About Us
Forty years in the hills of Manipur.
What began as one man's unfinished vision is now a school of more than eight hundred students and a network of churches across three countries.
Our History
A school his father never saw.
Tongkam Singsit wanted a Christian school — a place where tribal people could learn to read the Scriptures for themselves. He died before that work was finished, and it passed to his children.
“My sister, Phalkho, and I started Shalom Academy in 1984,” Chong Singsit writes, “a Christian school with the goal of reaching young people for Christ.” Forty-eight students enrolled that first year.
They had watched a generation drift into drugs and alcohol, never even mindful of the Gospel. Corruption had reached even the religious institutions, and young people were left without anyone to point them anywhere true.
Jehovah Shalom — the Lord is peace. We wanted a haven, a place of refuge, and a place of peace for the children.On the naming of Shalom Academy
How the School Works
Real academics. Real discipleship.
The school has never treated the two as competitors. Students are pushed hard on academics because a diploma opens the door to college, to government or private employment, or to the military — and because a school that produces nothing is not worth a family's sacrifice.
Alongside that runs the spiritual and moral formation the academy was founded for: the Bible taught daily as Moral Science, regular chapel services, and an annual Vacation Bible School.
Each year between fifty and one hundred students profess faith in Christ through those programs.
Why India?
Nearly one in six people alive is Indian.
They live on 2.4% of the world's land surface — and the overwhelming majority of them have never heard the Gospel.
- 1.3 billion+ people
- 800 languages and dialects
- 800 million Hindus
- 120 million+ Muslims — the second largest Muslim population on earth
- 1,990,062 square miles of land
- 510 people per square mile
- The birthplace of Buddha
- The world's largest democracy
A country full of temples, and full of tired people.
India is an incredible country — ancient, layered, devout. Its religious life is everywhere you look, and it asks a great deal of the people who practice it.
So many people are tired of sacrificing everything to the gods but getting nothing in return. They are searching for answers. They are searching for truth.
That is why we are here.
Northeast India Today
A region under strain.
In May 2023 ethnic conflict broke out in Manipur, primarily Meitei Hindus attacking tribal Kuki Christians. The toll has been severe: more than 200 deaths, upward of 46,000 people displaced, and over 350 churches burned or destroyed.
The effects reach past the violence itself. Travel restrictions have driven the cost of basic goods in the hill areas to roughly three times what it was. Pastors cannot always reach their congregations or their bank accounts. The State Government of Manipur has issued travel restrictions affecting Americans and other foreigners, which has prevented board members from visiting to see the work firsthand. Anti-Christian sentiment has spread into neighboring Assam, where many of the displaced fled.
And through all of it, the school stayed open, the exams were sat and passed, and the churches kept meeting — in houses when the buildings were gone.
What We Believe
Statement of Faith
- We believe the Divine inspiration and supreme authority of the Bible, the inerrant Word of God.
- We believe in one God, eternally existing in three persons — Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; and that Jesus Christ is God incarnate, born of a virgin, and lived a sinless life.
- We believe that man was created directly by God, fell into sin, and is in need of salvation through spiritual rebirth.
- We believe in the vicarious atonement of Jesus Christ for the sins of mankind by the shedding of His blood on the cross, His bodily resurrection, His ascension, and His promised return.
- We believe in the new birth by the regeneration of the Holy Spirit; the gift of eternal life by the grace of God to all who trust in Christ's finished work.
- We believe in the bodily resurrection of all men — the saved to eternal life, the lost to eternal condemnation.
Who We Are
Board of Directors
Shalom Native Mission, Inc. is a registered non-profit governed by a volunteer board that meets annually.
Stand with the work.
Forty years in, the need has not gotten smaller. Partner with us in prayer and in giving.