Rev. Dr. Vumthang Sitlhou (President of the Thadou Baptist Association), Rev. Kaigoulun Lhouvum (Finance Secretary, Thadou Baptist Association) and Pastor Paogoulen Sitlhou (Superintendent Pastor, Thadou Baptist Association) were shot dead on 13 May 2026, when they were working for the reconciliation of warring groups. Pastor Vumthang Sitlhou’s son, Haominlun, at the funeral of his father, held at the Thadou Baptist Association campus in Motbung, said: “I forgive those who killed my father in the name of the Lord and in the broader interest of peace.”
Impact of Grace: Paul writes that the grace of God has appeared, and the grace has trained His people to renounce ungodliness, worldly passions, and lawlessness, but lead godly, upright, and self-controlled lives. And be zealous for good works. (Titus 2:11-14)
Training to renounce: God’s grace trains believers in the school of suffering, affliction, loneliness, and grief. Sometimes, unlearning is a prerequisite for learning. God’s grace helps believers to renounce three things: ungodliness, worldly passions, and Lawlessness. Haominlun experienced the grace of God. He rejected the ungodly advice of revenge, the worldly passion of hatred, and lawless violence. Instead, he chose to forgive the murderers of his father. In the midst of loss and grief, God’s grace was evident and expressed in simple words.
Zealous for good works: As people of counterculture, disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ are zealous, passionate, eager, enthusiastic, and always ready for good works. Haominlun did a good work of forgiving his father’s killers, following the example of the Lord Jesus Christ, who forgave His tormentors as he was crucified on the cross of Calvary. (Luke 23:34) Haominlun refused to bow down to world values, but only to the Lord, and stood for truth and reconciliation.
Blessed hope: Haominlun had Blessed Hope that he was sure that his father had entered the eternal rest, and he was a blessed saint. (Revelation 14:13) He was sure to meet his father in God’s presence. The Blessed Hope of the future transforms the present and reconfigures and repurposes the past.
Have I been trained by grace and have Blessed Hope in Christ?