Welcome Week

“All beginnings are hard,” wrote Chaim Potok. Certainly beginning a college experience can be daunting. Students struggle to make friends, find classes, settle into dorm life, and adjust to cafeteria food. The Welcome Week Committee shown here helps to make the beginning of college a little easier at GBCC. Members of the Welcome Week Committee greet each new student upon arrival. The newcomers are ushered to their dorms, given an informal orientation, and introduced to other students.

Each night during Welcome Week, the committee hosts a special activity. Devotionals, movies, Bible studies, and singing groups keep students busy in the evenings and help them make friends. Students also look forward to twice a day drawings for prizes. Backpacks, Cds, T-shirts, and “surprise bags” are awarded to lucky individuals whose names are drawn. The Welcome Week Committee organizes work projects that not only help improve the campus but also provide opportunities for new students to form bonds with others.

Welcome Week Fun

The students arrived on campus last week to begin a new year. As part of Welcome Week, the student government organized a chair party. Students collected plastic chairs from all over the campus and brought them to the ad building lawn for a scrub down. Laughter, splashing, and a few water fights mixed in with the work.

Off they go!

A guest post from Roy Merritt.

Northreach/Westreach funds sponsor George Benson Christian College students who agree to be missionaries in far-flung corners of Zambia. They are bonded to “equal time” – three years in college – three years teaching and working with the church out in the boonies where their cell phone can’t find the network.

We have just sent out a bunch of them—the graduating class of December 2009.

They went out in three main groups; Sesheke and Mongu areas in western Province, Mporokoso and Kaputa areas in Northern province.

They travelled and dropped off here and there day and night.

Some roads were good . . .

And some were not so good.

Car troubles happened every day. That’s why each group went with its own mechanic and his toolbox.

Trailer troubles too—one night this axle snapped. One wheel popped off and rolled 100 feet into the jungle.

They didn’t find it until daylight. Strips of inner tube held it together till the next town and a repair shop.

They paid the guy on the right to sleep with the trailer till they returned next morning.

Lukulu, town of plenty.

What it has plenty of is sand!

Western province is covered with deep deep sand.

No stones to throw at somebody if you get mad.

No rocks for little boys’ slingshots.

About half the students are married, and took their families along.
The singles looked like they were homesick about one minute after they unloaded.

Thanks for supporting this work!

God bless you,

Roy and Kathi