Friends of Serampore January 2006

Thanks to your generous support we have been able once again to increase our annual gift, this time to £3,250 (Rs.2½ lakhs). At the same time we forwarded £500 plus Gift Aid, which one of our members earmarked for the scholarship fund.

Dr Lalchungnunga wrote: Thank you. This was so timely. It helps us overcome the year-end needs of releasing more than we have to pay at other times.

A year ago we reported that the Arts-Science-Commerce Department had received the coveted A-Grade from the National Assessment and Accreditation Council. Following this, "the University of Calcutta made further inspections of colleges to recommend six to the University Grants Com-mission for recognition as 'Colleges with Potentials for Excellence' (CPE). The six included the four Christian colleges - Serampore, Scottish Church, St Xavier's and Loreto - one Ramkrishna Mission College and Lady Brabourne Girls' College. The benefit of being recognised thus is that we can expect monetary grants from the UGC to the extent of Rs.7 million within the five-year plan period for further developments in infrastructure, teaching and learning and academics."

In another e-mail, the Principal told us how other donations come:
Recently we sent six groups of students, each led by a teacher, for fund raising to meet the cost of hosting the Convocation in Feb 8-11 here at Serampore College. The teams visited churches in Mizoram (two teams), Meghalaya, Nagaland, Assam (Haflong Area), CSI Kanyakumari Diocese. They raised Rs.3 lakhs and more are expected. Is this not encouraging? We need Rs.7 to 8 lakhs for hosting the Convocation. We pray and hope this amount will be met from donations from Indian Churches.

Our friends in USA gave us a used jeep (Tata Safari) for our use. The cost of a new one of such jeep is Rs.9 lakhs. It is still in a good condition. We made appeals to our alumni and some contributions start coming in small amounts.

Last July it was a joy to meet again Subhro Sircar, who is now on leave of absence pursuing doctoral studies in USA. He came to the Baptist World Alliance centenary congress in Birmingham, along with thousands of others, including many from India, and is seen here with Edward, David Kerrigan (BMS Director for Mission, a member of the Serampore College Council), and the leader of the Mizo dancers - these are shown in the other photo.

Here are some more extracts from e-mails from the Principal:

We now have a project of having the following books reprinted: Life and times of Carey, Marshman and Ward (two volumes), Carey's Obligations and Indian Renaissance, The Story of Serampore and its college. We estimate the cost at Rs.2.5 lakhs. We hope to have some profit in the long run. We made requests to (various bodies) for grant.

We plan to have a grand Science Festival and Exhibition Dec 13-15. We hope to have a good participation from other colleges, schools and scientific organizations and institutions.

Theology Department will have Advent Christmas programmes 3-6 December, and then go for Christmas vacation for 4 weeks. Evening air is cool and filled with sounds of carol songs as students practise for the programmes - while I am writing now, Silent Night Holy Night is being sung in the Chapel just below. We will be very busy organizing Senate meetings, seminars and convocation at Serampore scheduled for 6-11 February. [Before that, Lalchungnunga's daughter, who lectures for the Master of Social Work Class in Mizoram University, was to marry the Church Music lecturer at Aizawl Theological College.]

We are blessed with streams of visitors, most of them from USA. A team of professors and students (14 of them) from William Carey College are in Kolkata. They will stay at Serampore College for a little while ...They will present skits, music, drama, testimonies and message. We are looking forward to having a fruitful time with them. My wife, Hliri, works so hard to make them feel at home.

A year ago we printed a report from Peter Singh, Theology Vice-Principal, about his experience in South India at the time of the tsunami. Recently he wrote,
This year too we were in South India, preaching in another coastal area where hundreds of people died. Still the effects are seen. On 26th we had several processions and worships organized in several places. Tearful memories and tributes were paid to them.

Thank you for your continuous support to Serampore. We are working for the Convocation. Please remember us in your prayers.

It remains for us to give a very warm welcome to a new member: Margaret Colville, daughter of Leslie and Freda Wenger who served at Serampore for many years. And we remind you that when sending donations cheques should be made payable to Friends of Serampore unless you have made a Gift Aid declaration (in which case gifts of £40 or more should be made out to Broadmead Baptist Church) - all cheques sent to us at the address given in the heading, please. (American friends, we find that dollar notes are the easiest of all ways to receive donations without paying transaction charges!)

We remain most grateful to Broadmead Baptist Church, and specially to Glyn Duggan, for handling all our Gift Aid - and we wish Glyn every blessing as he recuperates from major surgery.

With warmest greetings to you all,

Edward and Rosemary Williams

To become a member, click here.

We conclude with the following extract from Codex, the Theology Department's journal:

Practical Ministry is an integral part of the BD study in the institution. This ministry helps the students to prepare themselves to take up any kind of responsibility, at any time in any clime or environment, in the near future. The students are involved in various types of works different social or church organisations are per- forming in the country. They are also sent to the churches belonging to different denominations to learn the various ways of leading the worship services and different methods of preaching and teaching. The students often are involved in different church activities by the church leaders' ministry of reaching out to the un-reached people of the area with the Gospel and teaching children of the locality in the Sunday school classes are also included in the Practical Ministry as an obligation to the students.
There are mainly five types of Practical Ministry. They are briefly explained below:

1. Sunday School Ministry: Sunday school classes are held regularly on every Sunday morning; right after the morning worship service is over. The BD students are responsible for taking the Sunday school classes. The Sunday school superintendent and the teachers work together.
In this academic session the Sunday school superintendent and teachers organized games and sports for the Sunday school children. They also organized Christmas program for children and a cultural show in which many children took part. In the end of the academic session they will organize a final gathering in which' the children will be given away the prizes they own in the games and sports already held.
Classes are being held in three different languages: English, Oriya and Bengali. There are 96 children, those attending Oriya and Bengali classes being mostly from non-Christian background. The Sunday school superintendent and teachers are worthy of appreciation for the commendable job they are doing.

2. Outreach Ministry: This Ministry gives an ample opportunity to the students to make friendship with the people of Serampore area; and also they practically learn the method of preaching to the non-believeRs.In this ministry the students, mainly the BD II and I yr, go to different localities of the town and preach the gospel, sing songs, distribute Bible tracts and perform street skits. The students are divided into four groups and assigned to go to different localities for the ministry immediately after the Sunday morning worship service in the Church.
Students are sincerely and faithfully doing this ministry though they face the language problem. There has, as reported by the students, been a good response from the local public.

3. Weekend Ministry: The Final Year BD students go to different churches in Kolkata area on Sundays and attend the worship services. Some of the students are assigned to preach, to take Sunday school classes, to present to teach songs, to assist the pastor in the celebration of the Lord's Supper, etc. In this academic session the Final Year students are divided into ten groups and attached to ten different local churches in the Kolkata for the practical ministry.

4. Summer Practical Ministry: During the summer holidays students are asked to involve themselves in various church ministries in their own respective area, and submit a brief report of what they have done. They are free to choose any church or organization for the ministry. This year the report of the summer practical work from each student was collected and filed.

5. Inter-semester Practical Work: Inter-semester Practical Work was held from 16th to 31st October 2003. This time students were divided into thirteen teams and sent to the following places for the field exposure:

a) Darjeeling area;
b) Christapanthi Ashrama, Jabalpur;
c) Gossner Theological College, Ranchi;
d) Orissa Follow-up, Balasore;
e) Lucknow Ashrama, Lucknow;
f) Purulia Leprosy Home;
g) Behela Human Care Mission;
h) "ANTARA";
i) Kolkata Mizo Mission;
j) ECI Dum Dum;
k) Centre for Total Development, Jigra;
l) Cheshire Home

In the Inter-semester Practical Ministry the students had a very good opportunity to interact with different types of people living in different regions of our country. They were also engaged in different activities like medical work, teaching, helping the drug addicts to get rid of their habits, helping the poor in the slum areas, social work, and other works. They preached the good-news through teaching, preaching, singing, etc.
The Lord has helped the students to carry out all the practical ministries smoothly and without much difficulty. The students, excepting very few, submitted a very good report of their enriching experiences. I laud the students for their sincere effort.
Rev. Kailash Kr. Chatry, Practical Work Convener