CHIN STATE, Myanmar — ”When I landed in Kalemyo airport on February 14 this year, there was a large group of Falam Christian leaders there to welcome me.
Greeting people is nothing unusual in the Chin Christian communities. What is unusual, however, is the fact that the leaders had prepared a long list of churches for the translation team to visit and where I was invited to preach.
My first reaction was: How would I be able to accept all these invitations when I needed to give my full attention to the task of checking the Falam Bible translation? Secondly, I wondered why so many churches were suddenly interested in hearing me speak – I had worked among them for almost 20 years in the 1960s and 70s, and nothing similar had ever happened then!
Mystery revealed
Two weeks later I discovered the answers to my questions. The first invitation I accepted, along with my fellow translation committee members, was from a group of churches in the nearby village of Hmun Tha, meaning ‘Good Place’. The Presbyterian, Baptist and Independent churches had prepared a feast for us, followed by a worship service. And it was during this worship service that the ‘mystery’ was revealed to me.
One of the elders came to the podium and said: ”We the Falam Christians have been enslaved by the domination of the languages of nearby racial groups for at least forty years. We had never imagined it possible to have the Bible in our own language. We had accepted that reading the Bible in the languages of other ethnic groups was good enough for us.
”But when the Bible which Dr Hre Kio translated was made available to us in 1992, we discovered the wonderful richness of reading God’s Word in our own language. It was so good that we could not stop! We now look back and realise that the Bible freed us from the ‘slavery’ and domination of other ethnic groups.
Overwhelmed
”Now we are true Christians, worshipping God and reading His Word in our own language, and we have come to realise that we are special, one of the races our God created. How can we ever thank God and thank you enough?"
I was overwhelmed. I never expected anything like this. The Falam Bible had liberated people from domination and slavery! That was their experience and they had expressed it to us emphatically. Neither did it stop there: the Chairman of the service announced that we should all stand up to pray – and that we should express our individual thanks to God for his wonderful gift of the Falam Bible, asking him to bless the revision committees as they continued working on this project. As the several hundred worshippers stood up and prayed, many raising their hands or shouting at the top of their voices, the church building seemed to shake! I was speechless. I could only say to myself, ”Look at what the Lord has done through His Word!“
Splendid church
Another invitation we accepted was from a church in the village of Pyinkhung Kyi, six miles from Taungphila, our base for Bible checking. I remember visiting this church 27 years ago in 1971, when the village was made up of about 50 houses, and the church building had a thatched roof with bamboo walls. Now there are 170 houses and the church is a splendid, well-planned, modern build- ing accommodating 500 worshippers. The tithes and contributions have increased tenfold, and the congregation continues to grow. And one of the main reasons for the healthy state of this church is the Falam Bible.
When we arrived there, hundreds of Christians greeted us with specially-composed songs and placed garlands around our necks. Non-Christians stood by and gazed at us with curiosity, and the entire village seemed to be alive with excitement. The church leaders expressed their gratitude to us for making it possible for them to read the Bible in their language. Then they asked me to tell them the story of translating the Falam Bible, because they acknowledge that the Bible is the source of their spiritual strength.
12 hours a day
I told them how, in January 1974, I started to translate the Bible into Falam. Working an average of 12 hours every day, including Saturdays, I completed the Old Testament in five years.
Combining the translation of the New Testa- ment with studying for a PhD in the USA was extremely difficult and resulted in the project having to be prolonged for six-and-a-half more years, during which time I had to undergo stomach surgery three times.
One of the most depressing parts of the 12 years of translation occurred in Atlanta, USA, in 1985, when I received a telegram from Myanmar with the sad news that all the Falam Bible manuscripts had perished in a fire when the Falam Baptist Headquarters was engulfed in flames that night.
Up in smoke
The work of my hands for 11 years and 8 months had gone up in smoke in 30 minutes! This was such a painful experience and so hard to bear that I went straight to our bathroom and wept – for the first time in my adult life.
However, the Lord did not leave us hopeless. Without anyone knowing, the typist of the Falam Bible had kept a copy of all the manuscripts in a box at his home, so all the texts were safe and complete. When I heard that news I jumped for joy, shouting ”Hallelujah!“ – also for the first time in my life. After six years of preparing the manuscripts, the Bible was printed.
Highs and lows
And so the congregation of Pyinkhung Kyi church came to know some of the highs and lows of translating the Falam Bible. The Christians in this area have devised a plan whereby those who can afford to buy a Bible contribute financially for those who cannot afford to buy one. So far they have collected about 200,000 Kyats (US$ 32,000), which will buy more than 1,330 Bibles. These Bibles are then given free of charge to the poorer members of the community.
That was Sunday, February 22. The next day I took a bath at a house in Taungphila. As I was leaving, I noticed a lady standing near the door, with a bag on her shoulder and money in her hand.
Nu Cong Theu
The hostess of the house told me that this lady wanted to speak to me, and Nu Cong Theu herself uttered timidly that she had been waiting for an appropriate moment. Then she held out her hand and offered me the sum of 200 Kyats (US$ 32). I knew that this money would be of great value to her and refused to accept it. But she insisted, making it clear that she would be disappointed if I did not.
I knew there must be a story behind this gesture, so I asked her to tell me. And, with deep sadness in her eyes, Nu Cong Theu began to talk.
In 1992, her only child, a daughter, had died unexpectedly of malaria at the age of four. Nu Cong Theu was devastated. The pain of losing her only child, and knowing that she could not have another one, was too much for her. No-one, not even her husband, could console her, and she ‘lost’ her mind.
She wandered around the village not knowing where she was, unable to recognise her own house or family. Neither did she care about her health; nothing mattered in life now, and the only certainty was death.
Transformed
Then another unexpected event happened. Although still in a state of confusion, Nu Cong Theu listened and seemed to understand as her friends reading parts of the Falam Bible to her.
At that point in her story, Nu Cong Theu took her Falam Bible out of her bag and wrapped her shawl around it. ”This is the Bible that has completely transformed my life!“ she announced.
And, raising it in the air, she said ”I thank God for this Bible.“ (By this time my heart was choking – I had never heard a story like this before.)
Nu Cong Theu could not read much. She never went to regular school, but learned to read a few lines so that she could sing Christian songs and learn some Scripture verses by heart. As her friends continued to read the Bible to her, Nu Cong Theu’s mind ‘returned’ and she began to feel a strong desire to read God’s Word herself.
And so the process began, slowly and falteringly, day by day, week by painful week. Her friends helped her learn to read the Bible, and after a year she could read more and more passages. Now she was returning to normal, and after two to three years the joy and peace in her heart was unbelievably strong! Now, she said, she could not control her wish to see me, to give me this sum of K200 as an expression of her thanks to me for translating that Bible into her language.
Full of hope
I was overwhelmed by her story, and greatly touched by this gesture. I told her to thank God, not me; but she insisted that she would be very disappointed if I did not take the money. So I accepted her gift of K200, and later put it in the offering plate for the Lord’s ministry.
Nu Cong Theu is as radiant as any Christian I have ever met, and I am delighted to know that the Falam Bible has transformed her life. To me, she is a person who is full of life and hope.
I took a photograph of her (shown above) clutching her Bible, which she takes with her everywhere she goes. Reading God’s Word is her daily spiritual food and she enjoys telling others what the Bible means to her.
”The work of my hands for 11 years and 8 months had gone up in smoke in 30 minutes!
This was such a painful experience and so hard to bear that I went straight to our bathroom and wept.“
”Now we are true Christians, worshipping God and reading His Word in our own language. We have come to realise that we are special, one of the races which God created. How can we ever thank God and thank you enough?“
Nu Cong Theu with her precious Falam Bible
Spiritual health
My trip to Myanmar in February 1998 was very special, and I do not think I will ever forget it. I realise with deep joy that the Falam Bible is having a greater impact on the lives of the Falam Chin Christians than I had ever dreamed of. It has brought many Christian denominations together in unity; liberated others from ‘slavery’; strengthened the spiritual health of many churches and transformed the lives of individuals. What I saw in Myanmar was more than I could have asked for or imagined.“
Dr Hre Kio first translated the Bible into Falam from 1974-85. This was published in November 1991 and the distribution began in February 1992. So far, about 25,000 copies have been distributed among the estimated 100,000 Falam speakers. (WR 331/21 - 6.98) [PHOTOS]
