UNION EVANGELICAL STUDENT OF INDIA

INTRODUCTION
When we look back to the history, whenever the church fails in certain areas the Christian
society also directed in to the wrong path. But there are certain movement came into existence to
support the church as well as to do the things which the church suppose to do. UESI is one
among these .We will look at its origin, development and its work in this paper.

Origin Of Uesi
A Friday evening, a group of college students meets at Poonamallee High Road, Madras - the
home of Prof H Enoch. At roughly the same time, little groups of believing students meet in
prayer cells in Christian Medical College, (CMC), Vellore and in Government College of
Technology, (GCT), Coimbatore with similar faith and conviction. The union of these 3 groups
at a retreat in Katpadi near Vellore gives birth to Union of Evangelical Students of India (UESI)
in 1954.

It was an effort of Professor Hannington Enoch, (Visakhapatnam Medical Collage) which made
a fellowship among the university student. In 1949 he was transferred to Presidency College,
Madras. Though he was unaware of the work of God abroad through evangelical student
movements like Inter Varsity Fellowship (IVP), now Universities and Colleges Christian
Fellowship (UCCF) of UK and Inter Varsity Christian Fellowship (IVCF) of USA. A little
fellowship group was brought into being and it met in the home of Prof. Enoch. Including other
leaders like Ms H Eckmann, David CC Watson, and M D Paul.

ICEU Madras
In 1950, Bro.Bakht Singh introduced Dr T Norton Sterrett; to Prof Enoch .Dr Sterrett came to
Madras in 1951 with the Moody science film, 'God and Creation'. The film, which was screened
in many colleges, like Stanley Medical College, caught the attention of the students. Which gave
them many contacts. The constant effort of students and graduates led to the formation of the
committee for Inter Collegiate Evangelical Union (ICEU) of Madras in 1951.

A student magazine, entitled The Evangelical Student, began to appear in the society with
Watson as Editor. Tom Thurley, a veterinary student, became the first President of Madras
ICEU. ICEU was a small group of students meeting regularly for prayer at Prof Enoch's
residence. Some of the students included like Sam Kamaleson (farmar Vice President of World
Vision International) Nesarathina Carunya (farmar Administrator, Dohnavur Fellowship), C T
Rajarathnam (Philadelphia, USA) and Ebenezer Christadoss (Tennessee, USA).

Evangelical union – Vellore

Sometime early in 1948, a small gathering of about half a dozen students of CMC, Vellore,
without any senior adviser felt the need for a deeper fellowship than what was provided by the
existing Christian organization in the College SCM. In March 1951, the President - Meena
Biswas, Vice President - Sarala Elisha and Secretary - Annamma Varghese resigned from SCM.
T Dr. John Moody from Australia in 1950 to be on the staff of the C M C, Vellore. In August
1951, they decided to have regular Gospel meetings during weekends. The first meeting was held

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on 26 August 1951.And they felt it was necessary to have a well organized group of those who
were ready for the task, based on firm and sure grounds, such as the doctrinal basis they had
accepted. Regular gospel and prayer meetings went on till end-1951. In November 1951 Dr
Sterrett paid a visit to Vellore on request by the members. He along with John Moody helped
members form an Evangelical Union; the doctrinal basis was discussed in detail. The whole
Constitution was drawn up and the name Evangelical Union was accepted. The first CMC EU
Committee conducted On 2 December 1951, a letter was sent to the CMC Principal requesting
the College to give the EU an official recognition. It was not received well. However, the
Medical College Committee met on 13 February1952 and decided to give E.U. official
recognition.

Union Of Evangelical Students Of India 

 The third EU to be formed was Coimbatore. In 1948, D Jayapaul was a student of the College of
Engineering, Madras. The following year he moved to GCT, Coimbatore as a second year
student. Himself with the help of H.S Ponnuraj started a small prayer group cell in G C T hostel.
They showed the film God and Creation to all hostel students and staff. They did some outreach
in the nearby colleges including the Agricultural College. Later, in 1952 with H S Ponnuraj's
initiative, the Coimbatore ICEU was officially inaugurated.

There were now three similar groups in three different places. It was then felt that the three
groups should be united. Both Moody of Vellore and Ponnuraj of Coimbatore were invited by
the ICEU Executive Committee to come to Madras. The aims and objectives of the three prayer
cells were found to be similar. As a result of a united conviction that it would be good to have a
movement for students covering the whole nation, the 3 groups from Madras, Vellore, and
Coimbatore - along with senior friends - met for a retreat at Katpadi Farm near Vellore. There
was a full discussion on the name to be given to the national movement. Finally it was decided to
adopt the name Union of Evangelical Students of India to distinguish this from other student’s
movements in India and to underline the indigenous origin of the movement.

The Growth Of Uesi

The groups at Madras, Vellore, and Coimbatore had a burden and vision not only for their own
places but also for the other students in India. The representatives of these three groups launched
UESI as a national movement on 18 September 1954, with M D Paul as President and Vijaya
Benjamin as Secretary. As they gathered from time to time, the leaders shared the convictions .M
D Paul, Dr Sterrett, Joe Devadatta, M Selvaraj, Vijaya Benjamin, Leela Martin, and David C C
Watson participated in the Central Committee in Madras in 1954 and a Constitution with by-laws
was adopted. Apart from their works, the three unions felt that they should look for their
financial and other needs. Earlier at the General Committee meeting in March 1954 at
Coimbatore, The Evangelical Student was accepted as the official magazine of UESI. Till then
for a number of issues it had been a periodical published by the Madras ICEU. Later the
magazine was renamed as OUR LINK and is now published as CAMPUS LINK, the national
magazine. Campus Link is a bimonthly campus magazine, It seeks to sensitize believing college
students to reason out issues, and stand for Christ, creating an awareness of UESI ministry and
leading them to maturity and involvement.

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Doctrinal statements of Uesi
There are ten doctrinal statements that together form the UESI Statements of Faith. They are
evangelical, interdenominational, historical and scriptural in nature and are as follows:
 The unity of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit in the Godhead.
 The Sovereignty of God in creation, revelation, redemption and final judgment.
 The divine inspiration and infallibility of Holy Scripture (by which we understand the 66
books of the Bible), as originally given, and its supreme authority in all matters of faith
and conduct.
 The universal sinfulness and guilt of human nature since the fall, rendering man subject
to God's wrath and condemnation.
 Redemption from the guilt, penalty and power of sin only through the sacrificial death (as
our Representative and Substitute) of Jesus Christ, the incarnate Son of God.
 The resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.
 The necessity of the work of the Holy Spirit to make the death of Christ effective to the
individual sinner, granting him repentance towards God and faith in Jesus Christ.
 The indwelling and work of the Holy Spirit in the believer.
 The only holy universal Church, which is the Body of Christ, and to which all believers
belong.
 The expectation of the personal return of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Aims Of Uesi
 To present the claims of Jesus Christ so that other students may come to a personal
experience of Him as Savior, Lord and God, through the new birth
 To have fellowship with all students of like precious faith for mutual help and growth in
the Christian life, especially by means of Bible study and prayer, and to encourage one
another in witnessing for Christ
 To raise in the Colleges a testimony to the truths of the historic Christian faith, and
present their message for the whole of life and the problems of mankind.
 To present God's missionary command and so to help students discover and obey His will
for them at home or abroad in world evangelization.

Patterns Of Uesi
UESI works at two levels
 Students and Graduates
Graduates are those who are non-students
They may or may not have a University degree. The student group is known as Evangelical
Union (EU). The graduate group is known as Evangelical Graduates Fellowship (EGF). The
whole movement is known as the Union of Evangelical Students of India (UESI). Each EU and
EGF has its committee. The committee seeks to co-ordinate the work in the city. The student
group has two senior advisors- preferably one male and one female. The graduates while
evangelizing other Graduates are also the backbone of student group. They open their homes for
the students and provide them with Christian hospitality, care and counseling. They invest their
time, talent and money voluntarily for the student ministry.

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Commitment Of Uesi
NEGF fully subscribes to the vision of UESI in spirit and word. In addition it is committed to
building up a community of servant leaders to support UESI and minister to graduates that they
may establish Christ centered homes and be agents of transformation in church, society and
nation.

Objectives
 Student ministry: To further help and support the ministry and growth of UESI.
 Fellowship: To foster fellowship among ex-EU members and other graduates of like-
minded faith for spiritual.
 Evangelism: To present the claims of Jesus Christ to friends of and colleagues so that
they may come to a personal experience with Jesus Christ.
 Testimony: To raise in the society a testimony to the truths of the historic Christian faith
having the doctrinal basis of UESI and present the message as the solutions for the
problems of mankind and also to be light in the world.
 Mission: To challenge and help graduates to discover and obey God’s will for them in
evangelization at home and abroad.
 Christian Home: To help graduates establish Christian Homes.

Core Values
Centrality scriptures: The word of God is the touchstone of NEGF Emphasis is given to the
teaching and preaching, Quiet Time and personal Bible study. Focus is on the Bible truths,
formation of a Christian mind and a lifestyle, which reflects the Lordship of Christ

Relationship with God: Intimate fellowship with God in thought and deed, and reflecting the
intimacy with God in attitudes and relationships are emphasized.

Personal Care: Each individual is valued in NEGF and UESI people are taking care to blossom
to their God-given potential. Friendship evangelism, one to one discipleship and open Christian
homes are given priority because they offer individual care.

Integration: It is stressed to love the Lord with total being and to resist the temptation to divide
life into the sacred and the secular. NEGF seeks to integrate Christian faith to all areas of life

Departments
To facilitate the spiritual growth of graduates and to equip them as resource persons the NEGF
has 5 departments.
1. Career Guidance and Placement
2. Christian Ethics and Social Concerns
3. Christian Home
4. Church Relations
5. Counseling growth.

National Evangelical Graduates Fellowship is an auxiliary of Union of Evangelical Students of

India. National EGF started functioning from 1960s primarily to coordinate the state and regional

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work of UESI and to support the ministry in every possible way. The activities of national EGF
were formalized in 1998.

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