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(Left) Khekiye Sema speaking at the annual cultural day programme of Trinity Theological College on July 16. (Right) Participants competing in a lard-eating competition.[/caption]
Eastern Mirror Desk
Dimapur, July 16: Noted social activist, Khekiye Sema, has counselled the theological students to follow the footsteps of those American missionaries who first brought Christianity to Nagaland.
Stating that the Americans came to Nagaland to preach the gospel by leaving all their luxuries and comforts behind, Sema on Monday called upon the theologians to be soul winners.
A retired bureaucrat, Khekiye Sema said this during the annual cultural day programme of the Trinity Theological College as the guest speaker on July 16 at Thahekhu village, Dimapur.
“Americans decided to come to a wild country. They had everything, every convenience and comfort of life and that they can preach the gospel in America comfortably. But the Holy Spirit worked in their minds that they did not look at their comfort but came to a country inhabited by the head hunters,” Sema stated. He urged upon the young theologians to be prepared to undertake any situations and be ready to go to any part of the world that God sends them.
Sema further asserted that the road ahead of them would be entirely different from their childhood dreams. “Challenges before you is going to be so seriously significant because you are going to enter a world where the values of Christianity don’t exist anymore,” reminded Sema adding that as theology students they are entering into a world where a totality of human population is now driven by money hunting.
Sema described and regarded the faith of the first Naga Christian missionaries as being instilled deep down in their hearts in which they learnt great values of what Christianity meant. Therefore, he advised the theology students ‘not to be carried away by the present practice of pastors and missionaries looking for money, cars, and comfort but rather strife to bring back the lost tradition of ancestors which was honest, honourable, and good Christians who feared God’.
Speaking about culture for which the event was conducted, Sema described culture as ‘a one word which is made up of many variables.’
He said that ‘culture is what distinguishes us from other people,’ and that Nagas were known for being hospitable and forgiving which according to him was because of the age-old practice of giving.
Sema honoured the Trinity College for joining the hands and minds of different people from the Northeast and encouraged the college to keep the practice of celebrating the cultural day.
Earlier, a cultural show was held in which students from different communities displayed their traditional attire.
Later after the programme, pork fat eating competition was conducted during which boys and girls contested in two sessions.
