Alumnus of the Year: Dennis D’Augostine

Dennis D’Augostine, Class of 1999 and 2000, has been honored twice with the C. Sumner Wemp Award in Personal Evangelism. He earned a bachelor’s degree from Baptist Bible College and master’s degrees in both ministry and divinity from Baptist Bible Seminary. Dennis and his wife, Kelly, have two sons, Michael and Matthew, and live in Scranton, Pennsylvania.

If you’ve visited Word of Life recently, there’s a good chance you’ve noticed a few changes. The attire at the Bible Institute has gone from the long-ago class coat-and-tie policy to more T-shirts and jeans in free time.The Word of Life Inn is now the Inn & Family Lodge, and rather than a population of primarily young students and older instructors and elders, Word of Life hosts more and more alumni of all generations.

It’s an exciting time to be part of the Word of Life family, as Alumnus of the Year Dennis D’Augostine saw firsthand during Homecoming weekend this spring. His visit was his first chance to return in 14 years, and he welcomed the changes. Dennis says he feels his generation of alumni, from 1995 to 2005, has been disconnected from Word of Life since leaving the Bible Institute, and he’s encouraged to see the efforts to reengage former students.

“When I left, I felt like Word of Life was just for 18- and 19-year-olds, and if I wasn’t lucky enough to stay and work on staff, I wouldn’t have a ministry connection unless I was bringing kids to camp,” he says.

Dennis himself came to know the Lord as a camper at the Island, and after visiting this past Memorial Day weekend, he says he realized even more the immense impact Word of Life has had in his life — from that first meeting with Christ at camp to his life-changing Bible Institute teachers and relationships with fellow alumni still in his life and work today.

“Word of Life has so much light — such excitement and passion,” Dennis says.

He says the depth of faith and fire for evangelism he developed at the Bible Institute, along with his own entrepreneurial spirit, are what fuel his current ministry as a church planter. After leaving Word of Life, Dennis attended Baptist Bible College and later Baptist Bible Seminary. Through the seminary’s Project Jerusalem initiative, he eventually planted Steamtown Church in Scranton, Pennsylvania. He now pastors the church with three of his close friends and fellow Bible Institute alumni Peter Fox, John Wilson, and Matt Miller.

Dennis says his desire to plant churches comes from his “heart for tethering evangelism and faith to a visible thing — to making disciples.” He’s planted several churches and seen much progress in Scranton. Dennis baptized 12 new believers on Good Friday, his church recently purchased a new cathedral, and he’s started a Spanish-speaking ministry through Steamtown Iglesia.

This exciting growth is a testament of Dennis’s faithfulness to his calling — creating a flourishing ministry in Scranton was no easy task. In fact, Dennis says jokingly that anyone looking to plant a church in the Northeast “better have a handwritten note from God.” Steamtown Church ministers to Scranton’s inner city, where addictions, abuse, and alcoholism are rampant. It was difficult for Dennis to convince suburban families to join his congregation, and the diversity of the area made it hard to build a cohesive church community early on. But he, Peter, John, and Matt kept the faith, and their church is thriving. Dennis says the urgent message of grace Steamtown Church shares is worth the hard fight.

“In the inner city, today really is a day of salvation, because there might not be a tomorrow,” he explains.

As Steamtown’s ministry and network continue to grow, Dennis hopes to develop a church planting movement — and with Word of Life’s focus on evangelism, he anticipates Word of Life’s role in church planting will expand with new generations of faith leaders and with Don Lough, Jr. at the helm.

“Homecoming weekend reignited my heart for Word of Life,” Dennis says. “There’s a new vision focused on growing churches, and it will resonate with those of us [alumni] now leading ministries of our own.”

Alumni Gatherings: Spring 2014.

We're still locking down the details, but pencil in the dates and locations for these alumni gatherings this spring.

March 21: Capital City Baptist Church (Columbia, South Carolina)
March 22: The Summit Church, Brier Creek campus (Durham, North Carolina)
April 10: The Chapel (Goetzville, New York)
April 11: The Bible Chapel, South Hills campus (McMurray, Pennsylvania)
April 22: Bridgewater Baptist Church (Montrose, Pennsylvania)
April 26-27: The Creation Museum (Petersburg, Kentucky)
April 29: North Royalton Baptist Church (North Royalton,Ohio)
May 9: Faith Community Church (Gambrills, Maryland)
May 10: Fellowship Bible Church (Sewell, New Jersey)
May 16-17: Bible Institute's Owen Sound campus
May 23-26: Homecoming/Founders Conference/Alumni Reunions/Memorial Day (Bible Institute's New York campus)

For a complete list of alumni gatherings, visit wordoflife.edu/alumnigatherings.

Homecoming • Founders Conference • Alumni Reunions • Memorial Day

May 23-26, 2014

We anticipate alumni from all over the country joining us in Schroon Lake for Homecoming this spring during Founders Conference on Memorial Day weekend. Speakers for the conference are Don Lough, Jr., Harry Bollback, and our special guest speaker, Dr. Paul Dixon, chancellor of Cedarville University. The featured speaker at our Memorial Day patriotic rally is Lt. Col. and Texas state Sen. Brian Birdwell. Brian was severely injured on 9/11 at the Pentagon.

Activities for the weekend include a reception Friday night after the opening session, a camp tour, a golf outing (Saturday afternoon), family fun time (Sunday afternoon), and the introduction of the Alumnus of the Year. Accommodations are available at the Word of Life Inn & Family Lodge, and meals are available at the Inn and Bible Institute. We look forward to seeing you there!

Two reunions are in the works, but alumni from all years are welcome:

40th Reunion (Class of 1974)
Hosts: Dave Feltz, Joanne Scurlock Feltz, Elizabeth Bollback Nelson
Honored Guest: Dr. John and Janet Master

35th Reunion (Class of 1979)
Host: Daryl Bollinger

Preliminary Schedule:
Friday (May 23), 7 p.m.: General Session (Dr. Paul Dixon)
Saturday (May 24), 9:45 a.m.: General Session (Dr. Paul Dixon)
Saturday (May 24), 11:15 a.m.: General Session (Dr. Paul Dixon)
Saturday (May 24), 7 p.m.: General Session (Harry Bollback)
Sunday (May 25), 9:45 a.m.: General Session (Dr. Paul Dixon)
Sunday (May 25), 11:15 a.m.: General Session (Don Lough, Jr.)
Monday (May 26), 11 a.m.: Memorial Day Concert and Rally (Lt. Col. Brian Birdwell)

How you can help: National Volunteer Program.

Many alumni ask us how they can help Word of Life at the Bible Institute or around the world. Here is one of the biggest ways you can get involved.

The National Volunteer Program is an opportunity for people to use their gifts and abilities to help with the ministry needs of Word of Life New York. The purpose of the program is to assist our staff in creating and maintaining an environment in which students can be trained and equipped for future ministry, our guests can be refreshed in God’s Word, and the Gospel can be clearly proclaimed.

The program hosted more than 650 volunteers in 2012, including people who came on their own, couples and families, retirees, youth groups, and church groups. You don’t have to be a professional or highly skilled to volunteer. Although some of our volunteers are trained in a craft, many know just the basics or are willing to simply do whatever needs to be done. Projects involve carpentry, clerical work, electrical jobs, general labor, health care, housekeeping, heating and air conditioning repair, computers and technology, kitchen work, landscaping, lawn care, maintenance work, masonry, mechanics, painting, and much more.

During Memorial Day weekend last year, the program hosted 300 volunteers. They helped prepare New York for summer camp and the conference season. The volunteers accomplished much and were also able to enjoy our facilities and participate in the special Memorial Day service at the Bible Institute. Alumni who are interested in helping this Memorial Day weekend will be able to enjoy Word of Life’s Homecoming weekend.

Some of the major upcoming projects in the first half of 2013 are:

• All camps: Cleanup and landscaping; volunteers and counselors for camping season
• Family Campground: Build a pavilion for the youth program
• Inn: Remodel STC housing, upgrade roofing
• Island: Finish building the beach/dome bathhouse, remodel bathrooms, replace decks
• Ranch: Remodel cabins
• Bible Institute: Remodel dorms

We are indebted to the services of our volunteers. The support they provide cannot be measured.

The National Volunteer Program is a labor of love. Please ask the Lord how He will allow you to be used as a volunteer with Word of Life in 2013.

For more information, check out volunteers.wol.org or email us at nvp@wol.org. You can also call David McClain, our program coordinator, at 518-494-6369.

Alumni Homecoming 2013.

Alumni Homecoming will be this spring at the New York campus, where alumni are invited to participate in Word of Life’s Memorial Day Weekend, Founder’s Conference, and a Patriotic Rally as well as celebrate what God has done since their time at the Bible Institute.

Alumni from all years, but especially the classes who are due for five- or 10-year reunions (1973, 1978, 1983, 1988, 1993, 1998, 2003, and 2008) are invited to enjoy the weekend and take advantage of the special events.

The Founder’s Conference speakers will be Dr. Stanley Toussaint and Dr. George Murray.

At the Patriotic Rally, Captain Jeff Struecker will be the honored speaker. He served with distinction as a chaplain and lead ranger in the Black Hawk Down rescue mission in Mogadishu, Somalia, and was featured in the book on which the movie Black Hawk Down was based.

Struecker has been honored with several medals for his service and sacrifice for the U.S., including participating in Operation Just Cause, Operation Iris Gold, Operation Gothic Serpent, and Operation Enduring Freedom (Afghanistan), and Operation Iraqi Freedom.

Wayne Lewis and the alumni crew will also organize several alumni-specific events.

As always, we have special, reduced rates for alumni for the weekend:

Please call Word of Life’s Customer Service Department at 518-494-6000 to book your reservation or for any questions you may have. You can also contact registrar@wol.org.

For more information about homecoming, finding classmates, or planning your own events, contact Wayne at waynel@wol.org. We’ll have more information on the Word of Life Bible Institute Alumni Facebook page and here on the blog. Check the site for updates and to see who else is joining us this spring.

Recruit the next generation … and celebrate yours.

By Alumni Director Wayne Lewis

Another class has just enrolled in Word of Life Bible Institutes around the world, and a great year is under way.  Students are showing an eager anticipation for studying the Word.

As always, it is thrilling to see alumni returning with their children, and parents bringing siblings of their older children who are now alumni. As an alumnus, you are the greatest resource for new students, and I want to encourage you to start recruiting now for next year.

Please pray for all the staff as they teach, train, and disciple these students, many of whom have high expectations for what the Lord is going to do in their lives.

The Bible Institute isn’t just training a new generation, though — it’s also celebrating and continuing to encourage those who have walked through its doors in past years.

The biggest way we do that at Word of Life is through our Memorial Day and Founder’s Conference weekend. We are already making plans for May 24-27, 2013, when we welcome all alumni to enjoy Word of Life, reconnect with each other, and grow anew in Christ.

We have specific reunions planned for certain classes, too. Every class that has done a reunion in the past has been blessed beyond measure. In fact, most are planning to gather more frequently.

We want to encourage five-year reunions this year as well as 10-year reunions. So, Classes of 1973, 1978, 1983, 1988, 1993, 1998, 2003, and 2008, come and join us!

If you graduated one of these years, get on Facebook, the phone, email, or whatever, and get your class together.  You will not be sorry you did!

Click here to learn more about how you can help plan a reunion.

Here are some of the details about who will be speaking:

• Friday, May 25, 7 p.m.: George Murray
• Saturday, May 26, 9 a.m.: Stanley Toussaint
• Saturday, May 26, 10:45 a.m.: George Murray
• Saturday, May 26, 7 p.m.: Harry Bollback
• Sunday, May 27, 9 a.m.: Stanley Toussaint
• Sunday, May 27, 10:45 a.m.: Don Lough, Jr.
• Monday, May 28, 11 a.m.: Memorial Day rally: Jeff Struecker

Class reunions: How to make it happen.

We want to host special class reunions for the Classes of 1978, 1983, 1988, 1993, 1998, 2003, and 2008 this year at our annual alumni gatherings for Memorial Day weekend and Founder’s Conference.

We need your help, though, to invite alumni from all over the world to come and make the weekend a great experience for everyone. Some of you have already expressed interest, so we’ve pulled together some information of what we’ve done in the past to help you get started.

If you are willing to help coordinate a reunion for your class, here’s a “plan of action” that we found worked well for other classes:

• Form a planning team that will help you promote the event.
• Put a working schedule together and get it out on Facebook, asking for ideas. If more people get involved in planning, more people will be excited about making the trip in person!
• Take time to track down old classmates on Facebook, and start a group devoted to your class or your reunion.
• Work toward creating an experience, not just an event, by incorporating themes your class can unite around. For example, create class T-shirts, make a handout booklet, or have a theme of the journey your class will take throughout the weekend as you take part in different events. We’ll have several options for you at Word of Life, such as dinners, meeting times, campfires, or sharing time at Council Hall. But you can also take advantage of spring in the area and go to Glens Falls (shopping, go-karts, bowling, Martha’s ice cream, Great Escape), check out Lake George’s tourist attractions or cruises, take a family hike up Mt. Severance, explore the Adirondacks via whitewater rafting, or try any of the other excursions the area has to offer.
• Create some competition by challenging other classes, such as seeing which class can get the most people to come for the weekend or bring the largest family, the longest or newest married couple, or the lowest (or highest) cumulative number of demerits from their Bible Institute year. We can help provide judges and rewards.
• Encourage creativity from class members so they make it “their” reunion.
• Create “buzz” — keep telling people about the reunion, and bring up memories (or future memories you want to make) that will encourage class members to come.
• Tell us how we can help. We can send an email to alumni, post specific updates on our Facebook page or group, or use our blog to keep people updated. We want to make it a success for you!

As always, please let us know if you have specific questions. You can reach us at alumni@wol.org or waynel@wol.org.

Update from Alumni Director Wayne Lewis.

I am rejoicing in the way so many of you have joined the effort to “wake the giant” and encourage greater alumni interaction.

We have moved out in the Southeast, Mid-Atlantic, and Midwest with alumni gatherings, and your responses have been so encouraging. Additionally, several of you are taking the initiative to send us your testimonies and also share what the Lord is doing in your lives today.

Reading and hearing what God is doing through Bible Institute alumni is absolutely amazing! I have come to agree with Wesley Yerkes from the Class of 1986 reunion, who said, “Hundreds of thousands of people are being impacted each year through our class alone.”

This year we passed the 20,000 mark in the number of alumni from the U.S. campuses. You do the multiplication — that’s an amazing impact!

Thanks to each of you who are keeping in touch. Thank you for joining the effort to help deserving students, and thank you for continuing to be the number one source for new students year after year. Thank you.

Past meets present: How you can help.

Take a minute and imagine yourself as a Bible Institute student again. You’re looking at your dirty shoes and thinking of the next time you’ll do laundry, which makes you think of where you’ll get laundry money, which makes you wonder if you’ll ever have money again, or if you’re set for a life of being destitute, a la Paul, Barnabas and all of those pious people you thought never had anything in common with you until you ended up at the Bible Institute and suddenly realized that an amazing God had a grip on your life.

This past fall, one alumnus was in town for the Class of 1986’s “25-year mega reunion.” He walked the path to Colombia, his old dorm, tracing his steps from decades ago to the bed that had been his.

In his old bed was a current student, fast asleep at 10 a.m. after a weekend of ministry — the classic Bible Institute pose since 1970.

The alumnus took $25 to commemorate the 25-year anniversary and slipped it under the student’s pillow, bookending his journey with a gift toward the future.

The amount, he said, “wasn’t a lot, but I figured the students’ need of money hadn’t changed in 25 years.”

Think about what you remember of your time at Schroon Lake. What made a difference for you? What would you not give up if you did it all over again?

Whether it be a gift or a word of encouragement, let us know how you are able to minister, and we will try to connect you with students who could use your prayer or help.

We also encourage you to take the invitation from Word of Life to “come on home.” Take time to revisit the place where you spent a year — or two — seeing God work in your life. And, if thinking about your days at the Bible Institute compels you to help the current student body, bring a small gift to share with whoever now sleeps in “your” bed.

“And His mercy is on them that fear Him from generation to generation. … That the generation to come might know them, even the children which should be born; who should arise and declare them to their children” (Luke 1:50; Psalm 78:6).

Contact alumni@wol.org or waynel@wol.org if you'd like to learn how you can help current Bible Institute students.

Reunion Report: Class of 1986

Word of Life is always welcoming alumni to come on home for a class reunion, Bible Institute visit, or conference at the Word of Life Inn. While the main event for alumni to visit each year is the Memorial Day and Founder’s Conference weekend, alumni are also invited to plan other get-togethers throughout the year. Word of Life is also willing to help alumni plan local meetings across the U.S.

If you’re interested in planning an alumni reunion, contact Wayne Lewis at waynel@wol.org. To book a spot for the Memorial Day/Founder’s Conference weekend, which includes alumni reunions for the classes of 1973, 1983, 1993 and 2003 this spring, call Dawn Wayson at (518) 532-2290.

Here’s what happened when one member of the Class of 1986 got to work on planning a reunion for his class this past spring.

By Wesley A. Yerkes

About two years ago, I received a message on Facebook from some Bible Institute classmates who wanted to get together for a reunion that year or the next. I had been to Founder’s Conference, Homecoming, and Memorial Day events at different years, and the turnout for my class had always been small — 15 to 20 people at a time, and that was the largest of any class that came.

I thought about it and responded, “Let’s wait two years until our 25-year anniversary from graduation and have the biggest class reunion they have ever had.”

I wanted to make our class reunion different. Twenty-five years is a milestone — a quarter of a century! I thought, “Let’s make this huge!”

We started with almost a year of chatter and brainstorming on Facebook, throwing out all kinds of ideas of when, where, who, and how. Then we began narrowing our options and plans. Nobody said for me to kind of take the lead on this idea, but I had one broad goal in mind: to try to get as many of my classmates together as possible in one place, at one time, to glorify God with our testimonies and praise and to encourage one another in the faith while there is still a little time left in this life.

I designed a brochure, recruited a classmate to help me with some artwork, and bounced all of our ideas off the folks at Word of Life. Things really began coming together. I gave portions of the responsibilities of contacts and music preparation to those who were willing to help, and it really became a group effort.

Along the way, I was blessed to find so many of the exciting things my classmates have done since graduation. Many have thriving ministries. Some have become authors. Several are excellent pastors of local churches. Others have become school teachers, youth pastors, missionaries, Christian counselors, or are serving in many other positions of ministry that are touching lives around the world. This one class of Bible Institute students could literally be responsible or used by God to touch the lives of and bring thousands of people, maybe even a million souls, into the family of God in just 25 years.

“Our God is in control though pressures burden the soul. His sovereign plan is a sym-phony!” were some of the lyrics to a song we sang on the Daniel Tour, and these words still ring true in my heart today. Some of my classmates have gone through incredibly difficult experiences (divorce, cancer, loss of loved ones, loss of jobs, depression, huge financial struggles, and more), and it has been my privilege and joy to share their pain and their burdens in prayer to our Heavenly Father as well as to encourage them in the midst of their suffering.

There are times that I don’t understand what God is doing, but then years later when I look back and see the big picture, I see the “touch of the Master’s hand” in composing this wonderful symphony of life. If my classmates are encouraged and strengthened in their faith because of this class reunion, and if the work of Jesus Christ is magnified through it all, then all of the investment of time and energy will be worth it.

So, I would encourage other alumni to help us “awake the giant.” Get your classmates talking and plan regional alumni events with Bible Institute faculty and staff. Encourage one another in the faith. Pray for each other and share your burdens. Then pick a milestone year and plan a huge reunion in New York, Florida, or Owen Sound to come together and rehearse all the great things that God has done. Enjoy the Word of Life experience all over again as you praise God together!