Testimony Corner: Dean Bruckner, Class of 1981

My year at Word of Life Bible Institute was one of the best three years of my life.

As a 17-year-old believer in Christ, I sensed a calling to the secular world as an engineer, military officer, or both. I asked God for wisdom. Our family friends David and Billy Giles (Class of 1978 and 1979, respectively) strongly recommended my brother Lee and I attend the Bible Institute. So we did, along with their sister, Victoria.

The three of us arrived in mid-September 1980 to picture-perfect chalets, hard benches, and the daily Quiet Time diary — the Word of Life experience. Thirty guys push-starting our 18-wheeler in Canada on Collegians winter tour, a missions conference that a hundred of us missed with the flu in the days before vaccinations, watching Dean of Men Ray Namie doing doughnuts in his van — with his family inside — on the frozen lake, and a two-week trip to Israel, Jordan, and Egypt all are indelibly stamped in my memory. But even more than those memories were the lifelong imprints made by the Word of God on the deepest part of who I am.

Life. The Word. That’s what Word of Life is all about. From where I stand, a more coherent, practical, comprehensive one-year presentation of the Bible, integrated into preparation for life, does not exist. For me, it came at exactly the right time, and it equipped me for all that was to come.

Since then, I’ve sailed the coasts of North America, from Nova Scotia to the Panama Canal, to Alaska’s farthest Aleutian Islands, and to the Arctic Circle. I’ve been to 20 foreign countries and studied five languages. I’ve lived a year abroad, earned a Ph.D in electrical engineering, and became a licensed professional engineer. I was the lead system integrator for flight tests of the GPS and inertial navigation systems of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. I got married and have three school-age children, served in eight churches and military chapels, and now teach industrial and systems engineering at Ohio University.

What does all this amount to? Absolutely nothing, in light of eternity, except what was done for Christ and His kingdom. That is the debt I owe to Word of Life. In that year, my spiritual navigation instruments and library of life charts were fitted for the long haul. If God’s hand has held my life on course during everything that’s followed, if He’s used it to touch others, if He and His Word are better known and loved in my wake, it will be due in great measure to what I received in the spiritual “shipyard” on the shores of Schroon Lake.

What amazes me is that it was such fun, too. It truly was one of the three most joyful years of my life, along with my honeymoon year of marriage and my year as a young commanding officer of the U.S. Coast Guard radio station near Istanbul, Turkey.

The Turks have a saying: “A tree can be shaped when it’s young.” That was Word of Life to me.

Refresh: Remembering the truth behind what we know about joy.

By Steve Nicholes

When I transferred from the Bible Institute to college, I was put in a dorm where students who decided to enroll at the last minute were housed. It was a bad scene and, to be honest, I hated my situation.

I had just come from the Bible Institute, where I was a big fish in a small pond. At the new school, hardly anybody knew me. I remember one of my Bible Institute friends coming up to me one day and saying, “Steve, I used to think you were really important....”

Every time I went into my dorm, I got depressed. That was a first for me. I was a pretty positive guy. I started asking God “Why?” The more I thought about it, the more depressed I became. It was like I was in this hole, and I was going down, and I didn’t know how to get out.

Finally, one day, in the middle of my depression, I remembered a song from when I was a little kid.

Jesus and others and you — what a wonderful way to spell ‘joy.’
Jesus and others and you in the heart of each girl and each boy.
J is for Jesus, for He has first place,
O is for others we meet face to face.
Y is for you in whatever you do,
So put yourself last and spell joy.

I knew many Scripture verses talk about this idea. “Seek first the kingdom of God” (Matthew 6:33). “He must increase; I must decrease” (John 3:30). “Let each esteem others better than himself” (Philippians 2:3). And the greatest commands in Scripture are to (1) love God with all your heart and (2) love your neighbor as yourself (Matthew 22:37-39).

I believed these things were true, but I didn’t know how they would bring joy. I was desperate in my black hole, though. I prayed, “God, help me,” and He gave me the idea to get together with some other Bible Institute alumni who were at the school. One of them lived off-campus, so I asked if we could buy the stuff to make chocolate chip and peanut butter cookies and make them at his home.

After that, we took the cookies to a nursing home and began to go room to room. I took my cookies into the first room. The lady sitting there was so surprised to have a visitor. She began telling me her story. She told me that her kids never came to visit her. Over and over, she kept saying, “Thank you for taking time to come and be with me.” The next room was a similar story — and the next and the next.

By the time I stepped back onto campus, my whole mindset had changed. I had finally stopped looking at myself and had begun looking at those around me who were hurting.

The path out of my hole really was Jesus first, others second, and myself last.

If we really love Jesus and put Him first, then we can enjoy time with Him even if we are on a desert road without anyone else. Then, putting others second makes us stop focusing on ourselves. I can say that I have never again been depressed like that in my life. The new focus changed my life and my perspective.

I don’t know where this article finds you, but as I watch world news from Jeju Island in South Korea, there are so many things that can drag us down. I hope that this simple but timeless principle will help you as it did me. Lift your eyes up to the Lord first, and then look around to others who are worse off than you and lend a helping hand. I firmly believe it won’t be long before you will gain victory over whatever is trying to drag you down.

“Jesus and others and you — what a wonderful way to spell ‘joy.’”

Steve Nicholes, Class of 1981, is the director of Word of Life Northeast Asia. He now leads the campus in Jeju, South Korea, with his wife Rhonda, Class of 1985, by his side.

A message from the new alumni director, Mike Bush.

By Mike Bush, Class of 1981

Hello, alumni! Don’t be alarmed — Wayne Lewis is still around. We just wanted to take this time to let you know about some changes that will be going on at Word of Life, and specifically for Bible Institute alumni.

Wayne has spent the last couple of years working on ramping up our alumni connections, and now I’m coming on board to help as the new alumni director. Wayne will continue as the “alumni director emeritus,” and we’re already looking at a few new ways we can connect with and serve alumni.

First of all, this marks some changes for me and my wife, Amy. We have had the high honor of serving at the Word of Life Inn since September 2000. That ministry has been one of the most demanding, stretching, tiring, exciting, impactful, fun, and rewarding things Amy and I have ever done.  We’ve seen God at work, changing the hearts and lives of children, teens, adults, and families from all over the world. We renewed old friendships and made many new ones. We served with some of God’s most faithful servants and loved being part of a wonderful family, including full-time, part-time, volunteer, and summer staff.  But, like they say, “All good things must come to an end.”

Now, we’ll be moving our focus to two things: connecting with alumni, and helping host the winter conference season in Florida. With alumni, I will take the lead from Wayne and continue to encourage, help, and support our 18,000-strong alumni family. Wayne and I have already been working with Greg Dyson, our new director of admissions, on events this spring in partnership with our Local Church Ministries missionaries. Wayne has called this our “Back to the Future” tour. We are encouraging alumni to attend these events and bring prospective students with them (“back” = alumni, “future” = admissions). We would appreciate your help with these events as well, as we hope to introduce many new people to the Bible Institute.

My other responsibility, the winter conference season in Florida, will be very similar to what I have done at the Inn.  I will host guests, lead Bible hour, and plan activities. I will also spend time connecting with alumni in the Southeast. We will be in Florida from the first week of January and return to Schroon Lake in April. Amy and I will be in Schroon Lake for much of the spring, summer, and fall, connecting with friends in the ministry and alumni.

We look forward to these exciting new changes, and how we continue to extend the reach of the Bible Institute by connecting former students and finding new ones. Please be in prayer as we make these changes, and we look forward to continuing the work God has done.

“I will seek unto God, and unto God will I commit my cause. He does great things and unsearchable, marvelous things without number” (Job 5:8-9).