Bill MacKenzie is in his late 50s. The most remarkable thing in his life was learning how to love people. He thought he was a task orientated person, who was content working quietly on his own. But then he moved from Kansas, where he was born and raised, to Oxford, Mississippi. It was back in 1980s.
Today, Bill lives on his farm in Oxford, with his wife and international students from all over the world. He lives in The International Guest House. That is his home and his business. But he said it was more than that, that place is his masterpiece. International Guest House is what Bill invested his life in. He transformed what was back in 80s just a house where he lived with his wife and children, into home for the whole international community of Oxford.
“My home is also home for everybody who is away from home and misses home warm atmosphere. My wife and I have been living with a family from Taiwan here for last 2 years.”
Every second Friday, Bill hosts gathering of international students from OleMiss. On one of those Fridays, Bill told me a story about him. His farm was crowded with students from all around the globe.
“I built all of this with my ten fingers.” He said making a circle in the air with his arm. His hands were dusty, he had just come back from the woods where he was doing outdoor activities with the students before the dinner.
After graduating and getting a degree in mechanical engineering, he realized he wanted to work with children. He came back to the school and got a degree in teaching. Involved in a Bible studies group, he gets moved to Oxford where he starts a Bible group and takes a full time job at the University of Mississippi. Bible studies developed a new kind of socializing with students.
“I taught about how could I be affective, how can we really have an environment where students felt loved and secure and welcomed. But there was also chance for them to have some deeper, religious discussions. The idea was having a home where students could live and where we could also have other different activities. So we started in 1988 to build what we now call The International Guest house. “
Although he points out the impact that his God has made on him, he doesn’t take the God as a condition that all people that he spends his time with has to agree on. And as open-minded and open-hearted person he welcomed students to enjoy his guest house:
“I am very thankful, as I said what God has done in my life and I do enjoy sharing that with others, but I don’t make it a condition upon a friendship, that they have to agree with me. We would love to have people come out and join us.”
God-loving and loving father. That’s how his wife, Cristal, described him. “He loves children. He is not just father of my children; he is a father for more than ten times every Friday, when all of these kids come for a dinner.”
He shakes his brown haired head when asked if he gets tired off all of those “kids” around his place.
“I have found that life is much richer if I involve people and learn how to love. So I’m very grateful that God didn’t just leave me alone and let me be just alone by myself. Cause I’d be a lonely old man by now.”
He is everything else but not a lonely old man. The man with an idea and willingness to work on it, who doesn’t hide that he is more than happy to be kind of a father for all this students. That’s the characteristic that Abby Abigall the student who used to live at Bill’s farm point out about McKenzie:
“Bill Mackenzie is very strong and very intelligent, wise man, who I think that many students would see him as a father figure, because he is warm, loving and accepting and always busy. But in a good way.”
As the sky was getting darker at the farm, students started to pack and leave. While Bill was saying bye to me, giving me his pone number so I could call him if I ever needed anything, an Asian girl run into us out of nowhere and literally jumped on Bill, hugging him.
“Thank you, thank you, I’m leaving next week! You made my time here! I’m going to miss my American Dad!”
She was excited. Bill looked at me, spread his arms and said “It is all about love and helping others.”
Bill MacKenzie definitely knows how to do it.
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