Welcome to healing the land with Kevin Mitschelen, brought to us by pure assembly.
Welcome to healing the land. My name is Kevin Mitschelen. And I'm so glad that you're with us, I just want to remind you folks that we are going through 180 days of prayer, and just that so those of you who are following with that, you're more Welcome to go pure assembly COMM And we'd love to kind of walk you through that we believe and the power of prayer at pure assembly, and I know that if you're listening to show you probably have that those same thoughts as well. And because we love Jesus Christ, and we want to be able to connect. And as the church that I go to, we've been studying this book where we talk about walking with God. And so when you pray, that is a great avenue, to be able to walk with God that praying is almost It is like breathing for your soul. So feel free to go to pure assembly COMM But so I've got that out of the way, I'd like to be able to just have two of my fast friends that we actually go to the same church. And so it makes it very simple and easy to have. My my my friends here today, and we're going to talk about the one that we know that is the Savior of our soul. But we're also on on kind of the other end of that on how their lives are being used through an organization called Bethel University, and in particularly even a subset of that. And I'm so glad you're here. Yeah.
Thanks for having us. Yeah,
no, thank you. So if I could, the first question I always ask everybody is because it's good to know also, your testimony eventually. But do you folks do to love Jesus?
Yeah, absolutely. Yes, we do. Yes.
And we always kind of treat this as a little bit of a podcast kind of format, where I wish I had a cup of coffee. I love coffee. So I wish I had that. So if you just kind of sit that that puts me in a more relaxed mood. But if you could share just a little bit, you kind of state your name and just kind of share a little bit. how you've how Jesus found you and you found Jesus.
Well, my name is Andrea Hellman. And Jesus has always been a part of my life, which sounds weird. You know, I met typical grew up in Christian home. But it was an in middle school, that I started to come into your relationship with the Lord and realize that he loved me. And that he had a plan and a purpose for my life. And the older I get, hopefully the wiser I get. And I'm I'm realizing more and more how it's all about glorifying him, it's really not about me at all. It's all about him.
Hi, I'm Christie mana Smith, and I'm the Academic Director at Bethel University. And I was raised in a Christian home, my parents were actually teaching a Bible club, in our basement of our home when I was growing up. And that's how I came to know Jesus. Same right around that middle school age, I kind of rededicated my life to Him and was baptized. And, yeah, I coming to our church, I've had a huge amount of growth, and just continue to experience the move of the Holy Spirit on a daily basis, which is just amazing.
And when I hear those, when I hear that a lot of times, a lot of times you hear a testimonial say, you know, I did drugs and alcohol and obviously, Wow, that's amazing. Yeah. But you know what, there's something sweet, isn't it, to be able to grow up into a family in which he was always going to be some hurts and some dysfunction? I know, I know, there isn't mine, in my family. But just to be able to have that foundation of knowing there is this Jesus that loves us and to be able to remember asking my parents questions like, how can what's the Holy Spirit, you know? And then I had to try to answer that. But so it's refreshing to hear your stories. And even though we had to do in truncated version, because we have a very big topic here, and that is what's going to what's happening with Bethel University and how that is being played out in more local venues. So Christy, can you just share a little bit You are the academic person? So can you share a little bit about what's going on? I think there's a lot of people that don't know. Yeah,
excuse me. So, during the pandemic, and prior to the pandemic, the buffalo has been trying to be innovative and creative and thinking about how can we expand our network of how can we bring education to more people basically. And one crazy kind of wild idea that stuck to the wall was this idea of an extension studies program, where we bring our education to either a local church or parachurch organization or nonprofit organization. They bring the students to work with them, and then we provide the high quality, accredited academic degrees.
Amazing that I'm glad it's stuck to the wall. So Andrea, how does your role in all this and how did you get involved with bu at this particular at NMC,
right? Right? Right? But napanee missionary? Yeah, um, I actually graduated from Bethel University, and started working in the admissions office two weeks after I graduated back in 1995. And that led to a 21 year career in college admissions and financial aid didn't know that. Yes. And so five years ago, God called me to something new at Nappanee missionary church. And little did I realize, five years ago that when I left higher education, that four years down the road that I would be reintroduced. And so we started one of the Bethel University Extension studies, sites at napanee missionary church, it's called bu at NMC. And I'm one of the site directors and I have the privilege of working with Christie, and with the students on our campus, it's such a joy and a delight, to continue to be in that environment. And to continue ministry in that way.
And as you're speaking about that, so I'm glad you're dedicated in that realm. And we talked a little bit before we start this show, it's always a good thing to do that. Yeah. The one thing that came to my mind was in is that the importance of what you're doing, you one of the emphasis is discipleship. And so when we're looking at discipleship, I, I said this, and this is a little bit revolutionary compared to some other people's thoughts, processes, and that is that I truly believe that this next generation is going to be the greatest generation this country's ever seen. And I said that to my son one time, who's now in college, and he goes, he started laughing. We laugh before you guys. Have you seen that people go to school with you know, yes. But they're honest, they're just boldface on is compared to maybe my generation where we kind of, well, we think something, but we went to this generation tells you, right, for the most part, but so how does, how does discipleship look? And be you NMC?
Yeah, so students are on site, every Tuesday and Wednesday, they have to be there on those days, and then Monday and Thursday. They're also they're completing some seed hours for their classes, and doing practicums. But we build into our program, it's not just doing coursework, it is a chapel experience. It's an opportunity that we call real talk, where once a week, they they circle up around a heart issue in the world, and they talk about it, they do real talk about it. And then they have a real talk groups that break off and meet once a week to go even deeper into that conversation. And then students get to do practicums. from the get go from their freshman year, they are getting hands on learning hands on experiences. And so that's not just running and getting a cup of coffee or whoever supervises you, right. It's life on life discipleship. And I think back to my college experience, and then what I saw unfold in higher education and the 21 years I was there, like you often had to wait till your junior senior year.
Absolutely. Anyone recommend anything until then? Right? Right. Yeah. And
you had to go look for it. And so our students are getting that experience right up front, but it is it's different from an internship where you're just doing the the low level tasks for someone, you are being discipled, you're meeting one on one with your field supervisor you are being poured into, we have a team of four individuals that are working in this program. So there were two individuals in the building that kind of act like resident directors, okay. And so it's one on one relationship.
That's not just discipling, they're able to get one on one mentoring. Wow, they're able to get that discipleship from the field supervisor she's talking about, and they're getting that hands on experience. Some students need that theory, right? They need to think about it. But it's putting the theory into practice where a lot of the learning happens for the students. Right? Yeah.
So if I could give you an example. Absolutely. We had a student last year. Both of us are coughing, Christie. allergies. Yes. So a student It was his freshman year last year, and he wanted to explore graphic design. So we set him up with the marketing person at the church. And he actually started designing the graphics that are being used now. Nationwide for the BU extension programs. And he would tell you, like I never thought that I would get that kind of experience in my freshman year. And people are hiring him to do this. And so yeah, just real life, real world world experience. But he's also working alongside somebody who loves Jesus, and somebody who's pouring wisdom into his life. And pouring life experience into his life helping him grow in his walk with the Lord.
I have another shared experience from another student and another site who she said, I don't know how I can fail. I have the site who's supporting me. People are walking alongside me through this educational journey. She's actually serving in ministry at another church, attending another church for the extension program. So she's connected to multiple networks, and she has these adults who are supporting her. She feels like she can't fail. I mean, it's amazing, right? Wow.
And you mentioned networks, Christy, one of the things that we do in the program is three times a semester, we take our students out and do some type of community service community outreach. And that's to not only give them a heart for serving their community and being outside of the bubble of their their local congregation. But it's also to help them build their network and to see that ministry can look way bigger and broader than being a pastor in a church.
Wow, I got to say, Wow, because that's something that is totally foreign to college, at least my college experience in most college colleges that I come across. So how did that get started? How do you How did that stick to the wall, since we're going to keep using, I'm gonna keep using that. So how, who came up with that? Because that's, that's something that I've been, okay. So I remember when I went to a plug my, my alma mater, Anderson University. So when I went to Anderson, the best grade I ever had, what, I wasn't the greatest student or Well, the best grade I ever had was summer school. It was a short program, and I only had to take two classes. Right? And so it was intense. But boy, I got the material, it's all because that I just needed to get the material in my head. And, and it was quick. And and So tell me a little bit about that aspect, if you could, because it how they get stuck on the wall. Right. So
buffalo has had an online system running for a long time, they have done these seven week accelerated courses with adult students, adult and graduate studies. And that kind of flip on that is let's try it with traditional age students. So let's try it with 18 to 25 year olds, and see if it works. And they're actually doing really well with the program. Because they are they're focusing on two to three classes at a time, they have the support of the site, and they're able to Yeah, just get their homework done pretty quickly. Because they're treating it like a job, they're going from eight to three at their site working on their classwork for a few days, and then they may some of them actually work another job on top of that, and serve in a practicum experience. So it's kind of a mixture of a couple of things, some ideas from other universities who are doing similar things, similar programs, as well as taking what existing structure Bethel had, and kind of flipping it and innovating it in a new way for traditional age students.
So why let me ask you this, why keep doing that on the traditional side? Are you prepared for that question?
Because I do think some students need that traditional college education. Okay, I think students need to live on campus. Get that community experience, the way it's designed in a traditional environment? Yeah, I think as Yeah, some students want that they want to go to different places, like a bigger city or a smaller town, if they're from a big city. So yeah, and
I love I love the Okay, being on campus, or that kind of thing. That's wonderful. That's a great thing, and get the campus feel. But I'm really I'm your, as a parent, I'm really selling the whole, you're selling me very, very well, on the concept of seven weeks. Yeah. And then and then having the fall break if you take the traditional year and that kind of thing. So that's, that's huge.
Yeah, it's great, you know, and I will say, like, on campus, students get an in person experience with faculty in every class, right? So my personal style of learning, I needed that, yeah. But this program is more of a hybrid, in that they have some classes that they're just working independently on online. Others are classes that that they zoom in and do a live class that way. And then at napanee missionary, we're so close to campus that we actually get a live professor that comes down once every seven weeks session, and does a live class. So we're getting a good mixture of it. So part of it depends on the student's learning style.
Unfortunately, we're always up against the clock. And so we're going to meet you on the other side. And, you know, if you're a parent or student or you're just interested in, please, you have an interest in this topic. catch us on the other side. We'll be back in just a few seconds.
Hi, I'm Dawn board member of pure and healing the land is brought to you by pure assembly. Your assembly is a nonprofit with a mission to heal the wounds of A divided and injured nation through prayer, unity, repentance, and edification. To learn more about us, check us out at www dot payoor assembly.com or find us on Facebook, just search for pure assembly. While you're there, we'd love you to like us to thanks for listening to healing the land.
Welcome to healing the lands. This is Kevin Mitschelen. And I am just grateful to be with you but also to, I'm very grateful to be with both Christie, and thank you for being here. And thank you, Andrea for being here Welcome. And that we can just share a little bit about a passion for education that goes beyond high school. And and then they can, people can get ready for the careers but also be discipled as well. So as when we were on the break, we were talking about various different things, but with the cost because as a parent, you know, I'm, I'm always interested in costs, you know, that's the budget is always important. And then the other thing, you earlier we were talking about discipleship, but I'm just kind of interested in where, when it comes to I'll go back to the cost. And then we'll hit some other topics. As far as you know, how, where does this go across the nation? And that kind of thing? And how does it expand? So who would be able to talk and dressed to the cost? or?
Yeah, I can speak to okay. So the cost is $10,000 a year, which is amazing, about a third of the cost of a private university.
So 5000 a semester.
Yeah, cuz when I was asking first, Mike, that's 10 grand, 10 grand a semester. But now,
it's a great flat rate brought the cost down, but the quality is still amazing. And I think that's what we're talking about on the break. I toured Napa, nice site, and all of the things that they offer to the students, that's one on one individual small group, building that community and discipleship around the students, we really are seeing, it's not a low quality for the low cost. And if
students are getting, if they qualify for federal or state aid, like in the state of Indiana, the maximum state grant i think is just over 7400. And the maximum Pell Grant is just under 6500. So I mean, if you do the math, and if you're getting those maximums, then that eliminates the cost for you, right, somebody taxpayers are paying for it, and we're grateful for that. But the student doesn't have to do that. And if you just get a small portion of Pell Grant or state grants, that helps further reduce the cost for you.
Yeah, in some ways, it's like what they have with the voucher programs, you know, with when it comes to, you know, like, kindergarten up to 12th grade, it gives you an opportunity to do other things. While colleges, if you have the Pell Grant, you'll have riffraff like me. I'm kidding on my own. Okay, so this is probably
the one of the things that excites me the most, though about the program is that it could be bringing education to making it accessible to lots of students, right? Yeah,
yeah. And the thing is, I see that Jess, but I used to work with crossing kids. And and you try to tell them, guess what? The generational, generational says, No, you will never go to college. That's not going to happen for you. But let's say a kid has gone through the crossing. I'm just, for example, just one particular problem is a lot of programs out there who has that generational thing of like, you know, no one in the family has gone to college, that's not going to happen for you. Because it costs too much. That's usually the thing. But so you've got this kid who's really excelled in academics, and that happens, they've gone through the weeds, and they get through there and they can qualify, you know, the lsats, and all those other things they can get in college, but does that cost thing that hits him? right between the eye? So the next thing you know, God bless McDonald's, got no problem with McDonald's, I eat your food too much. Okay. But I'd like to be able to see them go beyond that. Right, right. So your program does this. It does.
And in, in my years in higher education, I worked out in California for a while and I remember counseling a student one time, he said, You know, my parents aren't helping me. nobody's really talking this through with me. So we ran the numbers. Yeah. And he was gonna need to take out $20,000 a year in loans. And he really wanted to be at the institution I worked at. I said, it's not wise of you to do that. Right. Like, I can't advise that for you. And so we started looking at community college, because the community college system is massive in California. Yeah. And so I think of all of the students who need that lower cost option, but they want a Christian education. And this is a way to do it. It is a way to reduce that cost, be low to no debt, and still get that quality Christian education.
Yeah, so you get associate's degree here and you get a Bachelor's to
two year degrees and four year degrees in general studies in ministry. We have a multidisciplinary four year degree which is like the general studies on four year and then we are offering business marketing and administration. cybersecurity and behavioral and social science which that degree covers both if you'd like to go into site, psychology future or if you'd like to go into social work future. Okay, it's a great, great degree.
So let me ask you this crazy question. All right, if I can, let's say that that Bethel is as a national championship game with basketball, right? That could happen. co pilots. Can I go in there as a student and go, here's my ticket. What's that look like?
Yeah, so every one of our extensions site students gets a Bethel ID. So they are a Bethel student. They are truly we treat them basically as commuter students. So if there's something a commuter student can do, then they're allowed to do that as well. It might be attended concert or go watch it and murals are about like
the other week there was a food truck event at the university. And our students could have driven up from Nappanee and
which is not far No, no.
In that one of the really cool experiences right now is eSports is like all the rage right now. Okay. In the college and university world. And so Bethel has an Esports program,
and I'm old, what is that? video games? I told you.
And other people watch them play video games.
Okay, yeah. Down at century center, Bendix theater. Oh, yeah. They just built a whole arena. To esport. Really? Yeah. Okay. And colleges and universities. It's because it's STEM related. That's the interaction for college and university. It's science, math, technology, all of that. But anyways, our students and students at any of the extension sites can participate in these eSports programs because it's electronic. So they can do this intramural kind of thing. Even if they're at our campus in Hawaii, right.
Exactly. Amazing. If the internet's fast enough,
yeah. Very, very true.
So you mentioned why, okay, so what's it look like as far as because you're telling me also that not so far in this program, but this was one highlight this. This isn't just the sticking on the wall Nappanee? This is a we're going to expand this to other parts of the country. What's that? How's that been? And what's that look
like? Absolutely. So the extension site and Nappanee is just one of our extension sites. We have actually 19 more extension sites coming on. Some of them starting in Fall 22. with students, we have 11 this fall and 42 students in the program. So it's still pretty fresh. It's still pretty new. It's but it grew a lot in the first year, which is amazing. That is amazing. We cover states Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, Illinois, Texas, Arizona, Florida and Hawaii. Oh my gosh, not all those have students yet. But we're working on it. We're building the the kind of awareness of the program, building where they'll be meeting what that's going to look like. We've had a lot of the extensions
in you. You're working on Hawaii, too. Yeah, yeah. So however, I can help you with a lot. Like, well, yeah, you're the fundamentalist. Especially about February around Yeah. Well, that's exciting to hear, because you're not just saying, Hey, I'm just sticking to Indiana, which is nice in of itself. However, you mentioned Texas and other places like that, too. So it really comes back down if I can go back maybe to the discipling aspect. And because that's the key of what you're trying to do. Have you seen. You mentioned Andre, you mentioned some people, where they kind of hone it down a little more than discipling groups and that kind of thing. You know, and this is going to be hard, because you can always say, Well, our academics is doing very, very well here. You hear this, we get so many people like have four point nose and all these. But measuring discipleship, that's tougher, right? So how, how is that going? And there's no way to quantify that. No, no, right? But what's your sense? What's Spirit working with you on that?
So if I can think back to last year when we started the program, and the students that we had in that program, and think about conversations I had with them back then, and conversations I have with them today. And I can see the growth and the maturity. And I'm not, I'm not naive enough to believe that it's only because of bu at NMC. They have other people pouring into their lives too. But they were so immersed in the program that I would like to think that what we're doing is having impact. I think of the student that I connect with on almost a weekly basis, just to talk through life and some of the hard things in life and encouragement that I'm able to provide and pointing her to Jesus week after week. My hope is that that that is transformational. Right. And we know that that's what Jesus does. He transforms And so, again, if I can compare last year to this year, yeah. And the growth that I have seen in students, I go Oh, yeah, like, impact is happening. Yeah.
So what's your culture look like? I think you've already touched on it. But what's that look
like? Yeah. So at BU at NMC. Like I said, there are four days, they can be on site on campus. They have to be there every Tuesday and Wednesday, from eight to three. And part of what we do at the beginning of their day, they have a block of time, that's called heart prep. And it's essentially time for them, to have time alone with the Lord, to focus and to listen to him and what he would have for them in that day. And then every Tuesday, we have a chapel experience. Every Wednesday, there's a real talk session. Once a month, we do chapel with all the staff at the church. Okay. So again, it's life on life. Like, that's what's important. And it's staff members, learning from students and students learning from staff like it goes two ways. We start every year off with a retreat where we go away, and we we tell our story, powerful to know that, yeah, they get away for three days it is and connect with one another, get to know one another. And I mean, if you know, you do know Terry Bly, who is a site director there as well. And he has 25 years of experience of pouring into students and, and going deep with people. So that that's really the culture and it is life on life. We want people learning from one another. It's different from a commuter campus where and I was a commuter for a while, at a state school, and I would drive to campus, I'd go to class, I'd hop in my car and go back home. And so it's different from that, like it's students hanging out in the building, just because they they want to be with,
when we ask the students what what is their thing that they love about it is the close knit community that they have. So we know that maybe even the adults are impacting the students, but also the students are acting one another. Yes, well, that's so important.
Yeah. And everyone needs you have to have community. We were made as social creatures, right? And then but you if you come into this huge environments, many times, it becomes a different thing. And you can kind of check in and check back out. I think you're alluding to that a little bit with your experience. So thank you for being here. This is this is rich, and I feel like we only just kind of scratched the surface right of what is happening there. And we need to just pray a blessing over what's taking place at NMC but also be within MC but also these different places they're going to happen around the country. So thank you both for just putting a dedicated your lives into this very much. You're
welcome. You're welcome. I was just gonna say if anybody wants to learn more about the program, what what's the website so
you can just quickly Google bu x dot Bethel university.edu. And that will get you all of our extension sites and how to apply if you're a student. We have some videos on there you can watch and you can contact any of our staff. Yeah, one more time. Bu x dot Bethel university.edu.
Okay, one more time, because I wouldn't get it if I was listening.
Bu x, that Bethel university.edu
Thank you. Okay, now guys like me would get it so great. Thank you so much. And folks, thank you for listening to the program of healing the land. We we believe it pure assembly and healing the land that God wants to heal the land. So by SimCity take care of
Second Chronicles 714. If my people who are called by my name, humble themselves, and pray and seek my face, and turn from their wicked way, then I will hear from heaven and forgive their sin and heal their land.
Healing the land is brought to you by pure assembly. Pure assembly is a nonprofit with a mission to heal the wounds of A divided and injured nation through prayer, unity, repentance, and edification. For more ways to get involved and to be a part of their ministry. You can reach them@www.hp your assembly.com that's p u r e assembly.com. Or look for pure assembly on Facebook.