C.V. Samuel
By: Brian Wells | Warren Weekly | Published November 21, 2025
WARREN — C.V. Samuel’s first full day of school in the U.S. was November 22, 1971.
“That morning, as I walked toward the administration building I saw and felt snow for the first time in my life, tiny flakes falling silently, transforming the world around me into something both magical and strange,” he wrote in an essay submitted by email to C & G Newspapers.
Samuel, who immigrated from Kerala, India, to study theology at the Eastern Mennonite College and Seminary in Harrisonburg, Virginia., arrived four days before Thanksgiving — a holiday he had never heard of.
“I was living in a dormitory, cafeteria to eat, no relatives, no one I know personally here, then four days later is Thanksgiving,” he said. “I didn’t know what Thanksgiving even means. For us back home, there is no particular day set for Thanksgiving.”
Every day, he said, is considered to be a day to be thankful for. He said in India, Christmas was the closest they had to Thanksgiving.
“It shows the community spirit and feeling,” he said.
Through the college’s host family program, Samuel was assigned to Bishop Lloy Kniss and his wife, Elizabeth Kniss, who had spent 14 years as missionaries in Mohadi, near Dhamtari, in the state of Madhya Pradesh, India.
“This family called me and said, ‘Nobody should be alone on Thanksgiving. You can come and stay with us and have Thanksgiving,’” he said.
The Kniss family, Samuel wrote, welcomed him with open arms.
The day was spent visiting with his host family and their kids, two of which were born in India. Their extended family was there, he said, and they spent the day having dinner and praying.
“I felt very comfortable, and one amongst them that day,” he said.
In his essay, Samuel recalled going to bed at the end of the night.
“That night, I went to bed feeling full, not only from the meal but from the warmth of belonging,” he wrote. “In that home, among people I had only just met, I felt truly at home in America for the first time.”
Since that first Thanksgiving, Samuel said he has remained in touch with the Kniss family. In 2008, he accompanied their daughter and her husband to a convention in Kerala, he said.
Shortly after, Samuel, who remained involved in the church while working as a real estate broker, bought a house in Hamtramck, and moved to Warren in 1976. Samuel and his wife raised their two kids in Warren and have continued to celebrate the holidays together since.
“Now, we celebrate Thanksgiving every year in my family,” he said.