where are they now? BY MIKE BUSH (‘81)
Please share how God met with you in the loss of your young son, John, your wife, Leslie, and your adult son, Steve? Our family can identify with Job, the oldest story in the Bible. I especially like the end when Creator God shows up (having been present from the beginning). He opens Job’s eyes to see, commands him to pray for his friends, and blesses the latter part of his life more than the first. We are humbled. Repentance precedes the blessings. Psalm 128 sums up our relationship in and around Word of Life. We are blessed in the fear of God…walking, even stumbling at times, in His ways. Describe a highlight of your time while on staff? Sitting on stage during a graduation ceremony watching lives passing by knowing the transformation in each life and weeping for joy. Where ARE you now and what are you doing? Brenda and I live in Winchester, Virginia, and actively serve in our local church. Aleya and her husband, Brian, and our son, Paul, also live in Virginia. Our daughter-in- law, Tracy, (Steve’s widow) is raising their two daughters in Maryland. Tim ('93 & '94) and his wife, Sherilyn, live in Florida and have two sons in college. Bethany and her husband, Ken, also live in Florida with their three sons and two daughters. Mark and his wife, Erin, have a son and three daughters and live in Maryland. Crystal, and her husband, David, live in Germany with their son and two daughters. Please pray for our family (31 altogether) to connect more and for Tracy raising their children alone. What words of encouragement and/or exhortation do you have for our alumni? Be or find a small safe community of believers in THE Christ who died for our sins according to the Scriptures. Love and worship Him who dwells inside and honor each other doing everyday life so outsiders may know above all else that He is God.
an interview with Ray Namie
When I was a student at the Bible Institute, if Ray Namie’s name was mentioned, we often heard “Ray who? Who Ray!!” I first met Ray (our Area Missionary) as a teen in a Word of Life Club at my local church. Four years later I arrived at the Bible Institute and found out that he was the Dean of Men. Many years have transpired since then, and I recently asked Ray to tell us his story. How did you get connected to Word of Life? In 1969 soon after leaving the United States Air Force stationed at Pease AFB, I was hired as a police officer with the Police Department in Hampton, New Hampshire. Leslie and I were newly married and were expecting Stephen, our first of six children, when Wayne Lewis and Ray Beless, Word of Life Local Church Ministries leaders, came to our town. Leslie and I were youth leaders in our church, and we began praying daily with Phil Barton, a local pastor, and Stan Piepgrass, a high school teacher, for better teen and police relations. God answered with our first convert; his name was Rod Hersey. In my cruiser, he first received the Good News and then the bad news … a ticket. Soon over 60 teens came to Christ. We started a club in our church, went to Snowcamp and saw amazing transformation in lives. We personally began to see His work in us and were encouraged to attend candidate school for the Word of Life Clubs ministry with the recommendation to attend the Bible Institute (graduated with the Class of 1972). What areas of the ministry did you serve in? During our first year with the Clubs Ministry, our second son, John, was born in Glens Falls Hospital (after a Chinese meal…see memory from Paul Brownback in a previous edition of the Experience Magazine). As Area Missionaries, we lived and served in various areas of New York. In 1977, I started as the Dean of Men and lived on campus next to Council Hall…not knowing how much we would need the family of Christ in some of the hardest times of our lives. Later I served as Dean of Ministries and then Director of the Family Campground (The Pines).
Ray Namie
Ray and Brenda Namie currently live in Virgina. Ray is retired but continues to disciple men and he also renovates houses.
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