Change and Adjustment

Change has been the name of the game for Nancy and me during the last several months. We moved to Greenville (SC) in late June last summer to begin our employment at Bob Jones University.  I am the Academic Success Center Supervisor, and Nancy is the Instructional Resources Librarian at Mack Library.

We live in a two-bedroom apartment across the street from the main entrance to the campus.  It's a bit smaller than our home in Owatonna, but it's very cozy . . . and very convenient.  Our daily lifestyle has also changed as well.  Typically, we drive over to campus at 7:45 A.M. and then return around 5:00 P.M.  Most evenings, we are able to unwind at home during the evenings.  Saturdays are the most relaxing day of the week.  We often do our wash and also watch DVDs that we have checked out of the Greenville County Library.  On Sunday we attend services at Hampton Park Baptist Church, the church we attended after we got married in 1970.

During the second week of March, I played English horn in the BJU Opera Orchestra.  We performed Camille Saint-Saëns blockbuster work Samson and Delilah.  The production featured fifty musicians in the pit orchestra and at least 150 cast members onstage.  We put on three performances of Samson, and it was a rather emotional week for those of us in the orchestra.  In all likelihood, this will be the last time Dr. Dwight Gustafson will conduct a major production here at BJU.  I played my first opera with him in 1968, and he has been a wonderful mentor and friend over these past forty years.


It's hard to believe that there are only a few short weeks left in the school year.  The BJU Graduation will be Saturday, May 8, and the prospect of that event brings back many memories of graduations past.  It's part of the cycle of higher education.  New students arrive on campus and four (or five) years later, they graduate.  We get to know them, and then off they go to make something of themselves.  Those of us who work in Christian higher education pray that our graduates will not only make something of themselves; we pray that God will shown them His will for their lives and that they will do it.


All in all, it's been wonderful to be back at BJU with so many good friends and good memories.