Psalm 107 is filled with repeated reminders for God’s redeemed to “give thanks to the Lord for his steadfast love.” It is also filled with repeated reminders of the devastating effects of forgetting God’s goodness. Meetings and chapel services on campus provide opportunities to hear of God’s faithfulness in the lives of students, faculty, and staff, and our alumni all over the world can testify of God’s faithfulness in their lives daily.
But let’s take a moment to take a long look back – 160 years – to reflect on God’s goodness passed along to us through God’s faithfulness in the life of a man born in Vinton, Iowa, on March 18, 1866.
Dr. William Henry Jordan wasn’t born into royalty. He did not make his arrival as the firstborn of 10 children with an entourage. He was just an ordinary boy from an ordinary family, but God used the faith of that ordinary boy and gave him a remarkable burden while later studying for ministry at McCormick Theological Seminary – a burden to start a Bible institute. And although it was 28 years later, God used the move of an ordinary pastor to Omaha, Nebraska, to open up the door for the fulfillment of a dream that had never died.
After seminary, William H. Jordan pastored both in Iowa and Illinois before losing his wife of 25 years. He had met Phebe at Coe College while earning his Bachelor of Arts degree, and they were married in 1894, shortly after William’s graduation from seminary. But now, upon Phebe’s death, William decided to pursue his dream of starting a school to train people for ministry.
Pastor Jordan moved to Nebraska without a job and with very little money, trusting in God’s Word that says, “He who calls you is faithful, who also will do it.” One week after moving to Nebraska, William Henry Jordan was hired by the Third Presbyterian Church in Omaha. It was this new pastoral position that provided both the necessary income and connections to begin the formation of Omaha Bible institute (OBI), now known as Faith Baptist Bible College.
OBI opened it’s doors in 1921. God remained faithful to Dr. Jordan as he served as president for 21 years, many of which were filled with the discouragement and hard financial times brought on by The Great Depression. He then continued to serve as a professor and director of the board for several more years.
The Class of 1946 reflected on God’s faithfulness when they wrote, “With this commencement season Omaha Bible Institute completes its twenty-fifth year. How good the Lord has been! Graduates are scattered over the States and two foreign countries, telling out the glorious truths they learned under the faithful instruction of Dr. Jordan and other men and women of God. Now the class of 1946 goes out to join them. All the graduates are volunteers for foreign missionary work. Next September, if the Lord should tarry and permit, a new contingent of soldiers of the cross can take their places in the Omaha Bible Institute because of the vision of its founder and the faithfulness of our God.”
For more than a century, these numbers have continued to increase. Let us also take time to give thanks as did the graduating class of ‘46 – to give God honor and glory for his faithfulness and for what he has accomplished through the life of an ordinary man from Vinton, Iowa.
Let the redeemed of the Lord say so…Let them thank the Lord for his steadfast love, for his wondrous works to the children of man…And let them offer sacrifices of thanksgiving, and tell of his deeds in songs of joy…Let them extol him in the congregation of the people, and praise him in the assembly of the elders…Whoever is wise, let him attend to these things; let them consider the steadfast love of the Lord (Psalm 107:2, 8, 22, 32, 43).
Sources: Soar (Spring 2017); The Witness (1946)
