The Akha Hill-Tribe: Where the Genealogies Truly Matter

The Akha people are a hill tribe, spread throughout a range of mountains that stretch through five countries and across the seven borders that separate Thailand, Vietnam, Laos, Myanmar and China. The Gospel first came to the Akha people living in Burma (now Myanmar) 120 years ago through Pastor Thungjaw, a Keren missionary. Since that time, several missionaries have served faithfully and are highly honored among the Christian people. However, some of the spiritual leaders today would say, "The missionaries sacrificially taught us many things. But one thing they failed to teach us was this … Because our people were so poor, the missionaries gave sacrificially to us. If the missionary had two shirts and the Akha man had none, the missionary would give us his shirt. This was a powerful demonstration of the love and generosity of Christ. But what the missionary failed to tell us was that 'I give to you today in your need, so that you would give to someone else tomorrow'. They failed to teach us 'It is more blessed to give than to receive.’ The result is that, for the last 100 years, our Akha people have seen ourselves as 'receivers'. We developed a culture of taking, and expected​ others to give to us. We never gave to others. We became selfish. And not just with our shirts and money. We became selfish with the gospel - expecting others to sacrifice and give to reach our mission field. For 100 years this mindset has kept the Akha church in its infancy stage. We have never matured."

But today, all this is changing. A groundswell of missions’ fervor is growing among the Akha church. In the city of Chiang Rai in northern Thailand, several missions-minded Akha churches have developed a burden to reach other Akha across the 5 countries. Some of these countries, of course, are restricted and closed to Gospel advances.

In the early 2000s the Akha Baptist Church in Chiang Rai, led by “Pastor John”, became burdened for the Akha people in *****. A few weeks ago (September, 2017), I spent a day with John visiting some of the Akha villages and churches in the hills surrounding Chiang Rai. In the afternoon, we sat at the most beautiful coffee shop in the world. It is on the side of a little mountain road, open-air, perched in the middle of a coffee plantation looking out over the little Akha village below us. I am not a coffee drinker, but you just have to drink a cup in this setting. So I did, while Pastor John told me a remarkable missions story. I did not have a recorder running, so the words cannot be exactly as told by John. But the story he told is vivid in my mind and I want you to hear it as best as I can remember in Pastor John’s voice:

*Note: Certain names and locations have been altered for the protection of these brothers and sisters and their sensitive situations.

“In 2005, we sent three men out from our church to cross the border into ***** as missionaries. For the next three years, they faced tremendous opposition, ending in a six-month imprisonment for all three men in 2008. The prison days were extremely traumatic for these faithful men. They endured terrible physical and psychological affliction. They watched many fellow prisoners taken from the prison day by day, never to be seen again. It continues to be something that they do not wish to talk about. When their imprisonment finally ended, they fled back to Thailand, frightened and discouraged. Not one convert professed Christ in ***** during these years.”

God was not going to waste this suffering, however. The missionaries’ time in ***** did produce some contacts. In August of 2010, five Akha men, non-believers but friends of the missionaries, agreed to come to Chiang Rai and visit the Akha Baptist Church. They could stay for only one month.

Pastor John explains that he spent the first week becoming their friend - taking them places around Chiang Rai. But in the second week, God opened the door for John to preach the Gospel to these men:

“We were all sitting around in this area and I opened my Bible and just started reading from Matthew 1, the genealogy. It was the first words of the Bible these men had ever heard!” Genealogy is very important to the Akha people and all the men are responsible to remember and be able to recite their complete family line – all the way back to their family “Adam”. John knows his genealogy for 56 generations. It is how the people track their history and is usually the first conversation when an Akha man, say from Thailand, meets another Akha man from one of the other regions. They are able to discover how far back their families were divided and when they located to certain regions.

“Beyond the Akha ‘Adam’, our traditional religion also teaches a ‘spirit genealogy’. Only the priests, however, can recite the genealogy of the spirit world before Adam - and they can only do so at a funeral.” This spirit genealogy is filled with mysticism and superstition. It begins with a supreme God and traces ten generations to a spirit that fell from heaven. Most interestingly, the Akha animists/buddhists worship the final fallen spirit, not the original one who represents the supreme being. “It is a very serious thing for anyone except the priest to recite the spirit genealogy, because if you do so incorrectly, even only in one part, you are cursed.

“When I began reading the Bible genealogy, these five men were immediately interested. They asked ‘What are you reading?’

“I told them that I was reading from the Bible, where God recorded the genealogy of all men - from Adam at the beginning, up to a man called Jesus Christ. Then I told them that I could recite the spirit genealogy and started doing so.” The men were very afraid and began moving away from John to the corners of the room in order to find distance from the curse that was surely to come. “I purposefully recited it incorrectly and then said, ‘Look, see nothing bad has happened to me. Do you want to know why? Because the God of the Bible, who I now worship, is far stronger than the spirit gods. Can I tell you about Him?’”

From that point, John had their attention to tell them the gospel from the beginning of creation to Jesus Christ and the cross. Over the following days, all five men from ***** believed the God of the Bible in simple but genuine faith! For the next two weeks, the limit of the time they could remain in Chiang Rai, Pastor John spent day and night teaching and discipling, helping them know everything that they could of the Scriptures and God’s plan for their lives. Before they left, Pastor John baptized all five men.

The men returned to ***** and their people. Because of the fear of what happened to the previous missionaries, four of the men shared their new faith cautiously. Eventually, two underground churches developed in different Akha villages.

The fifth man is named *Bana*. *Bana*, only 21 years old, could not be silent from speaking about Jesus and began preaching publicly in his village. Pastor John again relays the story: “Within a month, there were 17 believers. *Bana* took them down to the village river and they were baptized before the whole village. When the villagers reported to the police, *Bana* was put in prison for three months. When he was finally released, he immediately went back to preaching and found that there were 100 believers! The police came again and said, ‘We told you not to preach Jesus.’ *Bana* replied, ‘I cannot help my tongue from telling the good news.’ They arrested him again and placed him in prison for another three months. Upon his release, he immediately went back to preaching. Now there were 300 believers who were gathered!

“On the next Sunday, the police came back to the church gathering. When they arrived, *Bana* went immediately to them and extended his wrists. ‘Take me back to prison but you cannot stop me from speaking about Jesus.” As they led him outside, all of the other believers followed behind him saying, ‘If you take *Bana* to prison, you must take us all too. We are all believers and we will not stop speaking about Jesus.’” The police chief, recognizing the impossible logistics and expense in detaining and feeding all of these believers, relented and told them that they could continue to worship. The church said, “If you do not take us to prison, give us papers so that we can be registered.” So he did. It is the first registered, Akha church in *****. It is in the village of ***** and it is recognized by the ***** government as an officially recognized Akha church!”

God is working in a remarkable way among the Akha people! Bibles International has been involved with a team of Akha church leaders since 2006, helping to translate a Bible that could be commonly read and understood among the speakers of all five of these countries. The New Testament with Psalms and Proverbs is expected to be completed and dedicated in November, 2018.

Of course, we are excited about every word of God’s revelation that will be made available to the Akha church, but in a special and unusual way, I am excited about the genealogy sections!

Most of us tend to want to skip through these sections in our Bible reading. We value them for their historical reference, but don't see much devotional benefit or value. As you have just read, this is not true for the Akha people. Perhaps the next time you skim through these Bible sections or field a question as to why they are included in the canon of Scripture, you will remember the Akha story and thank God for the way He used these Bible sections to spark the interests of Akha men in the God of the Bible – a God who knows the value of genealogies.

And more importantly, would you pray that the God who speaks the Akha language, and knows the Akha heart and culture, would be made known in a great way throughout the mountain villages that stretch through these spiritually darkened countries.