Anna Resurget

Today is the 25th anniversary of Anna’s birth. A very strange thing to say about a little 9-year-old girl. I have written elsewhere about the movement of Easter around the dates between Anna’s birthday and the day that she died on May 7. This year is interesting with her birthday coinciding with Good Friday. Anna, like all young and not-so-young believers, struggled with the idea of Good Friday. She had trouble understanding what was so good about the day that Jesus died. Here is a picture from Anna’s Bible and the note she made when reading about this day in John 19.

But like more mature believers, she also came to understand that this day was truly Good Friday, because it was on this day that Jesus won the final victory over sin for the sake of mankind. It was on this day that mankind could be reconciled to God.

We have a special announcement to make today. It is not yet official, but Timberley and I are establishing the Anna Christine Borger International Student Scholarship at Southeastern Seminary. This will be an endowed scholarship that will aid international students at Southeastern Seminary. We are expecting the fund to be officially established later this spring and will be awarded first in the fall semester and then every semester after that.

Once the fund is established, everyone will have the opportunity to help with this work. The scholarship fund will be a permanently endowed fund, meaning that your donations will help students not only this year, but every year into the future. We will give the details later once they are made available.

I can think of four different people that would want to contribute to this fund. I have debated what order to put these in, so if you think I got it wrong, please know that I probably considered your order as well. Or just take this list as a random order. But here goes:

1. People that want to remember Anna. There a number of occasions during the year when family and friends may want to give a gift as a way to honor Anna’s memory. Her birthday is on March 29. The day of her passing is May 7. You know about Christmas (it falls on December 25 this year). If at any point you wish to honor Anna’s memory, please consider contacting Southeastern Seminary to make a donation for this scholarship fund.
2. People that love international students. International students are a unique group. They have so many obstacles to overcome when moving overseas for their education. They are learning a new culture. Often they are learning a new language. Sometimes they have new weather to deal with. (I’m thinking now of my two Pakistani students who moved to Wake Forest in January. Oh my!) But a big obstacle for them is financial. Not only do they have the normal problems related to work and school, but they also have governmental restrictions to their ability to work while they are in the country. This fund will be a tremendous aid to these students.
3. People that love Southeastern Seminary. I have been teaching at SEBTS for fifteen years now. I love this school. We have a great faculty. We have a great campus. We have a great group of students. We have a great president with a vision for reaching the nations for Christ. If you know our school, then you know that this fund will help the mission of Southeastern to train students to serve the church and the world in the advancement of the kingdom of God.
4. People that love the gospel of Jesus Christ. Coming out of the third point are those people who love the Lord and who love to see students trained to become pastors and missionaries. These international students will very often be returning to their home countries after graduation. Sometimes they are sent elsewhere with the International Mission Board. But however they serve, our international students are very often our students who are most passionate about sharing their faith with the lost world around them. They love the Lord.

As we have things finalized later this spring, please consider contributing to this fund.

Timberley and I hope you will have a Happy and Blessed Easter and celebration of Jesus’s resurrection and our future resurrection from the dead.