Dear Friend of BCS,
One of my all-time favorite hymns is “Great Is Thy Faithfulness.” Published over 90 years ago by Thomas Chisholm and William Runyon, it has become a moving and powerful means of worship for many Christians. Based on Lamentations 3:22-24, the hymn assures us of the greatness of God’s faithfulness. But why is God’s faithfulness so reassuring to us? The Lamentations passage points to the mercies we receive every day because of the faithfulness of God. It is clearly directly beneficial to us that God is faithful.
As important and wonderful as that truth is, I don’t think that’s the main reason why God’s faithfulness is so reassuring. His faithfulness is reassuring because it means that he is absolutely trustworthy. Because he is faithful, there is nothing about him—his word, his promises, his character, his nature, his sovereignty—that we cannot completely trust, forever. He is absolutely faithful and true to his character, his great name, and his word. Therefore, we are comforted and reassured.
I’ve begun this prayer letter with a discussion of God’s faithfulness because I want to give you an update regarding Bethlehem College & Seminary’s end-of-fiscal-year finances. As you know, we entered the last couple of weeks in June with $95,000 needed to cover our expected expenses for the fiscal year. First, I want to thank you for your diligent prayers and for the gifts many of your gave to help us make up that differential. Second, even though we didn’t make the goal—we fell about $40,000 short—we are absolutely confident in the faithfulness of God toward this school. We haven’t closed out the books yet on the expense side yet, but we are confident that the Lord has given us exactly what he wanted us to have entering into this new fiscal year.
And even though it is disappointing on one level that we didn’t reach our goal, when looking at the bigger picture of our total giving for the year, I am so encouraged and excited about the future. We received $980,000 in contributions this past year—nearly a million dollars! This is more than we have received in any previous year. The Lord is, indeed, faithful, and he is at work at BCS!
Thank you, thank you, thank you for your faithful prayers on our behalf!
Trusting in our faithful and merciful God,
Tim Tomlinson
President, Bethlehem College & Seminary
Prayer Requests
- Please continue to pray for our admissions and recruitment staff. They are working hard to fill out the incoming freshman class at the college. Please pray that the Lord would lead just the right number of new college students to us this fall.
- Even though it’s still July, we are already preparing for the fall semester. Please pray for our faculty and staff as they begin the many preparations for the beginning of a new school year. Pray especially for Barb Waldemar, our Events Coordinator and Dean of Women, as she bears a particularly heavy burden in preparing for the many events that occur in August and September.
- Please continue to pray for the accreditation process. We are hosting an accreditation consultant in early August who is coming to help us prepare for the formal accreditation visit that will be taking place in early October. In advance of that October visit, we need to submit a revised Self-Study to our accrediting association. Pray for Betsy Howard and me as we work to get that document submitted by mid-August.
- Pray also for the ongoing need for funding. It obviously takes a lot of money to operate an institution of higher learning—even one which is intentionally very lean in its operation like BCS. Pray for many new contributors to join our support team in the coming months.
