Transforming through Education

Transforming through Education

“If we give them the power to read and the Book to read, God will bless His Word” said Mary Jane Kinnaird one of the pioneers of the movement. It was this vision that founded the Interserve ministry in 1852 in Kolkata under the name of Calcutta Normal School which primarily focused on educating the women and girls in the Zenanas (women's quarters in Northern India). Since then hundreds of schools have been established across our country by the western mission movements. The political leadership of our country gratefully acknowledges the role of Christians in primary and higher education. Many institutions founded by Interserve continue the good work in many parts of India.
However, we have now come to a state were many of us are content to maintain just the heritage institutions but have failed in reviving the vision and expanding the scope of our ministries. Private Christian entrepreneurs have founded new educational institutions, but unfortunately there are only a few with a missional vision.

The economic growth of the country has raised the aspirations of the people to the extent that the present infrastructure of educational institutions and trained teachers are inadequate. We are not talking about just free and compulsory education but the need for quality education from primary to higher levels. We need to balance our focus in providing educational opportunities for the marginalized sections of the people and also to those who are willing to invest their earnings for better future of their children. Globalization and urbanization have increased the expectations of the people.

We, as the church and mission community are called to be innovative in serving a nation with aspirations. We have to seize the opportunities to start new institutions and multiply our present ones maintaining the vision for reaching out. If we give the power to read and the Book to read, God will bless His Word. Interserve India is committed to this vision as many of our Partners are involved in creative ministries of education. Nevertheless, we need more visionaries in this ministry who will transform individuals and communities by providing an opportunity for the next generation to encounter Jesus Christ. Are you the one God is calling? John Amalraj

© 2010, INFOCUS, Interserve India

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Discipling the Nations!

Discipling the Nations! The Great Commission (as rendered by Matthew 28: 23 & 24) dominates most of our mission motivation. We always place our emphasis on obeying the command to ‘Go’ and ‘Baptize’. Discipleship then becomes just a task in the process. Unfortunately, many of our mission fields illustrate our failure in providing adequate discipleship. Melba Maggay a Filipino theologian and social anthropologist during an Interserve Leadership conference in May 2008 said that discipleship lays its emphasis on building relationships and not just programs that we organize. We assume discipleship means discipling individuals one at a time. Recent literature on missions by several missiologists says that we are called to disciple ‘nations’. ‘Nations’ does not just mean ethnic communities or people groups as it is popularly known. As much as the word ‘nations’ mean ethnic or linguistic peoples it also means political nations. We see this emphasis when we read the whole of the script...
Read more

Role of Media in the ‘Great Commission’

Role of Media in the ‘Great Commission’   The train was chugging along as I sat with a magazine in hand. Suddenly I heard my neighbor who said “excuse me sir, can I borrow the magazine”. I happily gave the magazine and then began to observe the rest of the passengers. Almost all of them had a newspaper or magazine and were engrossed in their reading. I vividly remembered my travels during childhood. There were loud conversations among the passengers on most occasions. Comparatively now the railway coach was quieter with more people reading. It reminded me of the fact that the literacy rate has increased considerably. Missions and churches have always focused on serving the illiterates which was good. But the need for quality, contemporary and contextualized literature for the literates has been ignored. The variety of newspapers and magazines being published in India in several regional languages is mind boggling. India has the largest English speaking population in the world an...
Read more

Why Strategic Goals Are Important?

Why Strategic Goals Are Important? Every mission agency has a mission. Yet many agencies, organizations and institutions have become irrelevant when they lose sight of their vision. In every organization’s growth, there is a time when people seem to forget the vision and lose the passion. However, if the organization periodically examines the context and renews itself, then it becomes alive. Developing strategic goals is such a process of renewal. Interserve’s vision is to see, “Lives and communities transformed through their encounter with Jesus Christ.” Our purpose is “To make Jesus Christ known through wholistic ministry, in partnership with the global church, amongst the neediest peoples of Asia and the Arab world.” Our core values are inclusivity, integrity, humility and relationships. Based on these foundations, we want to face today’s challenges in India and have corporately developed goals for the next three years. These new goals do not mean that we stop pursuing goals tha...
Read more