The Forresters Don’t Feel Like Numbers at NGU
Posted on: March 15, 2021
Tigerville, SC – “I told my husband that I loved him for the very first time on the steps of White Hall, and he ran through the campus, shouting, ‘Hallelujah! She loves me! She loves me!’” Pat Rampy Forrester (’83) remembers, with a big smile. “Isn’t that a hoot?”
Pat and her husband, Ken Forrester (’83), first met at North Greenville because they were both music majors. And now, more than 35 years later, their children are still walking across the same spots that are full of some of their most cherished memories. In fact, so far, all of the Forrester kids have attended NGU.
Their oldest, Seth (’09), was actually determined not to pick NGU, Pat relates; he didn’t want to make the same decision just because his parents had.
“We said to him, ‘We don’t want you to go to North Greenville just because we did. However, we will tell you that that is our preference for you. But we will not pressure you,’” Pat says, sincerely.
Ultimately, Seth decided to attend NGU on his own. During his freshman year, he called his mom one day to tell her the good news: he had accepted Christ as his Savior earlier that day during a chapel service on campus.
“I know the Lord drew him here,” Pat says. “I think him coming here first just set the precedent for the other children. For the areas they were pursuing, North Greenville was a great fit.”
Seth; Stephen; Sarah (’15, MEd ’17); Silas (’17); Samuel (expected ’19); Simeon (expected ’20); and now Shaun (expected ’22) have all chosen NGU. (Yes, the Forresters have a thing for names that start with “S.”) And Pat says it’s been an easy decision. She hopes her youngest daughter, Susanna, will join the NGU family, too.
Because of their experience, the Forresters have always encouraged others to look into NGU, too — both when they traveled as evangelists and now as they serve at Forestville Baptist Church in Greenville, SC, where Ken pastors.
“I definitely felt like it was easier to see my children go off to college, because I knew they would be in good hands,” Pat says. “You don’t feel like a number at NGU; you are important. And that has never changed here, that I know of, in all the years that we’ve been involved.”
Pat’s become even more involved at NGU recently. She was looking to branch out after years as a stay-at-home mom, when she found out about an opening with NGU’s Business Office. She got the job.
Pat enjoys the opportunity to be back on the campus where old memories were made — like when her husband proposed to her under the big tree past the Crain Science Building — and new ones are beginning: her youngest son, Shaun, began classes at NGU this fall.
“Oh, I love this place. It has really impacted my life,” she exudes. “And so it thrills us — because of the legacy and the impact North Greenville’s had on our lives — to see it carry through to our children.”
