Nocte Naga Bible Release Procession

On Sunday Oct. 13, The Nocte Naga Baptist Churches organized a day of celebration and thanksgiving to God for the release of the first complete Bible in the Nocte dialect. This amazing day marked the first time in Nocte tribal history that the people will be able to hold God's Word in their hands and read God's Word in their own native dialect. Pastor Tia Longkmer, the President of Haven of Hope Seminary in Dimapur, India represented PRMI on this historic occasion. This grand celebration was marked by a formal procession of bringing God's Word to the church, followed by a program of praise and thanksgiving, distribution of the Bibles to representatives from each of the Nocte Baptist churches in order to distribute in their communities, and ending in a time of meal and fellowship among God's people.

Pastor Tia writes about that day, "the trip and program was a success; here is how it went...there were people from 54 Nocte churches (3 from each church). These Bibles were distributed to them at the location of the Nocte Mission Center. The local legislator was also present and wanted to give his regards and express his much gratitude to PRMI. They sang beautiful songs prepared for the day, "Cling to the Bible" and "I know the Bible is true." Milles Brownson first came to the Nocte in 1839. However, his mission was not successful during that time. In 1993, after 154 years, the Ao Naga people came and started a church here. They mentioned in their speech that almost 200 years ago the Americans made the attempt to bring God's Word to them; and yet despite the failure at that time they (the Americans) did not give up on them and have now provided such a great blessing to their land. They gave much thanks to PRMI and all the contributors. They made a certificate of appreciation and presented it to PRMI as a token of appreciation for the mission's efforts. I read the open letter you wrote to them and they received it with much thankfulness. They mentioned that after all these years, our people will be receiving a Bible in our hands and they are very happy with it."

"On a personal talk with the pastors, they mentioned a great burden for the lack of theological knowledge and training. They requested help to learn sound Biblical doctrine. We can pray that God will make a way for this."