by Jim Edge
Baptist Bible College will celebrate 60 years of service to our Fellowship this coming May. Over those years, countless thousands of students have walked the halls, listened in class, and received inspiration in chapel. The story of Baptist Bible College is a story of people — over 12,000 people who have left this campus to work for Christ. Many of these men and women are still in full-time ministry today. Others, while not employed full time by a church, are serving the Lord and their church in a culture that needs the light of the gospel desperately. The goal of BBC is to train your young men and women, your best and brightest, in Christian ministry. We want them to leave this place filled with the Holy Spirit, equipped by a conservative Christian worldview, and undergirded with a knowledge and ability to study for themselves God’s holy Word. The story of Baptist Bible College is a story of people.
One such person is our student body president, Lauren Wilcox. Lauren has been married for seven months to her husband, Oron. They are from Ashland, Ohio, where her father is pastor of Trinity Baptist Church. She was saved at the age of 12 and surrendered her life to the Lord at Camp Chautauqua under the ministry of Bruce Humbert during her sophomore year in high school. It was also at camp that she heard a Baptist Bible College singing group and decided to visit the college.
Today, Lauren is a senior with a double major in both business management and elementary education. She also plays on the girls’ basketball team and is student council president. About her time at BBC, Lauren states, “During the past four years I have grown tremendously as a Christian and as a person. We receive instruction in the classroom, but we are also challenged to put what we’ve learned into action. When missionaries come, we are challenged to move outside our little world to the lost. We see how ministry can be done creatively. And one of the biggest blessings is that I have made friends for life during my time here.”
After graduation in May, Lauren and Oron plan to pursue their dream of beginning a non-profit construction company that will help missionaries on the field complete their facility needs at a low cost.
Oron and Lauren are just two of 466 undergraduate students on campus this semester. Combined with 79 students enrolled in the graduate programs, the total enrollment for the semester is 545. All are students that you have sent us to mold and train to serve Christ. I continually challenge our faculty to know our students by name and by story, because every name and every story is important to God’s plan.