Look­ing Back on GO Week

MISHAWAKA – With the end of Bethel’s Go Week, it’s time to re­flect on the chapel ser­vices fea­tured as part of the con­fer­ence. 

On Mon­day, Jan. 20, Bethel chapel-go­ers sat in on a panel about the his­tory and mod­ern in­ter­pre­ta­tion of Mar­tin Luther King Jr. Day. Ques­tions were posed to a col­lec­tion of guests and staff by Dr. Cris­t­ian Mi­hut, as­so­ci­ate pro­fes­sor of phi­los­o­phy. Ques­tions fo­cused on the “white-wash­ing” of the hol­i­day, as well as what it means for peo­ple of var­i­ous eth­nic­i­ties to cel­e­brate it. Each mem­ber of the panel brought a di­verse col­lec­tion of in­sights to bear. 

Wednes­day, Jan. 22, the leader of Elkhart County Jail’s Prison Min­istry, Cory Mar­tin, gave his tes­ti­mony to the as­sem­bled stu­dents. He de­scribed his back­ground and the many jobs he had held be­fore ar­riv­ing at his cur­rent po­si­tion as the min­istry leader in a prison. Mar­tin spoke on the po­tency of the min­istry in the Elkhart County Jail and the re­mark­able re­sponse of sev­eral of the in­mates there. His unique po­si­tion and ex­pe­ri­ences made him a cap­ti­vat­ing speaker and an ex­cel­lent ex­am­ple of what it means to serve the com­mu­nity. 

Fri­day, Jan. 24, Dr. Sharon shared about her mis­sion­ary work around the world on Bethel’s stage. She spoke at length about her ex­pe­ri­ences with those in less for­tu­nate cir­cum­stances than her­self, and the im­por­tance of shar­ing the Good News with them. Dr. Sharon em­pha­sized the im­por­tance of the power in the Word of God, and how, in her ex­pe­ri­ence, it has done in­cred­i­ble things for her and the in­di­vid­u­als she has worked with. Dr. Sharon is a paragon of a mis­sion­ary and has no end of won­der­ful sto­ries about the work of God. 

Dr. Shawn Holt­gren, the Vice Pres­i­dent for Stu­dent De­vel­op­ment, be­lieves that GO Week has been an ef­fi­ca­cious time for the cam­pus. 

“I think it’s been a fan­tas­tic week of giv­ing stu­dents a pic­ture of what God is do­ing in the world, here in our own Jerusalem, to the ends of the Earth, and how we have a part in that,” Holt­gren said. “My prayer has al­ways been that these chapels would be ac­ces­si­ble to stu­dents, but also in­spi­ra­tional – to let us know that we don’t have to be called to Africa to be a ser­vant of the Lord or some­one called into His mis­sion, we can be called right here to­day, and, just like we heard this morn­ing from Dr. Sharon, we’re to be His wit­nesses.”  

Holt­gren hopes that GO Week en­cour­aged stu­dents to step out­side their com­fort zone and be a wit­ness right where they are. 

“We can tes­tify wher­ever we go and it does­n’t need to be com­plex,” Holt­gren said. “It’s just telling one per­son what Je­sus has done in our own lives; so, yeah, I’ve been real pleased with it.”