August 20, 2001
The Hesston College community
gathered for Opening Worship on Sunday, August 19. The 9 a.m. service
was part of Opening Weekend for students, parents, faculty and staff
to celebrate the beginning of a new academic year at Hesston College.
Ken Rodgers, music instructor,
delivered the message with the theme of looking for the deep waters
in a dry and thirsty land. "I ask you, what are you thirsty for? What
are you passionate about? As an academic institution, we hope that
all of you, students, will find classes that pique your interest in
thirst for knowledge, and that these classes will quench your thirst
and leave you wanting more. We want you to join us as life-long learners,
or thirsters," he said. "As a Christ-centered community we pray that
you will also thirst for God."
Rodgers recalled Psalm 42: "'As
the deer longs for flowing streams, so my soul longs for you, O God.
My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.' As a community of believers,
we are committed to the living God that can provide refreshment for
our souls. We place our hope in the promise that God is faithful.
When we thirst and long for God we have hope in the future."
Rodgers offered a challenge to
the community of Hesston College to search for the deeper waters which
are often more difficult to cross, waters that hold many mysteries
that we may never fully understand. "It is those deeper waters that
can nourish our souls in times of prosperity as well as in times of
drought. And above all, may we be committed to Christ, the eternal
source of everlasting water. So that in the end they may say of us,
they are like the trees planted by the streams of water, which yield
their fruit in season and whose leaves do not wither."
The worship also included several
songs by the college's Bel Canto Singers and scripture readings by
Assistant Resident Directors Immanuel Sila and Deborah Diener. Faculty
member Maria Day and Admissions counselor Mike Stutzman shared words
of anticipation for the coming year. Campus Pastor Kevin Wilder led
a responsive reading.
Other Opening Weekend activities
included registration and orientation, Opening Convocation, a soccer
intrasquad scrimmage, an ice cream social, campus picnic and Mod Olympics.
Classes began Monday, August 20.