Mizpah Ceremony Kicks Off New Year

Keith Gray invites parents to pray with their children on the lawn of the Hopps Museum, while University President Eric Anderson looks on.

For the second year in a row, Southwestern Adventist University has officially started its academic year with a service called the Mizpah Ceremony. Several hundred new students, most of who make up the Class of 2017, attended the service with their parents and faculty and staff on Wednesday, Aug. 21.

A family prays together at the Mizpah Ceremony

Russ Laughlin, vice president for spiritual development, opened the ceremony with prayer and the recognition that preparation for this school year began 100 days ago with graduation, but in a sense started 120 years ago with the founding of the school in Keene by a small group of Seventh-day Adventists in north Texas.

After music by John Boyd, Rudy Dennis and Marc Elysee, readings of dedication by representatives of parents, the class of 2017, and the University, the service moved to the lawn outside the Hopps Museum and directly across from the Mizpah Gate. Parents were invited to pray with their students, and then students crossed the street and entered the University campus under the Mizpah arch. Faculty and staff were waiting on the other side to greet them and welcome them into their new life as students at Southwestern Adventist University.

Dinner followed in the Leiske-Pultar Gymnasium, where students and their parents got better acquainted with the faculty and staff.

Faculty and staff welcome new students to the University campus.

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