Enter through the East Gate: There’s Hope for Today, and it’s affordable!
A special place like SBC cannot offer what it offers without exceptional people like its Dean, Dr. Kathy Troll. As you’ll learn below, Kathy treats her students like family. Below, two students and a faculty member share their goals, their experiences, and why they chose SBC to fulfill their callings. If you are considering Bible college, but wondering if you are too poor, too old, too broken, you may find a place where callings are made real, and excuses left at the door. Enter through the East Gate, just to the right of the Sonrise main entrance.
Veronica Hazel – student
Being a SBC student has been the most rewarding thing I have ever done. With each class, He continues to heal my soul from the trauma of my past that started with the loss of both my parents at the age of three. So many of the classes I have taken have helped me know my identity in Christ and the Father heart of God and the presence of the Holy Spirit.
I feel God is calling me to start a healing ministry for trauma recovery using horses. I had a vision of this at least 10 years ago and was confirmed by a prophet friend 3 times. I was trained to be a facilitator for trauma recovery using horses 2 years ago by Elaine Davis of Unbridled Faith in Mankato Minnesota. This training was a biblically based training called Faith Based Equine Assisted Philosophy where we use horses and Holy Spirit to help people heal from trauma. I feel that having a degree in Biblical Studies would give me more credibility in my future ministry.
I accepted Christ twenty-five years ago at the age of 38. I was invited by a co-worker to go to a church in Monroe. I was raised in the Methodist church but my family stopped attending when I was eight. The main reason I accepted her invitation was concern for my 5-year-old son Alex, believing at that time that if I did not get him baptized, he would not go to heaven. It was the custom to baptize babies in in the Methodist church I went to as a child. I believe the Holy Spirit used the little bit I learned in Sunday school to draw me to Jesus 30 years later.
I have been a part time student at Seattle Bible College since fall of 2021. I never thought I would ever find myself in college at all let alone at this stage of my life in my 60’s but I have a sweet friend and sister in Christ, Jenny Anderson that was part of my Bible study group at Sonrise in 2021. She would share how impactful the classes were on her spiritual life and how much she enjoyed going to SBC. When I heard this, I wished I had gone to bible college. But then I thought, well why can’t I? Jenny was a great inspiration for me to have the courage to enroll. I thought if she could do it being the same age as I am and being visually challenged then I could do it too. And I also know the Holy Spirit has been with me every step of the way when I felt overwhelmed about the whole idea of going to college. Whenever I feel I can’t do it He is right there showing me I can.
I have grown so much spiritually over this last year and a half. SBC is nothing like what I thought Bible College would be. Our Dean, Dr Kathy, is so wonderful, and all the instructors are so supportive. SBC is like being in a small family. I so enjoy the activities they have for the students outside of class like the hike we took and the Christmas party at Dr Kathy’s house in 2021. I look forward to each new quarter to see what new classes will be offered and what new adventure the Lord will take me on as He draws me closer to Him by every class I take.
Below: Jenny Anderson (left) and Veronica Hazel taking a stroll during an SBC outing
Jenny Anderson – student
There is tremendous value in having a state accredited college next to our church.
My journey with Seattle Bible College began two years ago when I visited Sonrise Christian Center and heard about an interesting class being offered to the general public for practically nothing. I looked into it and enrolled. I have always wanted to go to Bible college, but the cost for my fixed income was prohibited (I am legally blind). I was delighted to find one so affordable right here in my backyard! It took about a year to know what I really wanted to do with any degree, but I am now on my way to receiving a Bachelor in Practical Theology.
Prior to enrollment, I had spent years of searching for a greater purpose in ministry, but not finding my thirst getting quenched. Additionally, after two marriages during those years and raising two boys, it seemed like my life was going nowhere.
When I determined what I wanted to do with my degree, God began to open doors for me to minister right here at the Reserve Apartments, a 55 plus complex where I live. Many people here are older but have never heard the gospel enough to have their lives make sense. God is using me to mentor some of them into fruitful lives for the first time in all their years.
Advertising for the college is largely word of mouth: if a student refers another who begins their journey to a degree, the student giving the referral receives 1/4 off their next quarter’s tuition.
The staff is incredible, and the experience cannot be outdone. The day always starts out with required prayer, and there are required breaks in all classes. The instructors make the learning fun.
Best of all, an enrollee becomes more than a student, but a part of a family that sticks together through thick and thin. And because they are a family, no one is left limping behind. We all work to keep each other on the paths that we believe we are to be on. For more information on SBC, click here.
Craig Spingath – Faculty
The Jesus Revolution goes overseas aboard the good ship Coral Sea
You’re never too old for SBC, whether you are teaching or learning. Even an old time veteran of the Jesus Revolution like me can find and offer to younger students a home, knowledge and training at Seattle Bible College.
In 1969, I was a nineteen-year-old, facing the draft and the Vietnam war. Not wanting to go into the army and face a ground war against the Viet Cong, I joined the U.S. Navy. The day before I left for bootcamp, Ann, my wife (girlfriend at the time), introduced me to Jesus. I rebuffed her, but that night, Jesus entered my bedroom, and I sank down to my knees and gave my life to Him. In the first year of the Navy, the Lord led me to the Navigators, a ministry that majors on the primacy of the Bible (reading, studying and memorizing) and also a lifestyle of evangelism and discipleship. That experience put me on a steady course of the lordship of Jesus Christ.
In 1971, while Chuck Smith and Greg Laurie were baptizing hippies in the Pacific. my Navy Squadron was given orders to go aboard the USS Coral Sea aircraft carrier, and head west to deploy to Vietnam. The Navigators were not happy with that assignment – not because they worried my faith would waver in the rough and tumble world of sailors away from home. Rather, it was because the USS Coral Sea was known in Christian circles as a Pentecostal ship. The Navigators, solid bible teachers and disciplers, were not supportive of the gifts of the Spirit: the baptism in the Holy Spirit or speaking in tongues. Regardless, my experience on the USS Coral Sea was amazing. Amongst the tumult of war and all the confusion of a warship, I discovered that on the ship, we were experiencing a Navy version of the Jesus Revolution that hit California, understandable because our ship was home ported in California.
I quickly met the Pentecostal men’s group aboard ship and Ship Chaplain Stan Linzey. He was an Assembly of God chaplain and “majored” on ministering the baptism in the Holy Spirit. It took until the 1973 cruise for me to finally receive the baptism in the Holy Spirit but when I did, it was life changing. During that cruise, I was chosen as the Pentecostal men’s group leader.
During the four years I spent on that ship, we saw 610 young men receive both Christ and the baptism in the Holy Spirit. Most of them are still in ministry today, according to Chaplain Linzey. We saw many lives changed, multiple healings and deliverances.
After my sea duty was completed, Ann and I were married, and I finished my last two years in the Navy at Lemoore Naval Air Station in California. We continued to see many saved and baptized in the Holy Spirit and one co-worker delivered from the demon spirit of witchcraft.
In 1976, the Lord led us to Melodyland School of Theology (MST) in Anaheim California. I received my bachelor’s degree in ministry and moved back up to Washington close to family. The Lord had spoken to me in 1981 when I graduated from MST that we were to eventually end up in the Seattle area and be involved in a new church plant. It took six years, but both of those words were fulfilled. The Lord led us to raise our three boys in the fear and admonition of the Lord and did not want me to enter into full time ministry at that time. That was difficult for me initially, but the Lord blessed it and our sons and their families are serving the Lord to this day. I went back to college and received my computer degree from which I supported my family along with staying in the US Navy Reserves, retiring after 26 years.
From 1976 to this date, I have been in ministry while being involved in three churches, the latest being here at Sonrise Christian Center. Ann and I were blessed to go to a Father’s love conference at Toronto Airport Christian Fellowship, which had been in renewal since 1993. That was life transforming for me as I received the Father’s love powerfully. My ministry style now includes ministering the impartation of Father’s love. In 2017, I was invited to begin teaching at Seattle Bible College, an important part of exercising my teaching gift. I have also periodically been asked to minister the Father’s love at the school’s chapel services.
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