I was given my second bible at Ben Lippen, a several-week bible conference held on the campus of Ben Lippen School in Asheville. Operated by Columbia Bible College, during the school year the campus was home to several hundred high school students, all children of missionaries of all domination.
Their families were in other places around the world and they were perched on an amazing knoll just outside Asheville. In the summer, the students were gone and the campus was used for a bible conference. Strong, scripture rooted evangelists taught at assemblies twice in the morning and twice in the afternoon and once in an evening service. It was possible to hear five sermons, powerful and expository, in a single day. The campus was cobbled together and included a huge three story brick building that was once the Asheville post office but was moved and transformed into dorms on the upper floors for students and a magnificent dining hall on the first floor. There was a huge font porch with rocking chairs overlooking the Blue Ridge. The main assembly space was a large, covered, but open air pavilion with seating for a thousand, overlooking the French Broad Valley. The view was stunning. It allowed for a sense of removal from the valley, The World, long enough to listen, learn, and celebrate new knowledge.
J. Robertson McQuinkin was head of the Ben Lippen School, what I would call a principal, but he was called headmaster” ... only headmaster I've ever seen, and a fine teacher and preacher as well.
Inscription: But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord. II Corinthians 3:18
