We attend a school with 131 years of history. Asbury has become home to countless young adults with very similar joys and stressors throughout this time despite the decades in between. What did Asbury look like 30 years ago? How much has changed? What similarities do we share with the generation that came before us?
Ellie Eberhard is a current freshman double majoring in English and Media Communication. She walked onto campus as a student for the first time during the seventeenth month of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic after a year and a half of a modified schooling routine.
Ellie’s parents, Steve Eberhard and Kara Blackburn-Eberhard, graduated in the 1996 Proclaimer class. They started school at Asbury during a recession and an election year. Despite living in starkly different times, their experiences are relatively similar.
The community that Asbury provides was highly formative to Ellie’s parents. Steve said, “Throughout the years I spent at Asbury, I was exposed to and drawn to people who were in love with Jesus and pursuing Him. Their love and passion were contagious.”
During their time at Asbury, Steve and Kara were on the tumbling team. “My time on the tumbling team was life-altering,” Kara said. “It was difficult to find my place when I first got to Asbury, but the tumbling team gave me a family and a safe place to land when things were hard.”
Ellie shares a similar sentiment as a member of the Chorale here on campus. She said, “I met several of my closest friends in Chorale. Being able to form such deep connections through an activity that I’ve always loved is really encouraging.”
Steve also testified to the spiritual life on campus. “I loved that I was inspired, challenged and encouraged in my walk with Christ by other students, faculty and staff, chapels and classes.”
Likewise, Kara said, “I learned how to walk with the Lord at Asbury. Mrs. Molton would start every class talking about her time with the Lord that morning. Her tenderness toward the Lord was palatable, and it was contagious. I wanted to know Jesus as she did.”
Despite only spending three months on campus so far, Ellie’s experience echoes that of her parents. “I really like all of the opportunities we have here to grow spiritually,” she said. “There are so many small groups throughout campus as well as events like WHAM. I feel like it’s very easy to get plugged in.”
Though the world has progressed thirty years between Steve and Kara’s time at Asbury and Ellie’s, Asbury still serves as a strong foundation upon which relationships can be built and withstand time.
