Alumni - M. Beesley

I was raised in a family that was rooted deeply in Catholicism. I myself was an altar boy. In my teenage years I was confused because I wanted to serve God as a Priest, but also wanted to be able to marry. For about 3 years I dated a girl I really liked, and wondered if this was the girl I should marry. I asked God to help me decide, but was still heartbroken when she broke off the engagement.

Sad and depressed, I happened to walk into a Baptist Church and heard the Good News of Jesus Christ for the first time. It was like getting a punch in the face. (Hebrews 4:12 says that the Word of God is living and powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit ... and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.) The things I heard from the Bible did not change me, but got me to thinking. I still missed my ex-girlfriend, and was always depressed. I thought maybe a ski trip would help, but fell and blew a disk in my neck. While I was waiting for my operation, the pastor from the church I had visited came to see me. Because of him, I knew what to do. Later one night when I got to thinking about how my life was a mess, I went down to the chapel, got on my knees, and asked the Lord Jesus to come into my life and save me. And He did!

I started going to the Baptist Church, and growing in the Lord. This gave me a desire to go to Bible College. I went out west to B.C. and for 3 years attended a very liberal Bible College there. Then I transferred to an Independent Bible College in Dunbar, Wisconsin. I had to leave after about a year because funds were low, so I decided to work and then attend Faithway College in Ajax, Ontario. During this time I heard of a Bible College starting in Moncton, NB. I called for information, prayed for guidance, loaded all my possessions in an old beater car and arrived at EBBI ten minutes before the first classes began in 2002.

Since I started at Emmanuel Baptist Bible Institute, God has blessed me in so many ways that it would take too long to write about it all. I was able to complete the Bible training I needed, and graduated in the spring of 2003. It was exciting to be a student during the very first year of EBBI. We helped each other study, and had good discussions about the things we heard in class. It strengthened and encouraged us to be around the teaching, preaching, praying and fellowship of the pastors who came in to teach. Students were treated like family. During the week the church people made sure that we had a nice, hot meal, and on weekends we benefited from hands-on ministry in the church.

Let me encourage you to seriously consider checking out EBBI if you are thinking of going to a Bible College. It is a school with godly teachers who genuinely want to serve Christ with all their heart. My testimony is that God has answered my prayers for guidance, even when I had not yet trusted Him as my Saviour. He will help you too if you will trust Him. I Corinthians 15:58 says, "Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord.