Steinbach Bible College will be handing out diplomas and certificates to 33 graduating students on Saturday. President of SBC, Dave Reimer says that 19 are Bachelor of Arts grads and the other 14 are one-year graduates.
Reimer says the 2023-24 school year has been pretty normal with no external restrictions to wrestle with, although there are always challenges for students getting used to college life.
Steinbach Bible College President, Dave Reimer He notes this was his first year as president, although he has been connected with SBC for about 25 years both as professor and student. And it’s been a good 10-months of building relations with the staff, faculty and students.
“And that been the highlight, I would say for me, that this has been a year of building all those relationships. It’s been very encouraging.”
Reimer adds that seeing students arrive at the beginning of a school year, shy, quiet, wondering, “What am I doing here? What am I doing in life? Who are these other people around me? But then finding that sense of belonging in the community. And then in April now, you know, eight months later, watching students take up leadership roles, step in front of the college crowd and leading worship and volunteering to be on student council next year, and knowing that they're going to be doing that in the community in the next year, that's intriguing to me. It's a beautiful thing.”
Reimer says their campus has been buzzing with activity with 105 students registered for classes, plus staff and faculty.
“So, it's very real community that happens here, it's a beautiful thing.”
Mission X3 students enjoying a meal in Thailand (Photo submitted)Reimer notes that some of the highlights from this past school year include “Mission X where first year SBC students live in inner-city Winnipeg for a week and second year students travel to northern Manitoba communities where they build relationships and experience the unique life for those families.
"And then, third year students went to Thailand again this year for three weeks and experiencing life with Myanmar refugees in Thailand, which is also life changing. Those adventures are highlights for the students.”
Reimer tells us what many of the graduating students will be doing this summer.
“Most likely, they’ll end up serving at summer camps across the province. And then in fall you'll have a lot of students continuing their education either back here or going on to university to establish careers and trades and the things that they'll be doing. And many people will be getting jobs. And some will be working in churches directly and in other ministries. So, that's some of the things they've been preparing for and almost all of them will be volunteering with churches, missions, ministries somewhere moving forward, which we are glad for.”
Reimer shares these words of encouragement for the Steinbach Bible College graduating class of 2024.
"Looking at a world that is struggling, it feels to me like we're an experiment, “couldn't we do life without God?” But at the same time, we'd like to keep the love, and the joy, and the peace, faith and hope. We’d like to keep those things, but ultimately, it's Christ that brings those things into our world. Instead, we are seeing anger and division in our world and that breaks my heart. And that is something that I'm hoping the students will recognize. That the whole faith, hope, the love and the joy and the peace are found in Christ, which is the good news of the gospel. My encouragement to the grads is that they are bold and confident in their faith. To go out into the world and do what they’ve been trained to do.”
Steinbach Bible College graduation ceremony is taking place on Saturday, April 27 at the Emmanuel Evangelical Free Church at 3:00pm. The graduation banquet begins at 5:00pm at the church for invited guests only. The Spring Showcase and Certificate Grad Ceremony took place on Friday, April 26 in the Steinbach Bible College Chapel.
Wed, May 8, 11:00 AM
Seasonal, Skilled Trades
Featured
