Witnessing Our Past in the Present

By Jason Gill and Krista McNeil

As the month of August 2010 waned, the administration’s anticipation of the new class only grew and grew. It becomes an additional season of advent as we prepare a place for our new students—our new academic colleagues—our new brothers and sisters.

The heritage to which our new family members can now lay claim is rich and deep, and the stories—humorous and heart wrenching—bind us to one another. Our personal stories, our institutional story, and the Biblical stories are the framework upon which we build our ministries and the future.

Though tiny Garrett-Evangelical is often lost in the shadow of Northwestern, its stories are not. Northwestern is part of our story and they are family, too. That Garrett and Northwestern are sister institutions to one another should be remembered. Like real family members, their presence is sometimes forgotten; they blend into each others’ normalcy of life. Each takes the other for granted.

Though the Northwestern charter was established first, Garrett started teaching classes a few months earlier than NU. For a brief time the name, Northwestern Biblical Institute was considered – clearly they made the better choice. For years the two schools shared students, faculty, and trustees.

In the 1920’s, either sadly, or appropriately, Northwestern changed its mascot from the Fighting Methodists to the Wildcats. Do names matter? Sisters often take their husbands’ names, but the familial relationship isn’t lost. The essence of the institution is preserved despite this transition. Over the years, Garrett-Evangelical’s name and appearance has changed, too.

The administration was acutely aware of changes in appearance in the last weeks before this semester started. “Where will the students live, eat and commune?” echoed through the halls between the scaffolding and power tools and the smell of fresh paint.

This was not unlike the August and September of 1923. Incoming students that year, Murray and Dorothy Leiffer remember that the Main Building was still being built. “[…] it became apparent that the concrete flooring on both first and second stories was not well laid, and President Stuart, a meticulous man who watched details and wanted things to be done correctly, insisted that both floorings be removed and relaid […] the noisy, messy work had to be done after the autumn quarter had begun.”

Of course, we are in the midst of construction now; building both new facilities and new communities. This year we celebrate both the most intensive year of remodeling and construction as well as the largest incoming class in decades. We can celebrate together such an achievement; that Garrett-Evangelical continues to change and grow.

This is shared as a gentle reminder that human memory is brief and institutional memory even more so, and to once again share the well-worn adage that history does repeat itself. The value of reveling in the nostalgia of family history is not only identity, but reverence for the delicate though indelible threads that bind us to one another.

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Jason Gill is the Administrative Coordinator for Admissions. Krista McNeil is the Administrator of Academic Affairs.