Prayer Points

January 2012

Dear Praying Friends of Bethel,

Welcome to a new year of prayer support for Bethel. What an encouragement you are to those who lead and study at Bethel University. January is normally a frigid time on the St. Paul campus with snow-related activities adding recreational fun for the traditional-age students from the College of Arts and Sciences. Broomball is always a favorite, but the schedule has been interrupted this year due to mild temperatures and no ice! As we near mid-month, we've just had our first below-zero day, and one part of Lake Valentine still has open water!

However, the learning during Interim continues both on and off campus, as students are able to engage in a concentrated course of study for the month. Students and faculty are traveling to New Your City, South Texas, Belize, Cambodia, China, Ecuador/Galapagos, Egypt/Israel, England, Italy, France, Switzerland, Greece/Turkey, India, Ireland, Jordan/Israel, Kenya, Uganda, and United Arab Emirates. What an amazing list of study opportunities! Please pray for safety, health, and a quality educational experience for all.

This month the focus for Prayer Points is on the upcoming meetings of the Board of Trustees. Meeting on February 8 and 9, the Board will be hosted by Whittier Area Baptist Fellowship in Whittier, California, where Bill Ankerberg is the pastor. Interestingly, there will be visits by trustees to Biola University/Talbot Seminary, and to Azusa Pacific University to interact with the presidents of each institution about their seminary and theology graduate schools respectively. These are schools that are embedded in those institutions, as is Bethel Seminary within Bethel University. Also, Azusa has a new science facility that will be useful to see as Bethel continues planning for the future of our campus.

Thanks, as always, for persevering in prayer on behalf of Bethel University.

Grace and peace,

Judy Moseman and Julie Tutt

Please pray for:

Safe travel for all Board of Trustee members coming from all points in the United States to California and for the Bethel administrators who are also traveling
The decision-making that is part of every meeting of the Board, such as updates to the strategic planning, the campus master facilities plan, policies, finances, etc.
The visits to Biola and Azusa, that the time will be well-spent, useful, and profitable for Bethel's plans

Please praise God for:

The gifts and commitments of each member of the Board of Trustees
The wisdom God has given to trustees in the form of good counsel and perspective
A strong sense of unity and purpose among the nearly twenty senior leaders on campus, strengthened over the last year
The spirit of cooperation rather than competition that exists between Bethel, Biola, and Azusa Pacific
The leadership of President Jay Barnes and his Executive Team, for their competence and dedication to Bethel University

December 2011

Dear Praying Friends of Bethel,

Here we are at the end of 2011, a year during which you prayed for the many needs and events of Bethel University. We are so grateful for your faithful prayers and wanted you to share in the joy of prayers answered—your prayers answered!

Thus, the enclosed Prayer Points this month reviews for you some of the results and responses from the various areas for which we sent specific requests. We hope our heart will soar as you read the summary and catch the grateful spirit from those campus personnel who were encouraged by your promise to pray for them over the course of the year.

The days of advent and anticipation are coming to their magnificent culmination as we celebrate the birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Eugene Peterson writes in his introduction to God With Us: Rediscovering the Meaning of Christmas how important the "artists, poets, musicians, and architects" are during advent as "over and over again they rescue us from a life in which the wonder has leaked out." Thus was the gift of the Bethel musicians at the 55th Festival of Christmas, for they renewed in us the absolute wonder of Christ's birth.

We pray that each of you, by whatever source—artist, poet, musician, or architect—will be reminded of that wonder this Christmas, be quieted in your spirit, and be blessed.

Joyous Christmas!

Judy Moseman and Julie Tutt

Richard Crombie, Vice President and Dean, College of Adult & Professional Studies and Graduate School

Praise God for His provision. Many of our students who were without jobs last January have found meaningful places of service. A majority of our students are working and are giving thanks for continuing work and advancement. Please continue to pray. A number of working and unemployed students are continuing to face significant financial challenges.
Thank God for His transforming work. Our faculty members are teaching increasingly diverse learners—spiritually, academically, and culturally. Our faculty colleagues deeply engage these learners in the Christ-centered crucible of courses.
University marketing and enrollment teams have extended their efforts to reach prospective Bethel students regionally and nationally. God has blessed those efforts by providing new leads and learners. He has also enabled us to significantly increase our capacity to teach more people in existing and new locations. Pray that God will continue to send us increasing numbers of students who will fill that capacity and benefit from His transforming work through Bethel.

Barb Smith, Director of Information Services, Interim Vice President for Information Technology

Although we are currently in a leadership transition in ITS, we have been blessed with unity and camaraderie among the team leaders and staff as we continue technology-related planning and implementation vital to the university.
Earlier this fall we successfully completed the sizable project of outsourcing Bethel's institutional email, calendaring, and contacts; although many factors could have derailed this initiative, the project was executed well by ITS staff, and the Bethel community was receptive and supportive of the change.

Pamela Erwin, Department Chair, Department of Biblical and Theological Studies

Faculty members in the biblical and theological studies department are thankful for safe travels and significant opportunities over the summer to take course work and attend and/or present at conferences around the globe. Some made progress on or completed doctoral dissertations.
Faculty are preparing rich learning experiences for Bethel students during the January interim with study trips being offered to Ireland, Greece/Turkey, and Cambodia.
Sabbaticals during spring semester for Paul Eddy and Gary Long provided time to complete books, articles, and research in addition to some refreshing quality time with family.

Matt Runion, Associate Campus Pastor

We have 90 students confirmed on 7 different mission teams during Spring Break (St. Paul, Chicago, Appalachia, New Orleans, Dominican Republic, Belize, and Honduras). God provided not only in terms of numbers, but quality. We have fantastic students on these teams, and 40% of them are men, which is a particular area of praise. Teams have begun to meet and will begin raising support for their trips on December 12.
A group of students, administrators, and Bethel Board of Trustee members had a meaningful time at the G92 Immigration Conference, where God grew their passions about this issue by showing them God's heart for the "immigrant" (referenced 92 times in the Old Testament alone). The energized group has continued to meet weekly—joined by other students who did not attend the conference—since returning from the conference.
I have been thankful for fruitful, God-ordained meetings with Converge Worldwide leaders (Bill Ankerberg of the Nordic-Baltic Initiative as well as Steve Cable from Santisuk English School in Bangkok, Thailand). These appear to be great places for Bethel students to serve in the future.
Campus ministries staff has worked with a few students who were turned away from the nursing program due to space limitations, and God is at work in their lives—even in their disappointment. We praise God for the increased capacity in the nursing program, or even fewer students would have been accepted.

Tanden Brekke, Assistant Campus Pastor

We are just now finishing a successful semester at our 12 volunteer sites in the Twin Cities. We have heard from many of the organizations that they have been very blessed this semester by our students' service. And our students have grown and learned much through these experiences.
We have two students and two faculty members who have applied to participate in the Sankofa Spring Break trip. This is a journey where a group of students, staff, and faculty travel together to sites of the American struggle for civil rights and justice.

Jeannine Brown, Interim Dean for the Faculty, Professor of New Testament, Bethel Seminary

We appreciate your prayers for the seminary this year. Enrollment is up in San Diego, and we are thanking God for our new students in all regions of Bethel Seminary, with nearly 1,000 new and returning students across regions.
We had asked for prayers for our October Self-Study visits from our two accrediting bodies. Teams from the Higher Learning Commission (HLC) and the Association of Theological Schools (ATS) visited Bethel Seminary in October. Thank you to many of you who participated in the process. Your input was critical in this important evaluation of the seminary. The site visit teams have recommended a 10-year re-accreditation of Bethel Seminary, which is pending official affirmation from the HLC and ATS boards. Seminary leadership is celebrating the success of the visit and already working to use feedback from the teams to further improve Bethel Seminary. The teams affirmed our pietistic ethos, creative and innovative delivery systems, mission-driven personnel, and our concern for ethics. They also identified areas for further development, including assessment of student learning and adequate faculty for future teaching and assessment needs. Thank you for your prayers. We value them so much.

Bruce Anderson, Vice President for Development

Thank you for praying for Bethel in so many ways. The following are a few specific answers to prayer we've seen.

Bethel's graduating seniors: In this difficult economy, Bethel is taking steps to more precisely measure graduate placement. While the research we do have shown strong placement in advanced graduate studies and employment following graduation, even so Bethel is in the process of enhancing the resources available to our students and alumni.
Enrollment: Bethel has been blessed by very high retention rates of students and a record high enrollment of new freshmen in our College of Arts & Sciences.
University Relations Staff: Pat Mazorol, senior vice president for university relations, has been aligning resources to affirm Bethel University priorities while engaging Bethel's constituents as investors in the students and mission of Bethel.
Generosity: Fiscal year 2011, ending last May 31, was the second highest year in terms of total receipted gifts in Bethel's history. Many alumni, parents, and friends increased their support directed to the Bethel Fund while leadership investors contributed to important capital priorities.
Presidents Barnes and the Board of Trustees: President Jay Barnes and the trustees are thoroughly engaged in preserving the mission and advancing the effectiveness of Bethel University. The discipline of planning is pervasive throughout Jay's cabinet and executive leadership team, with an annual set of strategic initiatives, tied to the budgeting cycle, established through this process. The initial stages of a campus mater plan have been discussed with broad Bethel input. The final campus master plan should guide future capital priorities. Fundraising efforts are working in synchronization with all of these plans.

Bethel is blessed with a community of support that provide ongoing financial contributions and upholds students, faculty, and Bethel's mission in prayer. Thank you for being part of that support.