by David Melton
I talk about Boston Baptist College to anyone who will listen — and I almost always get great questions about what God is doing here. It is a great part of my job to get to tell people — pastors, parents, young men and women deciding on college — about the college family I work with. In case I haven’t bumped into you lately, or we ran out of time, I’ll go ahead and ask some questions myself. And answer them.
So…how are things in Boston? How are things … really?
Baseball? Not good. Let’s move on.
Weather? Oh baby, it’s New England. Yeah, January and February are coming, but how does days in the 70s and nights in the 50s sound? We’ve been blessed with rain, things are green, crops are good. New England sweet corn will be on the farm stands by the time you read this and apple picking season means pies. Thank you, Jesus.
Campus? Full of students … higher percentage of freshman than in almost a decade … there is a lot of energy! This is such a great place to be. Lots of smiles.
Accents? Almost one in five of our students this year are from greater Boston! (How’s that for a place where a generation ago our Fellowship of churches barely had a footprint?) That means good listening is a must, though! Blend in a nice representation from Texas, some Carolinas, Virginia, Rhode Island is its own language, Maine is … well (Hi, Kelsey). Sprinkle in with all that some New Jersey and New York — and then some awesome international students from Africa and Asia. Oh yes, and the “perfect” English of Missouri, Michigan, and Ohio (Oh, pa-leez! They don’t even know how to spell “Wooster.”) We can entertain ourselves around here just asking people to say “water.”
Best Alumni Accent? Bob Butler. Hands down.
Next study trip? Greece and Turkey in March 2013.
Football? We only talk NFL and Super Bowl jokes aren’t funny.
Staff? We have a half dozen new people on our team and they are amazing! I counted up the church leadership experience in the instructional faculty of one of our freshmen. He will have over 100 years of full-time ministry experience in his five classes! That’s just who we are.
Gas prices? Not any better than you have.
Hardest names to pronounce? Sorry, but Mannasee Ngedasayo gets that. Great guy.
Hardest workers? Drake, Matt, Clayton, Josh … too many to mention them all.
Biggest surprise for the BBFI? How about “Devoted for Life,” our new drama recognizing the bicentennial of American foreign missions.
Reasons to be more excited than ever about our Boston Baptist College family? See above.