FROM THE PRESIDENT

A Bethany Education: Needed Now More Than Ever

BY GENE PFEIFER • PRESIDENT, BETHANY LUTHERAN COLLEGE

The events of Thursday, March 12, 2020, will stand in my memory for a long time—perhaps for the rest of my life. That's the day the world of higher education in Minnesota came to a screeching halt.

That morning, word was spreading rapidly around the country that spring athletic and co-curricular activities were being suspended at many institutions. College students traveling both within the United States and internationally were being recalled. And colleges throughout the nation were being faced with the difficult decision to temporarily discontinue in-person teaching and certain campus operations.

That morning, while the Bethany campus was on spring break, my administrative team and I met via teleconference to make the difficult decision that Bethany, also, would need to halt face-to-face classes. Our hope and prayer was this suspension of on-campus operations would perhaps only last until after Easter, and that spring break would need to be extended by one week so the faculty and staff could quickly prepare to move all spring semester classes to an online format for a few weeks.

We as an administration, faculty, and staff had little time to strategize a plan to put into motion. Instead, we simply had to act, and to do so quickly. Over the next several days we, you, and everyone else in the world got to experience first-hand what happens when a world-wide pandemic severely disrupts the fabric of American life—from corporate business operations and employment, to the way in which we worship, go to school, and live our daily lives. In short, our worlds were turned upside-down!

You can probably imagine what the pandemic has meant for our Bethany students. At a time in the spring semester when warmer weather leads to outdoor activities, and when long-term projects begin to culminate in performances, recitals, and capstone presentations, the very core of student activity on the Bethany campus ceased. Suddenly gone were busy classrooms with beloved professors, mentors, and advisors. Gone were face-to-face interactions with friends, teammates, and peers. And gone was the anticipation of spring sports, play performances, concerts, honors recitals, senior research and capstone project presentations, and student teaching, clinicals, and internships that provide real-world experiences. It all just suddenly stopped! Such disruption in the lives of our students, parents, families, and the Bethany faculty and staff certainly could have, and did, lead to much uncertainty.

Much has been written during the pandemic about how people in our society in this time of trouble could lose hope. Much has been written about the growing need for mental health counseling in these times of isolation.

In such times of crisis, to what does one cling? Is comfort found in warm, fuzzy Facebook posts? Or those found on TikTok, YouTube videos, or Zoom interactions? After the short-term warmth these things may provide subsides, what truly brings one sure and certain hope that everything will be alright?

The answer to that question, and the reason Bethany Lutheran College exists, has always provided the remedy to life's frailty and uncertainty. The answer lies in the foundation upon which Bethany's mission stands—the message of The One Thing Needful— that sure, certain, and lasting hope found in our personal Savior from sin and death, Jesus Christ!

That's why a Bethany education for young people and their families is needed today, now, more than ever! A Bethany education that has provided over 10,000 alumni great value in the past, continues to do so today, and will continue to do so until Christ's return.

Only at a college like Bethany can today's young people receive an outstanding experience in higher education that equips them for productive and fulfill- ing lives here on earth, and also engages them with what's most important—the knowledge that by faith each has a Savior, Jesus, as one's source of sure and certain hope.

There is no doubt we'd all agree that our worlds have been turned upside-down for the past couple months, and the outlook for the summer and next fall remains uncertain as well. This one thing, however, is certain. A BLC education is the antidote for what the world needs—both in good times and in times of uncertainty!

In Luke 24: 5-6 we're told these words about the events of Easter morning, “In their fright the women [upon entering the tomb and seeing the angels] bowed down with their face to the ground, but the men said to them, 'Why do you look for the living among the dead” He is not here; he has risen!'” Like the women on Easter morning, in Jesus' empty tomb, we and our Bethany students find sure and certain hope for our futures as we navigate this life, and look forward with confidence to our eternal lives in the loving arms of our Savior in heaven.

That's the message our world needs. That's the message Bethany provides in communicating The One Thing Needful!

Please help us make certain that message will endure. Bethany and her students need your prayers. We need your testimony to young people and families about this outstanding experience in higher education taking place on our campus. And we need your finan- cial gifts of support to help ensure this great mission endures.