Only One Alice

"I would rather teach than eat," Alice King Ebey once commented. She began teaching in 1890 at age eighteen in a one-room Wabash County (Indiana) schoolhouse, then attended Mount Morris College in Illinois and later became an instructor in the Bible School at Manchester College in her hometown of North Manchester, Indiana. But Alice could not ignore the call of her Christian faith to teach the Gospel message of hope to those who had never heard of Jesus. In 1900, Alice and her husband, Adam, sailed to Bombay, India, where they served as Church of the Brethren missionaries in the villages and towns of western India until 1931. Together they raised two daughters there and made their home at seven different mission stations. Mastering both Marathi and Gujarati, they worked together to improve living conditions and health care in areas of great need. Adam built orphanages and schools and alleviated the suffering of sick people who lacked access to medical care due to caste restrictions. Alice worked with women and children, teaching them to read and work together as a Christian community. After retirement to North Manchester and following Adam's death in 1939, Alice returned to India for another term as missionary in 1945-1947. Adapting to a very different way of life, Alice and Adam lived through turbulent times of personal tragedies, hardship and social change. Yet Alice vowed to "teach and teach and teach with love, and pray with confidence," trusting God to guide them through grief and discouragement. Returning to North Manchester, where she lived until her death in 1960, she spoke and wrote about her experiences and told marvelous stories to her grandchildren. Her words taught many others of the wonders of India, the kindness of its people, and our common humanity. When Alice died, she left a trunk full of diaries, letters and other documents containing her private thoughts and public writing for her granddaughter, Janice Shull, to discover. From this treasure, the author reveals Alice's story of faith, courage, and hope, a story that continues to teach a message of service and compassion today.