For decades, Bill (’77) and Lynn Shuman have loved to camp—first with their family and with youth groups in tents and now in their nuCamp Teardrop Camper. So what better road trip than the 8 hours and 543 miles from their home in Rochester Hills, Mich., to Lancaster Bible College Homecoming?

The Shumans arrived back in Lancaster for their weeklong camping excursion Sept. 28, just in time for the fun and festivities of LBC’s 2023 Homecoming & Family Weekend on Sept. 29-30.

Bill (’77) and Lynn Shuman traveled from Michigan to Lancaster for Homecoming 2023 in their teardrop camper.

Bill started at LBC in the mid-1970s after attending Word of Life Bible Institute, then taking a few years off from academics. One of his first jobs was at the Bible Club Movement, founded in 1936 by returning American missionary Bessie Traber. Today known as BCM International, the Bible Club Movement had what Bill called an “incredible” graphic arts department and print shop. Bill, who became interested in graphic design in high school, dreamed of running the shop one day. But mentor and BCM director Oscar Hirt saw something else in Bill and steered him in a different direction.

“He said, ‘Your life is not meant to be sitting behind a machine,’” Bill remembers. “’You should be in people ministry.’ But that required me going to college, which I hadn’t planned to do.”

But Bill and Lynn, already married, researched Bible colleges in Pennsylvania and felt God was calling them to LBC. They lived in an old farmhouse duplex in nearby Brownstown beside young couples in a similar stage of life.

“We had a great time in community with other married students,” Bill says. “And, honestly, that is where we really learned to trust in the Lord as a couple.”

Bill and Lynn remember some lean years during that time, when dinner was only some homemade tomato soup. Or the couples would call each other to arrange simple potlucks, each bringing what they had in the fridge or pantry to share with the group.

While taking classes at LBC—Lynn audited classes at the college over the years as well—Bill worked nearly 40 hours a week at a concrete company and began to learn the construction trade, while Lynn worked as an executive secretary at RCA. “Those four years were wonderful,” Bill says.

The Shumans four years at LBC certainly ended on an exciting note. Lynn, nearly nine months pregnant with the couple’s first child, planned Bill’s graduation party the same day he was set to walk across the stage to receive his college diploma. There was just one wrinkle—Lynn went into labor that morning. Luckily, the delivery was quick, and Bill still made it to his LBC graduation ceremony. In fact, to help celebrate his new daughter’s arrival, a classmate taped a sign to the back of Bill’s graduation robe that read: “It’s a girl! 7 lbs., 9 oz.”

Bill was about to remove the sign and head to his seat, but the dean at the time encouraged him to keep it on. Then-President Stuart E. Lease, who Bill called a “serious fella,” no doubt wondered what the excitement was when the chatter about Bill and Lynn’s new baby moved through the rows of graduates.

A Christian Education major, Bill had originally planned to head back to the Bible Club Movement to serve on staff after graduation. “But the end of my senior year,” he says, “it was like God changed my heart, and Lynn felt the same way.”

A fellow LBC alumnus named Dave Hanson (’77) was attending a church in Long Island, N.Y., and encouraged Bill to join the staff as the youth pastor. At the time, however, Bill didn’t envision himself working at a church. He longed to be in the outdoors and had aspirations toward graduate school. So he turned down Dave’s offer and applied to Wheaton College to continue his education.

Then, Bill and Lynn were presented with the chance to care for a house and property in Manheim, Pa., for a year—rent-free. They jumped at the opportunity to be able to stay in Lancaster County a while longer and save money for a year. However, 1978 brought a terrible winter, complete with a blizzard, and Bill’s construction work dried up. At the end of that year, the savings they envisioned were meager; moving to Illinois to attend Wheaton didn’t seem possible.

Dave’s offer to become a youth pastor in Long Island came around again, so Bill, Lynn and their young daughter moved to New York where they served the youth group for two years.

“The Bible says God gives us the desires of our heart,” says Bill. “Often, we just don’t know what our desires are.”

Although delayed, the Shumans eventually did move to Illinois so Bill could attend Wheaton, where he also served as a youth pastor at a church in the downtown area. It was here he realized his “deficiencies” in church administration knowledge, so he also attended the National College of Education in Chicago.

Soon after, a friend presented the Shumans with yet another ministry opportunity. One of the leading K-12 Christian schools in Michigan was interviewing Wheaton students for teaching positions. Both sharing Bible knowledge with students and having the schedule of a teacher was attractive to Bill, as he was discovering that a youth pastor’s schedule kept him away from his family quite a bit.

The conversation with the school’s principal went well, and the Shumans ended up making another move to Southfield, Mich., where Bill served as the school’s chaplain and Bible coordinator for 22 years. During the summers, Bill’s love for the outdoors was satisfied, too, as he took students on backpacking trips deep in the forests of Colorado as well as on missions trips to Guatemala.

In 2005, another local Christian school approached Bill about a new position as Director of Family Life, where he would have the opportunity to plan events for the students’ families and foster community. Although he hadn’t been looking for a job change at the time, Bill was drawn to this new challenge and spent 11 years in this role until his retirement in 2016. Lynn retired a year later, and they enjoy spending time with their five children, their spouses and 10 grandchildren, ages 21 to 4.

The first time the Shumans returned to Lancaster Bible College after graduation was around 2007, when they attended a three-day family life conference on campus. They were “pleasantly surprised” by all the campus changes then, and are looking forward to exploring LBC’s campus today as they spend a week in Lancaster—cozy in their camper, which they affectionately call “the bed on wheels,” at Woodcrest Retreat in nearby Ephrata. They plan to take in the Cinderella musical, attend the LBC Family Pig Roast Picnic and enjoy the rest of the Homecoming festivities, while also meeting up with friends in the area.

Bill and Lynn may have traveled quite a distance to attend Homecoming 2023, and have traversed many miles and ministry opportunities in between, but they are so glad the Lord started their life together at Lancaster Bible College.

“It was a great journey here,” Bill says. “We have fond, fond memories of LBC.”