MAGNOLIA BIBLE COLLEGE - 2008 SPRING CAMPAIGN REPORT

This year's campaign was held at Macon, Mississippi. This is the church where Therman Hodge serves as the preacher. Brother Hodge is an MBC graduate, an Adjunct Faculty member, and is presently serving the school as our interim Chief Administrative Officer. Our campaign was scheduled and held on Saturday, March 29 - Wednesday, April 2, 2008. The Saturday schedule only called for us working two hours. We began with a Continental Breakfast at the church building at 9:00 P.M. At 9:30, Therman encouraged us with a good devotional. We then divided up into teams and went to our assigned areas of the town to begin our door knocking activities. We had a total of 15 doorknockers for that Saturday morning session. There were several members of the local church involved in other activities that had to be done in order for this effort to be successful. It was a great start to our campaign.

On Sunday, March 30, Dr. Garvis Semore, MBC President, taught and preached at the assemblies of the Macon church. The theme of this campaign/gospel meeting was "Sharing God's Love." Dr. Semore's assignment was to preach on "Sharing God's Love with Our Neighbor" and "Sharing God's Love with Our Family." He did a tremendous job, and what made it even better was that there were visitors from the community present for the morning worship assembly.

Our schedule on Monday and Tuesday called for us to be at the church building at 9:00 A.M. for breakfast followed by a devotional at 9:30. We were out on the streets from 10:00 - 12:00, door knocking, handing out literature, and inviting people to study and attend the gospel meeting. We came back to the church building for lunch from 12:00 - 1:15. Then we went back out and worked until 4:00 P.M. Free time was scheduled from 4:00 - 7:00. All of us came back to the building for the gospel meeting.

The Monday night - Wednesday night gospel meeting featured MBC students. On Monday night, Marshall Eubanks spoke on "God's Love, the Kingdom of His Son." Willie Bob Gates led the singing. On Tuesday night, Norman Spann delivered the lesson on "God's Love, His Plan." Don Green led the singing. On Wednesday night, Ben Jackson closed the campaign/gospel meeting with a lesson on "God's Love, Where Do I Go From Here?" John Gardner, MBC's Academic Dean, led the singing. All of these brethren did a great job in fulfilling their assignments.

We covered all of Macon and a couple of other communities in the vicinity. We worked hard and finished all of the area by late Tuesday afternoon. We did not work on Wednesday, except for a few follow up visits. It is great to work when you are having fun and all of us enjoyed our time together and with the brethren of the Macon church of Christ. This was a very good effort for us. There were visitors from the community at every service. The local church was left with 20 good prospects to follow up on. Another aspect that was good is that two MBC graduates gave of their time and came and knocked some doors with us. We were greatly encouraged by Rick Benson, MBC graduate and preacher for the Union, Mississippi church. He came on Saturday morning and brought 4 of his brethren with him to help us. On Tuesday, Steve Shappley, another MBC graduate and current president of the Alumni Association, came and helped us finish our work. Steve preaches for the Beans Ferry church near Fulton, Mississippi. We had 25 current MBC students, staff and faculty involved in this effort.

We express our sincere thanks to the Macon church for their hospitality and for their desire to spread the good news of Jesus.

Next year's campaign is scheduled for March 28 - April 1, 2009 at Union, Mississippi.

Les Ferguson, Sr.
Christian Service Director