Dear Friends,
WE will be remembering you as you celebrate the sesquicentenary of the Garo church. We are sorry that we cannot be with you, as we were for the Centenary and 125th Anniversary celebrations. A few months after I (Frederick) was born in Tura, the Garo churches would have been celebrating their 65th anniversary. While I don’t remember that, I do remember attending meetings of the Dalgipa Krima as a young boy. I remember wanting to go to the pandal early so I could get a good seat along the wall or next to a bamboo post to lean my back against. There were chairs provided for the missionaries but we children much preferred to sit on the rice straw which could be woven into baskets or made into small dolls during the boring reports. At the evening meetings light was provided by Petromax lanterns which had to be lowered and pumped by the support people when the light began to grow dim. There were no cars or buses. People walked to the meetings from the “lines” or neighboring villages. At night they carried bamboo torches to light the way and keep wild animals to bay. One could see the light of these torches from miles away when the host village was on high ground. I still remember the hymn with which the meetings closed—”God be with you till we meet again” “Grongjaskal…”
When this news reached the Home Board in America there was no more talk of closing the Assam Mission. Not only was it not closed but the missionary team was re-enforced with new appointments for the Garo work—and for work among other hill tribes in the North-East India.
—Frederick Downs
Garo youth today with their electric guitars and up-to-date electronics will think of those days as ancient times. But for those forty mostly young people who formed the first church at Rajasimla those meetings I remember from my childhood would have been a fantasy of an unimaginable furfure. There weren’t even petromax lanterns then. Even Rev. Miles Bronson, who together with Rev. Omed had baptized the first Garo converts at Rajasimla on the 14th and 15th April in 1867, had never heard of an electric light let alone an electric guitar. They were more worried about possible attacks from the hills villages than they were about organizing musical programs. And yet without them there would be no ABDK today. Church bells and hymns (and electric guitars) would not now be heard celebrating a new life in Jesus Christ throughout the hills and plans in which Garos live.
Actually if it were not for the baptisms in Rajasimla that April it is probable that the American Baptists would have abandoned their work in North-East India. The American Civil War and the loss of financial support from the wealthy southern slave owners had led to a financial crisis for the missionary society. It decided to close “unproductive” fields, including the Assam field. The three small churches at Sivasagar, Nagaon and Guwahati were faithful but were not growing. Though missionaries like Bronson vowed that they would stay on in Assam even if the home board abandoned the field, it is unlikely that they could have done so without financial support. As small as the church formed at Rajasimla that April may seem to us today, in two days the Christian population related to the American Baptist Mission in Assam had more than doubled. When this news reached the Home Board in America there was no more talk of closing the Assam Mission. Not only was it not closed but the missionary team was re-enforced with new appointments for the Garo work—and for work among other hill tribes in the North-East India. It can therefore be said that this year we celebrate not only the birth of the Garo church but also the survival of the Christian fellowship that was to become the Council of Baptist Churches in North-East India.
It decided to close “unproductive” fields, including the Assam field.
—Frederick Downs
What will future generations say about those who celebrate this Sesquicentenary? What will be said about our vision and faithfulness?
Frederick and Mary Downs
278, Carolina Meadows Villa
Chapel Hill, NC 27517
U.S.A.
Dr. Frederick Downs, USA: “Message” in Garo Baptist Church Sesquicentenary, Souvenir. “Celebrating the glory of God’s grace for 150 years.” Published by Souvenir Committee, ABDK Sesquicentenary 2017, pp 14-15.
