Annual Student/Faculty Picnic

BethlehemBible College– Annual Student/Faculty Picnic

6 October, 2011

God blessed us with a beautiful fall day, bright sunshine, but not too warm, and a lovely breeze as we gathered in Beit Jalla’s ‘Beit el Leqa’ (House of Fellowship), a beautiful building dedicated to the service of the Lord, atop a bluff overlooking the town. It was Bethlehem Bible College’s annual student/faculty picnic, a refreshing time of fellowship and fun away from the drudgery and anxiety of schoolwork and administration responsibilities, where the fine line between students and staff melted into an atmosphere of jollity and camaraderie, as all shared in singing, praising, games, and a delightful BBQ picnic under the fig and pomegranate trees.

The entire student body was invited to participate, including students from the Theology and Media departments, as well as the M.A. students. The student council representing the various levels introduced their counterparts before Dr. Bishara Awad, the College President, officially welcomed the student body, and shared the College’s rousing vision of raising up future community and church leaders in Palestine. Dr. Alex Awad (Dean of Students) gave a scripture message reinforcing this vision as he exhorted the student body to heed Christ’s injunctions, starting with Matt. 11:28 “Come ….” , followed by John 15’s “Abide ….” , and finally, the Great Commission in Matt. 28, “Go….” It was his prayer that every student leaving the college would have absorbed and integrated those three injunctions to become truly effective in whatever future area of ministry God ordains for him/her.

There were shorter messages of welcome from both Dr. Jack Sara and Dr. Yohanna Katanacho, the  College’s Vice President and the Academic Dean respectively, after which the formalities ended and the fun began in earnest, and continued into the late afternoon. Truly reflective of Psalm 133:1 “Behold how good and how pleasant it is for brothers to dwell together in unity.”