{"id":3412,"date":"2019-08-24T19:46:42","date_gmt":"2019-08-24T19:46:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/sitenews\/2019\/08\/24\/1980-s-alumni-reconnect-at-newbold\/"},"modified":"2021-12-10T20:40:04","modified_gmt":"2021-12-10T20:40:04","slug":"1980-s-alumni-reconnect-at-newbold","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/1980-s-alumni-reconnect-at-newbold\/","title":{"rendered":"1980s alumni reconnect at Newbold"},"content":{"rendered":"

25 August 2019 | Binfield, UK [Kirsty Watkinds\/tedNEWS] <\/p>\n

What brings a student back to Newbold after a 30+ year gap? Ask the sixty or so alumni and former staff who gathered at Newbold\u2019s 1980s Reunion 2-4 August and they respond enthusiastically.<\/p>\n

\"NEWBOLD<\/a>
“I just wanted to let you know how overjoyed I am to have visited Newbold again,\u201d one participant shared in a spontaneous email to Newbold principal, Dr John Baildam. \u201cIt was an incredible highlight\u2026 Meeting old friends and teachers, and reconnecting as we did, was a dream come true. I am still overflowing with happiness and thanks to God.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Newbold<\/a>One of those teachers is Helen Pearson. She was equally delighted to catch up with students from the time when she taught various writing and communication subjects. What thrilled her even more was to discover the value systems they developed.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe theme for my conversations this year seemed to be hospitality and welcome,\u201d Pearson said. \u201cI had two consecutive conversations with European Newboldians who mentioned very casually how they have supported and taken into their homes children and young people from refugee families. In some cases they had welcomed whole families of children separated from their living parents in tragic circumstances.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"NEWBOLD<\/a>Those conversations made an impression. \u201cThe compassion, courage and wisdom with which these different Newboldian families obviously and very practically live out the gospel touched me deeply,\u201d she said. Their descriptions of how they supported their guests – their spirit as they struggled alongside the visitors as they come to terms with the personal, social and cultural demands of their new lives chimed well with Newbold alumni Isobel Webster\u2019s Sabbath morning sermon about practical Christianity, When the Rubber Hits the Road<\/em>.<\/p>\n