This fall tens of thousands of young people have begun studies after high school. They have worked hard for this. Having won the prize of admission reserved for those disciplined in study, they will enter rich academic environments, richer than they have ever known, to pursue the promise of a good job.
Alberta Bible College – Under New Management!
You may have heard — Alberta Bible College is under new management. Principally, the College has been made over in its direction, leadership and strategy, while promising to be faithful to its Restoration roots and constituency.
“Sandra, I’d like to go for lunch together some day this week…just to get to know you.” This rather ordinary invitation from another woman during a graduate course was a significant turning point in my life. It was a burning bush moment when God spoke; thankfully I was courageous enough to hear God and acknowledge the narrative I had been telling myself, rather than just go for lunch.
Proverbs 16:9 says, “The heart of man plans his way, but the LORD establishes his steps” (ESV). I went to ABC unaware that I was a leader and I left ABC with a realization that my heart’s desire is to lead others to discover who God has created them to be.
Edna was born into a poor farm family north of Lethbridge. She lost her mother when she was 9 months old, and was raised by her Grandmother in Vancouver, Oregon, California, and Lethbridge. In Lethbridge, at age 8, she was baptized by C.H. Phillips, founder of ABC. Her Grandmother died when she was 16. Through all these years she found the Lord to be her friend and the church her place of connection, learning, and family. She worked her way through ABC, working on farms, cooking, cleaning, doing chores, and providing child care. For two years prior to graduation in 1945, she took the bus to Black Diamond where oil had been discovered, to preach on weekends.
Vic was born on a homestead at Amisk, Alberta. Two events in 1929 were to shape his drive as a successful businessman: the death of his father from TB, and the onset of the Great Depression. With no money in the family, he left home at 11 and school at 14. He began work in the Turner Valley fields, then the Coal Mine at Great Bend, then worked for Okotoks area farmers. Always interested in machinery, he trained WWII recruits how to drive trucks.
Church planting is a formidable task, but the Lord Jesus emphatically promised that as Christians obey His great commission to “go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey that everything He has commanded us, He will be with us always, to the very end of the age” (Matt. 28:19-20 NIV). This is the Church’s paramount assignment.
We have learned to expect the unexpected! Though what we had planned for ourselves is much different than where we are at, we can’t imagine being anywhere else, and we are excited to take on what will come next.
Duane & Elizabeth Bailey, Inez Bogner, Doreen Bryson, Robert & Ruth Budd, Ruth Burt, Barbara Carbert, Allan & Charlean Fisher, Doug & Sheila Free, Lila Free, Allan & Charlean Fisher, Ben Galipeau, Vern & Gayleen Gronvold, Devaila & Hazel Harvie, Mae Horsley, Gail & Jean Myers, Parkland Christian Church, Rick & Linn Rehn, Jean Ritchie, Terry & June Rollinson, Brian & Jana Smith, William & Betty Steer, Gwen Urano & Sherry, Leeta Whitrow.