The ghat road up into the Himalayan foothills near Woodstock School located near Mussoorie. Tea plantation in the Nilgiri Hills in south India Ox carts loaded with sugar cane in India’s Uttar Pradesh state Fresh vegetables and fruits for sale in Landour, northern India Might this be enough bangles from which to choose? An MCC […]
Kodaikanal, Tamil Nadu, India, Spring 1986 Realizing that the weeks left remained few in which to pursue research in India, I hurried through the morning routine. While scrubbing the long white socks, made longer if not whiter with each washing by hand in the bucket, I pondered priorities. Should I ask Professor Josephine more questions […]
Ghat roads lead up to India’s hill areas like Mussoorie (north, this one) and Kodaikanal (south) John and Dorothy at Independence Day event (Woodstock, 1964) waiting for dinner to be served. Line up for Olympics Track and Field competition between schools near Mussoorie like Woodstock View of hillside near Woodstock School: “With a pack on […]
Reflection from a Staff Member at Woodstock School, Mussoorie, India 1962-1965 plus her return visit in 1967 “With a pack on my back, there is nothing I lack.” So sings the hiker in the Tehri hills of northern India. What a sensation to round that bend ahead, twist your arms out of a fifteen-pound pack, […]
This content regarding Mennonite (GC/General Conference, MC/Mennonite Church and MB/Mennonite Brethren) writing about Gandhi first appeared in my 325-page, self-published book titled Mennonites Encounter Hinduism: An Annotated Bibliography, 2015. A number of Mennonites have written briefly about the noted Indian Mohandas K. Gandhi (Mahatma or “Great Soul” in Sanskrit) known as: Hindu peace advocate, social […]
Presented at my Iowa Mennonite School (Now named Hillcrest Academy) 55th Class Reunion – 8/21/2011 John and I first lived in India from 1962-65, as Overseas Mission Associates with Mennonite Board of Missions. We taught at Woodstock School, an international Christian school with 500 students located in north India, within the foothills of the Himalayas. […]
My support for religious plurality spans over fifty years. I first lived in India from 1962-65; the profound, plural religious scene attracted me. A poster near my desk states in eighteen languages, “There will be peace on earth when there is peace among the world religions,” an idea from Catholic theologian Hans Kung. Writer-cum-activist mentors […]
Lutheran World Fellowship, Held at CRENIEO, south of Chennai, India – November 13, 1998 You will be hearing a lot about HIV and AIDS this week. My task is not to explain that condition. But I am glad that Asian Christian youth are talking about it, that you are being educated on this nightmare that affects […]
First Appeared in Mission Focus Annual Review, vol. 20, 2012, 170-88. Appearing here with permission. Introduction Much about India intrigues readers. Westerners who choose to live there look to those who previously experienced the sacred and complex, the confusing and exotic about the land of the Himalayas, Ganges, and Mahatma. Henry Martyn surely knew of […]
This chapter first appeared in Imported Breads Literature of Cultural Exchange, edited by Phillip Sterling and published by Mammoth Press, Inc. of DuBois, PA. Each writer told of experience as a Fulbright scholar somewhere in the world. For six weeks of 1988, I had joined eleven women faculty and students from the University of New […]