Chin and Kachin Youths Met in Myitkyina
13 May 2011: A group of 75 Chin youths from Hakha Baptist Church in Hakha Town made a trip to Myitkyina, Kachin State, holding a Christian retreat and having fellowship with Kachin youths last week.
The Chin youth group arrived on 28 April for the first time in the capital of Kachin State, where they were said to have received a warm welcome and reception throughout their programmes.
“We were wholeheartedly greeted and well taken care of by the Kachin Baptist Convention from the time we got there. Accommodation was also arranged at Myitkyina Town Baptist Church,” said one of the Chin youths.
The programmes involved sessions of Bible study led by Rev. Dr. Zinghang Lat Maung, an academic dean of Naung Nang Theological Collge (NTC); and presentations on New Perspective of Kachin Youths on Politics, Economics and Education by S. Gun Showngs, Secretary of YMCA in Myitkyina.
Youth group of the Hakha Baptist Church Youth Fellowship (HBCYF) presented six different Chin traditional dances, ending with a friendly group circle sway joined by the Kachins.
A day of excursion was spent visiting various places including the confluence of Maykha and Malikha Rivers, Kachin prayer mountain, cemetery, Kachin cultural museum and Naung Nang Theological College.
The HBCYF youth group got back to Hakha on 5 May.
There have been a few occasions the ethnic Chin and Kachin made brotherly friendship and historical reunion in the past years.
A total of 53 Kachin pastors made a trip to Chin State in late 2008, saying they were paying a brotherly visit to the Chin, historically claimed to be the elder of the two.
In October 2009, Chin and Kachin refugees settled in the Netherlands played a friendly football match near Rotterdam, with a 6-3 score led by the latter.
Another occasion occurred in November 2008 when a group of 10 students led by Rev. Za Mang from Chin Christian College in Hakha Town went to Myitkyina, Kachin State to participate in the 6th Inter-Seminary Student Fellowship, according to the CCC Thawnglawi.
Van Biak Thang
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