Brown Bulletin - Winter 2006

Brown Bulletin Greater Than the Sum of Its Parts: Cement and Stone Form Life-Changing Structures JBU Homecoming 2006

Winter

2006-2007

a publication for alumni & friends of JOHN BROWN UNIVERSITY

letter from the

president When your children ask you, “What do these stones mean?” tell them.

Joshua 4:6,7

Brown Bulletin Winter 2006-2007

Editor

Andrea Phillips

JBU Staff Writers Holly Byars

Emily Kalka

Lindsay Larsen

Lead Designer Andrea Phillips

Design Assistance Trevor Collinson Allen Dempsey

Laura Ravenscroft

Dear Alumni and Friends of JBU, It was a common practice of God’s people in the Old Testament to set up memorial stones to mark the occasions when God did a great work. For example, Joshua sets up twelve stones to memorialize how the people of Israel crossed over the Jordan River on dry land. Samuel also establishes a stone marker, what he called an Ebenezer, to give witness to how God rescued the people of Israel from the Philistines.

In this Brown Bulletin, you will learn more about two of JBU’s “piles of stones,” two projects that mark how God is still at work among us.

First, Dr. Joe Walenciak and his Students In Free Enterprise (SIFE) team have joined with people in rural communities in Guatemala to set up over 400 stone stoves in homes. These stoves replace dangerous open cooking fires and vastly improve the quality of life for families in numerous ways.

“What do these stones mean?” These stone stoves reflect how God is at work in bringing together JBU students and Guatemalan citizens to minister to each other spiritually, economically, and practically. This stove project is a wonderful example of JBU’s continued commitment to educate head, heart, and hand.

Closer to home, JBU has another “pile of stones” that it is seeking to preserve as a witness of God’s work at the university. We recently announced plans to renovate the three historic buildings on campus: the Cathedral of the Ozarks, the Art building, and the Engineering building.

These buildings never received the stone facing that was originally intended and necessary to preserve them, so the exposed cinder blocks have suffered serious crumbling and deterioration. This renovation project will address this and a host of other urgent needs in the buildings.

“What do these stones mean?” These facilities have served JBU students for 50 years, and they remain the spiritual, academic, and architectural center of campus.

They are the places in which God has met students and changed their lives through chapel services, class lectures, laboratory discoveries, and conversations with professors.

This renovation project will preserve these buildings, not only as memory of how God has worked at the university in the past, but also as a witness of hope for how God will work at JBU in the future.

I deeply appreciate your support of the university as we seek to continue to “tell our children” how God is at work.

Godspeed,

Dr. Charles W. Pollard

Production Assistance

Christine Mescher

The Brown Bulletin is the official publication of John Brown University. It is published at 2000 West University Street, Siloam Springs, Arkansas 72761.

SIFE stoves change lives 10

features 10

16

Director of University Communications

Jerry Rollene Director of Alumni and Parent Relations

by Andrea Phillips

Greater Than the Sum of Its Parts: A Day in the Life of a Campus Icon

by Heather Crain

departments

Andrea Phillips

Alumni information:

Greater Than the Sum of Its Parts: JBU SIFE Builds Cinder Block Stoves to Change Lives

To submit story ideas, photos, feedback:

aphillips@jbu.edu

A day in the life 16

5

JBU in Focus

8

Chaplain’s Corner by Stan McKinnon

20

Homecoming 2006 Photo Gallery

22

JBU Athletics: Champions of Character

by Simeon Hinsey

23

World View “Alumna’s Love for Animals Bridges Cultures for Ministry”

by Andrea Phillips

24

Perspectives On ... “The Winter of Our Lives”

jrollene@jbu.edu Admissions information: (888) 528-4636 jbuinfo@jbu.edu www.jbu.edu/admissions To submit alumni news and photos: alumni@jbu.edu www.jbualumni.com For information about giving to JBU: www.jbu.edu/giving (800) 446-2450

John Brown University provides Christ-centered education that prepares people to honor God and serve others by developing their intellectual, spiritual, and professional lives.

by Donald Balla

25

Stories from the Road by James Elliott

26

JBU Advancement “Think Your Money’s Trapped in Your IRA?’”

27

Alumni News

39

Flashback JBU Homecoming 2006 Reunions

by Paul Eldridge

O n T h e C ov e r : The materials in the cover photo include the unassembled pieces of an ONIL stove. See page 10 for the assembled version.

Cinder blocks are also the building blocks of the Cathedral of the Ozarks, which will finally be clad with stones similar to the stone samples shown in the cover photo. See pages 6 and 16 for the story. (Photo by Andrea Phillips)

Animals open doors to ministry 23

jbu in focus

Letters

Students Dig Jordan Summer Studies

“Student Journal” Earns Mixed Reviews Hello,

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

I wanted to write you to tell you how much the story of Norma in the Brown Bulletin, Summer 2006, moved me, but not in the way you might expect. I am very concerned for the training and hearts of the students at JBU if Jill’s journal is truly a reflection of both. The pride, self-importance, worldly attitude, and lack of understanding of a true biblical servant in her journal is shocking.

I realize that some, if not much, of these things could be a result of her lack of maturity. I realize that I too had immaturity as a new believer at JBU. However, I thought it was extremely bad judgment on the part of your editorial staff to include this immaturity as an example of the heart of your current students. The girl Jill in the journal entry seems to have no realization of the depth of her sin. The last paragraph seems to highlight her self-absorption and lack of focus on Christ. “A wave of excitement must have surged through her body.” And why? Because she, Jill, sat down across from Norma. It was as if she was saying, “Norma should be so happy that I, one of the better off (wealthier), more popular girls sat down with her. What a privilege for Norma.” It made my stomach turn to see how blatantly self-important Jill thinks she is even in her journal when talking with the God of the universe. To top it off, the girl approached, Norma, seemed to have no more focus on Christ or eternity than Jill did, if the conversation went as recorded.

I do not believe that these girls represent the spiritual state of JBU. I pray that this is not indicative of the hearts and minds of your students. Once again I believe that this was a bad editorial choice, and I was very sad to read it.

Thank you so very much for publishing in the Brown Bulletin the “Student Journal” excerpt. I was Norma at JBU. I sat alone at lunch many times, had self-esteem and image problems, and had a hard time making friends. Thankfully, I also had Jills in my life at JBU. Also, due to my deep love for Christ, I was a Jill to many and still continue to be. My time at JBU was so very hard for me, but God has strengthened me as a result of that time in my life. Thank you for all those at JBU who were Jills to me. Thanks for crying, encouraging, listening, and praying with me. Thanks again to Jill, to Norma, and to JBU for publishing this article. It deeply touched me and brought back memories of my time at JBU. May the joy of the Lord be your strength (Neh. 8:10).

Sincerely, Lisa Sowell ’94 Kearney, MO

In Christian love, Hannah (Beatty) Keepes ’00 Belton, MO

Correction In the story “Child’s Play” in the Summer 2006 issue of the Brown Bulletin, we printed the title of alumnus Larry Fowler’s book incorrectly. The correct title of Fowler’s book is Rock-Solid Kids.

Missile strikes and countries in conflict didn’t stop a group of JBU students from digging into a unique and different culture this summer. Nineteen students spent seven weeks in July and August in northern Jordan on a new study trip led by Dr. Dave Vila and Dr. Jim Blankenship, both associate professors of Bible, religion, and philosophy. The trip involved working on an archeological dig site in the ancient city of Abila, which flourished in the time of Christ.

Each day students worked eight long hours on the dig site, which is located about fifteen miles from Israel’s West Bank. They dug up artifacts that were thousands of years old.

They also had the opportunity to interact with Jordanians at the dig and in the community.

“Out of all the cultures I’ve been to, I’ve never met a group that was so welcoming and loving and absolutely generous as the Jordanian people,” said JBU senior Rachel Kopsa. “We were often invited into the homes of people we lived near, even if they had never met us before.

These people made people a priority in their lives in a way that is unheard of in the States.”

JBU students were in Jordan during the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah, when bombs would wake them in the night and they could see flashes of light from the shelling and rockets 30 miles away.

JBU students working at the Jaresh dig site in Abila, Jordan “I never felt unsafe, but it was a very heart-wrenching experience to know that so many people would be destroyed [in the bombing],” said Kopsa.

Vila and Blankenship kept a close watch on the situation and were prepared to evacuate the group to southern Jordan if Syria, whose border is two miles from the dig site, had become involved in the conflict. Fortunately, the group was able to complete their study trip without any risk to their safety.

Some information for this story was collected from The Threefold Advocate and the Wyoming Tribune Eagle.

Letters are published with the permission of the author. Some letters have been edited for length. Not all letters can be published. Published letters will be selected based on the value of their content, tone, clarity, and other similar characteristics. Send your letters by e-mail to Andrea Phillips at aphillips@ jbu.edu or by U.S. mail to: Andrea Phillips, Brown Bulletin Editor, John Brown University, 2000 West University Street, Siloam Springs, AR 72761.

Brown Bulletin Winter 2006-2007

Fall 2006 Enrollment Breaks Records JBU’s total student enrollment for the 2006-2007 academic year hit an all-time high at 2,081. This is the first year that JBU’s total enrollment passed the 2,000 mark. The 20062007 total reflects an 8.7 percent increase in enrollment

JBU’s record-setting freshman class posed for a picture during orientation.

over last year.

JBU also experienced another all-time high with its new traditional undergraduate enrollment at 439 (including freshmen and transfer students), a 19.9 percent increase from last year.

This fall JBU enrolled 1,191 traditional undergraduate students, 507 adult students in the Advance Program, and 383 graduate students.

Graduate Studies saw a dramatic enrollment increase, gaining 138 more graduate students than were enrolled last year. This rapid growth in Graduate Studies is due in part to the addition of JBU’s newest master’s program, the Master of Arts in Youth and Family Ministries that is offered through a unique partnership with Kanakuk Institute in Branson, Missouri. The addition of that program alone brought 68 new graduate students to JBU. The increased number of new traditional students is largely credited to JBU’s new marketing initiatives, including prioritizing campus visits in the recruiting process and a new scholarship program that gave the opportunity to award scholarships to those who know prospective students best – youth leaders, camp leaders, and school counselors.

JBU Maintains U.S. News Rank For the second year, JBU has been ranked sixth in the Southern Region of the Best Comprehensive CollegesBachelor’s in “America’s Best Colleges” by U.S.News & World Report.

“It is encouraging that JBU continues to be recognized for its growing academic and institutional strength,” Dr. Charles Pollard, university president, said. “The U.S.News & World Report rankings offer a confirmation of our commitment to offer an excellent, Christ-centered education that shapes students’ intellectual, spiritual, and professional lives, but we still consider the most important measure of our results to be in the changed lives of our students and of the people that they serve.”

One element in the criteria assessed by U.S. News is a score based on how other colleges and universities in the same category rank each other. JBU’s peer ranking has risen Brown Bulletin Winter 2006-2007

jbu in focus 10 percent since 2004, demonstrating that JBU’s reputation for academic excellence is on the rise.

Other ranking factors include consistently high graduation and retention rates and an alumni giving rate that shot up from 13 percent in 2001 to 27 percent in 2006.

Gift Kicks Off Cathedral Renovation Project The J.E. and L.E. Mabee Foundation of Tulsa, Okla. has given a $1 million challenge grant to kick off the fundraising efforts for major renovations to the historic Cathedral of the Ozarks, Art building, and Engineering building on JBU’s main campus. The renovations to the three buildings, commonly called the Cathedral Group, will cost an estimated $6 million. JBU has until July 2007 to complete the $6 million fundraising effort for this project in order to receive the Mabee gift.

To date, JBU has completed 42 percent of their $6 million renovation goal. In addition to the Mabee challenge,

An artists rendering suggests how the Cathedral will look after the stone cladding is applied to the building.

the Chapman Trusts have pledged a lead gift of $1.5 million toward the project.

“The Cathedral Group is at the heart of our campus, and they are buildings in which we have engaged students for over fifty years in the intellectual, spiritual, and professional challenge of university life,” said JBU President Charles W. Pollard. “We look forward to restoring them for new generations of JBU students, and we deeply appreciate the Mabee and Chapman foundations for their lead commitments toward this project.”

Constructed from 1945-1957, the cathedral project was never truly finished due to insufficient funds. Originally, the cinder block construction was to be covered with a stone face to preserve the exterior as well as give the buildings a distinctive look on campus. With the buildings unfinished, decades of sun, rain, ice, and sleet have taken their toll on the exposed cinder blocks.

To preserve the future of the Cathedral Group, JBU is raising funds to renovate the buildings, complete the external surfaces, and fulfill the vision that was started fifty Brown Bulletin Winter 2006-2007

jbu in focus years ago. In addition to providing for the stone surfaces, the funds raised will allow JBU to remodel interior classrooms and offices, further preserve the Cathedral’s stained glass windows, replace the roofs of all three buildings, update the heating and air conditioning systems, install new restroom facilities in the Cathedral, and make other necessary repairs.

If you have any questions about this campaign or would like to contribute, contact Jim Krall in University Advancement at (479) 524-7145.

Soderquist Center Partners with KNWA-TV News for Leadership Segments The Soderquist Center for Leadership and Ethics and Northwest Arkansas TV station KNWA are partnering to offer “Live, Learn, and Lead with the Soderquist Center” airing Tuesdays on KNWA’s morning show, “KNWA Today.”

Each segment will highlight a particular value relating to leadership, such as courage, integrity, accountability, and perseverance. Members of the Soderquist Center staff will serve as presenters, including Executive in Residence Don Soderquist, CEO Andy Wilson, Director of Business Development Tony Hawk, and others.

“We are always looking for ways to connect with and assist the communities in our area,” said Scott Pickey, news director for KNWA, an NBC affiliate. “We believe the Soderquist Center provides knowledge and resources in leadership development that Northwest Arkansas’ business people and the general public can benefit from.”

CRE Receives $2.7 Million Grant for Relationship Initiative The Center for Relationship Enrichment (CRE) at JBU was recently awarded a $2.7 million federal grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’s Administration for Children and Families to support research and development of healthy marriages in Northwest Arkansas. CRE is the only organization in Arkansas to receive the grant.

The goal of CRE’s initiative is to prepare unmarried couples for successful, healthy marriages and to strengthen existing marriages. The initiative is expected to result in a reduction in the Arkansas divorce rate and an increase in marital satisfaction.

One objective funded by the grant is the development, implementation, and testing of a pre-marital program identifying a person’s emotional intelligence quotient or EQ. EQ, which indicates the ability to identify and manage one’s emotions, is a vital element to building and maintaining healthy relationships.

In addition to other efforts connected with fulfilling the grant’s requirements, CRE plans to impact more than 13,000 couples in six Arkansas counties through marriage enrichment activities and training over the next five years.

CRE will partner with area churches and service agencies (government and nonprofit) to extend these opportunities to the Northwest Arkansas community.

Professor’s Book Speaks to Punk Rockers A couple years ago, Dr. Preston Jones, assistant professor of history at JBU and fan of punk rock band Bad Religion, e-mailed the band’s lead singer, Greg Graffin, on a whim.

What ensued was a yearlong e-mail exchange between the two, discussing the philosophical positions of atheism, Christianity, naturalism, and a number of other ideologies.

Jones recognized that the dialogue between himself and Graffin, an atheist who holds a Ph.D. in evolutionary biology, could be of benefit to others – Christians and nonChristians alike – who ask big questions about life and the world. Graffin agreed, and so their collection of e-mails was published in the book, Is Belief in God Good, Bad, or Irrelevant?, edited by Jones and published by InterVarsity Press.

Praised for its truthful discussion of difficult issues and the respectful yet no-holds-barred approach that Jones and Graffin take toward each other, Jones’s book has been featured in Christianity Today, on Chuck Colson’s “BreakPoint” radio commentary, and on countless punk rock and Christian web sites alike.

About the book, Chuck Colson said that “it’s a chance to watch two very different people engage in a conversation about the important things in life.

It’s a sobering fact that many Christians wouldn’t even bother to speak to the atheist singer/songwriter of a punk rock band. The fact that Professor Jones did so, and that his comments led to an enriching conversation, offers a great example to those of us who might otherwise hesitate to reach out across a seemingly unbridgeable divide to share the Christian worldview.” (BreakPoint Commentaries, “The Professor and the Punk Rocker,” 8/22/06, available at www.breakpoint.org)

JBU Lanches New Online Alumni Community JBU alumni now have even more reasons to visit the JBU web site since the launch of a new online alumni community, JBU AlumNET, during Homecoming weekend in October. AlumNET offers a number of new features designed to better serve alumni and enhance their connections to JBU and to each other.

The central feature of AlumNET is a more robust, more secure online alumni directory where alumni can post more information and pictures for classmates to see, set their privacy preference, and search for other alumni by more detailed criteria.

Another benefit offered by AlumNET is the opportunity for alumni to sign up for a personal @JBUalumni e-mail address using “@jbualumni.com.”

“We expect that the @JBUalumni addresses will be particularly valuable for young alumni who are moving frequently or who want to have a more professional e-mail address on their résumé than Hotmail or Gmail,” said Andrea Phillips, director of university communications.

JBU plans to continue adding enhancements and new features to AlumNET in the months and years to come.

To register for AlumNET, go to www.jbualumni.com and click the “log in” button. Alumni must provide a few pieces of personal information including either their student ID number or their unique preauthorization ID code in order to register and set up their account. Preauthorization ID codes (made up of two letters followed by four numbers) are located at the top of the Brown Bulletin mailing label. In the case of a married alumni couple, there are two ID codes on the label: the first is the husband’s code, and the second is the wife’s.

JBU and Alumna Initiate Prayer Network Twenty-five years ago, Lee Sale ’68 began praying earnestly for her life, her family, her church, and a few other interests.

More recently, she was taken aback by Bruce Wilkinson’s best selling book, The Prayer of Jabez, which persuaded her that the territory for which she prayed was more focused on her own business than on God’s.

Sale, a member of JBU’s board of trustees, became convicted that if she prayed daily for the students, staff, and JBU alumni, she could enlarge her territory to see God’s kingdom grow. With a group of JBU staff members, Sale organized the new JBU Prayer Network to mobilize JBU friends and alumni in prayer for the university.

As coordinator of the Prayer Network, Sale will lead a committee to collect specific prayer requests in a monthly e-mail newsletter to let Prayer Network members know how to pray for the spiritual, emoLee Sale is coordinator tional, and intellectual pursuits of the uniof the new JBU Prayer versity and its community. Sale expects Network. there will be seven to ten prayer requests in each newsletter. Newsletters will be sent from September through May each school year.

To receive JBU Prayer Network e-newsletters, visit the new alumni web site at www.jbualumni.com and click on the “e-Newsletters” tab. ■

For more information about these and other news stories, visit www.jbu.edu/news Brown Bulletin Winter 2006-2007

chaplain’s corner Treasure Hunting

by Stan McKinnon Campus Pastor For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. Matthew 6:21 Every fall my wife and I begin rehearsing the annual question with our kids, “What do you want for Christmas?” I’m astonished that two children raised in the same home with the same parents can be so different. Kati, our 17-year-old high school senior, invariably responds with her usual answer, “I don’t know; I think I have everything I need.” And she really means it. Meanwhile, our 13-year-old eighth grader, Jackson, pulls out the list he’s been making since December 26 of the previous year and begins his recitation of desired gifts.

Our parental reactions are predictable. We try to convince our daughter that she really does need or at least want something for Christmas, and we try to persuade our son that he really doesn’t need anywhere near the number of things on his list. We seem to be arguing out of both sides of our mouth, talking one child into wanting more stuff and talking the other one into wanting less.

How easy it is to get caught up in the value system of our culture.

Rather than asking our kids, “What do you want to get for Christmas?,” we should be asking them, “What do you want to give?”

Often in the scriptures, we see people encounter God while they are holding tightly to something they treasure, something from which they derive some sense of security or identity. And often, those same people are called to give to God that which they are holding so tightly in order to be in right relationship with Him.

Abraham was called to sacrifice God’s promise of an heir, his son Isaac, to demonstrate his faith. Peter was called to give up his profession as a fisherman to become a fisher of men. Paul was called to give up his self-righteousness as a Pharisee to trust solely in Jesus whom he had persecuted. And the rich young ruler was called to sell his possessions and follow Jesus to find the true source of eternal life. In the first examples, those called to give something up did so, and were given blessings of eternal value. The rich young ruler, however, chose his possessions over Christ’s promises, and he walked away sad.

From time to time all of us tend to find ourselves grasping after something that we think gives us security and identity such as a job, a prized possession, or a particular role, only to find that those treasures do not ultimately satisfy our deepest longings. This Christmas season, rather than asking each other, “What do you want to get?” our family has decided to ask God, “What do you want us to give?” because in giving the treasures we hold on to to the Lord, our hearts find their true treasure in Christ. And isn’t that what Christmas is all about? ■

Brown Bulletin Winter 2006-2007

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Brown Bulletin Winter 2006-2007

jbu SIFE

builds

by andrea phillips

cinder block

stoves to change lives

rises from an open fire on the dirt floor Cinder blocks, concrete forms, clay tiles, a metal plate, a little sand, and a smoke stack. It may not look like much, but this simple stove is revolutionizing life in Guatemalan villages.

10 Brown Bulletin Winter 2006-2007

of a clapboard shanty. Ash hangs from the rafters like stalactites from a cave.

The dense smog from the fire clouds your nostrils, throat, and lungs as your eyes slowly adjust to the darkness inside the compact room. The only light comes from the fire’s blaze and beams of light penetrating through the cracks in the board walls. Welcome to a rural Guatemalan kitchen.

More than being unsightly and uncomfortable, the soot-drenched, smokefilled kitchen, which is the center of activity for many rural Guatemalan families, is the source of myriad health problems for everyone in the home, and consequently, to everyone in these rural villages. The problem is the fire in the kitchen, which causes burns, respiratory ailments, eye maladies, and a host of other physical troubles.

Three years ago, after learning about the desperate conditions of the kitchens in rural Guatemala, the JBU Students In Free Enterprise (SIFE) team decided to get involved in a project that would transform these villages, one kitchen at a time.

Brown Bulletin Winter 2006-2007 11

Children are exposed to carbon monoxide, smoke, and dangerous open fires.

Creosote from indoor fires builds up on the ceiling of smoke-filled homes.

SIFE, led by JBU business division chair Dr. Joe Walenciak ’81, partnered with Helps International to clean up the kitchens in a rural Guatemalan village called Santa Cruz in Baja Verapaz. Home by home, the team of JBU students and Helps International staff replaced the open indoor fire pits with safe, clean, and efficient concrete and cinder block stoves.

The stove project was started in the late 1980s by Don O’Neal, an engineer and retired manufacturing executive who was volunteering with Helps International, an organization that partners with individuals and local and national governments to improve drinking water quality, medical care, education, housing, and agricultural and economic development in underdeveloped areas of the world.

O’Neal saw numbers of Guatemalan children who were horribly burned after falling into the open fires in their homes. He also noticed that many people had chronic respiratory problems caused by ash and smoke from the indoor fires. (The World Health Organization reported that these respiratory problems are the leading cause of death in Guatemalan children under the age of five.) When O’Neal went into the homes to measure the carbon monoxide (CO) levels, he discovered homes with CO levels as high as 160 parts per million (ppm). In the United States, OSHA calls for immediate evacuation of a building when CO levels reach 100 ppm.

In response to the great need for change, O’Neal developed a simple concrete stove that would provide heat for cooking indoors and be safe for those in the home. O’Neal’s stoves, named ONIL stoves by Guatemalan women, are upright concrete forms, with a cavity to contain the fire, a flat cooking surface on top, and a pipe to channel the fire’s smoke out of the house. Simply directing the smoke outside prevents the buildup of soot on the walls and ceiling and reduces CO levels in homes to less than 5 ppm. The cooktops are high enough that small children cannot easily reach them, and the concrete sides remain cool to the touch, so children rarely get burned.

In addition to the health benefits, the ONIL stoves have also solved other problems for the Guatemalan families, namely deforestation and slow economic development.

Where families keep open fires, they are required to collect

large amounts of wood each day to keep the fires burning.

As a result, the forests around rural Guatemalan villages have been devastated, sending villagers further and further away to collect wood. Families must sometimes travel two hours each way on foot, carrying their wood ration all the way home.

Such difficult and repetitive labor brings its own physical problems.

In contrast, the ONIL stoves use less than a third of the wood consumed by an open fire, so the amount of wood the average family needs to gather has dropped dramatically. The amount of wood that fueled an open fire for one day can be used for up to two weeks in a stove. Not only has deforestation slowed, but people have also gained valuable time – sometimes up to two days per week – to begin new social and economic activities. Whereas women before would spend hours walking, gathering, and returning, many are now able to make wall hangings, rugs, and blankets for their families and for sale.

Such are the dramatic, life-changing results that a small, inexpensive, concrete structure can bring to a family and a community. These results are only a part of the overall transformation that Walenciak, the JBU SIFE team, and their partners hoped to instigate in Santa Cruz Baja Verapaz.

TOUCHING SANTA CRUZ

Four hours from Guatemala City, atop a mountain at the end of a long dirt road, you find Santa Cruz tucked away from many aspects of modernization. The community has only one flush toilet, and that one is saved for use by visiting missionaries. Refrigeration is a luxury found only in a few stores that sell ice cream bars, drinks, and snacks. Women daily prepare fresh meals of rice, handmade tortillas, and bean paste, with an occasional serving of chicken or pork. The drinking water is unclean. There are no doctors or dentists.

Large extended families live together in small houses with few beds, so children often sleep on pallets on the floor.

Walenciak first visited the village while on sabbatical in 2003.

He described the many immediate needs of the impoverished, underdeveloped village in e-mails to JBU students and SIFE members Mandy and Bryson Moore ’03 ’03. Moved by the desire to help, the Moores flew to Guatemala to visit Santa

assembling an ONIL stove Cruz, assess the needs, and determine how SIFE could help.

“When I first heard from Dr. Walenciak, I did not know what I could do to help, but I knew that I desperately wanted to be part of the solution,” Mandy Moore says. “My life was forever changed by that visit. It is difficult to even find the words to describe it.”

Mandy was especially stunned by the inadequate education of the children, the 50 percent child mortality rate, and the lack of hope for anything more than mere survival.

“I remember leaving the village with a broken heart and asking Bryson why God allowed me to be born in the United States. I was overwhelmed with the idea that by the time I was thirteen years old, I could be giving birth to my first child and be unable to read or write,” Mandy recalls. “I just kept asking God, ‘Why was I born to a middle-class family in Oklahoma?’”

During their trip, the Moores also visited a group working with street children in Guatemala City and a group of indigenous women striving to operate a business in San Antonio Aguas Calientes. “I was overwhelmed by the images, the stories of injustice, and the poverty in Guatemala,” Mandy says.

The Moores listened to the people tell their stories, they recognized the people’s needs, and they documented the situation through video and photographs. Armed with these images, the Moores returned to JBU to mobilize the student population in an effort to make a difference in Santa Cruz and other areas of Guatemala.

Working with Walenciak and JBU SIFE, the Moores organized a spring break mission trip to Santa Cruz in 2004.

Mandy’s father, a physician, volunteered to treat people in a free clinic. The others on the trip – SIFE members, other JBU students, and friends – assisted in the clinic, made improvements to the school, distributed donated supplies, taught classes in first aid and trash management, and simply played with the children. In addition to meeting physical needs, the group intended to build relationships and establish

trust among the people that would be important to future work.

Treating more than 400 people in the clinic, the JBU group was surprised to see how many people were treated for respiratory infections. Upon making a few house calls, they saw firsthand the dangerous open fires in the homes and the build-up of smoke and soot that was causing so many health problems. SIFE began its partnership with Helps International shortly thereafter, placing ONIL stoves in as many homes as possible.

During the first stove installation project over spring break in 2005, JBU SIFE installed more than forty stoves in Santa Cruz homes with the help of five ladies from the community who had been trained only weeks before to install stoves and train others to use them.

“You should have seen the empowerment of these ladies who went from house to house to train and install,” Walenciak described. “They felt value and worth, and one day when we were ready to stop, they were asking, ‘Can’t we do just one more?’ We saw the emergence of true leadership in Santa Cruz, and it was exciting! This stove project is one of the most significant ways I have seen that we can improve the lives of the poor, rural residents of Guatemala.”

JBU SIFE provided the stoves, which cost about $100 each. Residents were charged a smaller fee to purchase the stoves in the belief that the investment by the family fosters a sense of pride and responsibility for the stove. The money paid is directed back into a community fund, managed by the community leaders, to address community needs.

“It was easy to get students involved,” Moore says, indicating that the work she initiated has been continued through other student mission trips and visits from JBU faculty, staff, and friends. “Many of the students that went the first time are still involved today. My goal was to pass that passion to other students who would then lead the program after I graduated.

Those students definitely took the initiative to the next level and far surpassed any expectations we ever had.”

In the two years since that initial spring break mission trip, Walenciak and the JBU students have more fully developed a program they call “ADVANCE Guatemala.” ADVANCE is an acronym that represents the priorities for the work done in

During the Moores’ first visit to Santa Cruz, Bryson Moore ’03 helped children overcome their fear of his video camera.

12 Brown Bulletin Winter 2006-2007

Brown Bulletin Winter 2006-2007 13

Women and children learn how to use an ONIL stove.

Santa Cruz: Address the pressing needs of the people; Develop the fragile economy; Validate the culture locally and beyond; Activate the minds of the people; Nourish discouraged hearts and depressed spirits; Cultivate local ownership; Exit the process, but not the relationship.

Simply, those involved in ADVANCE are committed to meeting the physical, spiritual, and emotional needs of the people in such a way that the people themselves become able to improve their own lives and community independent of outside help. Giving the people in rural Guatemala a sense of self-worth is a vital part of the process.

“When you show someone you care about them, they begin to care about themselves,” Walenciak described. “These are the marginalized groups, seen as second class citizens, uneducated farm workers. They’re seen as expendable. What we do validates them as people of worth.”

Walenciak tells the story of Aurelio, a Santa Cruz man who had a nose bleed for four days. Although he was disoriented, weak, and unable to walk because of his condition, the hospital would not see him because he was “just a campesino.”

Learning about his condition by phone from Guatemala City, Walenciak was able to pull the right strings and pay the right people to get Aurelio to a doctor.

“He would have died,” Walenciak said. “Does [Aurelio] feel a little better about himself ? Most of the world would never have missed him. Just one less ‘campesino.’ But he is a friend. Aurelio was not expendable to any of us.”

Not only did Aurelio recover, but with the help of SIFE, Aurelio opened a bicycle shop in Santa Cruz, and he takes great pride his business.

Aurelio is not the only person to have expanded his commercial horizons with the help of SIFE. JBU SIFE has also been instrumental in helping a group of indigenous women develop a profitable business in San Antonio Aguas Calientes, another rural Guatemalan village. The women, who once only sold their woven goods to the local community as little more than peddlers are now recognized by the government as a company, Artesanias Ixel. They sell their handmade items not only to tourists, but also to buyers on eBay. The growth of their business has provided more financial security for the women’s families, opportunities for education, ways to preserve their culture and traditions, and an example to foster basic rights for the indigenous people, particularly women.

EXPANDING THE IMPACT

Changing an entire community is not an easy task, and it’s not a task that can be accomplished by a few students working over spring break and a few weeks in the summer, Walenciak admits. Recognizing the need for additional support for Santa Cruz, Walenciak invited two other university teams to assist in the ADVANCE Guatemala project.

“We realize that our biggest problem is having hands and feet on the ground in Santa Cruz to do the work,” Walenciak said. “If we’re protective of our project, if the work only happens when JBU is there, then we’re serving ourselves and not them.”

In 2003, while teaching at Universidad Francisco Marroquin, a university in Guatemala where Walenciak spent his sabbatical from JBU, Walenciak described to officials there how the work of SIFE could impact people and communities. The university was so excited about what they heard that officials immediately began the process of forming a SIFE team on their campus, launching SIFE in Guatemala, even though the SIFE home office had no plans to expand into Central America at that time.

Walenciak also spoke with colleagues at Roberts Wesleyan College (RWC) in New York about JBU’s plans to work in Santa Cruz. Not only was the RWC SIFE team interested

Aurelio stands proudly with his new compressor in his bike shop.

14 Brown Bulletin Winter 2006-2007

in joining the project, but the school’s nursing program also became interested in sending nurses and nursing students to help operate temporary medical clinics in Santa Cruz.

JBU, RWC, and Marroquin teams each travel to Santa Cruz to continue the work of ADVANCE, sometimes working alone, sometimes working together. Even as they overlap, each group contributes in different ways to the effort: RWC conducts medical clinics and tends to focus on business development, for example, while JBU installs stoves and tends to focus on community development. The goal for all the teams, however, is to develop the Santa Cruz community so that they no longer need outside assistance from any group.

“We’re setting up a system so that the work can go on even when there’s no team there,” Walenciak said. “We don’t want them to be permanently dependant on handouts. This is that whole ‘teach a man to fish’ thing.”

Return trips to Santa Cruz have proven that residents are responding well to the help they have received. The stoves themselves are holding up well under much use, and the stove owners are even finding ways to innovate and improve the design of the stoves.

In the absence of the indoor fires, residents have cleaned their houses, removing the layers of soot and grime, taking pride in their homes. The quality of life for these families is better, with cleaner air in their homes, more time to invest in development, up to half their income saved, and a greater interest in taking care of themselves and their community.

“I have been impressed with SIFE’s work in Guatemala, because we started trying to improve the people’s whole lives and not just bits and pieces,” said Matt Fraser ’05, who participated in the Guatemala project for two years. “Our goals are long term and span from community development to spiritual development.”

GIVING AND RECEIVING

As of October 2006, SIFE has installed approximately 400 stoves in Santa Cruz and neighboring villages. It’s estimated that implementation of the stoves saves 42,000 trees each year, saves 189,000 man-hours per year, reduces indoor air pollution by 99 percent, and reduces greenhouse gases by 30 percent.

SIFE has provided medical and dental assistance to many

Giving the people in rural Guatemala a sense of self-worth is a vital part of the process.

people who would not have had it otherwise. They have improved the condition of schools and playgrounds, have assisted and started small businesses, and have conducted educational and evangelistic programs.

For all that JBU volunteers have given for the people of Guatemala, they have received something back. Several things, actually.

“This [outreach to Santa Cruz] provided me with the opportunity to use all of those [Head, Heart, Hand] aspects for Christian service,” Mandy Moore said. “A project like this teaches students that they can have a positive impact on the world. Something as simple as a stove can give a family or community more pride in itself and revolutionize the way they live, breath, provide nourishment for their family.”

Both Moore and Walenciak describe an immense responsibility they felt for using their gifts and talents to serve not only the people of Guatemala, but also the people around them on a daily basis. At the same time, they say, there is a great sense of joy that comes in doing the important work of serving others.

“Working to help Santa Cruz clarifies my priorities and gives me purpose,” Walenciak said. “I want people to know that they can make a difference, to see the needs around them, to be unafraid of stepping up to address the needs. It just takes someone to stand in the gap to connect the resources with need. I can do that. It’s not about me or what I’ve done.

But it’s a privilege to be a part of that moment when a life is changed.”

That privilege of being part of changing a life is something Walenciak believes students can get from serving, whether in Guatemala, the United States, or elsewhere.

“I want them to get excited about touching people’s lives and seeing lives changed,” he said. “To know the joy of being relevant—that never gets old.” ■ Portions of this article were contributed by Leila McNeill ’05 Brown Bulletin Winter 2006-2007 15

a day in the

life of a

campus icon

by Heather Crain ’03

It’s 10:30 a.m.

on Tuesday morning, and hundreds of JBU students stream through two sets of double walnut doors into the large Cathedral sanctuary. The sound of bells fills the air as I watch the students take their seats in the polished wood pews or on the floor at the front of the sanctuary. Tinted daylight shines through the tall stained glass windows and paints the upraised faces of the campus congregation as they start singing praises to God. Another chapel service has begun in the Cathedral of the Ozarks at JBU. As I participate in the service this day, I consider the countless students who have accepted Christ within these Cathedral walls; the alumni who were joined in marriage before God and the choir loft; the scores of young adults who were inspired here to make life-changing decisions that still affect the lives of the people around them; the missionaries who sat in these pews and dedicated themselves to the Lord’s service, committed to going forth from this Cathedral and serving God in whatever situations He may bring.

I also recall one of my most joyful and spiritually memorable Cathedral experiences, which occurred during a communion service. Students passed the bread and juice down the pews, and each student served his or her neighbor with Christian love and compassion. At that time I was privileged to be offered communion from the man who is today my husband.

For nearly fifty years the Cathedral has existed as a place of worship, education, training, and preparation for JBU students. Even a decade before it was built, the idea of the Cathedral inspired the imaginations of founder John Brown Sr., the JBU faculty, and the students.

John Brown Sr.’s dream of building a cathedral at JBU began in 1937, when Brown described over his radio program a vision of broadcasting from within a great

With its stained glass windows, gothic arches, and majestic towering presence, the Cathedral of the Ozarks is the most recognizable icon on campus.

Its value, however, is measured in the hearts, minds, and experiences of every JBU student who ever passed through its doors.

Brown Bulletin Winter 2006-2007 17

1955

2006 natural cathedral. He announced, “What a privilege it is to be here among the majestic Ozark hills! How wonderfully they demonstrate the marvelous creations of our God! They are like a great cathedral raised to the praise of our Redeemer!”

John Brown named his radio program “The Cathedral Hour,” and on each Sunday thereafter, cathedral doors swung open in the minds of radio listeners to release the sounds of bells and a Cathedral Choir over the airwaves.

Brown’s vision caught fire in the hearts and minds of the people around him. Soon he was approached by listeners who encouraged Brown to build a physical cathedral in the Ozarks. The first gift for the Cathedral came from the faculty body in 1944 before the ground was even broken. Listeners to Brown’s radio stations and supporters of the Brown schools began sending gifts to start the building effort, and, as word reached campus of former students and staff members who had died on the battlefields of World War II, the decision was made to build and dedicate the Cathedral to these honored dead who had served their country. Ground was broken on commencement day, May 3, 1945, just five days before the announcement that the war in Europe was over.

At 11:30 a.m.

the chapel service comes to an end.

The doors of the sanctuary burst open to students and faculty heading to their classrooms or to lunch. Some leave

18 Brown Bulletin Winter 2006-2007

through the side exit doors of the Cathedral and reenter the building through the elevated entrances to the second floor educational wing. Others head down the stairs to go to the music practice rooms and classrooms on the ground floor of the Cathedral. Ten minutes later, the Cathedral is the scene of academic study in subjects ranging from English, history, music, intercultural studies, foreign languages, psychology, political science, performance studies, and family ministries.

While walking through the halls, I can hear professors explaining the birth of western civilization and political governments, the leitmotifs of Wagner’s music, verb tenses parsed in the Spanish language, and examples of ways to identify personality disorders.

The layout of the educational wing of the Cathedral has changed some since its first days, especially on the excavated ground floor, which was the first part of the cathedral building to be finished. Where today a person can sit in chairs to view a play or recital in the Jones Recital Hall, there once was a choir section which faced an auditorium whose white pillars and student-made pews hosted many chapel services and missionary conferences. The ground floor also once provided temporary shelter to the campus library as well as a permanent home to the Cathedral Choir and the music department.

Students of the late forties and fifties probably recall that the Cathedral was built in spurts. A period of several years stretched between the completion of the first floor and the third floor of the educational wing. After the ground floor was finished, John Brown Sr. decided that the school should not create any more debt from the project, so the construction company contracted to do the work spread a layer of tarp paper and tar to roof the complex, then discontinued the construction.

Over a year after the construction company left, a faculty member and a number of students restarted the work on the Cathedral’s education wing themselves, and the founder’s brother Ben Brown brought a crew in to supplement the student laborers. Students and faculty helped to complete the second and third floor of the educational wing as well as the sanctuary. At that time, any students who wanted extra income could work on the Cathedral. Students from the graduating classes of the early 1950s worked to pour the concrete, raise the cinder block walls, and frame the classrooms inside the structure. The use of labor and supervision from within Campus Hill helped to cut the cost of building the entire Cathedral Group—the Engineering building, the original Science building, and the Cathedral—by over half of its initial estimated cost.

Costs were also reduced through the use of material resources found on campus. Most of the lumber used in the building and for its furnishings came from timber on university land. Students and staff cut down trees and ran the wood through the campus sawmill, dry kiln, and planing mill. The furnishings were made in the campus furniture shop. Even the limestone that was intended to seal off the exterior of the Cathedral and the other two buildings in the Cathedral Group was to come from the Sulphur Springs quarry, which was on the land that the university owned.

With the combined efforts of students, staff, and friends of the university, and with the natural resources available to the university, the dream that John Brown Sr. had in the thirties was ultimately celebrated in April of 1957 when the Cathedral of the Ozarks was dedicated, a little over two months after the founder passed away. Although the building was not completed with the limestone cladding that was part of the original vision, the Cathedral proved to be an effective tool in the mission to transform students’ lives to the glory of God.

About 4:00 p.m.

the Cathedral fills with laughter and music as some students leave their final classes for the day.

In the late afternoon and evening hours, I find music students cramming in a few more hours of practice at the pianos in the practice rooms. The jazz and pop ensembles practice in the sanctuary and actors rehearse student-directed plays in the Jones Recital Hall.

By 8:00 p.m., darkness marks the end of the day, but not the end of the activity in the Cathedral. Student clubs begin their meetings in the Cathedral classrooms. Students seeking a peaceful place to study come to the sanctuary or the lounges in the educational wing with their textbooks and homework assignments. And still

1993

2006 there are faint sounds of music wafting through the halls as students practice for upcoming performances.

From outside, I can see the Cathedral’s stained glass windows glow warmly, casting a soft, jewel-toned light onto the people walking on the sidewalk ahead of me. The view makes me want to relive the hours that I spent sitting next to my friends in class and in chapel, or the times when I would sneak into the quiet sanctuary between campus activities, content to steal a few moments with God in this atmosphere of unassuming beauty.

To me and other alumni, the Cathedral of the Ozarks, built by the hands of the students and staff of JBU, is much more than mere cinder blocks and concrete walls. The Cathedral of the Ozarks communicates the spirit and dreams of its builders who desired to provide a beautiful place in the center of campus, where students would develop mentally and spiritually to become servant-leaders for God’s glory. Just as when it was first finished, this building still stands as the silent participant in the events that touch the lives of JBU students each day of the week. Every chapel service renews the awareness of grace that God has showered on JBU through the completion and use of this building over the past fifty years. ■

Brown Bulletin Winter 2006-2007 19

Roger Cross ’66 and Jan Cross ’66 each received the Outstanding Alumnus of the Year award, recognizing their exceptional accomplishments and service to JBU.

Paul Goring ’51 and former professor Dr. Andrew Bowling shared a laugh at the ’50s decade reunion.

O

ur theme for Homecoming 2006 was “You’re Always Home at JBU.” Certainly, many alumni found themselves at home again on campus in October.

Even though buildings have changed, campus has expanded, and students have grown younger, JBU alumni were welcomed by familiar faces, encouraging relationships, and inspiring JBU icons. Home truly is where the heart is!

1

20 Brown Bulletin Winter 2006-2007

Stephen Sbanotto ’04 played the Pirate King as he and a crew of JBU students performed a scene from Pirates of Penzance during the Showcase on Saturday night.

3

4 2 Athletic Events

Rugby celebrated 25 years at JBU.

Bryan King, Meghan Scholtens, Lydia (Scholtens) King ’92, Harriet Dudley, Kathy Scholtens, Dick Scholtens, Gregg Scholtens ’97, Nichole (Cook) Scholtens ’97, and senior Brian Kyles at the Scholarship Recognition Dinner.

Kid Zone

Students prepare for the annual Homecoming parade. center photos: 1. Alumni like Ryan Woolery ’06 and Steve Bos ’93 enjoyed a soccer match on Saturday. 2. Kidzone gave kids a chance to have fun with other kids and JBU staff. 3.

Marsha (Wilson) Smith ’76 and Ann (Skinner) Williamson ’75 sign a smiley-face flag during a reunion. 4. Mike Brundage ’76 gave the chapel address on Friday.

Reunions

Chapel

JBU’s Heritage Society, alumni who graduated from JBU fifty or more years ago, gathered and inducted new members during the weekend.

Homecoming King and Queen, Jake Funk and Kristen Raikes

Brown Bulletin Winter 2006-2007 21

CHAMPIONS OF CHARACTER

Alumna’s Love of Animals Bridges Cultures for Ministry

World View

by Andrea Phillips

by Simeon Hinsey ‘01, JBU Sports Information Director

JBU ATHLETES ENCOURAGE LOCAL STUDENTS, SEE RESULTS When assistant JBU men’s basketball coach Donnie Bostwick took on the role as campus coordinator for the NAIA Champions of Character (CoC) program, he had high aspirations, but no idea the program would come so far in such a short time.

“It’s been really exciting to see how we’ve grown in the last three years,” said Bostwick. “Champions of Character has opened many doors that Fellowship of Christian Athletes [FCA] struggled getting into, but by combining FCA and CoC we have created a perfect combination for JBU.” The NAIA Champions of Character program is an educational outreach initiative that emphasizes character and integrity, not only for NAIA college athletes, but also for younger students, coaches, and parents. The CoC program creates opportunities for athletes to demonstrate positive behavior models for students and members of the community, often through sports-related activities.

Last spring, one of those opportunities arose when three JBU athletes were asked to motivate Siloam Springs High School’s 11th grade students before they took a statewide literacy exam. Current JBU basketball players, Tyler Dees and John Williams, and former basketball player Brandon Cole ’06 decided they would prepare a skit to encourage the students to do well on the test.

The simple skit they performed to motivate those students had a greater effect than they could have imagined. “The skit was pretty sweet,” said SSHS student Terry Butler, who took the test as a junior last spring. “It definitely made us reevaluate the importance of the test and want to do better. If they didn’t come and talk to us I probably would have blown it.”

Another SSHS student, Jake Wilmott, still remembers what the JBU athletes had to say: “Brandon told us it was important to do what has to be done, when it has to be done, to the best of our

JBU basketball players Tyler Dees (left) and John Williams (right)

ability, all the time. That’s a great quote, and it not only applies to sports, but this applies to everything we do in life.”

Test coordinator Lisa Tiger reports that the skit was instrumental in the students’ success on the test. “We achieved the highest score we’ve had in five years,”

“We’ve been blessed with the talent to play basketball and go to college, and the Bible says to whom much is given much is required.”

:: Tyler Dees

she said, “and we believe having these guys come over proved to be a very beneficial attribute to the successful scores on the test.”

For Tyler Dees, now a JBU sophomore, motivating students meant much more than just helping them score well on a test.

Dees, who graduated from Siloam Springs High School, knows first hand the broader needs of some of the high school students, and he desires to impact their lives as well as their scores.

“I know we can have a positive influence on some of these kids by showing we care,” Dees said.

“When we were freshmen, Tyler was a senior,” said Meghan

Guthrie, who is now a SSHS senior herself. “It was just great that he still considered us important even though he is a college basketball player now.”

In addition to presenting the motivational skit before the literacy test, Champions of Character has allowed JBU athletes to lead other activities including an assembly on character for all of Siloam Springs School District’s 3rd and 4th graders, Bible studies for 5th and 6th grade students after school, and presentations to children and youth at local churches.

“I’ve always been an outgoing person, but I never thought I would be going up and talking to kids and trying to motivate them to do better,” said Williams, now a junior at JBU. “I realize that it is very important to give back because we are all children of God and have to help each other.”

Dees agrees. “We’ve been blessed with the talent to play basketball and go to college, and the Bible says to whom much is given much is required,” he said.

Bostwick feels lucky to be a part of Champions of Character himself. Through the program he hopes his passion for ministry will be felt and extended through JBU athletes for years to come.

“It’s about planting seeds,” Bostwick said. “You may not know whose life you’ve impacted, but God knows and we will be rewarded for it in heaven. You can not place a price tag on this program.”

From an early age, Denise Ward ’97 loved animals. Having grown up with a great number and variety of animals on her family’s small farm in Iowa, Ward eventually decided to spend her life working with animals to help farmers.

After four years at JBU, Ward was accepted to veterinary school at Iowa State. There was just one problem.

“The Lord had really been working in my life during my senior year at JBU,” Ward says, “and I was convicted that I really needed to let God have control of my life and serve Him in whatever way He wanted to lead me.

I started questioning why I wanted to become a veterinarian. How could God use a veterinarian? I couldn’t answer that question satisfactorily. I knew God could use doctors and pastors, but I couldn’t perceive how he could use me as a vet.”

The conflict she felt between following her heart and following the Lord was resolved one day in a divinely orchestrated, brief conversation with a stranger from Congo. Although she did not regularly talk with strangers, this day Denise found herself telling the African man that she was preparing to be a veterinarian. The man replied with a recommendation: Come to Congo because the people of Africa depend on their animals for their very lives. They need someone who can teach them to care for their animals.

“Wow!” Ward thought. “If they depend on their animals that much, if I

could save their livestock, wouldn’t that open a door so they would be willing to listen to what I have to say about a relationship with Jesus Christ and the opportunity to gain eternal life? Maybe God can use a vet after all!”

During veterinary school, Ward learned about Christian Veterinary Mission (CVM), an organization that strives to show the love of Christ to

unreached people by helping them to care for their animals. Halfway through her veterinary program, Ward traveled to Uganda with CVM and became convinced that the Lord was leading her to a career in veterinary missions.

After receiving her degree and honing her skills practicing as a veterinarian in Iowa for two years, Ward headed to Africa with CVM to join the Awanno veterinary project in Ethiopia.

In Awanno, Ward treated all types of livestock including cattle, sheep, goats, donkeys, mules, and horses, and in the process she built relationships with the people she served.

“In these [third world] countries, people’s whole lives depend on their animals,” Ward says. “In some families, a death of an animal can mean the difference between life and death of a person or even the whole family. Some will tell you it is easier to replace a wife than a cow!”

“The Awanno vet project’s purpose goes far beyond treating the animals,” she explains. “We have helped the animals become healthier, and the farmers’ families have better food security. The project has also given us the opportunities to build relationships in order to share Christ in an unreached area.”

After that year of experience, Ward was persuaded to pursue long-term mission work in Africa. After receiving a grant that would pay her school loans while she was on the mission field, Ward returned to Ethiopia as a CVM missionary. Ward is assigned to work with the mission organization SIM Ethiopia in their outreach to Borana.

Only she and a church-planting couple are currently at work there.

While still treating animals occasionally, Ward focuses her work today on researching the animal health needs in Borana and preparing to train the Borana people to treat their own animals for basic diseases. Ward hopes that by training the local people to treat animals, those she trains can travel to more locations than she could, reaching more people and accommodating the culture’s nomadic lifestyle. Plus, trained locals will be able to continue treating animals even after the missionaries are gone.

“I have heard of people who were loved into a relationship with Jesus Christ,” Ward says. “That is the type of impact that I hope to be a part of in Ethiopia. By showing that I care for their animals I want to show them how much I care for them. They see Christ’s love in action, which gives the basis to form a relationship where Christ and His love can be verbally shared!” ■ Brown Bulletin Winter 2006-2007 23

Perspectives On ...

The Winter of Our Lives Oh, the world owes me a living. Doodle doodle doodle doo doo. [hock ptui] From early childhood, I still remember the grasshopper’s song from Disney’s “The Grasshopper and the Ants.” You remember the story. The grasshopper belittles the ants for working so hard all summer. Of course, eventually winter hits. The grasshopper’s food is all gone, and the poor creature is starving.

In the Disney version, the ants kindly invite the grasshopper down into their warm, well-stocked anthill and serve him nourishing soup. I suspect, in reality, the ants found a different use for the grasshopper.

The Bible tells it this way: “Go to the ant, you sluggard; consider its ways and be wise!” (Proverbs 6:6 NIV)

I find it interesting that God did not design this world to provide for life evenly throughout the year. Instead, he provides abundance in one period

by Donald Balla, Associate Professor of Accounting

and expects His creatures to save up for the winter. The grasshopper cannot say in December, “I have faith God will provide for me today.” God already provided, but the grasshopper failed to collect it.

Nor can the grasshopper say, “Hey, God, what’s with this winter business! Don’t you love us?” God has already warned us that the winter is coming.

The winter of our lives will come.

It won’t be a result of sin or Satan. It’s just the way God made the world. It is comforting to know that He is giving us enough now to survive the winter, whether it be through financial or spiritual investments.

So start saving 10 percent of your income; winter is coming. Give 10 percent away; nothing makes you feel richer. Pay down your debts. You can do it.

There are people right now living on less than 70 percent of your take-home pay.

Winter will come to JBU some time, too. No fear. God is providing sufficient resources today to help

WhWey Give Back to JBU

JBU through that threatening season.

Thank you, all of you who have given to JBU in the past, especially to our endowment fund, our anthill where we store vital resources. You basic econ alumni will remember I liked to sing this song:

for the CLEP Financial Accounting Exam, is due

out in May 2007.

Amount of time it took to graduate from JBU: 4 years Cost of a JBU education: Quite a bit Gratitude to those who gave to the JBU Scholarship Fund to make this moment possible:

PRICELESS To help students afford a quality Christian education at JBU, there’s the JBU Scholarship Fund. more information, or to give online, visit www.jbu.edu/giving or call (800) 446-2450.

24 BrownFor Bulletin Winter 2006-2007

the

road

by James Elliott ’97 Regional Director of Development

B

Go to the ant.

Baump baumpa baum pa baump buamp.

Go to the ant and be wise.

Though nobody makes him, he works all summer, stores all his goods below.

He’s warm and cozy all winter while the cold winds blow. ■ Donald Balla, J.D., has taught at JBU in the Business Division over twenty years. He is a musician, a CPA, and a Spanish-speaking lawyer who works pro bono for the Hispanic population in Northwest Arkansas. His book, The Best Test Prep

stories from

We owe much to JBU. Both of us were recipients of financial aid when we attended John Brown because of our involvement in The Harmonaires musical teams. Just that experience alone provided us with a lifetime of memories, learning, and friendships.

But through the years we’ve also realized how much our JBU experience has contributed to our jobs, our worldview, and most importantly, our faith.

eing an alumnus of JBU myself and having talked with countless JBU alumni over the years, I’ve learned that alumni of JBU tend to be very creative, tend to be very inventive, and tend to have quite a bit of personality. One alumnus I met not long ago affirmed my observation when he shared a funny story about a trip he made back in the early ’70s.

Not long after he graduated, Mike Walker ’70 decided to drive from his home in Michigan to Siloam Springs for JBU’s homecoming weekend. It was 1973, and Mike drove through the many small towns that dotted Highway 71 on the route south. As he drove on late into the night, Mike began to think about stopping somewhere to stay the night in a motel, but he had a hard time justifying spending the money for a room.

Deep in thought, Mike neglected to slow down as he drove through Neosho, Missouri, and he was promptly pulled over by the local policeman for speeding. The officer wrote out the ticket. Frustrated that he was now going to have to pay a fine for speeding, Mike asked the officer what would happen if he refused to pay the ticket.

The policeman replied, “I’ll take you in for a night in jail, and you’ll see the judge in the morning.” That didn’t sound too bad to Mike.

Mike went to jail and ended up with a cell all to himself for the night. He had a good night’s sleep and a warm breakfast the next morning. After the meal, he saw the judge, paid a $10 court fee, and was on his way to homecoming.

Leave it to a JBU alum to be so creative that he could turn a penalty into a perk!

More recently, we have seen the wonderful students that JBU is now producing to influence our world. We are honored to invest in them the way that someone invested in us in the past.

Roger and Jan Cross

1966 JBU Graduates

Brown Bulletin Winter 2006-007 25

Think your money’s trapped in your IRA? Think again.

by Paul Eldridge ’88, J.D. Director of Development and Planned Giving

alumni news We’re now including wedding and birth announcements within the decade sections of the alumni notes. For publication in future issues, please send information and photos to Brown Bulletin Editor, John Brown University, 2000 West University Street, Siloam Springs, AR 72761. To submit your information by e-mail, write to alumni@jbu.edu. To submit information online, go to www.jbualumni.com.

I

t might surprise some to learn that we at JBU have occasionally advised donors not to give particular gifts to the university. Generous though they may be, giving certain gifts to JBU may not make sense for the giver from a tax perspective.

One such scenario, in which we have advised a donor to rethink his gift, involves an individual who wants to give a significant gift from an Individual Retirement Account (IRA) to JBU. Historically, withdrawing funds from the IRA could create income tax implications that would be detrimental to the donor, even when the funds are being given to a charity like JBU. As a general rule, withdrawing money from an IRA to fund a charitable gift just hasn’t made good tax sense.

Thankfully, there is now an exception to this rule.

In August, 2006, the Federal Government enacted legislation commonly known as the “Pension Protection Act of 2006” (PPA). The PPA provides that in most circumstances any individual at least 70½ years old may a give a gift to a charity through an IRA account without incurring any federal tax liability.

Under the PPA, during the 2006 and 2007 tax years, most gifts of $100,000 or less can be given from an IRA without claiming the withdrawal as taxable income. Although the gift is not claimed as a tax deduction under the PPA, donors can enjoy the benefit of knowing that funds that might otherwise be held unused in an IRA account can now be given freely to qualifying charities like JBU.

In order to protect the privacy of JBU alumni and prevent the misuse of personal information on the Internet, we have deleted the alumni news from this online edition.

Many individuals who would love to support JBU in a significant way often do not have liquid assets to give. For a limited time, those individuals can now consider a substantial gift to JBU and/or other charities by turning their IRAs into liquid assets. A gift from an IRA could become a gift that would be matched through JBU’s $10 Million Challenge to fund a scholarship. It could help preserve the Cathedral of the Ozarks as a gift to the Cathedral Group Renovation Project. It could become the realization of a deep desire to contribute to the work of changing lives in a powerful way.

If you have questions about this or other giving opportunities, please contact me at (800) 446-2450. As always, be sure to consult your tax and legal advisors before taking advantage of this opportunity or making any significant gift to charity.

26 Brown Bulletin Winter 2006-2007

Brown Bulletin Winter 2006-2007 27

Have you heard?

from the

director’s desk Why JBU AlumNET? Your community used to be your hometown or neighborhood. Now, thanks to technology and the Internet, your community can be anyone with whom you are in contact regularly, wherever they may live. Young and old alike are able to include in their community the missionary in China they email weekly, family members who live six states away, and college classmates with whom they have reconnected.

Those of us who are connected as JBU alumni now have a resource to help us stay in touch with each other more easily, no matter where life has taken us after graduation. JBU AlumNET is a safe, secure web site that lets you tell your friends where you are, post a photo, and share the exciting things happening in your life. There are a number of features on AlumNET (and many more to come) that make efforts to connect with each other and with JBU much more rewarding.

In order to protect the privacy of JBU alumni and prevent the misuse of personal information on the Internet, we have deleted the alumni news from this online edition.

In order to protect the privacy of JBU alumni and prevent the misuse of personal information on the Internet, we have deleted the alumni news from this online edition.

For example, you can indicate which groups you were involved in while on campus, and in turn, JBU can tell you when that group is having a reunion or gathering. As alumni from The Sound Generation plan the group’s final concert for the 2007 Homecoming Showcase, we hope that JBU AlumNET will be a useful tool in helping to get information out to more Sounds alumni.

Why AlumNET? Because the way we communicate has changed. JBU has a rich history of being a good steward of the resources we have been given, so it is only natural that we use the technology resources available to us to better serve the growing, worldwide JBU community in this way.

Visit www.jbualumni.com to discover all that AlumNET offers, to view pictures from Homecoming 2006, and to learn more about Homecoming and other alumni events (including The Sound Generation reunion) for 2007. If you need help registering with AlumNET, just contact us at 888JBU-ALUM.

Jerry Rollene ’75

Director of Alumni and Parent Relations

28 Brown Bulletin Winter 2006-2007

Sound Generation 40th REUNION The

and final-eth performance

at SHOWCASE

HOMECOMING Oct. 5 & 6, 2007

For more information, contact: Jerry Rollene director of alumni relations 888-JBU-ALUM Brown Bulletin Winter 2006-007 29

In order to protect the privacy of JBU alumni and prevent the misuse of personal information on the Internet, we have deleted the alumni news from this online edition.

30 Brown Bulletin Winter 2006-2007

In order to protect the privacy of JBU alumni and prevent the misuse of personal information on the Internet, we have deleted the alumni news from this online edition.

Brown Bulletin Winter 2006-007 31

In order to protect the privacy of JBU alumni and prevent the misuse of personal information on the Internet, we have deleted the alumni news from this online edition.

32 Brown Bulletin Winter 2006-2007

In order to protect the privacy of JBU alumni and prevent the misuse of personal information on the Internet, we have deleted the alumni news from this online edition.

Brown Bulletin Winter 2006-007 33

In order to protect the privacy of JBU alumni and prevent the misuse of personal information on the Internet, we have deleted the alumni news from this online edition.

34 Brown Bulletin Winter 2006-2007

In order to protect the privacy of JBU alumni and prevent the misuse of personal information on the Internet, we have deleted the alumni news from this online edition.

Brown Bulletin Winter 2006-007 35

In order to protect the privacy of JBU alumni and prevent the misuse of personal information on the Internet, we have deleted the alumni news from this online edition.

36  Brown Bulletin Winter 2006-2007

In order to protect the privacy of JBU alumni and prevent the misuse of personal information on the Internet, we have deleted the alumni news from this online edition.

Homecoming 2006

In this issue of the Brown Bulletin, we’re flashing back just a couple of months to Homecoming 2006. These reunion photos represent only a few of the people who returned to JBU to catch up with old friends and reminisce on their JBU days. For more photos and to learn the names of the alumni shown here, visit the new alumni web site at www.jbualumni.com.

class of 1966

class of 1946

class of 1956

Receive the benefits before time runs out.

This opportunity applies only to tax years 2006 and 2007.

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class of 1976

class of 1996

y 38 Brown Bulletin Winter 2006-2007

Brown Bulletin Winter 2006-2007 39

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or f s u n i o J weekend February 23 & 24, 2007

Brown Bulletin John Brown University 2000 West University Street Siloam Springs, AR 72761