|
Jarrell Waskom Pickett... came to India as a missionary in 1910 at the age of 20. Pickett was a child prodigy who could read the New Testament in Greek at age 7, and who got his master's degree at age 17. He served in India for the rest of his career. He was a close friend of contemporary E. Stanley Jones. Pickett furthered medical care in India and worked to provide voluntary relief amongst the needy in Delhi. He was well acquainted with Gandhi and was regarded as a friend and associate of nation builders like Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and his cabinet of ministers. In an unofficial yet sanctioned capacity he met with two U.S. Presidents: with Truman to ask for a policy change to allow sale of American surplus wheat to India to prevent widespread famine; and with Eisenhower to urge a shift in policy towards India.One of his landmark accomplishments in India was a massive social research study, the first of its kind conducted outside the U.S.A. The impact of J. Waskom Pickett's "Christian Mass Movements in India" on the 1930s Indian church scene is hard to overstate. Christian Mass Movements served as a wakeup call, alerting churches and missions to mistakes of the past – often very destructive mistakes – and the path to more fruitful evangelization in the future. He was consecrated Bishop in 1935. He left India for "retirement" in the U.S. after 46 years of service in the land he came to call "home."The establishment of this Scholarship Program is intended to celebrate the life of Bishop JW Pickett, and to honor his memory and his deep affection for the Indian people. |
|  Woodstock SchoolStudent |
|