Emerging Scholars Blog

InterVarsity's Emerging Scholars Network

Heading East

Sharing the Gospel in India and America

Kami L. Rice concludes her guest series, Heading East, this week. 

Vardharaja Perumal Temple, dedicated to the Hindu god Vishnu (click on any photo for a larger view)

Standing in an ancient Hindu temple that honors Vishnu—or perhaps it was a temple for one of the other Hindu gods, or maybe it was for one of Vishnu’s avatars; it’s hard to remember for sure because it’s so very hard to keep Hinduism’s less-than-codified beliefs straight—and watching people seek blessings from whichever god’s statue it was that was open for business at that time of day, I felt an unexpected desire to wretch.

The temple, located in the temple city Kanchipuram outside Chennai, the capitol of Tamil Nadu, was at least 1,500 years old, which means that for 1,500 years people have been coming to that place to worship and seek blessings from variously-imaged gods. More than that, it means that for more than 1,500 years the people of India have been enslaved in a belief system that most don’t know enslaves them. [Read more…] about Sharing the Gospel in India and America

Serving Students and their Communities at One Indian Christian College

The third in Kami L. Rice’s guest series on visiting India. 

Kami, sitting with college leadership, during a cultural dance program performed by BACAS students.

Last week I eagerly ventured further south to Coimbatore, where I was greeted with flowers and smiles at the airport by my hosts-for-the-week from CSI Bishop Appasamy College of Arts & Sciences (BACAS), a Church of South India (CSI) college founded in 1995. I’m connected to BACAS via my freelance work, and when I met Mrs. Susheila Williams, the college’s Secretary (which in India is the title for the chief administrative leader, a role something like that of a college president), at a conference in the U.S. last year, she warmly invited me to visit the college when I came to India.

BACAS is an international affiliate member of the Council for Christian Colleges & Universities (CCCU). Beginning in September, BACAS will host the CCCU’s new BestSemester India Studies Program. I’ve covered articles about the new program as well as about BACAS, so even before my visit I was fairly well aware of how much the college does to reach out to its community, but I learned much more and saw first-hand what that looks like while I visited.

Students at BACAS aren’t required to be Christians, but the college offers a student-led weekly chapel service, retreats for Christians that non-Christian students are welcome to attend, and a clear Christian testimony that permeates the college. Several scenes from my visit will stay with me for a very long time, but I’ll share just a couple here. [Read more…] about Serving Students and their Communities at One Indian Christian College

Do We See the People or Their Poverty?

Kami Rice continues her guest series for the Emerging Scholars Blog about her journey to India.  

Two Indian girls give Kami a henna design that tells the story of Jesus and the Samaritan woman at the well.Â

Since the day my high school youth group reported to our congregation about our mission trip to Brazil, when some of the other kids–some of whom had discussed, as we drove through Miami during our debriefing time, which fancy new car they wanted their parents to buy for them–poured stories into the microphone about how poor the people were, I’ve had an uneasy relationship with how church people talk about poverty.

I didn’t think the people we met in Brazil seemed all that poor. I had jaunted off on my own with some of the Brazilian youth group girls on several occasions, so I had seen more of their lives than most of my teammates had. But maybe I had missed something? Like maybe a gene for compassion?

This morning I worked on a writing project that included a scene from my first ever visit to a slum. That slum was in Kenya. This afternoon I visited an Indian slum.

And once again, as in Kenya and as in Brazil before that, I was struck more by what the people I met today have than what they don’t have. After spending a couple hours joining in on a tell-Bible-stories-through-henna-designs class with young girls and then briefly meeting widows praising God during a church service–all part of an expansive outreach founded by an Indian family–my hosts and I departed, following one of the pastors through a narrow walkway with low buildings and their front doors squeezing close on either side. Some of the doors were open, giving momentary glimpses into small but orderly spaces where TVs occasionally glowed into the gathering dimness. [Read more…] about Do We See the People or Their Poverty?

Heading East: Kami in India

Our 2nd guest blogger for the summer, Kami L. Rice

I’m pleased to introduce our second guest blogger of the summer and our first international correspondent. Kami L. Rice recently joined InterVarsity staff to work with graduate and professional students in Nashville, but she has extensive experience as a freelance writer with a large number of credits to her name. Kami is in the middle of a 4-week journey to India. She plans to connect with students and faculty while there, but she begins her series this week with reflections on a previous trip to India and on the benefits of travel to her spiritual perspective. Thank you, Kami, and welcome to the Emerging Scholars Blog! ~ Mike

Once upon a time, a missionary speaker admonished a group of gathered students, which included me, telling us that if we have any openness to going abroad as a missionary, we should go, because so many people are unwilling to go. While I think I took issue with that statement then, I definitely take issue with it now, since statements like that don’t exactly invite input from the Holy Spirit or reflect a good theology of calling and vocation.

Though I investigated every option from graduate degrees in international development to joining the Peace Corps, from missionary work to volunteering to pick French grapes, the way for me to begin the international part of my life didn’t open until my calling as a writer was firmly established. Thus, when I headed to Africa for four months in 2007 to cover writing projects for mission and humanitarian organizations, I literally went to ask questions, not to solve problems.

It was then that I fell in love with the way traveling as a writer allows me to ask questions that could normally be inappropriate to ask of new acquaintances and the way listening to their answers opens avenues for learning from people in other places.

Two years ago I came to India for the first time on a trip that happened to conclude an inaugural two-year period of extended travel abroad. That formative two years began with the seven countries in Africa and went on to include work for more NGOs (non-governmental organizations) during a month in Haiti, then three months of writing from London, before bringing me to India. [Read more…] about Heading East: Kami in India