Splendor in the Dust

About the Book

As the British were leaving India in 1946-47, the subcontinent was violently being divided into two nations, India and Pakistan, along religious lines. Mahatma Gandhi was assassinated, rioting and mayhem were rampant, and nation-building seemed a remote possibility. An American missionary family found themselves attempting to live both private and public lives while bringing Christ’s message to the rural people of the Western Ghats, a low mountain range in western India. They were welcomed by the people as they did evangelical, agricultural, medical, and educational rural uplift work. Over the next 20 years, amid the dust and the deluges, the leopards and the lizards, Christian youth stepped forward, competent and eager, to take over the work of the Church and find their place in the vibrant, emerging nation of India.

About the Author

Lois Shull balanced three careers—mother, missionary, and high school teacher. She is the mother of a daughter and two sons, and with her husband Ernie, spent from 1946 to 1964 as a missionary for the Church of the Brethren among the hill people of the Western Ghats in India. There she was a pastor’s wife, school principal, and nurse. Upon returning to the United States in 1964, she embarked upon a high school teaching career in English, dramatics, literature, and speech. She retired from teaching in 1982 and soon began this book. She has written numerous articles and a filmstrip called “A Chance to Live.” Lois wrote the scripts for, and directed three movies called Shepherd of India, To Meet the Sun, and The Turn of the Tide. She wrote a radio play entitled Valley of the Sun and a book called Women in India Who Kept the Faith. Home is now in Timbercrest, a retirement community in North Manchester, Indiana.