Headhunters to Soul Seekers:
A Special Travel Newsletter

Dear Friends and Family;
Just a century-and-a-half ago in the wooded mountains of northeast India, headhunting tribesmen proudly adorned the doors of their lodgings with the skulls of their victims. The most honored among them also wore tattoos and headdresses with carved skull images representing their kills. It was believed that the nape of the neck held the soul, and thus to remove the head would free the soul of the victim, but also prove the bravery of the warrior.

However, our Father in Heaven loved these people, as he loves all of his creation, and he had a plan to rescue them from this darkness. In October of 1868 He sent American Baptist missionaries, Dr. and Mrs. Edwin Clark to a mission outpost at Sibsagar, on the border between Assam and the hills of the Naga headhunters. Arriving in March of 1869 they began their duties of operating the mission printing press that produced Bibles and grammatical materials for the tribes of Assam, among whom the gospel was spreading.

One day, near their bungalow, the Clarks encountered some Naga tribesmen who had come down from the hills in search of food. Like the missionaries before them, the Clarks became burdened for the souls of the Nagas. In a letter to the Home Mission Board in 1871, they wrote, “Tribe upon tribe of Nagas are accessible to the Gospel. It is certainly painful for us at Sibsagar to be unable to lift our eyes without seeing these hills, and thinking of them who have no knowledge of Christ.” 1


The missionaries were not allowed by the British Government to venture into the dangerous hills. However, as they prayed for the Nagas, Dr. Clark was inspired with a creative plan to reach them with the Gospel, while complying with the government restrictions. He sent a trained Assamese evangelist, named Godhula, into the hills!
Would he be beheaded? Would he be any safer than a foreign missionary? A year later, in November of 1872 Godhula returned to Sibsagar for a joyful reunion with the missionaries and his wife, Lucy. He wanted to escort Lucy to the Naga village where he was working.

Godhula related how the tribesmen had been very suspicious at first, but gave him a rude hut on the outskirts of the village. One day they heard him singing hymns, and since music is at the core of the Naga heart, they were drawn to his hut out of curiosity. From that point, Godhula was able to make friends and share the Gospel. When he returned to Sibsagar to get his wife, he brought nine believers from the Naga village with him! Dr. Clark baptized them and thus organized the First Baptist church of Nagaland, on December 23rd, 1872.

Then, Dr. Clark himself went into the hills, and though, for his pale complexion, was under suspicion of being a British spy, he established a community of believers. He trained them to take the message to other tribes, and thus the gospel spread among these former headhunters, transforming them into peace-loving soul seekers for Christ’s Kingdom!

Why is that miracle of long ago the subject of this newsletter, you may ask? Well, it so happens that the Rev. Vesekhoyi (Vee)Tetsuo whom I work with at Dai-ichi Baptist Church in Okinawa City, is from a tribal village among the Naga hills. He invited me to go with him to his home church with two Okinawa Christian leaders and another American to present a seminar on contemporary worship. He explained, “Though Nagaland is about 95 percent believers, many are nominal Christians who need a better understanding of the gospel, and young people are looking for new ways to express their love of Christ in worship. Rev. Vee said, “That’s my role, to teach them how to write and sing new songs from the heart, but the Lord needs you, David to teach the solid biblical foundation of worship.” So, after three days of travel which included a harrowing road trip and thrilling elephant ride (just for fun), Rev. Vee, three other members of the mission team, and I found ourselves still alive and well at Chakesang Baptist Church in Kohima, capital of Nagaland, for a three-day worship conference from February 20-22, 2009.

I led ten participants chronologically through the stories of the Old Covenant, exploring aspects of worship, (particularly blood sacrifices) and how these all pointed to the one-time blood sacrifice of Christ, God’s only Son. One of the participants, a doctoral student who had come from a very remote region, came to me after the presentation and pleaded, “Will you sell me all of your textbooks? They are too costly to have shipped from abroad, and I must have them for my studies and ministry!” I am thankful that my luggage was much lighter on the return trip to Okinawa.
Finally, in this “Naga saga” is a historical note concerning the last day of our visit. From the capital city of Kohima we wended our way for two-and-a-half hours up a rough mountain road to Rev. Vee’s parents’ home village of Thipuzu. Upon arrival in front of the Baptist Church, villagers in full native dress encircled us and then extended warm handshakes and greetings. It was moving to see their smiles and tearful hugs for Rev. Vee, whom many had not seen for years.

The men of the church received us in the village meeting hall, where we sat down to exchange greetings before enjoying a delicious banquet, which must have represented quite a sacrifice on their part during the dry season before the monsoons. The five in our traveling party included two Okinawa church members who had conducted seminars at the conference. When the village elder stood up to speak, he told how some of the older men of the village had not seen a Japanese in their community since WWII. Though Thipuzu village had not suffered terribly at the hands of the soldiers, there had been heavy casualties among the Nagas around the capital city of Kohima.

After the Japanese surrender it had taken weeks for the word of peace to get up into the hills of Nagaland, so the fighting had continued there with great losses. One of the men showed us a little sprig of a plant he had plucked and said, “Before the Japanese came, this plant did not grow around our village. The Japanese soldiers used this as camouflage in their helmets, and thus caused it to take root here. We named it ‘Japon’.
However, in his speech, the old village chieftain said, “Even so, we are happy to welcome these two Japanese here today, the first to set foot in our village since the war, because now in Christ Jesus we are brothers!” “Also, one of our own, Vesekhoyi (Vee) is married to a girl from Okinawa and we are proud to claim him as a missionary to Japan from our village.”

As we all stood in turn to give greetings, our brothers from Okinawa apologized for what their forbearers had done during the war. I was moved because our team members themselves had done no wrong, and Japan had long ago been forgiven, yet, there is something beautiful about expressing sorrow and forgiveness on behalf of a nation or tribe, to further the healing process.


And to commemorate the occasion, we sat at table and ate all manner of dog, frog, fish and snails, and even dragonflies. We nibbled on gooseberries and passion fruit, and enjoyed a king’s table array of vegetables, chicken, and pork. My thoughts went to verse 5 of the twenty-third Psalm. “You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.” I thought, “Christ, in the hearts of all of us present at this table, brings new meaning to that verse. It is not a table to taunt an enemy. This, rather, is a table of reconciliation where descendents of former enemies, (headhunters and combatants of terrible wars between nations of the world) sit down together with hearts overflowing with Christ’s love for one another. Praise be to our Loving Savior!”

And that overflow includes two Naga missionaries from Rev. Vee’s home church who are serving as missionaries in Nepal alongside the Rev. Iwao Kochihira, a missionary from Okinawa. Truly, we are seeing today the fulfillment of a prophecy spoken by Dr. Edwin Clark when he witnessed the movement of the Holy Spirit among the Naga people and said, “The softening twilight of Christianity is here. Soon the broad daylight with its transforming power will reveal a Christianized people.” 2 Please pray for the churches of Nagaland as they continue to fulfill that prophecy, and that they will continue to obey our Lord’s Great Commission by sending missionaries abroad.
In Christ’s Love,