Andrew congratulated each student during the ceremony. (Click to enlarge)“In just two weeks, I’ve attended CBC graduations in Colorado Springs, Chicago and England,” Andrew said, as he greeted the evening crowd of nearly 1500 at the Stoneleigh Park Family Camp. “In each city the students are completely different but I hear similar testimonies. Each class has become a family. The students have been transformed by the Word and they love and care for each other as never before. Do you know what that tells me? It’s not the school, it’s not the teachers, it’s not the students—it’s the message that is producing this good fruit. Praise God!”

Student celebrating with family
(Click to enlarge)In all, 37 students graduated in a special mid-afternoon celebration in the Family Camp meeting hall. Hundreds of members of the student’s families came to share in
their joy.

Paul Flanagan, director of the England school agrees that this group has become a special family. “This particular class has more actual family members than any I have known since I graduated  years ago. Husbands and wives, fathers, mothers, sons, and daughters. Those family members added a special dimension to the feeling of togetherness at our graduation today.”

Student celebrating with family
(Click to enlarge)Perhaps it is the “Hannah effect.” Four years ago Hannah Terradez’s healing at the Walsall CBC conference changed the lives of her parents and both sets of grandparents (see Hannah's Healing Testimony). They all left house and home to attend CBC and graduated as a result. Today Hannah’s mother and father, Carlie and Ashley Terradez, work at Charis Bible College in Colorado Springs. Barry and Carol Dupree, Carlie’s parents  are remaining in ministry with the school in Walsall, as are Daniel and Linda Terradez, Ashley’s parents. For whatever reason, more family members are involved in the Walsall school these days, and like Hannah’s extended family, their bonds are special.

A special family bond (Click to enlarge)The theme verse for the graduating class was, Psalm 127:1, “Except the Lord build the house they labor in vain that build it…” This class is built on a solid foundation of relationship with God. That ties each of them into the greater family of God. Nothing can shake such a foundation.

We expect to hear great things from the graduating class of 2010.

Filed Saturday, May 29, 2010, 9:00pm, Stoneleigh Park time, AWMI Media Manager, Stephen Bransford