{"id":47241,"date":"2024-05-28T06:00:17","date_gmt":"2024-05-28T10:00:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/flbaptist.org\/?p=47241"},"modified":"2025-11-04T16:20:37","modified_gmt":"2025-11-04T21:20:37","slug":"florida-baptists-join-forces-to-restore-bluewater-bible-college","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/flbaptist.org\/florida-baptists-join-forces-to-restore-bluewater-bible-college\/","title":{"rendered":"Florida Baptists join forces to restore Bluewater Bible College"},"content":{"rendered":"

U.S. VIRGIN ISLANDS\u2014 After being forced to close its doors following Hurricanes Irma and Maria, both in 2017, Bluewater Bible College in the U.S. Virgin Islands<\/a> is poised for a significant revival. Florida Baptist pastors and their church members have joined efforts to restore the college, once the cornerstone of theological training in the Caribbean, and meet the urgent need for pastors and Bible teachers in the region.<\/p>\n

Tim Burdick, associational mission strategist for Lake County Baptist Association<\/a>, was inspired by the concept of pastors\u2019 vision tours he heard about in a podcast. He approached Jeffery Singletary, Central<\/a> regional catalyst for the Florida Baptist Convention, and asked him to explore the possibility of organizing such tours.<\/p>\n

Singletary, who has come to be known for his passion for the Caribbean churches, saw the potential and agreed to help.<\/p>\n

\u201cSince the college closed, we started to hear from the pastors there,\u201d said Singletary. \u201cThey have churches that do not have pastors; they do not have young men or women getting theological training. They have nobody to replace current pastors; we’ve got pastor-less churches.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Central Florida Baptist pastors volunteer their time and skills to repair Bluewater Bible College grounds.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The shortage of theological training in the region makes the need to re-open the college urgent.<\/p>\n

The stage was set for Florida Baptist pastors and their congregations to come alongside their Baptist brothers and sisters in the U.S. Virgin Islands to restore the institution responsible for training local pastors and Bible teachers.<\/p>\n

It was not long before the first vision tours evolved into hands-on mission trips as pastors and church teams rolled up their sleeves to lay tile in the college\u2019s cafeteria, paint walls and preach in local churches among other things. These efforts were met with not only gratitude but also renewed hope from the college\u2019s administration as well as the local community.<\/p>\n

Pastors like Bird Sanders, Ferndale Baptist Church<\/a> in Clermont, and Juan Negron, MP3 Church<\/a> in Clermont, have been enthusiastic advocates for the college by taking their church members on mission trips and spreading the word about the need for volunteers.<\/p>\n

\u201cWherever I go, I talk about it; this is an opportunity to be part of something that is not on everyone\u2019s radar,\u201d said Sanders. \u201cUntil the Lord comes, we need to be about His business and train men. It\u2019s one thing to go once and win somebody to Jesus, that’s fantastic. But what if we can train a local man who can win a hundred or a thousand because he lives there already?\u201d<\/p>\n

Andrew and Sheryl George are currently leading the theological institution, with Andrew serving as the school\u2019s president.\u00a0 Sheryl expressed optimism about the college\u2019s future and hopes that by August the college will be open for classes.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we are ready to go in August, and we could start offering one or two courses, that would give the school life; people would know that we’re serious about what we’re doing,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

For those interested in joining the mission to restore Bluewater Bible College, visit https:\/\/www.lakebaptist.org\/bluewater-bible<\/a> for ways to help.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

U.S. VIRGIN ISLANDS\u2014 After being forced to close its doors following Hurricanes Irma and Maria, both in 2017, Bluewater Bible College in the U.S. Virgin Islands is poised for a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":100,"featured_media":47245,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[47,40,11,22,25,746],"tags":[742,743,744,745,747],"class_list":["post-47241","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-region-central","category-developing","category-expanding","category-providing","category-stories","category-region-us-virgin-islands","tag-bluewater-bible-college","tag-ferndale-baptist-church","tag-lake-county-baptist-association","tag-mp3-church","tag-usvi"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/flbaptist.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47241","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/flbaptist.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/flbaptist.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flbaptist.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/100"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flbaptist.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47241"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/flbaptist.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47241\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":67740,"href":"https:\/\/flbaptist.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47241\/revisions\/67740"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flbaptist.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/47245"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/flbaptist.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47241"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flbaptist.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47241"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flbaptist.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47241"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}