We recently shared about three scholarships aimed at helping students pursue their calling — the Dr. Bobby S. “Bob” Terry Scholarship at Samford University, the Jennifer Davis Rash Scholarship at Beeson Divinity School and the Gary and Alta Faye Fenton Student Scholarship at Beeson.
We’d like to share one more — the Milton and Anne Chamberlain Annual and Endowed Scholarship, which will be awarded to Beeson students preparing to serve as international missionaries or in a faith-based international business with a missions purpose.
The Chamberlains joined Shades Mountain Baptist Church in Birmingham in 1981.
Dedicated service
Eighteen months later, they began teaching a Sunday School class, which Drew and Diane Ferguson joined. More than 40 years later, the class is still going, and the Fergusons decided to honor their teachers for their “dedicated service and commitment” with a student scholarship in their name.
Not only have the Chamberlains been instrumental in leading a Sunday School class for four decades, they also helped to start a Chinese ministry at Shades Mountain in 2001.
Their first experience with Chinese Christians occurred on the weekend of July 4, 1978, when the Chamberlains went to Shocco Springs Baptist Conference Center to help teach Vacation Bible School to the children of Chinese families attending the Southeast Chinese Christian Gospel Camp. Anne served as the coordinator of VBS at the camp until 2017.
The Chinese ministry at Shades Mountain grew out of their long association with Chinese Christians they met at these camps and was led by Shu Huang, a retired medical doctor, and his wife, Lily.
The Chamberlains assisted with this ministry in numerous ways including driving vans to bring Chinese visitors to the church and teaching Bible and conversational English classes.
David Parks, director of the Global Center at Beeson, worked with the Chamberlains for about five years on a Bible study for internationals, observing that “they loved on internationals every Sunday.”
‘A connection’
“It gives me a lot of joy to know that there will be future students who will be assisted in their current and future ministries in the name of these two people I know and love,” Parks said.
“I feel more of a connection to this scholarship because of whom it’s named after. I look forward to telling those students who receive the scholarship about Milt and Anne Chamberlain.”
EDITOR’S NOTE — This story was written with contributions from Beeson Divinity School.
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