Mizo Christian Global Network Newsletter

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Newsletter: October 2000
MCGN is a non-profit, non-denominational Christian organization promoting spiritual and economic development of the people in Mizoram and the surrounding region by serving them as Jesus did (Mt. 20:28).

THANKS:

Thanks, Pu Ringa, for translating so quickly the September Newsletter into Mizo. Even with all his Nepal missionary commitments, Pu Ringa completed this translation within two days - an excellent job, much appreciated.

Thanks, Rev. Vanlalrawna, for your encouraging comments about the MCGN website. Rev. Vanlalrawna is a missionary pastor in Calcutta. His mission has witnessed 300 new believers since 1999. Praise the Lord for His faithful servants!

Thanks, Dr. Larry Short, for encouraging MCGN ministry. Dr. Short is a retired pastor in San Francisco who still ministers to those in need. One could say he ministers in a church without walls.

BRIEF REPORTS AND COMMENTS FROM MCGN GLOBAL POINTS:

ASIA

INDIA:CALCUTTA

Mr. Zonunmawia sends these encouraging words; "The Lord will reign for ever and ever". Amen.

Some Mizos in Calcutta have sent word that their MCGN is official now. They have elected their officers. Congratulations and welcome to the network!

President: Mr. Ramfangzauva
Vice-President: Mr. Lalnunsiama
Secretary: Mr. Ramthianghlima
Asst. Secretary: Mr. Zorema Darkim
Treasurer: Ms. Lalromawii Lailung

INDIA:DELHI

Pu Dino Touthang, Director of Operations for Evangelical Relief and Development, sent an e-mail to Dr. Mualchin expressing his appreciation of the website and requesting to be included in MCGN's mailing list.

INDIA: MIZORAM:

MCGN leaders in Mizoram held a meeting September 6, 2000. Their agenda included discussion on the part-time office workers, office furniture, and taking a picture for the website. Soon website viewers will have the pleasure of putting faces to the names of leaders written about in previous newsletters.

JAPAN:

Pu Hruaia, MCGN coordinator in Japan, has supplied us with a good explanation regarding the refugee situation in Mizoram. Pu Hruaia is working hard for MCGN-Tokyo.

NEPAL:

MCGN-Nepal has met the challenge that faces any group whose members live in different communities some distance apart. Most members in Nepal live in Kathmandu. But Lura and Sangtei live at such a distance from the other members that coming to meetings is sometimes not possible. Congratulations, MCGN-Nepal, for remaining a cohesive group.

NORTH AMERICA

USA:

Dr. Liana and Ngeni Mualchin visited the celebrated missionary from Thailand, Siami. Siami came to the United States to receive an honorary Doctorate Degree conferred upon her by St. Olaf College in Minnesota. Liana and Ngeni had the pleasure of taking Siami and her friends Don and Kay Fox to dinner, compliments of MCGN-USA.

PRAYER REQUESTS:

Special Prayer Request:

Hello Brother in Jesus,

I find out just now that this Christian web site has been launch, I almost cried out just to know that there are something good left in this world. My sister baby boy Lalthasanga who was born on 21 of october 2000 has got fever the after he was born. The Doctor doesn't know what is wrong with him, we almost gave up on him, but deep inside my heart there must be something we can do and it comes to mind that why don't we hand it over to The Lord our mighty God, so I came to know that there is a prayer chain going on. so I request you to give out his name to all the members to pray for this little baby boy, so the Lord our mighty God may send his angel and heal this sick little baby. I appreaciate your kindness.

Rema
Aizawl

Pray for freedom in Myanmar (Burma).

Pray for our Mizo missionaries in Nepal. Pray for missionary Tlana who is at the Haggai Institute in Singapore for a month.

Pray for travel safety for Liana Mualchin as he travels to Japan next week. Pray that MCGN-Japan and Liana will have a rewarding meeting.

Pray that MCGN in different parts of the world will continue to have a common call to work together. Working together in one spirit can accomplish much more than working alone.

MARC/MARI UPDATE

Professor Marie Farell 's Public Heath Care classes at Harvard University and at the University of Wisconsin are studying about Mizoram. A Mizoram video shown by Marie prompted many questions by the students. Fortunately, they received answers from Dr. Liana Mualchin during a telephone conversation.

In November, six members of the Marc/Mari team will fly to Mizoram to plan for future activities and for a leadership conference. They are: Drs. Valerie Bentz, Steve Figler, Larry Short, Liana Mualchin, Ms. Kathryn Dodge, and Mrs. Ngeni Mualchin.

ZOTHANSIAMI RALTE
Condensed from her Citation presented by Dr. Michael R. Leming, Professor of Sociology and Asian Studies
St. Olaf College, Northfield, Minnesota, USA, September 13, 2000

On the nomination of the faculty, and with the approval of the Board of Regents, it is my pleasure to present Zothansiami Ralte as candidate for the honorary degree of Doctor of Humane Letters, honoris causa. Zothansiami Ralte (known to her friends and associates as Ajam Tete) is a Mizo tribal person born in the northeastern part of India. After graduating from Eastern Theological College Jorhat, Assam, with a bachelor of theology degree, she took a job teaching at a Christian mission middle school on the border of India/Bangladesh. The following year she became the first woman Mizo missionary to Thailand. With the goal of eventually assisting the Church of Christ in Christian education and church development, she took a job teaching English at Prince Royal College for one year, during which time she taught herself to speak the Thai language.

In 1986 Ajarn Tete took an English-teaching position at the Friendship School in a Karen tribal village, Tee Mae Ker Lah, in the foothills of the Himalayas in Northwestern Thailand. She observed the Karen women were much like the Mizo women in their weaving ability. Yet the Karen children did not know much about their own traditional culture.

By 1985 some tribal girls had been tricked into leaving their villages and traveling to the cities of Chiang Mai and Bangkok to work as commercial sex workers. With the epidemic of AIDS quickly spreading throughout Thailand, Ajam Tete became convinced the prevention was better than the cure. Her idea was to start a vocational center to solve many of the problems faced by Karen tribal women and girls. And her girls hostel could support orphan and poor girls by training the girls to weave, allowing the girls to be self-supporting. Through these endeavors, Ajarn Tete attempts to help the Karen people value and sustain their own culture, language and songs.

Presently there are more than 80 children (boys and girls) in residence. Many of the first young girls who came to the program in 1989 are now in vocational institutions supported by the work of Ajam Tete, as well as in high schools, Bible training centers and colleges. The center also supports cooperative enterprises in the village for economic development (agriculture, productions of goods and services, and retail ventures).

If it is true that the stature and integrity of a college can be, in part, measured by the quality of its degree recipients, then today St. Olaf honors itself when it honors an individual who represents the highest ideals of a church-related college with a global perspective. Mr. President, it is now my privilege to present Zothansiami Ralte to you as a candidate for the degree of Doctor of Humane Letters, honoris causa.

Condensed from Zothansiami's (Tete) Reply

Our God is a Wonderful God. He changes the impossible to possible. He makes today so special for me. I thank God for all of you for giving me this opportunity to meet with you on this very special occasion to receive your honorary Doctor of Human Letters degree from St. Olaf College, an institution I have come to love and respect so much. It is beyond my dreams to be able to receive such an honor.

Our forefathers were head-hunters but today the head-hunter is now the soul-hunter because of the Gospel and education we received from our foreign brothers and sisters in Christ. The light that never fails came into Mizoram and lives of my people in 1884. I went to Thailand to share that same light among the Hill-Tribe people in Northern Thailand, especially the Karen tribes.

The Hill-Tribes Resources and Development Centre was started to teach moral values, assist the Karen in meeting their immediate physical needs, develop community and family resources, and to enable the Karen to preserve their own culture and ways of life in their traditional mountain homes.

What we have done from the very beginning was based upon the wisdom found in Psalms 37:5…. "Commit your way unto the Lord, Trust in Him, and He will bring it to pass." Another theme of our Centre is …. "Plans come from men, but the answer comes from God." From the beginning all of our plans were committed to God and God has answered our prayers, even in times of trouble and problems.

We would welcome you if you would like to come and see by yourself and join us in doing what God has called us to do.

By conferring on me this honorary degree, you are acknowledging what God is doing for the Karen people. You are also greatly encouraging all of us to do our best for the great God we serve. I cannot express fully how happy I am in joining the Alumni of St. Olaf College and I would like to thank all those who made this day possible for me.

"The harvest is truly plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest"

(Mt. 9:37-38).

---Ideas, advice, and comments are always welcome---

MCGN International HQ: USA: Lalliana Mualchin (Email: mualchin@hotmail.com)
Webmaster: Jeff Mead (Email: jeffmead@innercite.com)
Editor: Patricia Macy (Email: pamacy@jps.net)