Mike and Elizabeth Roadcup

Michael and Elizabeth Roadcup are the children of Mike and Andrea Roadcup. Mike is the pastor of Community Baptist Church in Westminster, Maryland. Pastor Roadcup met his wife while he was serving in the United States Marine Corps and stationed near Memphis, Tennessee. He became involved in a servicemen's ministry in the church he was attending and met Andrea at this church who was teaching third grade in the Christian school. They eventually married and moved to Midland, Texas, where Pastor Roadcup became an assistant pastor and Christian school principal. Michael and Elizabeth were born during their dad's time of service there and enjoyed their West Texas lifestyle.

When Michael was 12 and Elizabeth was 11, the family moved from Texas to Maryland. They were glad for the opportunity for their dad to be a senior pastor, but it seemed to them like their life had ended. They left behind all their friends and the only life they ever knew and found themselves in culture shock in Maryland.

A year after their arrival in Westminster, the Roadcups were introduced to Fairhaven Baptist College by one of their church members, Jim Motter. Jim's children, Susan Leake and Kim Hunt, had graduated from Fairhaven, and he invited Michael and Elizabeth to go to Fairhaven's annual preaching conference with his family that spring. Michael and Elizabeth greatly enjoyed that week and attended the preaching conference every year afterwards. As they finished their high school years and contemplated their future, they decided that Fairhaven Baptist College was the place for them to train for God's service. Michael enrolled in the fall of 2000 to study Pastoral Theology and Elizabeth came the following year to study Elementary Education.

Michael and Elizabeth had made professions of faith while living in Texas. However, God began convicting them after their move to Maryland that they were not truly saved. On the way home from church one night Elizabeth entered a discussion about the end times with her dad and was saved that night. Michael also doubted his salvation, but excused it as the devil trying to discourage him. He wrestled with the issue of his salvation all through his teen years and even his first year of Bible College. He finally gained assurance by getting saved at the end of a Sunday morning service the second week of Fairhaven's fall push in September of 2001.

It was shortly after his conversion that Michael started noticing shortness of breath and even heart palpitations while exercising. He mentioned this to a doctor while getting a physical the following summer who ran some tests, but found nothing. Eventually, an electrocardiogram was performed and it revealed that Michael had an aneurysm on his aorta. He was permitted to return to school but put on blood pressure medication and limited in his activities. At Christmas break more tests were done which showed that the aneurysm had grown. The doctor said that the risk of the aneurysm now outweighed the risk of surgery. Michael was scheduled for surgery on two different occasions at the beginning of the year only to have the surgery postponed both times. He was finally able to have this very dangerous procedure done at the end of February. He then started a rehabilitation program that allowed him to return to college this fall. Michael is thankful for all of the cards, calls, and prayers during that trying time and that God has allowed him the opportunity to be back in school to finish and follow on as God leads.

Elizabeth has used her talents here playing the piano for the college choir, and both Michael and Elizabeth will be graduating in May of 2005. They are looking forward to fulfilling God's will in their lives.