They got Nuthin'

McDonald's?  Swiss Chalet?  Olive Garden?  Even your mom's cooking does not match up to the food you get here at the Word of Life Bible Institute in Owen Sound!  Nothing against mothers, but when you walk into the cafeteria, all you can smell is what Karen and her girls have been cooking, and boy, does it smell heavenly!  You might say, "Oh I need to lose a few," but that thought quickly vanishes like vapor in the air when you gaze upon what just came out of the oven! (Some colleges refer to the Freshman Fifteen - but it takes discipline here to not reach the Freshman Forty!!).  Remember the cafeteria in high school when you couldn't even tell if the food was food!?!?  Watch out!  Literally!  Because once you start, you most likely will be eagerly waiting for the yell/scream of, "Seconds!"  With that, you are off to the races!  Well, back to the food line for another helping...
Here the food is as diverse as the student body themselves. This year we as students have had the privilege of trying different dishes from all over the world! We've sunk our teeth into some Dutch favorites, savored some Sushi, and have even filled our tummies with a Jamaican dish or two!
The spectacular food here just goes to show that at Word of Life we not only take pride in giving you a foundation in the word of God, but also we like you to be well founded, or should I say, "rounded" when it comes to food. We try to the best we can to keep the variety changing, but also throw in some home-cooked favorites like roast beef and potatoes, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, spaghetti, fried chicken and chocolate chip cookies just to name a few.  Bottom line, the food is awesome, the variety is unbelievable, and the fresh veggies make you actually want to eat your veggies. Come to the Word of Life Bible Institute. Eat spiritual food. Eat physical food. Get fed!

Sound too good to be true?

Come see for yourself and join us for a Campus Days, Summer Camp or Winter Camp/Recharge event!

Learning the Word: Revelation (not Revelations)

Dr. Jimmy DeYoung is a well-known prophecy teacher in North America and Europe. He worked with Word of Life in Schroon Lake for 12 years. Later, Dr. DeYoung was the VP and General Manager of New York City’s first Christian radio station for 5 years. Since 1991, he and his wife, Judy, have been residing in Jerusalem where they work as journalists in the second most populated journalistic city in the world. More recently, he received his doctorate from Tennessee Temple. Dr. DeYoung has written several books, produced videos and has a weekly radio broadcast called Prophecy Today. For more info be sure to check out his ministry website - Prophecy Today.

"I am really enjoying this class and how much the students are really interested in learning the Word of God.  They are very attentive, show their interest, and have been asking tough but great questions.  The more I go through the book of Revelation the more I see that Christ will be returning soon!"   ~Dr. DeYoung

Students have grown in their understanding and been challenged to think, study, and prepare for God's prophetic plan for the ages!

Students Exploring Missions 2011

From WOLBRANOS

Students Exploring Missions (SEM) is a conference where students can attend seminars and talk with missionaries about what it is like to be in missions and what it takes to get there.  God calls all Christians to be missionaries, some to other countries.  What does it take to be a cross-cultural missionary?  Seven mission organizations sent representatives to WOLBI for April 8 – 10 as a wealth of experience in serving Christ around the world to interact with our students.  This year the theme was Serving God in the Adventure of a Lifetime.  Our keynote speaker was Wally Stephenson from ABWE.  Friday night we explored how we can prepare for the Adventure of Missions.  We had sessions on world religions and how to reach them (THUMB).  Saturday we started out on the adventure with sessions on single hearted missions, how a mission board chooses a missionary, missions and finance, and missions and the local church.   The students also had opportunity Saturday afternoon to dialogue with the missionaries and tap into their wealth of experience and knowledge and set their own path of service.  Sunday morning we explored Living the Adventure with sessions on how a missionary should pick a mission board and the tragedy of misused short term missions.  Thanks to all the missionaries and students that participated in the weekend to make it a weekend of adventure!

Special Thanks to:

Wally & Jeannie Stephenson, ABWE  

Brian & Rosalie Kent, Northern Canada Evangelical Mission (NCEM) 

Charlie & Cindy McCordic, TEAM  

Nelson Bezanson, retired from TEAM

Brian Seeley, HCJB World Radio  

Rick Bradford, Serving In Mission (SIM) 

Murray & Diana Schmidt, Africa Inland Mission (AIM) 

Elissa Hawley, New Tribes Mission (NTM)  

As well as Word of Life missionaries:  

Jonathan Ward 

Bea Hart 

John Hopper 

Charlie Lyons 

Sue Reider (click here)

and our conference facilitator Richard Heppner.

       

From WOLBRANOS

The Red Carpet Event 2011!!

Spring has been in the air here at WOLBI and the Red Carpet event of the season saw everyone dressed to the max (except Kevin haha) in suits and ball gowns!  The evening began with the guys waiting outside the girls' dorm in their suits ready to escort the girls to the event, and then Hollywood style pictures were taken with a star backdrop as you entered the banquet.  It was great food and awesome fellowship with a sweet song from some of the students dedicated to Mr. Doug Reider.  What an awesome performance!  Awards were given out to everyone at the end of the evening on their stunning personality traits (they all had a star with their name on it from the photo backdrop).  We all enjoyed an evening of delicious food, great fellowship, and awesome entertainment!  There is nothing like a WOLBI banquet!

Learning the Word: Eschatology - The Study of End Times

From WOLBRANOS

Mr. Strout attended our New York campus of Word of Life Bible Institute in 1982, after which he was a youth pastor for 8 years at Huntingville Community Church in Sherbrooke, Quebec. He went on to pastor 3 years at Grace Chapel in Sherbrooke. Mr. Strout joined the new French ministry of WOL at Parole de Vie and served as the director of the Bible Institute at PdV from 1994 until 2002.  During that time he obtained his Master of Ministry degree from Baptist Bible Seminary. In July of 2002 he assumed the role of Director of Francophone Ministries for Word of Life Canada. In August 2010, Mark and his wife Laurie relocated to Schroon Lake (NY) where he is the Executive Dean of the Bible Institute.  This week he will be teaching us Eschatology.

"As I am teaching through Eschatology this week I am so impressed once again with the total consistency of God's Word from start to finish.  God knows what He is accomplishing in human history and you can trace so many strands through His Word that fit perfectly together if you are willing to just take what He says at face value.  I have taught this course over 20 times and every time I go through it, I find new portions of Scripture to add to the picture.  One of the really awesome things about studying God's Word is that you honestly never reach the end of what you can learn.  My challenge to everyone is to be a perpetual student of the Bible.  You'll always be making new discoveries.  Just be sure to apply them to life to get the blessing out of them!"

We loved the class this week!

"This week I have learned new insights into the end times and its sweet to realize the truth that I never knew before."

"[Mr. Strout] clearly explained and gave a good overview for the end times and different views on them.  His teaching just makes us excited for it!"

VBS with Saugeen!!

Sunday, March 20, 9 WOLBI students arrived back on Campus a week early from their March break. No, not coming back to start a week early on our studies, but to take part in an intensive week of children's ministry.
We had been recruited to do a five day VBS Children's program at a church at the Saugeen Native Reserve.
After months of planning and practicing Bible stories, crafts, kid's praise songs, and games for these native children in need of the gospel, we re-gathered to begin a grand adventure. We had heard before hand that the kids would be rambunctious, but we really had no idea what awaited us during this week of ministry.
Clad in our custom-made tie-dye staff shirts, we started out on our journey on Monday afternoon. Our first day was held at the Saugeen Recreational Centre gym. We set out the snack and prepared as the kids were being picked up from school. Our whole program was going to be held in different corners of one big gym.
25 kids burst through the doors and our program began. Kids were running rampant, and parts of our program didn't run as smoothly as we had hoped, some things we planned didn't even happen at all because of the state of mass chaos that we were in. Some kids were quick to listen to our instructions, but unfortunately, some decided to do their own thing and didn't like being told what to do. To most of us, day one was rather a blur and one of the team members who had worked with these kids before commented "It was actually quite funny to see your expressions. Everyone was walking around with this bewildered look of shock."
Day two, we held our program at the church instead of the Rec Centre. At first we were still unsure what to expect, but we found that the program ran a lot smoother with individual rooms for each session (crafts, story, etc.). This was encouraging.

From WOLBRANOS

As the week wore on, the kids gradually started to get used to us, and some even made friendships with us, though some still kept us at arms length and would rather act up and get into trouble. Some kids needed almost constant supervision, getting into any trouble they could. They would climb things, eat things, spill things everywhere, and fight with each other.
The kids LOVED piggy backs, sitting on our shoulders, and wrestling with us. I don't think that any of us were without children on our backs at any one time. As soon as one was done their piggy back ride, another little one would run up and say "My turn!". We concluded that this meant that under their energetic exteriors, they really just wanted love.

THE activity of the week - Piggyback Rides!!

From WOLBRANOS

As we got to know some of the kids individually, we started to learn more about their home lives. Like many kids in our culture, these native kids also came from broken homes. They carried around a lot of anger and bitterness at their home situation. Knowing this helped us to understand that they really weren't bad kids but didn't know how else to react to what was happening in their lives.
As we got to share the gospel and the truth of God's word more and more, we did see some growth in some of the kids' lives. Some of them grew in their obedience skills, some developed a thirst to read the word of God on their own. We learned to love the kids with Christ's love. We would have failed at loving them if it was just by our own strength.
By week's end, 7 kids accepted Christ! Two of these from one on one conversations.
On Friday, as VBS ended and we drove the kids back to their houses, many of them were in tears and didn't want the week to end. We had mixed feelings, as we were exhausted from the week, but we had grown to love these kids and didn't want the week to end either.
We learned so much from this week. It was really great to see how God used us to impact these kids' lives and to show them Biblical love.

Please be in continued prayer for these kids. They are hungry for God's truth, and need a lot of love, more love than a week long VBS program can provide them with. It was great to see kids come to know Christ and we were privileged to be able to be good Godly examples to the kids. We are trusting that the impact we made will last a lifetime and that God will continue to do great things on this native reserve!

Some students who took part in this VBS ministry commented:

"This week really opened my eyes to the needs that are in our own country. There is a need for consistent Christ-like-love in nearby communities. I learned a lot about being unselfish and it definitely was a memorable week!" 

"I loved working with the kids and watching them grow in Christ by the end of the week."

"Showing the kids even just a small example of godly love really went a long way. I was really sore and tired at the end from all the running around and such but I wouldn't trade that week for anything!"  

"I learned that we can't give up on loving people just as Christ doesn't give up on us, even when it gets difficult." 

AP

Learning the Word: Daniel a book of prophecy

From WOLBRANOS

Mr. Doug Reider was born in Pennsylvania and grew up in the Washington, DC, area. He received a BS in Electrical Engineering from George Washington University and his Master of Divinity from Capital Bible Seminary. He also served as Assistant Pastor at Fellowship Baptist Church in Upper Marlboro, Maryland. Desiring to be a missionary in Eastern Europe, Mr. Reider attended Word of Life Bible Institute’s 2nd year and was accepted as a missionary to Poland. While raising support, he met another missionary heading to Poland and they were married in 1993. Because of medical difficulties, Mr. and Mrs. Reider moved to Owen Sound to head up the Bible Institute project in 2000.
It is sweet to have one of our very own resident professors (Mr. Reider also teaches Systematic Theology -throughout the Academic year-, Homiletics, & Greek) teaching us the book of Daniel.  It is a book full of prophesies and is awesome to see God fulfill His promises and to know that He will continue to keep all of His promises.  It was great to learn so much about this significant and controversial book!

"Teaching the Book of Daniel has been amazingly fun for me. It’s odd how things I already know can sometimes strike me in a wholly new way. For example, reading Daniel 9 really hit home. In 9:2, Daniel describes how he is reading the prophet Jeremiah. Apparently, he is reading Jeremiah 29:10-14, where it is written…

“For thus saith the LORD, That after seventy years be accomplished at Babylon I will visit you, and perform my good word toward you, in causing you to return to this place. 11 For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end. 12 Then shall ye call upon me, and ye shall go and pray unto me, and I will hearken unto you. 13 And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart. 14 And I will be found of you, saith the LORD: and I will turn away your captivity, and I will gather you from all the nations, and from all the places whither I have driven you, saith the LORD; and I will bring you again into the place whence I caused you to be carried away captive.”

Daniel then immediately prays, confessing Israel’s and his own sins. What struck me is how often I fail to do the same. I read Scripture but fail to immediately turn to the Lord and discuss with Him how it applies to me. I expect the Lord to communicate to me through His Word, but my prayer often fails to reflect that. My prayer can be disconnected from what His word is teaching. Let’s put the two together. Read God’s word, rehearsing what we see needs to change by bringing it up immediately in prayer with Him. Without a two way conversation—no wonder our prayer life can sometimes feel very “dead”."

"Daniel is such a great example of how we are supposed to act and stand up for God in an ungodly world."

NW

P31: Women's Conference!!

It has long been known that girls just want to have fun, but this past weekend at an all-girls, all-nighter event called P:31, it was really proven to be true! As the 170 teen girls and youth leaders poured into the church for registration, tons of energy also poured in. The excited girls chattered away with our female Bible Institute helpers and other staff, and friendships were formed even before the event had fully started. We had some lady staff join us from the Word of Life campus in Schroon Lake, New York. Hayley Miller and Ellen Garland were the speakers. These two ladies, along with some other female staff, do ladies conferences in the US, and it was a privilege to have them join us in Canada for our first ever girl’s all-nighter event! The theme this year was “Metamorphosis.” Many butterflies decorated the church to remind us of the beautiful transformation that can happen in a life devoted to God.

            The night kicked off with some fun “Minute to win-it” style activities and oodles of prizes were given away. Then, our opening session began with some praise and worship, a thought provoking skit, and a challenging message spoken by Hayley Miller. She tied the gospel into a message about contentment in our materialistic world. Some of the girls responded to a gospel invitation, and also to a challenge to make God the source of contentment in their lives.

The Praise Team was formed from Bible Institute Alumni from BOTH our Sherbrooke, PQ and Owen Sound, ON campuses!

From P 31

            This session was followed by a short break, and then a split session for Sr. and Jr. High ages. Ellen Garland spoke to the Jr. High girls, while Hayley continued with the Sr. Highers. An evening snack of pizza followed this second session, and then our final session of the night in which Ellen exhorted the girls to learn wait for God’s timing as she spoke on the value and virtue of patience.

            After the sessions were over for the night, the activities began! Different rooms in the church were set up for different types of "girly" fun. There was a room set up like a beauty salon in which the girls could get their hair done. There was a nail painting room, a jewelry making room, a pedicure room, a flip flop decorating room, and even a candy room in which girls could indulge in all the candy, popcorn, and pop their little hearts desired! A favorite was of course the inflatable obstacle course, on which many shrieks could be heard, and many a hair stood on end, due to static. The energy never ran out. Even into the wee hours of the night, the girls were singing loudly at “Don’t forget the Christian Lyrics” and laughing uncontrollably.  It was a great bonding time for the girls to get closer to their youth leaders. The fun environment also made it less intimidating for some of the girls to talk to their leaders or the women staffing the event about things that were troubling them in their lives and their walks with God. It certainly was a blessing to be surrounded by other sisters in Christ, to encourage each other, and praise God together. Many girls heard the gospel, and were reminded how much God loved them.

            Over all, the event went smoothly, it was a great time, and God’s word did its work in many lives!

"It was great to reconnect with girls from snow camp, and was awesome to be able to counsel the girls and to see them go from darkness to light when they started to understand the Gospel.  It was sweet to see that the change in them was actually genuine.  I just loved it because this is the type of ministry that I want to be in!!"

From P 31

"This past weekend was a great time to see God work in the lives of young girls.  Some conversations that we had with them led to the Gospel and opened up opportunities to minister to them and strengthen them in their faith in Christ.  It is sweet to see that even at a young age you can grasp the peace of God."

"It was amazing to be surrounded by other young women all night and be able to just show Christ's love to them!  I loved being able to hear only voices of my sisters in Christ when we were singing during praise and worship time!"

The P31 WOL Staff/Alumni Crew

From P 31

And finally, a big thanks to our Local Church Ministry staff wives, Amy Speck & Lindsey Lyons for coordinating this great night together!

For more P:31 pics and info check out the Facebook page

AP