Each year, students arrive on campus ready to live, learn and grow together. Often, lifelong friendships are forged. When Tony Laidlaw (’03) arrived on campus in the late ’90s, he not only found his lifelong partner in Jill (Link, ’00, ’02), he also developed a friendship with Paul McGuinness and Aaron Palczewski.
“Tony, Aaron, and I were in school together. We were friends as undergrads,” said McGuinness. “We all went through CSU together in the late ’90s and early 2000’s. God really grew my friendship with Tony when he and I were on staff here at CSU…We all married in the summer of 1999 and were in each other’s weddings. Aimee and I actually lived in an apartment above Tony and Jill. We did life together and went through graduate school together. Our first kids were born two months apart.”
Laidlaw served 13 years in Clarks Summit University’s maintenance department before leaving to work at a camp ministry in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. Since 2014, he has served as lead pastor of First Baptist Church of Calumet, Michigan. Over the years, the Laidlaw, McGuinness and Palczewski families stayed in touch, vacationing together, encouraging each other in ministry and going on mission trips together.
McGuinness serves as CSU’s Intercultural Studies professor. He has been leading missions trips since 2000, and Laidlaw was on that first trip.
The children of Laidlaw, McGuinness and Palczewski also formed friendships. When the Laidlaws moved to Michigan for ministry, the kids kept in touch. “We’ve always said with these kids: ‘Of course, you’re going to have more friends throughout your life. But there’s going to be nobody else that will have known you as long as these other friends.’ They’ve been friends since birth,” said McGuinness. “What has been so neat is not only to see how my friendship with Aaron and Tony have continued through the years, but to see these kids still in contact and reaching out to continue their friendships with each other.”
As the kids approached college, Laidlaw’s son Gabe graduated high school early and chose Michigan Tech, earning a full ride. Laidlaw’s daughter Caden chose a Christian school in Michigan.
In the summer of 2022, Palczewski and Laidlaw joined McGuinness on a missions trip he led to Kenya. When Jake Palczewski contacted Gabe Laidlaw to invite him, Gabe jumped at the opportunity. Laidlaw said, “When I heard that Paul was leading the trip and Aaron was going as a chaperone, I said I’m coming too!”
Partnering with 410 Bridge, CSU students and alumni came alongside the Kenyan people to encourage them in their faith and offer practical ministry help. Laidlaw, who had already seen his kids’ heart for ministry at home, observed them thriving on the trip.
In Kenya, Caden and Gabe started talking with CSU students who encouraged them to come to CSU. “It was definitely God,” Laidlaw said. “Everything was coming together, and it was clear. After the trip to Kenya and meeting those CSU students it was a no-brainer. Gabe said he had to do something different and that summer told me ‘I’ve got to go to Clarks Summit University.’”
As Gabe and his parents contemplated giving up a full ride scholarship to Michigan Tech, they had to weigh the financial obligation of transferring. “I thought there was no way we could make it work,” Laidlaw said. “But God provided and that was a clear answer and easy one for Gabe. He was all in at that point.”
Meanwhile Laidlaw’s daughter, Caden was considering transferring to CSU. After the Kenya trip made an impression on Caden, she brought it up to her parents. Everything fell into place, and soon both kids were CSU bound.
“A lot happened in the summer that made it clear God was closing the path back to my previous college,” said Caden. “The admissions process to begin my year here (at CSU) was amazingly smooth and easy.”
Laidlaw was encouraged by his kids’ decision to follow God but says he and his wife had not pressured them to choose his alma mater.
“The truth is, we have prepared our kids to be adults. We want them to stand on their own two feet. I did nothing to make this happen,” Laidlaw said. “Transferring to CSU was their choice. It’s the result of an 18-year investment of teaching our kids to follow the Lord. And He led them to CSU. They know the school; they spent part of their childhood there. They know these families and have friends at CSU and all that played a role. But personally, the thing that gave me encouragement was my own experience with CSU. I didn’t realize how much CSU had prepared me for ministry until I got into ministry and got around other pastors who attended other schools and saw how underprepared some of them were. Watching my kids choose CSU I am very encouraged. But Jill and I really didn’t have much influence on it. It was all God at work in their lives, directing their path.”
Caden Laidlaw is pursuing a Counseling major like her mom did two decades earlier. Gabe Laidlaw is pursuing Pastoral Studies. They joined Mattie McGuiness, an Elementary Education major, on campus this fall. All have a double major in Biblical Studies.
“It was pretty cool to hear that these kids who essentially grew up together, whose parents were all alumni of the school, had chosen to come to CSU,” shared McGuinness. “They are now going to be part of the next generation. CSU 2.0.”
by Julie Jeffery Manwarren
