Ikato Chishi Swu
I met my father for the first time in 1993. I was already 15 years old. I never knew how my father was and met him for the first time at Pokhara on 25th April 1993. Likewise, my brothers also met my father only after they were grown up. We grew up in different background, living with different people. My father and my mother were God-fearing people. They always listened to what God told them. They lived their life in accordance to the instructions of God. Through a prophet, God instructed them that we should all be sent to Nagaland and they should continue the cause. God promised them that all of us will be taken care of and none of us will be lost. Accordingly, my father entrusted people to take care of us and to ensure that we get education. God never fails his promises. We trusted God and he took care of us because of their faith.
My mother through another prophecy said “it’s about time we should bring all the children.” God instructed them to bring the children together, so in the year 2000 for the first time we met as a family at Manila. Our time as a family was very brief. By the end of 2004 I decided to go back and so our time as father, mother and children-as a family under one roof was for about four years only in our whole life.
But during that that time-that short period of time my father taught us all the basic principles of life. He told us “son, daughter the basic principle of life is to do the will of God. You were made with a purpose and you have to fulfill God’s purpose.” That was the message we received for the first time.
He was a man of few words. He would not explain what he say in details but whatever he said, his words, were full of meaning. It took time for us to understand or comprehend but when we ponder later we could understand the deep meaning behind those words. He practiced what he preached and preached what he practiced. He taught us that we should be patient. He also taught us that we should bear the fruits of the Spirit and when I remember my father I remember him as one of the meekest persons I have ever come across in my whole life. He possessed all the fruits of the spirit that is mentioned in Galatian 5:22-23 (But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.)
He told us that habits make a person so we should develop good habits. He maintained a disciplined life. He maintained consistency in his daily prayers. He told us to read the word of God and to be a man of prayer. In this one year he has left us all - his children, to come closer through his suffering. We were struggling. We were praying for him when he was in the ICU. We even fasted for seven days. We asked God ‘please if it is your will, you are the God who can even bring the dead back, please revive him. We want him to come back’ but what God has planned, we cannot go against His will. He had suffered so much and it was his will that he should be resting by now and we pray that God has already kept him in His bosom.
He was a man of integrity. He maintained his integrity. At times, as his sons we would ask him “Dad you are in such a high position, why don’t you exercise your power sometimes,” and he would simply smile and say “Son that’s not the right way. You have to seek the will of God. In everything you seek the will of God. That’s the most important thing.” For him doing the Will of God was the first and foremost thing. He maintained his integrity in every aspect and I am very proud to have a father like him.
In the year 2008, when my mother and father were to go back from Manila to Nagaland, God spoke to my mother through a prophecy saying that ‘when you go back you should exercise love, forgiveness and peace’.
Accordingly, when they came back, my father declared a clarion call- a clarion call for reconciliation of all Nagas. His wish for the Naga people was that the Naga people should live together as one and seek for final settlement.
Someone has rightly said that the world is ruled by dead men. His ideas, his vision, his principles, his mission in life will still live on in us. All the people who understood him, who knew him are carrying the dreams with them – his comrades, friends and especially uncle Muivah who has stood together through thick and thin and now that we don’t have a father, we look up to him as our father. He will be our guide.
As firmly, and as strongly, my father stood for the rights of the Nagas, we the children will also stand up for that till the end. We will abide by the principles he has taught us. We will give our all, according to how he has taught us. We will do God’s will for the Nagas. For the Nagas we will stand.
He leaves behind the legacy of peace. He leaves behind the legacy of reconciliation. He leaves behind the legacy of love.
Most importantly he leaves behind the legacy of “Nagalim for Christ.” He was for Christ, he lived for Christ and he has told us to do the same-to preach the gospel, the good news to the entire world. That is the legacy he has left us and we will carry it forward-his hopes, dreams and aspirations.
I would like to read out a scripture from Job 14:7-9 - “At least there is hope for a tree: If it is cut down, it will sprout again, and its new shoots will not fail. Its rootsmay grow old in the groundand its stump die in the soil, yet at the scent of water it will bud and put forth shoots like a plant.”
I would like to end with a note saying that “the old tree has passed away, it has fallen but as we celebrate his life today, with his life like water if it touches you, may you bud, may we all bud together and become branches like him and become even a bigger tree in the near future.”
(Transcribed by Tungshang Ningreichon from his eulogy at a condolence service at Delhi on 29.06.16)
