thank you, msm students & families

In August 2004, I walked into Century Baptist as a college freshman, checking out this church that my parents had suggested because one of our former pastors, Alan Steier was pastoring here. 

A year later, I was baptized at Century. Another year later, I began volunteering as a Sunday School teacher under Melanie Kost’s leadership. Three years later, I joined this wild youth ministry staff and then two years later, began an internship on staff under Paul Nather’s leadership in the youth ministry. And as they say, the rest is history.

Our stories have chapters.  I look back over these chapters in my story and I am grateful for each of them. After much prayer and consideration as a family, I have come to the conclusion that it is time for me to close this chapter at Century Baptist. I have grown both personally and spiritually, and I am deeply grateful for the experiences and opportunities that my time at Century has afforded me. I will always cherish the community I experienced with our student ministry and leaders.

Thank you for the opportunity to walk beside your students for the last 15 years in this student ministry. It has been a gift and an honor watching students turn the world upside down outside these walls. These students and MSM leaders are the best and I could not have done ministry without them for the last 13 years. 

I will be at church and teaching Sunday School this Sunday, July 7; on July 14, I will be gone and be at the Triennial Conference in St. Paul, MN; on July 21 I will also be teaching Sunday School, and my last Sunday at Century Baptist will be July 28, 2024.

Students, I love you dearly and there are so many days where your faith, your wild hope, your goofiness, and so much more have encouraged me to keep actively following Jesus and loving people well. I'll still be around Bismarck, I'll still be game for coffee, and I'll still have Skittles. Always remember you are loved, you matter, and you belong.

With love and gratitude, 
​April J. Wahl