News

Learning the ways of India

By Scott Wagar

05/20/2014

The First Baptist Church in Bottineau had the opportunity to learn about the culture of India and the work of the American Baptist Foreign Mission in that country through two missionaries who visited the church.

Taku and Katie Longkumer, members of the American Baptist Foreign Mission (ABFM), came to the First Baptist Church on Thursday evening and told those in attendance of their missionary life in India.

The couple lives in Naga, in the northeastern part of India. Taku is originally from Naga and is part of the Ao Tribe in that region. Kate calls the state of Illinois home. The two first came together in Hawaii where they were attending mission training together. From Hawaii they were placed on the same mission team and eventually Taku and Kate married and made their home in Taku’s community.

“We came from opposite sides of the world, literally,” Kate said. “If you were to stick a knitting needle through Illinois and the needle would end up in the middle of the Naga Tribe; although, it is a little south so you would have to place the needle into the globe a little to the south. But, we met in the middle in Hawaii and the rest just happened.”

For the first 17 years of Taku and Kate’s marriage they lived in the Naga area of India, which lies in the foothills of the Himalayas which has a tropical climate. To be in India at that time as missionaries was truly a miracle of God for Taku and Kate. The ABFM was established in India in 1836, but by the 1950s there was so much political turmoil in the country missionaries had to leave the country.

However, Taku was from India and was able to bring his family into the country where they began their mission work.

In 2001, Taku and Katie, along with their children, came to United States where Kate went to seminar in Lombard, Ill., and Taku was a pastor in a local church in Farmington, Ill. The couple planned to be in the states for three to four years, but it turned into 10 years.

In 2011, Taku and Kate returned to Naga and they are development consultants for the ABFM.

“There are no missionaries in India today, they are not allowed” Taku said. “We are developer workers. We train and develop Christian leaders. From there, they go out and minister. They are the true front leaders (in the Christian ministry) in India.”

 Ministering in India is no easy task. Around 80 percent of the country is made up of the Hindu religion, 15 percent is of the Muslim faith, 3.5 percent is of the Christian denomination, while the remaining 1.5 percent is made up of other religions.

Although, in the northeastern part of India where the Longkumers live, that part of the country can see the importance of the ABFM because 90.2 percent of the people are Christian, 7.7 percent is Hindu, 1.8 percent is Muslim and the remaining are other religions.

The government of India knows that ABFM people are missionaries, they are not allowed to spread the word of Christianity, but they can teach leadership and have individuals from India spread the word of God in the country.

This summer, the ABFM will be celebrating its 200th anniversary and the organization has called their missionary home from the 120 countries they serve in for a major conference this summer and its 200th celebration.

Well back home, Taku and Kate are traveling to a number of Baptist churches to speak about their ministery and raise money for their mission work, which the ABFM does not provide them.

Once the summer has passed into fall, the Longkumers will return to Naga and continue their leadership work in India.