with God Dr. Sam George (Guest Editor

It is humorously alleged that if you land on the Moon, you will find a Malayali Chai Kada! When the first astronauts landed on the lunar surface in 1969, however, they found no Kerala teashop there. Yet when it comes to our planet Earth, it is hard to find a nation without a person of Kerala origin.

In January 2013, I had the distinct honor of being part of the delegation of Pravasi Bharatiya Divas (PBD) held in Kochi, Kerala for the first time. PDB started in 2003 as an annual gathering (now only a biennial) of Overseas Indians hosted by the Government of India in different Indian cities around January 9 to commemorate Mahatma Gandhi’s return from South Africa to India in 1915.1

I was invited to be part of this high-level who’s who of the global Indians, policymakers, business leaders, and government officials on account of a newly published book Malayali Diaspora2 that I co-edited and was released by the Indian Union Minister of the Overseas Indians Affairs Shri Vayalar Ravi, and Kerala Chief Minister Shri Oommen Chandy.

That book is an eclectic volume of the migratory life of Global Malayalis that includes historical narratives, sociological analysis, migratory journeys of various professionals, family and religious life of Malayalis in foreign countries by authors as widespread as Malaysia, Kenya, Persian Gulf, Canada, Botswana, Switzerland, UK, Australia, and several chapters from the US.

Soon after India’s independence in 1947, my father left Kerala for lack of employment prospects, and landed in Madras (now Chennai) and eventually moved to the Andamans Islands, where I was born in late 1960s. Having moved around many times during my childhood and after college studies in engineering and management in India, I was hired by an American firm that brought me to California in the early 1990s.

After a decade-long successful corporate career, I switched fields to theology and studied at two American seminaries and ended up doing doctoral research in the United Kingdom focusing on immigrant households, churches, and missiology under the tutelage of one of the leading Christian scholars. I had the good fortune to live in five countries for study and work in the past and now regularly travel to a dozen or so nations each year

1 See www.pbdindia.gov.in 2 Sam George and T.V. Thomas, Malayali Diaspora: From

Kerala to the Ends of the World, New Delhi: Serials

Publications, 2013. Available as an e-book. for ministry. I am undoubtedly a product of lifelong diasporic wanderings, have been profoundly shaped by displacements, and see God’s work in the world through the lens of migration.

Often, I am pleasantly surprised to run into Malayalis, even in some very unlikely places. No matter where you go these days, you are likely to see these global citizens in some very noticeable as well as mundane places–from the political arena, corporate leaders, and professionals, to store clerks, labor camps, and university campuses. Truly, the Sun never sets on the Kerala diaspora!

The twin migratory impulses of being a Keralite and a Christian are truly exceptional. It is said that if you are a Christian, you will travel and if you travel, you will become a Christian. Many from various religious backgrounds have become followers of Jesus overseas and Kerala Christians have become more devout and vibrant in foreign lands. Hindu worldview requires people to live and die in a place close to where they were born as the civilizational values are opposed to migration over any vast expanses of water and the younger generations are bound to their ancestors and birthplace.

Kerala Christian Migrants have carried their inherited faith to lands far and wide by transplanting many heritage churches in many nations. Malayalam songs, prayers, and liturgies can be heard every Sunday across many time zones, and donations in different currencies flow back to their headquarters in Kerala. Denominational leaders maintain close links with their scattered flocks beyond state/national borders, while preachers and musicians minister to dispersed brethren. Christian TV programs and websites have knit this global community together in remarkable ways.

All migrants have found religion and culture to be inimitable resources in their peripatetic wanderings since both have a symbiotic relationship with each other. The financial gains and professional success of earlier migrants will continue to fuel more Keralites to explore green pastures elsewhere for they adopt any foreign land as their homeland yet possess a deep yearning for their ancestral homelands.

Diaspora is a biblical Greek term meaning dispersed or scattered. It is an agrarian term used to describe a farmer sowing seeds and conventionally referred to the dispersion of Jews during the Babylonian Exile. Now the term diaspora is widely used to describe all people who live in a place other than where they were born. Another associated Greek word is Ecclesia, meaning gathering which is often translated as the church. God scatters

The notion of diaspora is a metanarrative of the Bible. The Bible is all about migrations of all sorts under divergent conditions in different places. The biblical narratives were all written by migrants, they were translated in dislocated contexts, and migrants everywhere are particularly drawn to its characters and message. The Bible opens with the Expulsion of the first couple from the Garden of Eden and contains stories of Noah’s nautical escape from the flood, the calling of Abram to leave his country and people, and the many wanderings of the Patriarchs – all in the first book of the Bible.

An underlying theme of the biblical accounts of the Exodus, making and the history of the nation of Israel, the Exile and Return, the birth of the church, the Acts of Apostles, and much of the New Testament are framed in the diverse settings of displacements. Finally, Bible ends with Revelations from the island of Patmos where its author was exiled. The entire Bible needs to be grasped in the context of mobility and displacements.

The Christian doctrines of God, Trinity, Creation, Fall, Salvation, Incarnation, Church, Mission, and End Times must be perceived in motile terms.3 God of the Bible is a moving Being, for any static and stoic conceptions make God an idol – territorial and oppressive that makes its devotees chained to locale making them both motionless and lifeless. Jesus is a universal savior, not a territorial deity and the Spirit of God is at work everywhere, making all things anew. The mission of God is to the Ends of Earth, crossing cultures, geographies, and peoples all over the world.

According to a United Nations report, Indians make up the largest diaspora in the world. It may not be technically accurate since the cumulative numbers of Chinese over many waves of migration may slightly exceed us, besides Chinese have a longer history of migration. However, the outmigration from India and its spread is truly outstanding and may overtake the Chinese soon.

Although the number of migrants has dropped slightly in the last two years on account of the COVID pandemic, it is certain to swell in the coming years. India continues to receive the largest share of international remittances in the world.4 Among all states of India, Kerala has the

3 See my recent book chapter, “God on the Move (Motus Dei)” in Reflections of Asian Diaspora: Mapping Theologies and Ministries, Volume 3 of Asian Diaspora Christianity, Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2022. 4 A recent list of nations where Indians live are tabulated in the appendix of Sam George, Desi Diaspora: Ministry to the Scattered Global Indians, Bangalore, India: SAIACS Press, 2019. Also, Sam George, Diaspora Christianihighest per capita rate of migration and remittances. Students pursue education abroad, professional men and women find lucrative employment in far-flung corners of the globe, parents seek foreign marriage alliances for their children, and some have even sought illegal ways to enter and stay in foreign lands.

Over the last few years, I have enjoyed perusing every issue of FOCUS magazine, having personally known its leaders and editors for many years. FOCUS is indubitably a diasporic undertaking and has become a blessing to so many people globally. I feel honored to be invited to be a guest editor for this special issue dedicated to the theme of the Kerala Christian Diaspora.

This issue of FOCUS features an assorted list of essays and reflections from a wide spectrum including the historical perspective of Kerala Christian migrants, biblical and ecclesial insights, personal narratives, generational analysis, and other issues facing Kerala emigrants around the world. They are sure to inform and delight you while also widening your horizons of understanding God’s work in the world.

This issue of FOCUS includes articles from the Metropolitan of the Mar Thoma Church, clergy from different denominations, scholars, and laity from many nations. What makes this issue of the magazine fascinating is the array of themes from diverse backgrounds and locales. It covers a wide range of topics while offering several distinctive perspectives therein from the vantage point of the authors. This issue brings out Kerala Christian dispersion narratives from places as widespread as Kerala, Malaysia, Borneo, United Kingdom, United States, Canada, Tanzania, and South Africa, and they are written by faith leaders, economists, educators, physicians, engineers, businessmen etc.

We hope these articles on the life and faith of Kerala Christians will inform, inspire and challenge you to grasp the global scope and nature of the mission of God by, through, and among migrants everywhere. Please write back to us and share highlights of the issue and themes that you found most helpful. Also, share with us what topics and issues need to be included about Kerala Christian Diaspora in the future issues of FOCUS. We appreciate your feedback. We pray for God’s richest blessings on your life journeys and wanderings in this New Year.

ties, Global Scattering and Gathering of South Asian Christians, Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2018.