Bella | “Imagine What He Can Do If You Fully Say Yes”

There is something sacred about a young person standing before their church family and saying, this is where I became who I am. On May 17, 2026, three of our graduating seniors did exactly that, hear more from Bella Duke!

Bella came to Coker in fourth grade for the most practical of reasons: the church was two minutes from her new house, and her family were close friends with the Knights.

“We came to Coker because it was close by and we knew the preacher,” she said with a laugh. “That was it.”

But Coker turned out to be far more than convenient geography. It became the place where Bella discovered that faith could be personal — truly hers, not just inherited.

That shift began in eighth grade confirmation class, at a time when Bella had just changed schools and was having a hard time finding her footing. She looked forward to those classes every week.

“This was the first time I purposefully studied the Bible,” she recalled. “We actually looked at the specific words written and talked about their meaning. And I fell in love — with studying the Word of God, with talking about the Word of God, with God. For the first time in my life, I wanted to follow God.”

From that confirmation class, Bella’s faith grew through camps, mission trips, small group discussions, and eventually a call to pastoral ministry — a calling that, she admits, came with real fear. She is a young woman stepping into a field that won’t always be easy to navigate.

But she returns again and again to 1 Timothy 4:12: “Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for believers.” Paul’s word to Timothy, she said, is the same word she’s living right now.

This fall, Bella will move halfway across the country and serve as one of the mid-Texas delegates to the General Conference of the Global Methodist Church in South Africa — an opportunity she credits entirely to the support of Coker.

Her challenge to every person in the congregation — young and old alike — was clear and direct: Don’t settle for a convenient faith or a borrowed belief. Step in. Ask questions. Open your Bible. Say yes to the opportunities in front of you, even the ones that feel a little intimidating.

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