Winkler Bible School Grads Reunite After 50 Years (VIDEO)

After nearly 50 years, the Winkler Bible School class of 68' gathered in the dining hall where as teenagers they met, debated theology and even fell in love.

"For me, a big benefit was I met my wife there," 1968 grad and long-time pastor Ted Goossen explains.

Along with romance, the school sparked a desire to know and love God in many of its students during its 72 years of operation from 1925 to 1997.

"It was a very formative time," Goossen says. "There was a growing desire in me to know God's Word."

For many that desire would remain, and the truths they meditated on would see them through many difficult twists and turns in the coming half century after graduation.

The class recently reunited July 7-8 at what is now the Garden Park Estates, a seniors housing complex, formerly the campus of the Winkler Bible School on 7th St.

Of the 21 class members, 16 made the trek to Winkler from across the country to connect and remember.

As part of a dinner and ceremony, the class sang their graduation song, the lyrics echoing down the decades, "Lead me Lord, lead me in Thy righteousness"

The words hold special meaning for Mary Rempel, as the song continues, "For it is Thou, Lord, Thou, Lord, only that makest me dwell in safety."

Rempel unequivocally won "best story" out of the group after sharing her daring escape from cannibal captivity in the jungles of Fiji.

After graduating from Winkler Bible School, Rempel would later travel Europe on a Cultural Exchange Work program.

The love of travel and adventure took root and Rempel later spent time exploring South America, travelling the Amazon, climbed Machu Picchu in Peru, hitchiking in New Zealand and working on a scallop trawler in Australia and scuba diving at the Great Barrier Reef.

However, in was during a stop in Fiji that Rempel found herself held captive by cannibals.

Goossen explains those gathered in Winkler earlier this month sat transfixed at the story. He explains it was Rempel's indomitable will that surprised and vexed her captors.

"They didn't know what to do with her," he says.

She was held for nine days before Rempel saw an opportunity and escaped.

"You'd have to live two lifetimes to experience all that," Goossen says.

The harrowing experience would not dull her love of travel; Rempel would go on to visit Alaska, China, Russia, and South America.

Since retiring she has also participated in two volunteer missions to Bolivia.

"God has been so good to me and has helped and protected me in the most amazing ways in my travels as well as in my life in general," Rempel says. "I give Him the honour and glory for all He has done in my life, how He has led and guided me in many diverse situations."

While not all grad stories held so much drama, each were marked by a unwavering reliance on God's Word.

Looking back, Goossen says their time at WBS powerfully shaped them into the people they would become.

"My grandpa had prayed over me at five years of age, "make out of this grandson out of me a preacher." Had I understood what he was praying I would've jumped off his knee," Goossen laughs.

But those prayers would start Goossen on a path that led him to the Winkler Bible School.

"I was just so enriched there by faculty who loved the Lord and trusted the Word of God, and challenged us to commit our lives to proclaim His word," he says.

Like many of the grads, Goossen went on to minister in a number of settings, both locally and across the country.

However, it was those lessons at the Winkler campus that would stick with him.

"We always had all kinds of questions, but one of our Bible doctrine teachers would always say, "Deuteronomy 29:29," but he'd never tell us what the verse said because he wanted us to look it up and memorize it."

Goossen did exactly that.

"The secret things belong unto the Lord our God: but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children for ever, that we may do all the words of this law."  
-Deuteronomy 29:29 (KJV)

"Our teacher would say, "don't focus on the things that haven't been revealed, focus on the things that have been revealed and obey them, and you'll be ok."" Goossen recalls. "I always remembered those words of advice throughout my years."