Fort Wayne Bible College - Vine / Light Tower Yearbook (Fort Wayne, IN)

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This first school closed in 1900, but the demand for this type of training reopened it In the early nineties the vision of the B. P. Lugibihl family caused them to leave the farm and prepare for missionary service in Africa. Being unable to go to the field themselves, they desired to prepare others for the Lord's service. With this work in mind their home in Bluffton, Ohio, was enlarged and improved preparatory to opening the Bethany Bible Institute. The Institute was opened in 1895, with the late Rev. I. E. Ramseyer, the spiritual head, and Mr. and Mrs. Lugibihl, the supervisors. The opening was a step of faith, and God provided the teachers necessary at the time. A goodly number of students, after attending the twenty- week terms, were better prepared for the Mastsr's service. Many of these original students have entered into the presence of their Lord, but there still remain many who are actively engaged in the Lord's work, again in 1904, with thirty-two student enrolled. Since more waited to come later, a change in the program was made necessary. An attempt to secure a larger and more central location finally led to Fort Wayne, Indiana. Numerous sites were suggested, but the price was always prohibitive. The present site of the school was suggested as a last resort, but the little group almost feared to ask the price of this ideally situated tract of virgin forest. However, their fears were grourndless, and they succeeded in buying our campus for the very reasonable sum of S1800. This amount was borrowed and work was begun. It is perhaps significant that the first shovel of dirt was removed by a returned missionary, Rev. Isaac Hess, since about one-third of the graduates have gone to the foreign mission field. ' Although the first building was not yet completed, classes were started in Fort Wayne the following winter at the City Mission on East Columbia t Street, and the students lived i.n homes nearby. The new building, ADMIN- E ISTRATION BUILDING, was rushed to completion in Ianuary, 1905, and the l l classes of the Bible Training School were moved there. , P , 1 H 1 , Y .. 'w,wl.',' MW 'J to JIJ1

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, av .- :Q .r . 'lx , t 1 ., -. 1 , , A 'll' tl ut 3 'li -1 . . .. ' The an services were from its earliest years a regular part ofthe school lite. The Quiet Hours also had their beginning with the school. These features have not changed. The growth ot the school made necessary other changes, however. ln addition to the regular Bible course a Bible-Music course was soon introduced. Several years later the Mission Band commenced the support of Rev, Clayton D. Steiner, a Bible Institute grad- uate laboring in Peru, South America. The steady increase in the number of students also made necessary an expansion of facilities. In 1929 an addition was proposed that would contain dormi- tory rooms and classrooms. In 1931 this building,BET1-IANY HALL, was completed at a cost of SBU,- 000 and was dedicated to the Lord. The tirst edition of the Light Tower was published this year. Since the enrollment continued to grow, the Annex was purchased in 1937, to provide living quar- ters for five married couples. The Administration Building also was quite extensively modernized the same year. Nineteen thirty-eight saw the beginning of the School of Correspondence which filled a definite need among those who could not be in residence at the Institute. Further growth demanded more room, until in 1940 plans tor a Music Hall were submitted. Since it was soon evi- dent that the original plans for only a music hall would not meet the need, they were enlarged to include classrooms, a gymnasium, a dining room. and a chapel. This much needed building, FOUNDERS' MEMORIAL, was completed in 1942 at a cost of S1l0,000. A further addition to the curriculum was made in 1944 when a summer term was added to th daily Chapel Hour and the Weekly Mission B d ' e regular schedule. ll