On Friday July 6, the first graduates, together with their teachers, families, pastors and potential students, gathered together at New Hope Christian Centre for a graduation ceremony.
The day was introduced by Richard George (pictured right with some of his team and students), who heads the school, to explain its aims and ethos. He stressed that there were only two requirements to join the two-year part-time course: the call of God to do so, and the blessing of the applicant’s church leader.
He also made it very plain that, although the School was linked to Cornerstone Church, he was not looking for people to join the church, but rather to go back to their own churches to outwork all that had been imparted. The School’s aim is ‘to equip the saints for works of service’.
Then nine graduates came forward to say what these two years had meant to them and what God had done in their lives … and to testify that it was time for them to go and put into practice what they had learnt and experienced.
Enid Jolley, called to be an administrator, said she had been inspired by the in-depth Bible study and the teaching on the history of revival, and she wants to do her bit to spread the word. “College,” she said, “has given me the enthusiasm and encouragement to do that.”
Several spoke of how the school had pushed them into being much bolder, and how grateful they were for that. Helen Watkins said she’d been shy, sometimes intimidated, and often discouraged by looking at others. But God had shown her the school wasn’t for clones. She said, “This school is about bringing the best out in you.”
Some of the students travel quite a distance to be at the school. Diane Fransham, who travelled by train from Lowestoft every week, spoke movingly of how she’d for so long felt a failure who had let God down. “I didn’t think God could love me,” she said. “But now I know that He does,” and she’s ready to go and serve Him with new vigour. And Bert Layman, who had just retired and was looking forward to ‘a quiet life’, found himself coming every week from Downham Market to be at the school. But for him it was well worth the effort, and he advised, “Don’t hold back, because God is faithful to His word.”
Bert was one of the older students but he wasn’t the oldest.
Mary Jones at 80 had that privilege, and she testified, “When I arrived two years ago, I had one and a half feet in the kingdom and half in the world; now I have two feet in the kingdom.” She had found doing the course with others “enormously sustaining”.
When Sue Neill turned up at the introductory meeting for the school in 2005, she was actually on the way to somewhere else. “I thought I was at the wrong meeting,” she said, “but by the end I knew God was speaking to me, and although it was difficult for me to get Fridays off, God made a way.” She added, “God has really wrought something in each one of us to bring about His transformation,” and a way is opening up for her to start teaching.
Common to all the students was a hearty recommendation to others to do what they had just done. “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom,” David Vignaux reminded us; he’d been learning anew to hear the voice of God and had, he said, “been blessed beyond measure”.
Eileen Heybourne said she’d seen how much more intimate her relationship with God had become, and she urged that if anyone felt God was calling them, they should go for it. Zoe Mason rounded off the time with a prayer of thanks to God for all that He had imparted during her time at the school.
It was an inspiring day but this wasn’t all that happened; one of the visitors, who had come with Zoe, listened intently to all she’d heard and at the end of the morning was born again! And to take it further, she is going to enrol at the school in October.
If you think that God might be calling you in the same way, these are the ways in which you can take the next step:
The requirements have already been mentioned; the commitment is every Friday from 10am to 4pm for three 10-week terms, starting on October 12; one monthly Saturday teaching day; plus joining a weekly Way of the Spirit group (time to suit you). The cost is £150 a term but Richard stresses that if God is calling you, don’t let an apparent lack of money stop you applying.
