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I was born into a Christian family of seven children. I grew up in Nagaland, India. My mother was a woman of prayer who never missed a single church prayer meeting. I remembered following her to the prayer meeting and learning about the importance of prayer.
At a young age, I had the desire to serve God. I remembered a retreat in June 1986 where I felt God was calling me to surrender my life to Him. The speaker had challenged us with a quote from Isaiah 6:8 (ESV), “And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, ‘Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?’ Then I said, ‘Here I am! Send me.’” After the retreat, I decided to get baptised and subsequently enrolled at a theological seminary to prepare myself for service.
Ten years later, after I completed my Bachelor of Arts, I went on to do my Bachelor of Divinity at Eastern Theological College, Jorhat, completing the course in 2000. In preparation for my missionary service, I did a six-month Children’s Ministry course in 2009 with Union Biblical Seminary.
I thought my theological studies would launch me into ministry among the unreached people upon graduation. But God’s timing was obviously different from mine. He led me instead to work in my church for six years and another ten years as the Education and Sunday School Secretary. My term of service in this role would take me up to the end of 2016. I prayed that God would open the door for me to serve as a cross-cultural missionary thereafter.
In 2015, Vijay and I got married. We both had the same desire to serve as cross-cultural missionaries. To equip ourselves, we joined the Cross-Cultural Missionary training in NECTAR (North East Center for Training and Research) in Shillong for four months.
In 2016, we applied to join SIM and were accepted as missionaries through SIMNEI (SIM North East India). We waited for more than a year before God opened the door to Indonesia. On 20 October 2018, we landed in Batam in Indonesia. We stayed with an Indonesian lady, a Muslim convert, for nearly eight months. We were learning the Indonesian language through Skype. Our ministry was church-planting with a focus on children’s ministry.
Adapting to a new culture, adjusting to new people and learning a new language at the same time were challenging. Arrangements were made for us to take extra language classes under a lady tutor who stayed with us. We learnt under her for several weeks until 16 June 2019 when we were reassigned to another Island called Salatiga where there was a language school. The people here were friendlier and so it was easier to develop friendships.
We continued to learn the Indonesian language and culture at the language school in Salatiga. After class, my husband and I would often make it a point to practise the language so we could establish relationships, especially with the people in our neighbourhood. We soon made friends with some families. A few of them accepted us like we were part of their own family. Though we could not share the Word directly with them, we continued to pray for them hoping that they would one day come to know the Lord as their Saviour.
One evening in November 2019, Vijay and I saw a man sweeping the compound of his house. We extended our greetings and when he lifted his eyes to Vijay, he immediately recognised him, “Were you the one I saw in the salon the other day?” “Yes,” Vijay replied. He invited us to his house for tea. We spent an hour chatting with him. We in turn invited him to our house and he promptly visited us the next day. From then onwards, he kept visiting and sharing with us his many problems, and expressing how unhappy he was with his life. We took the opportunity to share the Gospel with him. We told him true happiness could only be found in Jesus. We told him to trust in Him and He would open a way for him to find meaning and purpose in life.
One day he dropped by to tell us, “I don’t mind changing my religion.” We gave him the Word of God in Indonesian which he read diligently. Soon, he said he was ready to go to church with us. On 15 December 2019, he went with us to church for the very first time and was warmly welcomed by our pastor who also introduced him to our church members.
We witnessed God’s Hand at work on yet another occasion. On the Christmas evening of 2019, a Christian couple invited us and a new believer and his family to their place for Christmas. It was the first time the new believer celebrated Christmas with his wife and children. The following Sunday, his wife accepted Christ. All of their five children, except the second son, decided to follow Christ.
Praise God that through this Christian couple, their friend and wife came to know Christ. On May 10, 2020, these two couples were baptised. It was heartening to see them growing stronger in their faith as we gathered together to study the word every Tuesday and to pray together every Thursday.
Covid-19 hit Indonesia at the beginning of March, 2020. The restrictions imposed by the government made public gatherings difficult. But God in His perfect time opened a way for us to start teaching English to new believers’ children along with eight Muslim children. A family of new believers with two boys and two girls aged between 12 and 15 years old caught our attention. The children were not schooling due to the family’s financial difficulty. We were given the opportunity to teach them and as we encouraged them, they became interested in studying. God also gave us an opportunity to start a Sunday school for the children. The Children’s Ministry course I attended in 2009 was now put to good use. Later, we connected them to a Christian School for formal education. All of them were admitted to the school but unfortunately, for some reasons, the family moved to another place.
In April 2021, we met Mr. W, a homeless man and a Muslim, who later became a believer. He stayed with us for about a month. We would study the word of God together and pray together for a roof over Mr. W’s head. God answered our prayer because not long after that, Mr. W got a job and was able to rent a house. His daughter, who was cared for by his sister, was now able to stay with him. He is now experiencing the love of God each day. He said, “I was like a blind man. Now when I look back at my past life, I feel ashamed of myself. Sleeping at the roadside and only thinking of how to tell lies and get money.” He added, “I have many friends who are exactly like me. I want to tell them about the good news one day.” Reading the Bible daily is now part of his regimen. He said, “The more I read the more interesting I find it. Sometimes, I would go on and on till it’s too late to sleep.”
There are now altogether eight families who have accepted Christ. They meet once a week to pray together. They are growing in their faith and are starting to share God’s love with their friends. We hope and pray that God will continue to use them to bring more friends to God.
God has put my seminary training to good use. By equipping me for His ministry, He has made it possible for His gospel to advance from family to family.