After Twelve Years Reggie Finally Graduates. One of the immigration officers asked a startling question. “So, Mr. Wright, are you
going to be speaking about the New World Order this time?” Reggie Wright attended Hartland College as a pastoral evangelism major from September 1993 until January 1996, when his father died. At that time Reggie went home to England to sort out his family’s affairs, missing the winter and spring terms of school. He returned in the summer of that year and colporteured in North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee. Colporteuring is a curriculum requirement for all Hartland students and is usually done during semester breaks or for several weeks during the summer. While foreign students with an I-20 visa are not allowed to earn money except as a requirement for training, technically a student may accept donations. So Reggie colporteured on that basis.
That fall, he interned at Miracle Meadows School, a Seventh-day Adventist boarding school in West Virginia for troubled youth, ages seven to seventeen. He made sure he wasn’t paid in violation of his visa. Then he returned home for Thanksgiving and Christmas. He was on track to come back to the US for the winter quarter starting in January 1997. All looked good—until….
He and a friend arrived at Boston’s Logan Airport. The friend hadn’t filled out his immigration form correctly, and Reggie’s movements within the U.S. the year prior attracted attention to himself. What started out as a general, routine check for Reggie turned into a seven-hour interrogation session. The officers focused their questions on where he had traveled, with whom he had stayed, and what he had done during the spring, summer, and winter breaks.
They ruled that his colporteuring was illegal work. Reggie explains, “I wasn’t breaking any law; it was part of my curriculum. They were also concerned that I was traveling around the U.S. on my I-20 visa. Besides that, I think they didn’t like the titles of the messages I was preaching, such as ‘The Externalization of Satan’s Hierarchy.’ I had some Reformation books and other historical books on me, which didn’t help the situation.”
One of the immigration officers asked a startling question. “So, Mr. Wright, are you going to be speaking about the New World Order this time?” Reggie wondered how the officer knew what his sermon topics might be. The computer record seemed to have quite a bit of detail about him. He wanted to see what else might be on the computer about him, but wasn’t allowed.
The immigration officers eventually informed Reggie they were part of a secret religious society. Charging him with visa violations, they told him, “Don’t even try to come back to the U.S. for ten years.” Armed officers put him on a plane back to England. Back home, the English customs officials couldn’t understand why he had been treated as
he had in a country with religious freedom.
The next time he tried to return to Hartland, his application for a student visa was denied, but Reggie kept his trust in God through it all. A ten year open visa was approved instead, but it took a representative from the British Parliament working out matters with the American ambassador in London and the immigration department.
Reggie says, “It was always in the back of my mind to finish what I had started.” During that time away from Hartland, he worked full time in soul-winning work with Voice in the Wilderness, a self-supporting ministry that he and Gary Harrison, a clos friend, had started. With God’s blessing, much hard work, and perseverance under discouraging conditions, this ministry has reached out to five continents through its publications, multimedia materials, seminars, and evangelistic meetings. It has reprinted eleven books including Seventh-day Adventist pioneer reprints, books by Louis Were, and some works dealing with endtime events. Their newsletter focuses on civil and
religious liberty and prophecy.
Then the door opened for Reggie to speak at Hartland’s Old-fashioned Family Bible Camp Meeting in August. It was also a long-awaited opportunity to finish his education.
Back at Hartland, by God’s grace and with help from his friends, he was able to finish his class work while maintaining his speaking schedule. Reggie commented, “Time was running out, so a couple of my brethren typed what I wrote and dictated. This
helped greatly.”
Twelve years after Reggie entered Hartland College, on September 14, 2005, Hartland College conducted a very special graduation ceremony just for him. His brother Roland, his coworker John Noel, and two new Hartland College students from England—Eliezar Alemeza and Michael Dantzie— were among the attendees on this happy occasion.
Reggie’s vision is to see the work expand in London, especially since the bombings this past July. “If we get a state-of-the-art printing press that can be hooked up to a computer, and one that is able to print high quality resolution at a faster rate than our current equipment,” Reggie says, “we could churn out books, tracts, and newsletters like
the leaves of autumn.” They also want to move into the realm of internet radio and revive their tape ministry.
Please keep Reggie and his ministry in your prayers as they fulfill the commission found in Evangelism, p. 415: “There is a great work to be done in England. The light radiating from London should beam forth in clear, distinct rays to regions beyond.”
You may contact Reggie at: Voice in the
Wilderness, P.O. Box 2015, London, W12 9ZJ,
ENGLAND or voiceinthewildrw@yahoo.co.uk.
