The first time I traveled to Hakha was in 2004, December. It was cold, dark and wet. The city was constantly under blackout, and there was no internet connection. The next time I went there was in May 2005. The blackout was worse now, with no electricity for the whole city at all for the whole day. Internet was still unheard of for most people.
I traveled back to Hakha again in 2007. This time, things were changed. There was now one internet cafe opened in Hakha. The internet cafe was at Shine Store which is near the Clock Tower in downtown Hakha. I went there to use the internet. They use the IP Star staellite link from Thailand (although through Myanmar ISP, with usual ban and firewalls). The connection speed was painfully slow, and cost me 2,000 kyats per hour (normal price in Yangon was only 400 kyats per hour at that time). Well, at least you are connected now. The owner was quite friendly and helpful. I also downloaded the photos and videos I took during my trip and burned them onto a CD there. If you ever traveled to Hakha, don’t forget to go and see this little internet cafe over the hills of Chin Land.
to serve in the southern city of Nakhon Si Thammarat. Brother Sa-ngat Mungsin, another special pioneer, was sent to Chiang Rai, the northernmost province bordering Myanmar. The earlier pioneers had placed much literature in those places, and these special pioneers were eager now to do the follow-up work and start Bible studies.
The two special pioneer sisters in Nakhon Si Thammarat met Kruamat, a young Buddhist woman who had her own dressmaking shop. Since she had no desire to change her religion, it required many visits with gentle persuasion to get her to take some time off from her sewing to discuss a few paragraphs in the book “Let God Be True.” Once her interest was aroused, however, she became an eager student of the Bible, and despite opposition from her family and friends, she started to associate with the Witnesses and began publishing the good news. Soon after her baptism, she became a pioneer. Sister Kruamat later married missionary Neil Crockett, and for some years they served in the circuit work. Presently she is a special pioneer in a Bangkok congregation where Neil serves as an elder.
Help Given Despite Death Threats
When Brother Sa-ngat preached in the town of Mae Sai on the Myanmar border, he had an experience that shows that people of sheeplike disposition who hunger for truth and righteousness will be found, despite isolation or opposition. In October 1951 he met a young woman, Karun Chuthiangtrong, who was born into a Buddhist family that practiced ancestor worship according to the Chinese tradition. She relates about her background:
“As a teenager, I often asked Grandmother where we came from and what happens after death. But the myths and fables I was told in reply to my inquiries did not satisfy me. In 1945, when I was 19 years old, a relative in Chiang Mai sent the family a Thai New Testament. I began reading it and noticed that it talked about God as the Creator and about the hope of everlasting life. I remember that among the literature our relative sent us were two booklets of the Watchtower Society. At that time, however, I understood there was only one kind of Christian religion.
“In 1946 I was baptized in the Presbyterian Church. Filled with zeal to tell others about the message of salvation, I wanted to become a preacher. Several times I applied for admission to schools that trained ministers, both in Thailand and in neighboring Myanmar. But somehow it never worked out.”
When Brother Sa-ngat called on Karun and was able to answer her questions clearly and reasonably, she took the book “Let God Be True.” It did not take her long to recognize the ring of truth in the good news. But it did not take long for opposition to start either. “Often,” she continues, “while we were having discussions of the Bible, our house was pelted with stones, or people would come and make a lot of noise outside to disturb us. One day an elder of the church came with a policeman, who happened to be his younger brother, and tried to intimidate me by threatening arrest if I did not stop associating with Jehovah’s Witnesses. Brother Sa-ngat kept receiving death threats from a group known as the Black Hand. So the Society found it advisable to reassign him to Songkhla in the south of Thailand.” Not long after that, Brother Sa-ngat was shot to death one evening in 1953; the case was never solved.
Meanwhile, Karun began to publish the good news. All on her own now and 200 miles [320 km] from the nearest congregation, she continued preaching courageously, being strengthened by visits of the circuit overseer and by literature sent to her regularly by the branch office. Following her baptism in November 1952, Sister Karun served in the full-time work for more than 20 years and, in the face of adversities, still faithfully preaches the message of real liberty.
I am one of Jehovah’s Witnesses in the USA. I’m studying the Bible with a refugee who speaks Hakha Chin but very little English. I would like to hear from another Witness who is fluent in English and also Hakha Chin. I need alittle help. Thank you.
Bill Townsend