November 15, 2005

Namaste (blessings) from India to dear friends, family, and church supporters. If this is the first newsletter you have received from us, you can refer to our family weblog at thomasindia.blogspot.com for other newsletters about our work in India.

Last month we wrote about the myriad Christian worship opportunities in this small town of Mussoorie, high in the Himalayan foothills of northern India. This month we focus on the Woodstock School community – on fellow teachers and supporters of the school where both Jeffrey and Barbara teach and Chris (14) and Coleman(11) attend school. It is an amazing place, and we feel the people here are extraordinary, as well.

Woodstock recently celebrated its 150^th anniversary. It is mind-boggling to imagine how this school literally on the hillside was built so long ago as a school for children of mission workers, and continues to grow and thrive as a Christian international school. Part of its success is due in part to the close relationships forged in the school community that continue in a well-organized alumni association. Points in fact are the former students that are serving on the faculty of the school with us – some returning after their families have grown, others bringing their children with them. It has been interesting to hear how things were “in the old days” – taking bucket baths instead of hot water showers, all cooking done on wood-fed stoves, riding in “dandies” and rickshaws instead of the taxis we enjoy today. Calls came into one central school phone, while now we send this letter over the internet – not broadband, not always connected, but still quite an advancement. Yet, the most interesting part, we believe, is the feeling of commitment these returnees have to the school.

Ellen and Robert Alter exemplify commitment to Woodstock. Their legacy is legend. Born in India, Bob graduated from Woodstock in 1943 when his missionary father was Principal of the school. Bob married Ellen at Woodstock several years later, and they taught together at the school before going back to the U.S. for Bob to attend seminary. Assigned by the Board of Foreign Missions of the Presbyterian Church, Bob and Ellen returned to India to work with village Christians near Agra, while their three sons attended Woodstock. A few years later, Bob rejoined the Woodstock staff as Business Manager and then as Principal. In his book Water for Pabolee: Stories about People and Development in the Himalayas, Bob shares: “The years we spent as young teachers at Woodstock… were special years for both of us. We came from totally different backgrounds and, in a sense, we discovered ourselves, and each other, in the context of some very deep and lasting friendships: many of them with students, Indian and American, with whom we are still in close contact.” Later Bob was asked to help transfer Presbyterian-owned properties in Mussoorie to PCUSA’s partner Church of North India. He bought one of the original hillside homes “Oakville,”built about 1840, as a base for future ventures in India, and it is to this house that Bob and Ellen, now retired, return for three months each fall.

The Alters’ relationship with the Church of North India continues to this day, as they attend St. Paul’s Church, a CNI congregation. St. Paul’s, now also our church home, is pastored by the Reverends Eric and Anita Templeton. Anita left a teaching career and Eric a position with a multi-national company to attend seminary in Kolkata, then were assigned to Mussoorie. For the past eight years, they have jointly pastored three distinctively different CNI churches: St. Paul’s, Christ Church and the Woodstock Hindustani Church. Anita also serves the Diocese of Agra in the areas of Women and Religious Education. Together, the Reverends Templeton pastor a large number of the Woodstock employees, staff members and administrators.

Jeff and Sue Rollins met at Woodstock School as missionary children, their parents in the mission field in the Punjab. After graduating from Woodstock, they went to college in the United States, married and immediately applied to the Presbyterian Church for mission service. They served for fifteen years in Nepal, then returned to the U.S. to establish their older children in college. Jeff and Sue longed to return to mission service, so when positions opened up at their alma mater, they came back to Woodstock with their youngest child almost three years ago. However, when they reapplied to the Presbyterian Church (USA) for mission support, they found, as we did, that the national church now can only fund existing missionaries in the field. There is not enough money to support new missionaries or even returning ones. We feel a special kinship with the Rollins – working together at Woodstock School, sharing a call to international mission work, and needing to find support for our ministries.

We thank God for our supporters and the work that they are enabling us to do. If you would like to know more about our work at Woodstock School and how you can be a partner, please write to us, or contact the coordinators of the Thomas India Mission Fund at the Presbyterian Church of Pleasantville, New York, at mission@pvillepresby.org.

-- Barbara, Jeffrey, Christopher, and Coleman Thomas

Woodstock School

Mussoorie UA 248179

India

e-mail: barbarathomas@woodstock.ac.in