My wife and I just returned from our annual trip to Florida to attend the conference put on by our accrediting association and to visit with several of our faithful supporters and alumni around the state. Each time we come back from this trip, we are both so encouraged by the affections of so many of our alumni and friends. This week’s letter, therefore, is intended to be an encouragement to you as part of our faithful prayer support team.
With all of the turmoil and craziness swirling around us, across the general culture and even sometimes within the church, it is so easy to become discouraged or disheartened. It’s not just the effects of the pandemic or the elections, it’s a general sense that our world is hurtling headlong toward destruction. However, the reason we become disheartened is because we have failed to rightly reorient our lives and energies toward eternal issues and our eternal destination. When we do this regularly, we have no reason to be discouraged! God is in charge of everything. Everything exists for his glory. History will one day (soon?) be consummated, and His sovereignty over all things will be revealed to everyone on earth. No one will ignore Him anymore!
Until then, I want you to be encouraged about Bethlehem College & Seminary. God is with us and has blessed us in so many ways—even in the midst of the significant challenges through which we have all been affected. Your prayers for our school have been answered in some remarkable ways.
Here are some of the answers to your prayers we have seen over the course of this school year:
- So far, we have been able to conduct all of our classes and programs in person. We’ve had a few cases of COVID-19, but nothing like an outbreak has occurred school-wide.
- We have had an unexpectedly good year financially. Most “experts” were projecting significant drops in support this year—which did happen across the higher education landscape—but not for us.
- We are in the process of hiring two new full-time faculty and have already hired two new part-time faculty. The candidates for these positions are of the highest quality. We are feeling greatly blessed!
- We have been affirmed yet again by our accrediting association for our strong academics and our strong organizational and financial structures.
- Our board of trustees just approved the establishment of a new Bethlehem College & Seminary extension site in Rochester, MN. This will be our fourth extension site. We already have functioning sites in Memphis, TN, and Cameroon, West Africa. Lord willing, this fall we will open both the Rochester, MN, site and a previously approved site in Hawaii. God is on the move and using these sites to spread a passion for His supremacy in all things for the joy of all peoples through Jesus Christ.
Your prayers and financial support are fueling the ever-spreading ministry of Bethlehem College & Seminary across the globe! Thank you, dear friends, for your partnership with us for the sake of God’s glory—to build, strengthen, equip, and grow the church worldwide and to bring the gospel to all who have not heard it!
Be encouraged. Be of good cheer. God is at work, and He has granted you and me to be part of it.
I am so grateful for you,
Tim Tomlinson
President
Prayer Requests:
- Please continue to pray for our students and faculty/staff as we are now well into spring semester. Pray that we would remain able to offer all of our courses and programs in-person for the rest of the semester.
- Please pray that the Lord would grant us wisdom in dealing with the increasingly challenging environment in higher education, especially if the Equality Act gets passed by Congress (please pray that the act doesn’t get enacted into law!).
- And, as always, please keep praying for our school’s finances. We praise the Lord for you and ask that He raise up more generous supporters in the months and years to come.