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2010 Pinecrest Graduation

Graduate David Mwita with President Jack Picataggi

Pinecrest Bible Training Center celebrated the conclusion of its 42nd year with a graduation ceremony on May 8. Graduates entered to the processional song, “Jesus Paid It All,” and to a Chapel filled with proud parents, teachers and friends from around the world.

Twenty-two Biblical Studies and six Advanced Biblical Studies graduates were awarded diplomas, with graduates Ryan Maillard, from Trinidad, and Benson Ng’ang’a, from Kenya, also receiving ordination certificates from the Pinecrest Ministerial Fellowship.

Second Year graduate Alberto Rios led worship, selecting songs that had been a recurring theme and heartfelt cry from the students throughout the year: “The Stand,” “Stronger,” and “You Won’t Relent.” President Jack Picataggi commented on the song choices, “That’s why we’re proud of our graduates. Those songs show their hearts. They have given their all to the Lord, and you as their family and friends should be extremely proud of what they’ve begun and what they have covenanted with the Lord through their years here at Pinecrest.”

Dean Joanne Picataggi spoke to the parents: “Jack used the phrase, ‘You have given us your children.’ And I looked at them and thought, ‘Yes, some,’ but I see sons and daughters of God and disciples of the Lord. They may have come here one way, but they’re leaving another.”

The student body sang a special song of their choice, “When I Think About the Lord,” as an exclamation of thankfulness to the Lord for His faithfulness and hand of deliverance in each one’s life.

Faculty-selected class speakers Christa Callahan and Benson Ng’ang’a, from Second Year, and Ashley Dedee, representing the Third Year class, also shared on their experiences at Pinecrest.

Christa Callahan spoke on God’s love in the person of Jesus Christ. She said, “At Pinecrest, I found what everyone is looking for. I found Love. But I didn’t find it as a feeling, I found Love Himself, Jesus Christ.”

Benson Ng’ang’a urged the graduates and their families that it is time to turn back to God and to understand that we cannot live by bread alone, but we must trust God at His Word.

Ashley Dedee summed up her three-year experience with God at Pinecrest in one word: faithful. She emphasized that this was only the beginning, and that God still desired to do a transformation within each graduate as they left.

Second Year graduate Stephanie Polivka shared a song she had written entitled “Liberty,” based on the verse, “His mercies are new every morning” in Lamentations. She encouraged her fellow graduates, as Benson had, to believe the Lord at His Word to step into His promises.

Graduation speaker Jack Picataggi spoke out of Isaiah 54 and exhorted the students to not despise barren times, but to allow those times to propel them into God’s promises. He challenged them to enlarge their tents and that the Lord would, out of barrenness, produce what was even beyond their natural expectation.

As the 2009-2010 school year closes, we have great expectation for what God has in store for the upcoming year. Registration for the 2010-2011 school year will be held on August 23.

A Great Victory

“Immediately [Paul] preached the Christ in the synagogues, that He is the Son of God.” –Acts 9:20

Saul was the ultimate anti-Christian. He was so against the teachings of Christ that he petitioned for special permission to capture and imprison Christians and went around “breathing out murderous threats against the Lord’s disciples (Acts 9:1-2).”

And God turned him into one of the greatest soldiers in His army. Talk about a victory. Saul does a complete 180 and starts spreading the news he was trying so hard to stifle, going on to write over half of the New Testament.

I don’t know about you, but this gives me hope. I have noticed again and again that the Lord tends to take our biggest obstacles and make them His greatest victories.

I was in the Air Force for eight years and was discharged for a minor offense. I came home and tried to find direction, attending church with my parents out of obligation, but I was not walking with the Lord, and God was the last thing on my mind. I intended to finish my computer engineering degree and land a six-figure computer job. Of course, the Lord had a different plan.

When my pastor announced they were visiting Pinecrest to lead worship, I heard a voice tell me to go too. I thought it was my conscience telling me to be nice to my parents. I didn’t realize until later that it was God.

While I was at Pinecrest, I heard the Lord tell me to ask about being a student, and my mom suggested I talk to the Dean. I walked over to Joanne Picataggi to ask about school and said, “Hi.” She looked at me and said, “Do you want to go to school here? You’re accepted.” My stunned answer was, “OK.”

I applied and was accepted, but I didn’t know how I would pay for tuition. The day before I left for school, I received confirmation of my approved funding for Pinecrest from the VA (Veteran’s Administration). Now, I’m graduating from my third year at Pinecrest.

There I was—defeated. I was discharged from the Air Force. I had drunk away what little savings I did have and was stumbling around blind with no direction, when God set my path and took complete victory over my life.

I want to encourage you, especially if you’re going through rough times, if you feel blind and lost and don’t know where to go or what to do next: trust the Lord. He has a great victory planned. I didn’t think getting discharged was a great victory, but look what the Lord has done. Have faith in what the Lord can do for you.

- Chris Hannan, Third Year graduate

Chris and Hannah Hannan

My Father's House

My father takes down barns for a living, and he built the house where I was raised. I grew up with 200-year-old beams over my head and wood floors under my feet that my dad laid himself. He used such detail in everything. It was a perfect setting amidst a forest of white birch overlooking a pond.

I know what it means to build a house, the work it took. My dad’s hands and face bear the marks of his years spent building. He built a place where we could rest and be ourselves. After all, isn’t that what makes a house a home? It is a place of freedom—to come as you are.

Much like my dad, we too are building a house, but one for the Lord. Haggai 1:8 says, “Go up to the mountains and bring wood and build the temple, that I may take pleasure in it and be glorified.” God is calling us up, away from our own personal building projects, into the hidden mountains of our hearts to build Him a home where He can rest and come as He is.

He asks us to bring only our humanity and recognize the magnitude of what He accomplished on the cross for us. Because those two things—who He is, and who God has made us to be—bring Him glory.

Let us be meticulous in our caring for this house. The Scripture doesn’t say, “Let God come and build,” it says, “You build.” The Lord is glorified through the labor we invest into building our lives as a habitation for Him. Just as the house my dad built was beautiful in its completion, so too will our lives be. He is worth it all!

- Laura Swift, Second Year Student

2010 Class Trip

Pinecrest's annual class trip was held this year from April 23-24. The class trip is a special time for fun and fellowship among the Second and Third Year students, as many of them will be graduating and moving on from Pinecrest in May.

Friday, the group visited the beach at Long Island Sound and had a barbeque at student Evan Bolton's house. The night ended with worship around a bonfire.

"It was nice to have some time away from the campus, but to still meet God in the same way," said Third Year student Ashley Dedee, who was also excited about tasting salt water for the first time at the beach.

The group then headed out bright and early Saturday morning for a day in Boston. The bulk of their time was spent doing a photo scavenger hunt throughout the city. The students broke into three groups and were sent off to get pictures of the teams performing tasks such as "sitting on a fire truck," "getting handcuffed by the police" and "fitting everyone into a phone booth." The scavenger hunt proved a great way to see the city and mingle with the locals.

"Boston is easily one of the friendliest cities in America," stated Third Year student Chris Hannan. "I'm glad I got to visit it with this group; they really made the trip worthwhile."

Second Year student Stephanie Polivka said it was the most fun she has had in the last two years: "We got to meet so many people and pour out what God has poured into us."

Internship Report

During this previous summer and fall, I was able to do an international internship to Kenya, Africa for five months to help teach and work with local churches. It was such a blessing for me to be able to take what I have learned here at Pinecrest and my own previous experiences and go out and bless others.

While in Africa, I worked mainly with the PEFA Organization (Pentecostal Evangelistic Fellowship of Africa) and their local churches in the Southern Nynzia Region of Kenya. I travelled around speaking and participating in different churches, open air meetings and crusades.

I was also given the privilege of teaching math and science at Pinecrest alumnus Peter Midodo's primary school, Joy Schools International, and I was able to start an introductory computer class that will continue to give the children an opportunity to use and learn about computers.

I would say that the greatest thing I received from my internship experience was an increase in my own faith in God's faithfulness. He was faithful in so many practical things, such as giving me the words for preaching even 10 minutes before I was to speak, keeping me healthy and safe throughout my travels, and connecting me with and providing for me through the people there. There were times of hardship, trials and difficulty, though which God was always with me, but there were also many times in which God moved in miraculous ways that could only have been attributed to Him.

- James Culver, Third Year student

James and Pinecrest alumnus Peter Midodo

Coffeehouse

Pinecrest held its annual coffeehouse on April 1, with students, staff and faculty enjoying desserts, music by Emily ('09) and Gabriel Whittaker...and of course, coffee!

Anahi and Mayumi

Tori

Benson

James and Evan

Rebecca and Christa

Emily Whittaker