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Meet Students
- Holly Smith
- 7/23/2009
- Holly Smith's father, Mike, graduated from Fairhaven Baptist
College when Holly was just five years old. Mike had joined
the military right out of high school; and while in the
service, Mike got close to God and decided to attend Bible
college upon his release. While a Marine, Mike found West
Coast Baptist Church of Vista, California. Led by Pastor
Phil Clark, it was here that Mike heard of Fairhaven Baptist
College. Soon, Mike and his family, including little Holly,
were on a trek across the country to begin preparation for
service.
- Brian Boots
- 7/15/2008
- Fairhaven Baptist College students never lack for ministry
opportunities in the summer. Just this summer alone,
students have taken missions trips, attended missions
institutes, and traveled to churches, assisting in revivals
and Vacation Bible Schools. In addition, all students are
expected to be active in the ministries of their home church
each summer and not "sit on the sidelines." This
summer has been no different for Brian Boots. Just after the
end of the spring semester, Brian boarded a plane going to
Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, where he spent five weeks assisting
the Muller family in their missionary labors. Jason and
Becky Muller, both graduates of Fairhaven Baptist College,
have labored in Mongolia for eight years. As a part of his
missionary preparation, Brian experienced the work of the
missionary firsthand. Adapting to a new language and a
radically different culture are two aspects of this
preparation trip that Brian will not soon forget.
Brian has expressed a desire toward missions since his high
school days. Being raised at Fairhaven Baptist Church since
his childhood, he heard many missionaries in Fairhaven's
pulpit preaching about the worldwide need for the gospel.
His parents sacrificed to put him through Fairhaven Baptist
Academy for his entire education. This was no easy task, as
Brian has nine brothers and sisters.
Several things contributed to Brian's surrender of his life
to God's harvest. First, his parents took him to church
consistently. Brian has been in the same church his entire
life. Next, the good example of his oldest brother, Steven,
played a part in his desire to live for God. Brian saw
Steven graduate from our academy and college, and then
follow God's leading to be an assistant pastor near
Richmond, Virginia. The example of the staff and preachers
also influenced him to live for God.
Brian is looking forward to his senior year with
anticipation and a deep desire to be used of God in the
pursuit of souls on the foreign field, and he feels
privileged to train at a college that will prepare him to do
just that.
- Samuel Kim
- 3/15/2008
- Samuel grew up in Kunsan, South Korea, in a predominantly
non-religious home. He would attend the occasional church
service but was unable to view church as anything more than
religion. Upon completing high school and fulfilling his
two-year obligation of Korean military service, Samuel
enrolled in a university to study tourism. He sought a job
helping people plan trips to other countries and directing
their travel plans.
- Sarah Unger
- 10/15/2007
- Sarah Unger's providential path to Fairhaven Baptist College
began nearly a century ago in the World War I era. Her great
grandfather, a German, was living and farming in Russia. At
the onset of "the war to end all wars," the
Russian government put tremendous pressure on him to enlist.
Being a Mennonite, his religious belief of pacifism
precluded his involvement, resulting in his moving to
Canada. Here, he began farming "in peace."
Soon, Sarah's grandfather was born, and though he was saved
as a younger man, he observed firsthand the numerous
doctrinal fallacies and ecumenical drift of the Mennonite
denomination. It was not long before he found truth at a
Bible-believing Baptist church. As a result of this, Sarah's
father, Kevin, was reared in a Baptist church. He and his
brothers were deliberately kept from worldly influences.
They worked on their father's farm and ran a very successful
produce market.
Sarah's grandfather taught her dad to work, and her dad
passed that same trait along to Sarah. Her parents provided
many "opportunities" for her and her siblings. He
rented land for a family garden and purchased chickens so
Sarah "could have something worthwhile to do."
There wasn't much time for video games in the Unger
household! Sarah appreciates parents who cared enough about
her to teach her the benefits of physical labor. She has
applied this teaching to her campus job as a library
assistant.
Sarah's grandfather is Pastor Wilbert Unger, who started
Bethel Baptist Church of London, Ontario, 25 years ago. One
day, while going door-to-door, he "happened upon"
a family with a daughter. This daughter was the lady who
would eventually marry Pastor Unger's son Kevin. Sarah would
be their first child. Sarah looks again to the providential
hand of God in bringing her parents together.
Sarah's church knew little of Fairhaven Baptist College
until Pastor Unger attended a spring Preaching Conference.
Soon after, Sarah's entire family and several others from
her church took several days to visit the college for
themselves. Though feeling slightly out of place as a result
of visiting on an "I Love America" Sunday, the
group from Canada nonetheless saw a college with beliefs
compatible to their own, even if none of the flags that were
flying that day displayed the red maple leaf! Since then,
six young people from Ontario (including Sarah) have chosen
Fairhaven Baptist College for their college education.
When asked to delineate the key traits she has gained from
her 2½ years at Fairhaven, Sarah noted first, that
there is joy in serving. "A person can either get
discouraged or jump in and serve," she said. She also
spoke of the theme of the college as being the desire of her
life - to find God's will and do it.
Seeing the godly examples of her pastor/grandfather and her
parents challenges Sarah that "to whom much has been
given, much more shall be required." We thank the Lord
for students like Sarah who are striving to serve, to please
God, and to find His will and do it.
- Jason and Melodie Landis
- 3/15/2007
- Jason and Melodie Landis both came to Fairhaven Baptist
College from the state of Pennsylvania. Jason feels
fortunate to have grown up in a Christian home; in fact, all
of his grandparents were saved also. As a young teenager,
Jason's parents moved to Lancaster County, where Evangelist
Rodney Stewart, who was preaching in a nearby church,
introduced Jason to Fairhaven Baptist College. Not long
afterward, Dr. Voegtlin came to Jason's church, and Jason
settled on attending Fairhaven Baptist College.
Jason's plan was to attend Fairhaven for a year or two,
taking various Bible classes; however, midway through his
freshman year, he felt God's leading to preach. Although
already active in outreach ministries (as are all students),
his classes and ministries took on new life. Working on
Pastor Whitecar's bus route proved to be a tremendous
ministry experience for Jason. Weekly getting into the homes
of the lost and patiently discipling new believers were two
things that brought reality to Jason's ministerial
preparation.
One ministry event in particular had a huge influence on
Jason's life. His bus route was able to see both parents of
a family of children come to know the Lord as Savior. Soon
afterwards, the entire family was baptized, joined the
church, and began to grow. Eventually, all of the children
enrolled in Fairhaven Baptist Academy. Several years later,
while Jason sits in church, he looks across the auditorium
at this family at each service, still growing in the Lord.
While in college, Jason married his high school sweetheart,
Melodie, also a Fairhaven Baptist College student. Melodie
grew up in a pastor's home. Her father, Pastor Alan Gardner,
pastored in both New Jersey and Pennsylvania. He has been
the pastor of Bible Baptist Church in Leola, Pennsylvania,
for about 7 years. She is anticipating Jason's graduation,
at which time she will become the church secretary for her
father, putting to work the rigorous two-year secretarial
program degree that she received from Fairhaven.
Jason anticipates involvement in the music and youth
ministries at Pastor Gardner's church. He and Melodie will
join the staff of Bible Baptist along with two other
Fairhaven graduates, Mike and Stephanie Roadcup. All of them
will be busy, as Pastor Gardner plans to start Victory
Christian School of Leola in the near future.
Jason says that he looks forward to applying the principles
he was taught in college to his ministry in Pennsylvania. He
is thankful for Fairhaven's "strong, unchanging
stance" mentioning the very practical principle he was
taught and saw practiced at Fairhaven: hard work. "The
ministry is not easy. It requires a lot of work." Jason
feels prepared for this work, however, and is looking
forward to "rolling up his sleeves" in Lancaster
County, Pennsylvania, this fall.
- Martin Watkins
- 7/15/2006
- Among many things that a person may regret in his life, one
of those will never be taking the time to leave a cozy
abode, put on some nice clothes, grab a handful of good
gospel tracts and a Bible, and knock on doors, both sharing
the gospel and inviting people to church.
- Portia Lewis
- 3/15/2006
- After moving to Southern California from Detroit at the age
of two, life continued much the same for Portia Lewis until
the age of 12, when she was invited to ride a bus to church.
Being the oldest child in the family, Portia assisted her
brother and two sisters in getting ready for church each
Sunday. Portia soon realized that although she was not yet a
member of the church, she was far more than "just a
number" to the people of West Coast Baptist Church in
Vista, California; she was a real person who needed a
Savior, and afterwards, needed people to sacrifice their
time to help her grow in her relationship with God. Under
the leadership of Pastor Phil Clark, many of his members did
just that. Portia recalls as a "bus kid" being
invited often to the houses of church members on Sundays.
She was visited regularly, not only by her bus captain, but
also by other church members. Portia was saved and baptized,
and soon began to take some steps in her Christian life.
- Neil Fultz
- 10/15/2005
- "It wasn't that they did not want me to enroll; it was
that they wanted me to enroll only if I was certain that the
Lord wanted me to enroll. That is what stands out the most
to me." This is how freshman Neil Fultz describes his
first impression of Fairhaven Baptist College when he was
nearing the end of his military career.
- Liana Johnson
- 7/15/2005
- Liana Johnson was born in Rochester, New York, at the end of
her parents' deputation to go to South Africa as
missionaries. With her parents, Jim and Rosie, serving as
missionaries for over twenty years, Liana has lived in
Central Africa Republic, the Ivory Coast, France, and the
United States. Her parents are currently serving as
missionaries in the land of Ghana.
- Shikhikhutag Bayaraa
- 10/15/2004
- Two years ago Shikhikhutag Bayaraa came to the United States
as an exchange student from his native Mongolia. Having been
born and raised in Mongolia, Shikhee was excited about this
opportunity to live in an "interesting" country.
However it was soon determined by school officials that his
grasp of the English language was too limited to succeed and
he would be sent back home.