I love students. Enough said. I could write books about them. But here are a couple who have meant a lot to me. Walter Strickland III just started his last year in the MDiv at SEBTS. I preached at Walter’s home church, Valley Baptist in Bakersfield, California, when he was much younger. Walter has become a son in the faith to me. We have gone on several trips together, hung out often, and dreamed about reaching the nations with the gospel. Walter has always been teachable and inquisitive, asking more questions than I can ever answer, wearing me out often 
. But his questions deal with issues that matter. Here is a young man who truly hungers after God. I love our guys at SEBTS. I particularly love the guys who are teachable, who simply want to learn, and who walk in humility. 
Brittany Donald just started at SEBTS and has had an interesting journey here. The tie that binds Walter and Brittany is this: they are both graduates of Cedarville University in Ohio and were pals there. I met Brittany when speaking at Jay Strack’s Student Leadership University in Orlando, Florida. The first time I talked to her I saw a passion for Christ and a great potential to be used by God. So, we kept up over the next two or three years. Low and behold, she sent an email to me this spring, with graduation coming, telling me of her job search, thoughts about grad school, and openness to moving to the incredible region that is Raleigh Durham. So I gave her name to Dr. Bruce Ashford, head of our Center for Great Commission Studies. And he hired her. And she got here and realized the best degree for her is our MAIS degree.
So here are Walter and Brittany, students with whom I had contact at some level before coming, students at the same school, and now, unplanned, students of mine together at SEBTS. I love how God weaves a tapestry of life into each of us. I love the way He takes a brief encounter here, a relationship growing there, and puts it all together to show each of us His great plan. I love Walter and Brittany, and am excited to watch what God does in their lives!
