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Feature Stories

Below are recollections of events and stories from the college's history

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Ngaruawahia
Easter Convention –
Reflections of Hudson Deane

As a member of NZBTI/BCNZ staff, Hudson was on the Easter Camps Organising Committee for many years under the leadership of College Registrar, Mr Les Rushbrook. Here are some of Hudson’s reflections on the Ngaruawahia Easter Conventions…

#CentenaryMoment
The Caravangelists

After the death of NZBTI Principal Joseph Kemp in 1933, the Board decided that the most fitting memorial to a man passionate about evangelism would be to establish evangelistic work in country areas within New Zealand. A Chevrolet Classic was purchased, and the “Kemp Memorial Caravan” and its first workers were commissioned in 1935...

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United Maori Mission

"One is forced to say that while many of our Māori people have passed into darkness, we have slept indifferent to the vast need and open doors into this harvest field. I have often felt, whilst many New Zealanders have gone forth to other lands with the glorious message, that right here at our very door is a nation almost entirely neglected...

Foundation of the College’s Māori Council: Te Rūnanga o te Paipera Aotearoa

At the pōwhiri for new Principal, John Hitchen, held at the Hoani Waititi Marae in 1990, John summarised what he had discovered about Māori student enrolments at NZBTI/BCNZ since WWII...

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#CentenaryMoment
Opening of the
Queen Street Campus

On 20 August 1927, crowds of people gathered to watch the President of the Board of Directors insert a gold key into the main door of the new Queen Street campus of the NZ Bible Training Institute and declare it open.

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#CentenaryMoment
Graduation
Ceremonies

The Institute’s first Graduation was held at the Auckland Baptist Tabernacle in December 1923. Seven students received the Institute Diploma for their two-year course. The Tabernacle continued to be the venue of choice for the NZ Bible Training Institute’s graduations until 1956.

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#CentenaryMoment
The Reaper

This month marks 100 years since Rev. Joseph Kemp (Principal of the NZ Bible Training Institute) started producing The Reaper magazine. From its first edition in March 1923, the magazine ran for 70 years as a voice of evangelical Christianity in NZ.

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