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A woman pour rice for missions into the bin at the Kuki Baptist Church outside Imphal
We like to think of ourselves as a great missionary church from a great missionary sending country. But we have to go to the area formerly known as the “mission field” to see what a passion for missions can really do.
This December I was in the state of Manipur in northeast India. I went to Ukhrul, the town that is the center of the Tangkhul Nagas. The Tangkhuls are just one of the dozen or so major Naga tribes. Yet the Tangkhul Baptists send more cross-cultural missionaries to other countries or distant parts of India than the entire missionary force of the American Baptist Churches. When you add the missionaries going from all the other Nagas, there is a huge missionary movement going forth from what used to be one of the major areas of ABC mission.
The Sunday before Christmas I preached at a Kuki Baptist Church just outside Imphal, the capital of Manipur. The Kukis are an ethnic group related to the Chins in Burma, many of whom have settled in the U.S. We had a wonderful Advent worship service, full of praise and celebration. The members of the church jammed into their building. Outside a new larger facility was under construction. This church is reaching their community with the gospel, growing and full of young people.
After the service they showed me the rice bins. As you enter the sanctuary there are large bins for members to deposit rice. Every Sunday church members fast for missions. They take the rice they would have eaten for that day and bring it to church. The rice is then sold, and the money goes to support Kuki missionaries. I watched as a woman poured her bag of rice into the bin. The Kingdom of God is like a grain of rice—so small, yet it becomes a deluge of rice to bring God’s blessing and good news to distant places.
I was so deeply moved. American Baptist missionaries labored to plant the gospel here in northeast India over a century ago. Now the descendants of the fruit of their labors are pace-setters for global mission.
How many American Baptists fast once a week to support the fulfillment of our Lord’s Great Commission? As a missionary I am incredibly grateful to those who give to support me and my missionary colleagues at International Ministries. But we struggle to maintain the missionaries we already have called and sent. What would happen if we in the U.S. churches learned from the churches like this Kuki Baptist church? What would happen if American Baptists fasted, prayed, and gave weekly for missions? Maybe we would be experiencing the unleashing of spiritual power both at home and far away that these Kuki Baptists evidenced. A grain of rice, a handful of rice, a small bag of rice, a bin of rice—God’s work grows as we each take our part with commitment and a passion for mission.
For those who wish to give their “handful of rice” to support my mission work with International Ministries, contributions can be sent “for support of Dan Buttry” to International Ministries (P.O. Box 851, Valley Forge, PA 19482) or made on the IM website: http://www.internationalministries.org/give (I’m under the “Global Consultants” category—pull down the menu there to see my name and following the giving process). You can send similar support to any of my colleagues, just naming them on your contribution. Thank you!
Please keep me and all your missionaries in your prayers. May you have a grace-filled New Year!
In peace and hope,
Dan
This December I was in the state of Manipur in northeast India. I went to Ukhrul, the town that is the center of the Tangkhul Nagas. The Tangkhuls are just one of the dozen or so major Naga tribes. Yet the Tangkhul Baptists send more cross-cultural missionaries to other countries or distant parts of India than the entire missionary force of the American Baptist Churches. When you add the missionaries going from all the other Nagas, there is a huge missionary movement going forth from what used to be one of the major areas of ABC mission.
The Sunday before Christmas I preached at a Kuki Baptist Church just outside Imphal, the capital of Manipur. The Kukis are an ethnic group related to the Chins in Burma, many of whom have settled in the U.S. We had a wonderful Advent worship service, full of praise and celebration. The members of the church jammed into their building. Outside a new larger facility was under construction. This church is reaching their community with the gospel, growing and full of young people.
After the service they showed me the rice bins. As you enter the sanctuary there are large bins for members to deposit rice. Every Sunday church members fast for missions. They take the rice they would have eaten for that day and bring it to church. The rice is then sold, and the money goes to support Kuki missionaries. I watched as a woman poured her bag of rice into the bin. The Kingdom of God is like a grain of rice—so small, yet it becomes a deluge of rice to bring God’s blessing and good news to distant places.
I was so deeply moved. American Baptist missionaries labored to plant the gospel here in northeast India over a century ago. Now the descendants of the fruit of their labors are pace-setters for global mission.
How many American Baptists fast once a week to support the fulfillment of our Lord’s Great Commission? As a missionary I am incredibly grateful to those who give to support me and my missionary colleagues at International Ministries. But we struggle to maintain the missionaries we already have called and sent. What would happen if we in the U.S. churches learned from the churches like this Kuki Baptist church? What would happen if American Baptists fasted, prayed, and gave weekly for missions? Maybe we would be experiencing the unleashing of spiritual power both at home and far away that these Kuki Baptists evidenced. A grain of rice, a handful of rice, a small bag of rice, a bin of rice—God’s work grows as we each take our part with commitment and a passion for mission.
For those who wish to give their “handful of rice” to support my mission work with International Ministries, contributions can be sent “for support of Dan Buttry” to International Ministries (P.O. Box 851, Valley Forge, PA 19482) or made on the IM website: http://www.internationalministries.org/give (I’m under the “Global Consultants” category—pull down the menu there to see my name and following the giving process). You can send similar support to any of my colleagues, just naming them on your contribution. Thank you!
Please keep me and all your missionaries in your prayers. May you have a grace-filled New Year!
In peace and hope,
Dan