The year 2017 is another milestone in the history of the Garo Baptist Church  as the year marked the 150th Anniversary of the foundation of the first Garo Church at Rajasimla. But founding of the first church and its subsequent expansion in the Garo Hills and the adjoining plains were beset with various problems and challenges.

In early 1867, Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal, Sir William Grey had an interview with Dr. Stoddard, Prospective Missionary to the Garos at Kolkata and warned him not to venture into Garo Hills as the Government have already identified them as a blood-thirsty set of savages, deserving extermination and Government considering that option. In support of that, the Commissioner of Assam, Colonel Henry Hopkinson also denounced the Garos as blood-thirsty, most desperate and incorrigible and expressed his doubt about the success of his mission. 

Stiff opposition by the Garos themselves against any change in their traditional beliefs, customs and practices, and inaccessible hills with dense forests infested with wild animals, debilitating climate, language, etc., were other problems and challenges. Besides, the American Baptist Foreign Mission Society was split into two followed by Civil War in 1861 causing economic depression which greatly reduced the financial resources of the Mission Society. Thereafter, it was only the implicit faith of the Missionaries and the early Garo converts and their full dedication to the cause that have saved the Garos from extinction and helped them to overcome invincible problems and then led them from darkness to Light.