\n<\/p>\n
Chungthang Thiek, a revivalist and preacher who launched a prayer movement in the hills of Manipur, a northeastern state in India, died on January 4. He was 75 and had been battling vocal cord cancer for months.<\/p>\n
Thiek obeyed the vision he received on July 11, 1986, the last day of a youth camp he was leading, instructing him to \u201cArise and rebuild,\u201d words that first led him to build a discipleship and evangelistic ministry that soon evolved into something more specific.<\/p>\n
Following a trip to South Korea, Thiek returned with a vision to provide a place for people to pray and started to pray for the same. In 1990, he established \u201cPrayer Mountain\u201d right outside Manipur\u2019s second largest city of Churachandpur, which has welcomed hundreds of thousands of Christians from across the country since.<\/p>\n
A former math teacher turned evangelist, Thiek had a heart for Manipur and learned all of the state\u2019s languages and dialects. His life\u2019s work became defined by that vision at youth camp. There, he later recalled, God spoke to him from the book of Nehemiah 2:17:<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Then I said to them, \u201cYou see the trouble we are in: Jerusalem lies in ruins, and its gates have been burned with fire. Come, let us rebuild the wall of Jerusalem, and we will no longer be in disgrace.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
\u201cThe situation in Manipur and especially in Churachandpur at that time (1986) was very bad. Alcoholism had gripped most of our young people, as well as drug abuse,\u201d said Thiek\u2019s former ministry partner Lalmanlien Mana, who at that time was one of the campers. \u201cTheir spiritual lives were way down in the pit.\u201d<\/p>\n
But the vision Thiek shared with these young people in his characteristic bluntness and passion stirred their hearts.<\/p>\n
\u201cThiek said, \u2018Let us join together to rebuild our spiritual lives, our families, our community, as well as our society,\u2019 and Nehemiah Prayer Team (NPT) was born that day,\u201d Mana said.<\/p>\n
Mana remembers that this message resonated so deeply that 115 youth out of the 200 in the camp came forward and committed their lives to praying for their communities and country.<\/p>\n
\u201cMany from the NPT in the years to come became leaders, trainers, pastors, and people of influence,\u201d Mana said.<\/p>\n
The NPT asked young Christians to fast as individuals or groups and to donate a share of rice (the staple food of the people of that region) to the ministry. The collected rice would be sold, and the NPT would use these funds to organize gospel camps, seminars, and crusades.<\/p>\n
In 1989, Thiek and few NPT members traveled to South Korea and learned about \u201cprayer mountains,\u201d a movement where once-persecuted Christians sought momentary refuge by talking to God in nature.<\/p>\n
\u201cDad was burdened to provide a place for people to pray,\u201d said Joshua Thiek, the oldest of Thiek\u2019s three sons. \u201cA solitude where they could commune with God without interruption, as long as they wanted, one on one, and refresh their soul and spirit before they left.\u201d<\/p>\n
In 1990, a local leader in the area gave a mountain property to Thiek, and soon local Christians began heading to the area. Since its inception, the experience has been free and runs entirely on donations and rice sales. Between 4,500 and 6,000 visit each month and stay in the campus\u2019s 70 cabins.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople come to the Prayer Mountain to fast and pray,\u201d Mana said. \u201cSome for a day (morning till evening), some for three days, some for a week, and some for 40 days. They are free to stay as long as they like.\u201d<\/p>\n
Through NPT, around 3,000 Indian Christians have currently committed themselves to praying. The organization, whose motto is \u201cAsk, Rise and Build,\u201d has also spread to Assam, Meghalaya, Mizoram, and New Delhi and today is a department of the Independent Church of India.<\/p>\n
Thiek was born in Jinam Paithe Punji village in the state of Assam, which borders Manipur. Though there are no official records from his birth, his son said he was born in 1949. He lost his father at age four.<\/p>\n
When Thiek moved to a new village to attend school, he stayed in various families\u2019 homes, where he did odd jobs for them like collecting sticks from the forest or carrying water from the well.<\/p>\n
Later, he moved to Manipur to a village outside of Churachandpur, where he attended high school. He received a bachelor\u2019s degree in zoology and mathematics and later a Bachelor of Divinity from Union Biblical Seminary, in the western Indian state of Maharashtra.<\/p>\n
While his greatest impact came from his work within the borders of Manipur, Thiek also served as northeast regional secretary for the Evangelical Fellowship of India (EFI), the umbrella body for evangelicals in India. He served with EFI for 28 years and helped develop Christian unity and leadership in the region.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe appeared small in stature but was a very tall leader respected throughout the nation,\u201d said Vijayesh Lal, the present general secretary of EFI. \u201cI had the privilege of ministering alongside him many times. He was the one who opened the northeast region for me. His passion for people, simplicity, cheerfulness, straightforwardness, and his willingness to serve even a younger person like me will stay with me forever. He was a true missionary.\u201d<\/p>\n
Richard Howell, former general secretary of EFI and Thiek\u2019s colleague, remembers him as a man dedicated to prayer and fasting.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was exceptionally gifted to network and develop partnerships,\u201d said Howell, who worked with Thiek for 20 years. \u201cHis first convert to Christ was when he was practicing preaching on an empty road, and lo and behold a drunkard came stumbling, who then committed his life to Christ.\u201d<\/p>\n
Leaders also remembered the way Thiek was able to recognize and overcome his own biases and shortcomings through prayer and by listening to others.<\/p>\n
Leela Manasseh, former secretary for EFI\u2019s Women Commission, worked alongside Thiek for many years. At one point she asked him to keynote a women\u2019s conference.<\/p>\n
\u201cFirst, he wept \u2026 then he shared: \u2018My wife told me last month to go to the Prayer Mountain. \u2026 She asked me to spend time with the Lord to correct my thinking about women leaders. I had never accepted that God gives the gift of leadership to women. I returned home from the mountain and said sorry to my wife,\u2019\u201d Manasseh said. \u201c\u2018I shared with her how God helped me to understand that God blesses both men and women with the gift of leadership.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were all moved to tears of joy,\u201d Manasseh said. \u201cThat was the best keynote address that I have ever heard so far. A man in leadership testified to women leaders and how God changed him before he could address a gathering of women leaders. It spoke volumes.\u201d<\/p>\n
After retiring from EFI in 2021, Thiek founded the Ministry of the Saints, an organization that sought to provide education for the children of day laborers, whose parents could not afford to send them to school.<\/p>\n
\u201cDad one day encountered two very feeble children \u2026 doing nothing while their parents were working in the field. He asked them why they were not in school, and the children said that their parents cannot afford to send them and they stay idle the entire day waiting for them to return,\u201d Joshua Thiek said. \u201cDad was deeply moved. His personal experience of losing his father at a very young age fueled his passion for providing a brighter future for such children.\u201d<\/p>\n
The ministry today supports the education of 57 children and is overseen by Joshua Thiek.<\/p>\n
One year before Prayer Mountain opened, in 1989, Chungthang Thiek moved to Imphal, Manipur\u2019s capital. After his cancer diagnosis, he moved to Guwahati, Assam, just weeks before violence killed<\/a> dozens of Christians, many of them from Thiek\u2019s minority Kuki-Zo community. His own family fled to a relief camp<\/a> before joining him in Assam.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy father\u2019s last days would have been harder if he would have witnessed the violence with his own eyes,\u201d Joshua Thiek said.<\/p>\n
Weeks before leaving to begin cancer treatments, Thiek spoke at Prayer Mountain\u2019s 2023 convention last March, which drew 600 Christians, and met with Mana there in April, sharing his dreams for the next stages of his ministry.<\/p>\n
\u201cThiek started this in 1986, and the Lord has been leading us till today; and now when Thiek is gone, I believe that the Lord will continue to lead us till Jesus\u2019 second coming,\u201d Mana said.<\/p>\n
Thiek is survived by his wife, three sons, and three grandchildren.<\/p>\n