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ONE STEP AT A TIME is the story of many vocational journeys that created one distinctive institution. In 1819, John and Harriet Scudder left home and country to serve in a distant land. Soon, they would have to ask themselves if they had made a tragic mistake. They stayed on. Others followed. A century later, a group of teenage girls entrusted their lives to another audacious Scudder, who dreamt of a great medical college despite its makeshift circumstances. ‘The medical school exists,’ a speaker at the inauguration assured the girls. A letter posted to the medical school would reach their address. And thus, in two rented houses on the main road of a small town, an educational movement began. In 2018, as the Christian Medical College, Vellore celebrates its centenary, this book revisits the hidden years of the school, its struggle for survival, and its role in a newly independent country. Extensively researched across three continents, the book contains historic documents, letters and photographs, through which the pioneers tell their stories. There are archetypal tales of choices and conflicts, losses and legacies, with deep lessons for anyone who wonders if their own finite efforts could have a meaning beyond their lifetime. A little stream, when surrendered into a great river, rests, abides, as a channel of life