Morung Express News
Impur | January 31
The 21st triennial convention of the Nagaland Baptist Church Council is scheduled to be held at Impur, hosted by the Ao Baptist Arogo Mungdang (ABAM) on February 2-4, 2018. As delegates from all the 20 Baptist Churches Associations in Nagaland converge at the ABAM mission center established by the American Baptist Foreign Missionary Society on October 1 of 1894, they would be welcomed by a clean and tidy new-look Impur.
While Impur has always been regarded as one of the cleanest places in Nagaland, the mission center has in recent times been pushing for more cleanliness and environmental aesthetics albeit without any publicity. This move, according to an ABAM staff, gained momentum after the incumbent Executive Secretary took office in 2011.
The Executive Secretary of ABAM, Rev. Dr. Mar Atsongchanger and his wife are actively and personally involved in developing the new-look Impur. Under their initiative and supported by the ABAM staff and residents of Impur, the mission center has achieved its ‘plastic free’ goal. Students of Impur Bible School, Clark Memorial Higher Secondary School and Youth Ministry are also actively participating in keeping Impur clean and plastic free under the banner of a ‘Green Brigade’.
The mission center is also a major tourist destination in the region as it boasts of a number of historical sites of interest. Notable among them are the ABAM Heritage Museum with rare collections and artifacts of the early American Missionaries and local leaders from 1872 to date. The building, which was constructed as Impur Mission Training School with a grant of Rs.1005 from the British East India Company and the American Baptist Foreign Mission in 1907, was also recently declared as ABAM Heritage Building on February 1, 2018.
Impur is also home to the oldest high school in Nagaland, the Clark Memorial Higher Secondary School established 1895, Impur Christian Hospital established by American missionaries in 1912, the oldest church building standing today in Nagaland built in the year 1938, and two bungalows built in 1895 and 1895. At least 20 of the American missionaries have resided at Impur with Rev & Mrs. A.F. Delano (1950-1955) being the last.
The latest addition to Impur’s aesthetics is the Pilgrim’s Park constructed in memory of ABAM-Nokte Mission (since 1992) funded by Wangling Lowangdang, Chief Angh of the Nokte Nagas, Burduria, Arunachal Pradesh. The park will be inaugurated on February 1, 2018. The Pilgrim’s Park aptly compliments Impur’s neatly kept roads and litter-free streets, eco-friendly practices of the residents and Impur’s environmental aesthetics which is sure to impress any visitor.
