It was my great pleasure and God’s blessing that enabled me to attend a small private college just outside London, England for four years in the early 1970s.
Located in the beautiful English countryside within the county of Hertfordshire the British campus of Ambassador College was about a mile’s walk from the small train station in the village of Bricket Wood. From there one could take the local commuter train to St. Albans for shopping and meals out.
Significant history was made there. During the early centuries A.D., St. Albans was a strategic Roman city called Verulamium, and may well have been visited by certain of the twelve Apostles according to church histories of the first century.
The Bricket Wood “Bomber”
As students we affectionately nicknamed this local train the “Bricket Wood Bomber.” The moniker had to do with the rocking rhythm the train carriages produced as they rattled down the rails.
It ran only from Watford to St. Albans with several other stops besides Bricket Wood along the way. Via its main connection in Watford, this rail line could connect you to the fast train bound for the British capital of London or elsewhere.
Thanks to modestly priced train travel in the 1970s, as students we had remarkable opportunities to travel both directions many times.
This English campus of Ambassador College (funded and administered by the then, Worldwide Church of God) was one of three that existed at that time, the other two being in Pasadena, California and Big Sandy, Texas. With doctrinal confusion and departure, overtime, these one-time purposeful places of education in God’s way (summarized in the motto: “Recapturing True Values”) dwindled and then diminished until they no longer existed.
Just like that spur of railroad from one village to another only lasted so far, so then did God’s people have to choose to get on the right track moving forward.
Similarly, in the Church of God today, we must remember that we have purposefully chosen to live God’s way of life. We, by personal conviction, have committed ourselves to reject the false, sinful and evil ways of this world. We – even today – must strive to recapture those same true values (condensed in the Ten Commandments) in our thoughts, words, and actions.
Back to the Ambassador campus
Though now gone, the many decades-long tradition of Ambassador College (and later University) has still left a spiritual educational trail for our thoughtful consideration.
By being fully invested in the true faith of Jesus Christ we are, along with our fellow brethren in the faith, continuing that tradition of educating those who are seeking the truth of the Bible. But that collective commitment only comes as we personally stay focused on our calling and living by God’s instructions.
Let’s recommit our lives daily to God our Father and to Jesus our Savior. Pray fervently that God’s work of spreading the true gospel – the good news of the soon-coming Kingdom of God – be completed before Christ returns!
– Randy Stiver
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