On Tuesday, December 12, 2023, Louisiana Baptist University in Shreveport, LA, held a special ceremony honoring a gift from Elmer Towns, co-founder of Liberty University. Towns gifted his entire personal library to LBU, including several Bibles that he used in teaching over 250,000 students at Liberty University. Towns shared in a prayer of dedication, “I pray, God, that You would use the library that I am gifting for Your glory. I pray that these books will change the lives of the students at Louisiana Baptist University.” To show appreciation for this gift, LBU named its library the Elmer Towns Library and dedicated it on the same day with a large crowd on hand to celebrate.
I pray, God, that You would use the library that I am gifting for Your glory.
In conjunction with the dedication of the Elmer Towns Library, LBU held its First Annual Publishers Award. The first recipient was Elmer Towns. Towns has published over 170 books, eight of which are on various best-seller lists, and forty have been translated into languages other than English. Towns is 91 years old and is still in the process of writing. He shared, “I believe there are two ways that a person can extend their life. The first is through teaching students, and the second is through writing books.” Towns challenged all in attendance to write by sharing, “A book will speak to other people as God spoke to you.”
Three others also received an LBU Publishers Award, including Keidra Hobley, Miguel Mesias, and Edgar Trinidad. Hobley has written several books on the topic of godly wisdom. She serves on the teaching team at LBU in the leadership department and women’s ministry department. Mesias is both an author and a pastor. He authors his books in both English and Spanish. He has taught at LBU for many years. Trinidad is a church planter, author, veteran, and businessman. He also teaches at LBU. LBU president Greg Lyons quoted Benjamin Franklin as saying, “Either write something worth doing or do something worth writing.” He shared that the goal at LBU is to do both. “We want to promote and encourage those in our movement to write what God is doing all around the world. And we also want to be a part of what God is doing all around the world so that others will write about it.” LBU strives to equip and raise up world changers that will serve God both in America and to the far reaches of the world.”
Either write something worth doing or do something worth writing.
Benjamin Franklin
