Volume 13, No. 1 Winter, 2015 Twenty-first Century Pilgrims and Refugees By Dr. Jerry Cain First Kachin Baptist Church in America. The first missionary to contact the Kachins On November 16, President Obama flew east for was Eugenio Kincaid who visited northern Bur- an Asian summit and a planned visit to Myan- ma in 1837 at the behest of Adoniram Judson the mar while I hosted a group of displaced citizens venerable American missionary. At Kincaid’s in- from Myanmar, all Ka- sistence, Ola Hansen, chins, who were on a settled in northern pilgrimage through Burma, codified the Kansas City. Kachin language and The Kachins are translated the Bible. a tribal group in north- One hundred seventy ern Myanmar (also -five years later this called Burma) that tribal group has em- have embraced the braced the teachings Christian message due of Jesus, and though to the faithful witness ostracized in their of American missionar- native land, have be- ies. While the over- Pilgrimage to Kincaid grave. Courtesy of Dr. Hkyen Naw, President Emeritus, Kachin Theological college and Seminary. come our immigrant whelming majority of neighbors in the Kachins are Christian, about 10 percent of them heartland. are living in displaced person camps across My- In appreciation of missionary Eugenio Kin- anmar. caid, 37 Kachins, displaced from their homeland During World War II the Kachins were in Myanmar, became pilgrims in November and loyal allies of the American forces. They rescued made the trip from Omaha to Girard, KS, where and sheltered over 500 U.S. fliers shot down over Kincaid is buried. On the way back to Omaha, I Burma while conducting raids on the Japanese met with these pilgrims to debrief on their jour- invaders. The courtyard of the American embas- ney. sy in Yangon honors the Kachins for their fierce They reported on Kincaid’s retirement fighting against the Japanese. I have been to the from mission work and his decision to settle in region several times, most recently in August of Kansas in 1857. The Kincaid Memorial Church in 2014. Girard, KS, was founded and named for him dur- Modern day Kachins are out of favor with ing his lifetime. He died in 1883 and was buried the current government of Myanmar and, if they in this tiny Kansas town where his legacy was can get out of the country, often become refugees lost, his grave was ignored and the church in the United States. Some 2800 have settled changed its name. here and in 2002 they founded in Omaha, The Continued on page 2 International Pilgrims Continued from page 1 Conference on Baptist But the Kachins re- Studies VII vere this nineteenth centu- ry missionary and are now Following six successful International Confer- working to revive his story ences on Baptist Studies around the world begin- in the Midwest. I was ning at Oxford in 1997, there is to be a seventh at deeply touched by these Luther King House, Manchester, England, the pilgrims who did their re- home of the Northern Baptist Learning Commu- search and then searched nity, from Wednesday 15 to Saturday 18 July out the last remaining evi- 2015. dences of this pioneer mis- The theme this time is “Baptists and Revival”, sionary who brought the a topic which includes traditional revivals, mod- story of Christ to north- ern crusades and the more general reinvigoration Visitors from Burma search ern Myanmar. ABHS archives to recover their of Baptist life. The theme will own history. In similar fashion, Ka- be explored by means of case chins, Chin, and Karen studies, some of which will be refugees make pilgrimages to the American Bap- very specific in time and place tist Historical Society in Atlanta, where they can while others will cover long see some of the writings and translations of their periods and more than one earliest missionaries. country. All will be based on For another piece of this story, see “From original research. The Archives” on page 3. A number of main papers will address key as- Author Jerry B. Cain is Chancellor of Judson Uni- pects of the subject, but offers of short papers to versity (Elgin, Illinois) and also serves on the Advisory last no more than 25 minutes in delivery are very Council for the American Baptist Historical Society. much welcome as well. They should relate in some way to the theme of ‘Baptists and Revival’. The proposed title should be submitted to Profes- sor D. W. Bebbington, School of History and Poli- Subscribe to ABQ tics, University of Stirling, Stirling FK9 4LA, Scot- land, United Kingdom (e-mail: Subscribe to American Baptist Quarterly [email protected]). $50___ 1 yr; $90_____ 2 yrs; $130 _____3 yrs Luther King House is providing meals, ac- Charge to my Visa MasterCard commodation and facilities. The capacity of the House is limited to 59 and so early booking is ad- Acct # _ _ _ _ - _ _ _ _ - _ _ _ _ - _ _ _ _ visable. Additional attenders will be welcome if Exp. Date: ____/_______ Security code_____ they make their own arrangements and pay £80 Make checks payable to ABHS; and mail with for lunch, dinner, refreshments and facilities at this form to ABHS, P.O. Box 851, Valley Forge, Luther King House. Registration forms are availa- PA 19482-0851 Questions? Call Kay Eland at ble from Beverley Bartram, Conference Office, Lu- 610/768-2269. ther King House, Brighton Grove, Manchester Name______________________________________ M14 5JP, United Kingdom (e-mail: LKHConfer- Address_____________________________________ [email protected]; tel: +44 (0)161 249 2539). __________________________________________ Further information is available from Nathan ____________________________________________ Finn, Associate Professor of Historical Theology Telephone___________________________________ and Baptist Studies at Southeastern Baptist Theo- Email_______________________________________ logical Seminary in Wake Forest, North Carolina (e-mail: [email protected]). 2 From the Archives The American Engenio Kincaid’s missionary colleague, Ola Baptist Quarterly! Hansen, is best known for his pioneer translation work for the Kachin peoples. Like Kincaid, Han- Founded in 1938 as The Chronicle, The American sen retired to the Midwest, in his case to his na- Baptist Quarterly (ABQ) is the oldest Baptist de- tive Nebraska, where his grave has also been a nominational journal in this country. The ABQ pilgrimage site for recent Kachin immigrants. publishes proceedings from meetings, such as Hansen wrote a Kachin grammar and dic- the recent issues on Baptists and the Holy Spirit tionary for use by fellow missionaries. He also as well as the Judson Bicentennial conference created a spelling book, brief hymnal, and many from November 2013. translations of scriptures. Also published are scholarly articles and The Historical Society holds copies of documents submitted independently, such as these works, Mrs. Ola Hansen’s well-worn Ka- the forthcoming Jubilee issues; i.e. two issues chin Bible, illustrated here and including Gene- which include articles sis, Exodus, Luke, and John, and a collection of on a variety of subjects one hundred “Sacred Hymns.” in mission and church history and the 2014 Torbet Prize winning Bottom right is a copy of Minnie Hanson’s Bible, above it is the essay. title page of “Sacred Hymns” . Below is one of the pages from the hymn book showing the hymn “I Love To Tell the Story”. Because of a gap between old and new editors, there has been a lag in the publishing schedule, with the re- maining issues for the year 2013 to be printed in the early months of 2015. The remainder of 2014 issues are also an- ticipated for later in 2015. Subscriptions at $50 annually (plus post- age for international subscriptions) are still be- ing accepted for 2014, with renewal notices to subscribers to be sent in January 2015. Among the special issues to be pub- lished in the coming year are ones on Adoni- ram Judson Gordon, Resources for Black Histo- ry Month, Jamaican Sam Sharpe, and West Vir- ginia Baptists. Authors wishing to submit arti- cles should send the article via email to the ABQ editor, Dr. Curtis Freeman, at abqedi- [email protected]. To subscribe to the ABQ, fill out the sub- scription form on page 2 or go to http:// abhsarchives.org/publications/american- The Kachin Baptist Convention (in America) dedicated this baptist-quarterly/. new gravestone for the Hansens in 2009, Oakland, Nebraska. Post this page on your bulletin board. When you use information from “From the This photo is courtesy of the ABC of Nebraska Archives” remember to give credit to the American Baptist Historical Society. 3 PRIMARY SOURCE Non-Profit Organization American Baptist Historical Society U.S. Postage P.O. Box 851 PAID Southeastern, PA Valley Forge, PA 19482-0851 Permit No. 167 INSIDE Today’s Pilgrims & Refugees; Biennial Mission Summit June 26-28, 2015 In “From the Archives’” you can read about Minnie Overland Park, KS Hanson (pictured here) and her husband, Ola, and Don’t miss these events: their work among the Ka- chin people in Burma. Be- Breakfast Sunday, June 28 low is part of their new Younger Award Presented (for excel- gravestone in Oakland, NE. lence in local or regional American Baptist his- tory. See abhsarchives.org for more info.) Visit the booth in the Exhibit Hall Watch demonstration of book repair Find how to develop your own church This photo is cour- tesy of the ABC of archives Nebraska Watch for ABHS .