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Summer 2010 | Volume 68, No. 4
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A Letter from the President
by Paige Patterson
Dear Southwesterner:
The current issue of Southwestern News focuses on just a few of our remarkable students. We faced an almost insurmountable problem in deciding who to feature because our communications leadership was overwhelmed with genuinely amazing stories of what God is doing with and through our students.
Of course, I am an advocate of education just because I believe that any individual who has expanded his horizons of knowledge is a stellar individual and more likely to be a contributor to the community in which he lives. But for all of that, I cannot begin to give adequate glory and thanksgiving to God for the privilege of working in a higher education institution where the ultimate concern is never education for education’s sake but rather learning for the sake of ministering to others.
At the average university, graduates expect to enhance their ability to draw a larger income, and this goal should not be denigrated. Those who have become successful in business or in a hundred other areas contribute to the social order in a significant way. However, Southwestern Seminary is an upper-level educational institution where education will most likely not lead to recognition or to increased earnings. In fact, to come here and graduate probably will mean to have less.
Nonetheless, the students featured in Southwestern News, as well as hundreds of others like them, will make an impact that cannot be scored on this world’s scorecard. Our Lord will keep the record; and when they stand before Him, they will be recognized for unselfish service to the lost and to their fellow believers throughout the world.
So read and enjoy what God is doing in the lives of a few of our remarkable students. To pray for these students is to participate with them in what they accomplish for Christ. When God puts it on your heart to give to our scholarship funds or to sustain our Southwestern Annual Fund, you are not just giving to a school; but more important, you are investing in the precious lives of those whose commitment is to change the world.
Until He Comes,
Paige Patterson
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