Tripura
Tripura is a State of the country India. It was formed as a State on 21 January 1972.
Tripura is a small state (5 million people) in hilly, farming land.
There is one large, capital city, Argatala, of around 400,000 people.
The main languages are Bengali and Kokborok.
Tripura includes 10,486km2 of land.
On the farms they grow lots of vegetables and fruit like oranges and mangoes.
- The State animal is the Phayre's Leaf Monkey
- The State tree is the Agarwood
- The Flower is the Nageswar
- The State fish is the Pabda, a freshwater catfish
- The State fruit is the Queen Pineapple
85 years ago we began working in Tripura. We have friends in Tripura who teach children and adults about Jesus. We have helped some of our friends start many schools. One has 3,000 students.
Some of our friends have a school that teaches adult students how to lead churches.
Many of those adult students come from rural villages and some of those adult students have lost their homes and have come to Tripura as refugees.
Let’s join Ben as he shows us some of Tripura
Map of Tripura
Migrating Birds
One of the meanings of the word Whiri ( from the word Whiria) is a flock of birds.
Some birds leave their homes and go to warmer countries for the winter. When they go home again it is Spring! This Māori whakatauki talks about migrating birds coming back to Aotearoa New Zealand:
Ka tangi te wharauroa, ko ngā kārere ā Mahuru. If the shining cuckoo cries, it is the messenger of spring.
People who go anywhere to tell people about Jesus are like migrating birds too.
They go and return. Like breathing in and out.
Sometimes we go across the room or across the street to tell others about Jesus.
Sometimes we go to other cities or across oceans to share God’s aroha.
One hundred and thirty-eight years ago God called us, people from the South West Pacific, to make friends and share our faith and lives with people in North East India. We have been migrating back and forwards, like migrating birds, ever since.
Our friend Freya has done a beautiful mural of our Whiria Kids’ migrating birds on the wall of Kiwi House in Tripura: these birds are Kuaka (Bar-tailed Godwit), Pīpīwharauroa (Shining Cuckoo) and Toroa (Royal Albatross).
Bread of Tripura
On our resources page you’ll find a recipe for Naan bread.
There’s a video and recipe for making bread rolls at home too.
Samuel was the leader of a College in Tripura. He is a good friend. He has invited us to pray for his home and the people who live there.
Please pray for:
- Good health - improved hygiene around medical procedures where serious disease is showing high increase
- More than 50% of churches have no Sunday School of children's ministry. Please pray that churches would see the importance of children.
- Pray for the schools that are run by churches, that their education would be high quality and that they would offer spiritual care and guidance to students
The work of God also takes a long time. Arotahi people have been at work in Tripura for 85 years. Early workers walked along muddy jungle paths, encountered elephants, visited tribal people in bamboo huts, taught bible studies and translated the bible into the tribal language of Kokborok.
When we live a life of love our love touches people and their love touches people until whole communities and places become transformed by love. God’s love is like that, it is silent and invisible, but just a tiny bit of it can make a big difference – just like a tiny bit of yeast.
When we pray for Tripura and send money to support the work, we become part of making a difference too. In Tripura today, our Arotahi partner Samuel is working in schools to grow followers of Jesus.
On our resources page you’ll find a lesson and colouring page based on this video of the Parable of the Leavened Bread.
Content has been adapted from the Parable of the Leavened Bread on Godly Play Foundation
Whiria Content
You might like to use this extra content in different ways. Perhaps:
For an ‘all-in’ intergenerational service
A starter activity for your Sunday children’s programme
Or, your whole children’s programme
Or, for home-based activities
Some of these resources are videos that we need to protect because they contain sensitive information, or people’s faces. Please don’t upload them anywhere public. Thank you!
We also have Whiria Kids badges available for children to earn by learning memory verses, attending Whiria sessions and joining projects. Up to you how you choose to award these and you can order them here (hyperlink?)
