefit Yobin.

MY OPINION AND QUESTIONS

• The decision to include Yobin under PRC package along with other communities gave an impression that we are not actually demanding for ST, which is totally wrong.
• For some of the common men among Yobin men, they tended to equate PRC with ST. Hence gave a false hope that ST is being granted.
• I wonder why our MLA included us in this PRC drama. We asked for bread but stone was attempted to give instead.
• Finally, why were our community leaders completely silent when all these were happening? I see no delegations, no challenge. Just silence.

I thank Phususa and Atibosa for their feedback as I wrote this article. – Liahey

Biblical Perspectives of Loving and Caring for Own People – III

A Lesson from Apostle Paul for Loving Own People: The Love That Gives Life

Imagine a father who has dearly sons and daughters, beautiful home, and bunch of lovely relatives. Unfortunately, he had committed a crime that led him to ‘hang till death’ capital punishment. The date is fixed, and the place to hang is determined. Surprisingly, there comes a well-educated unmarried man and appeals sincerely to the authority saying, “Please let him go and live with his family. He has lovely children, relatives, and beautiful home. Hang me in place of him. I am ready to die in his place, if you can release him!”

The only possibility of this guy’s sacrificial love is either he is crazy or he meant what he said. However, the trait of educated people is they don’t mess around in life. This illustration helps me somehow to understand the words of the Apostle Paul in Romans 9. He says, “I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were cursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, those of my own race, the people of Israel….” (Rom. 9:2-4a). Paul’s passionate love for the welfare of his own people is not only preaching and teaching the salvation message to them but even to lose his own life, if it means salvation for his people!

The way Apostle Paul penned his love for his own people makes me stare and wonder why such an eminent and well-educated man would dare to say such a brave statement as he did! But no wonder when love compels, people don’t wait for a good opportune time. They do what is best at that moment. Love demands all in all! ‘All in all’ includes giving life, if needed.

Jesus says, “Greater love has no one than this, to lay down one’s life for his friends.” (John 15:13). It was the love that caused the Son of God to come down on earth to save the wretched sinners. And it was that love that led Him to have a shameful death on the cross to pay the penalty of sin for the good of mankind (cf. Rom. 5:8).

I believe Apostle Paul understood what it means to be loving people by the example that Jesus left behind. His passionate love for the welfare of his people compelled him to pay any cost; even his life, if necessary. How is your love for your people? How is your love for the people of God? How is your love for the human beings? Do you have the love that gives life? May the Lord help us to have the kind of love worth having it!

Education Centres In Yobin Villages

Last updated: July 20, 2012

I thank brother Jesasay and Ngwalidwe for providing data for this article.

At this time, many educational initiatives have been made available to our people by the state government. I like to group those under three categories.

ANGANWADI CENTRES

Beginning 2007, the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) provided several angawadi centres for pre-school children in our villages. These centres are equivalent to Day Care centres in urban areas. There are now seven such centres.

• Dawodi (one centre)
• Hazolo (one centre)
• Sichoto (once centre)
• Shidiku (one centre)
• Shidi (three centres)

I noticed the impact of these institutions in my last visit home. My four year old niece had been in angawadi (she calls “A-GA-WA-DI” in typical Lisu accent) for over a year. Now she has learned as much as 100 English vocabularies and almost an equal number of words in Hindi! This year when she joined class I, those initial learning provided an easy transition to her next level of education.

PRIMARY SCHOOLS

Seven schools are providing primary education.  Only 2 and 3 offer upto class four. The rest has only upto class two or even below.

NO	SCHOOL	STUDENT	TEACHER
1	Katha Lisu School	245*	–
2	Govt Primary School Hazolo	34	1
3	Govt Primary School Sidiqui	31	1
4	EGS Miphote	30	1
5	NC Public School Dawodi	25*	–
6	EGS Dawodi	1	1
7	EGS Sichoto	1	1

(Data is from NUEPA, except those marked *).

Personally, I know two schools that made a difference. One of my younger sisters joined the first batch of Katha School at Shidi. The teaching was good and that provided a good foundation. Later she studied at Kohima and she could do well even there, though with some difficulty.

The other one “EGS Miphote”. Shidi people call it “Yaesina school” after the teacher. I hear many good testimonies about that school.

UPPER PRIMARY AND SECONDARY

These two are the highest level of educational centres available for our people in Dawodi circle. Interesting to note that though Shidi is only a middle school (Upper Primary), its enrolment is much higher than the secondary school of Vijoynagar. Another thing to note: there is a huge difference between the number of teachers of these two schools.

NO	School	Students	Teachers
1	Govt Middle School Gandhigram	337	4
2	Govt Secondary School Vijoyanagar	209	13

(Data from NUEPA).

OBSERVATIONS

• Nibodi is a large village with about 50 families but it has only an angawadi centre. The reason – the government has not recognized the village yet (It is now a census village from 2011). The children of that village are deprived of basic education.
• Shidi village has the highest enrollment of students. The secondary level education should be shifted to Shidi, rather than at Dawodi.
• The private education and angawadi centres have provided good basic education, majority of educational institution provide poor education. In 1992, five boys and one girl appeared for entrance exam in Meghalaya. None could pass the test. So all had to study a class lower.

REFERENCES

Katha Schools. 2009. http://www.katha.org/site/what-we-do/education/our-schools (accessed 18 July 2012). Four Katha schools in Shidi, Ngwazakha, Hazolo and Shidiku returned 245 enrolments in 2009-10 between 3 – 6 years old.

Location of anganwadi centres in  changlang   district of Arunachal Pradesh. http://arunachalswwcd.gov.in/content/central%20plan/icds/anganwadi/Changlang.pdf (accessed 18 July 2012). Published by Department of Social Welfare, Women and Child Development, Itanagar.

NUEPA. 2011. http://www.dise.in/Downloads/School%20Directory/Arunachal/1212.pdf (accessed 18 July 2012).  School directory of Changlang district for the year 2010-11.

Flood at Shidi

Photos and videos by Aphu Soni

The Lisu people of Shidi village witnessed an excessive flood from 25 to 27 June this year. This is recurring after about 20 years. The normal course of Noa-Dihing river (ꓣꓲ-ꓟ ꓒꓽ) could not contain the volume of water it received. It overflowed to a part of the Shidi village called Sichidi (ꓢꓲ-ꓚꓶ-ꓓꓰ) and the most of the paddy fields of our village. The affects of this flood:

• About 15 families had to run for their lives because the water flowed under their houses.
• The water carried away their chicken, pigs. Their gardens were destroyed.
• About 5 paddy fields were completely destroyed. Their subsistence for next year is going to be difficult.

See the photos below.

Aerial view of Shidi village (Photo by Esla, October 2011).

Also the videos:

I see that many friends from outside India visit this site. For those who would to know where Shidi is located, here is the Google link.

For better perspectives, I have included a photo taken when the paddy fields were ready for harvest. The area within the red line were flood for three full days.

The current affected 90% of paddy fields. That means, the villagers will face food shortage next year. That will be a great problem because there is no that we can purchase easily due to non availability of roads.

Aerial view of Shidi village (Photo by Esla, October 2011).

Yobin People Who Studied Theology

Compiled By Liahey, Data Collected By Barak (1 – 19 June 2012)

For as the waters fill the sea, the earth will be filled with an awareness of the glory of the LORD – Habakkuk 2:14

BACKGROUND

Barak did an excellent job of collecting information. Also I thank Atibosa and Avia for helping in verification.

In this count, we have counted only those who involved as “full-time” students in theology. So we have not considered those who have completed from Nongpoh and Shidi.

FINDINGS

• How many studied theology? The Yobin community has 67 people who have completed diploma, bachelor and master levels of study. Maximum number have done their bachelors (40 graduates). None have completed doctorate nor am aware anyone is aiming for doctorate at the moment.

• What are those graduates doing?  About 34 percent of the graduates are engaged in various ministries such as in church, evangelism and in teaching. And as much as 49 percent are not directly involved as “full-time” ministry. The rest are still pursuing various degrees.

• How many men and women? 58 males and 9 females completed their studies. This appears as if theology is a domain of men! Interestingly, among those 9 women, 2 have did their masters in theology.

• Where did they do their studies?Chennai continues to top the list.
  

  Places where study took place

• Where do they come from?

Education by village

• Which decade had the highest number of those who completed theological studies? The 2000 decade produced 41 people who had theological training. And it is very likely that the 2010 decade will exceed the previous decade because within the first two years of this decade, already 19 have graduated.Which village do they come from?
  

  Education according to decades

At Last:

One in every 45 Yobin people are theologically trained. This is in addition to our existing pastors, those who completed from Nongpoh and those who had training at various churches in Vijoynagar circle.

If everyone of those above are mobilized well, the spread of God’s knowledge within the Yobin community and outside communities will not be difficult.

I also like to challenge everyone who did theology: Do not send your children to theological college. Train them at home well so that they can become great servants of our God.

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[I felt its appropriate to mention how the theological education progress over the years. Below is a brief summary]

Until 1970s, our churches did not have formal theological education. The senior pastors used to organize seminars occasionally and trained the pastors that way.

That trend started to change when Ngwadu/ꓥꓪ-ꓮ-ꓓꓶ and Late Yosiyeh/ꓬꓳ-ꓢꓲ-ꓬꓯ went to Chennai to study in early 1970s. Unfortunately, they could not complete their studies and returned half way.

Another wave began when Nathaney went to Chennai to pursue his Bachelor of Theology in 1982. He then made a record as the first theological graduate from our people. He also made history in Lakeview Bible College and Seminary (then Madras College of Evangelism) as its first graduate. The decade of 1980 witnessed about 5 graduates from our people.

Around that time, we had an opening at Nongpoh to simultaneously pursue school education and Bible studies. This school level program provided a stepping stone to pursue higher studies both in secular and theological education.

From 1990s, those theological educated rose steadily. Our people got training in Chennai, Bangalore, Damoh and Kerala, to name a few.

Psalm 125: As the Mountains

Those who trust in the Lord are as secure as Mount Zion; they will not be defeated but will endure forever.

Just as the mountains surround Jerusalem, so the Lord surrounds his people, both now and forever.

The wicked will not rule the land of the godly, for then the godly might be tempted to do wrong.

O Lord, do good to those who are good, whose hearts are in tune with you.

But banish those who turn to crooked ways, O Lord. Take them away with those who do evil.

May Israel have peace!

A person in our church in Bangalore shared this in the second Sunday of July. The image that captured my attention was “mountains”. Mountain is very familiar to us. The area where we live at the foothills of Himalayan ranges are covered with those. In fact, all the Lisu villages are surrounded with hills and mountains in four sides.

Here are few promises of God I felt quite relevant in our context:

• People who trust in God are secure like Mt Zion (or you could say “as Mugaphi”). Let Mugaphi remind us that you will remain steady and strong because God is in your side.
• God surrounds his people as the mountains. Every time you see hills around your home villages, remember this word of God.
• God’s goodness will be with those whose hearts follow God.

May we never worry about the deeds of the ungodly or the crooked people. May we also never worry of our own weaknesses.

Our only constant question should be, “Have I/we trusted in our God?” The rest He takes care.