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