Faith in Action Vol. X

Fall 2023

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Ministry News

Weaving Culture

Impact

Ministry Revisions

MINISTRY NEWS New program benefits freshmen, transfers Transition periods are vulnerable; it's helpful to have Godly people around us during these seasons – people we can look to as Christlike examples and who are willing to support and encourage us as we find our footing. Hence a new Campus Ministries program called Know, Grow, Go! It gives freshmen and transfer students at Cumberlands the opportunity to connect with Christians on campus and plug into campus ministry, life groups, and local churches.

Allison "AJ" Bryson, a freshman at UC, said the program made it more comfortable for her to open up and connect with fellow students whom she might not have met otherwise.

"Finding Christian community is something I knew I would struggle with," AJ said. "I didn't need to hang out with only my teammates all the time who may or may not be Christians. A couple girls I met here were like, 'We want to get involved in Campus Ministries. How do we do that?' And I was like, 'Um, I don't know... but come to Know, Grow, Go with me!' It was a good event to introduce new friends to, so they could get involved with ministries early."

Know, Grow, Go meets once a week for four weeks at the beginning of new semesters. It gives the students a place to connect with their peers and make new friends, and informs them about campus ministry opportunities and local churches they can attend.

Additionally, core biblical principles are taught throughout the program, ensuring everyone present hears the Gospel and sound basic theology.

David Rambo, a junior, is one of the student leaders at Know, Grow, Go. His role is to lead conversation in the small-group discussions that occur immediately following the large-group presentation each week. To David, one of the most important aspects of the program is that it teaches students more about the everyday pursuit of following Christ; that Christianity is not a once-a-week commitment, it's meant to permeate our very existence and be evident in our daily lives. Along with that key aspect, David is also thankful for the community that's growing through the program.

CLS continues empowering Christian leaders The Christian Leadership Scholarship (CLS) program at University of the Cumberlands aims to pinpoint incoming students who have a foundational understanding of the Gospel, train them in evangelism skills, develop their theological knowledge, and coach them through a deepening relationship with the Lord. The scholarship program was revamped a few years ago and continues empowering students to become compassionate, knowledgeable, and effective leaders for Christ.

This fall, 76 students are earning the Christian Leadership Scholarship, which means attending mandatory meetings hosted by the Office of Campus Ministries, plugging into a local church, and meeting regularly with a spiritual mentor. In spring, these students will select a campus ministry to join.

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FAITH IN ACTION

Ready to put your own faith into action?

Email bcm@ucumberlands.edu to get started.

New campus minister: Rachel Lowder Rachel used to view her Christian upbringing as cliché or even sometimes a putdown. After all, what's so special about growing up in a Christian home? You're just used to this whole Christianity thing; you never knew any different. But as Rachel has matured, and especially as she has gotten to know her husband more deeply over the years, she sees the benefit that growing up in church can bring.

"For instance, Bible stories," she said. "I know exactly what someone's referencing with those because I've heard them a thousand times. But Nemo may have only heard them twice or three times. It doesn't mean he's not spiritually mature, I just think it's a huge privilege to have heard the Bible so many times and grown up in a home in which it was always available. He didn't have that growing up."

Rachel has matured in other areas of her spiritual life as well, in particular her commitment to living for Christ 24/7. As many do in college, Rachel attended Christian events on campus, but it gradually became more about checking that off the list so she felt like a "good Christian."

Outside the events, it was a different story.

"Freshman year, I lived in two worlds," she admitted. "I lived in the I-do-what-I-want-and-hang-out-with-whoever-I-want world, and I go to campus ministry events. Only a few people knew I was living two different worlds. I hid it because I liked finding my identity in being a 'good person,' but I also wanted to just have fun without putting Jesus first in my life."

But it all changed when she attended a winter conference. The Gospel was shared, and for the first time Rachel really understood her own sin.

She said, "I was self-righteous, just checking things off my list and holding it against people who didn't. Quite prideful. But at the conference, I made the decision to serve the Lord wholeheartedly, go where He wants me to go, do what He wants me to do, give what He wants me to give. I got saved at a young age, but that's when I fully surrendered my life."

Her college experience is one reason she's so passionate about college ministry – and about making it clear that campus ministry events are NOT church. She knows people can "play the Christian game" because she did it; she encourages everyone to choose to fully surrender because she's seen the difference it's made in her life. Yet she has grace and understanding for those who are lost in a double life during college.

"College really is a formative time," Rachel said. "It's the first time they're away from their parents, they're exposed to the world, they have freedom to do what they want. So, I just go, 'Okay, you're right, you have freedom. You can choose whatever you want.

So, what do you want? What do you really want to choose?' Because we're called to choose, not to be lukewarm."

As a campus minister at Cumberlands, Rachel oversees NOVO, the women's ministry on campus, as well as Appalachian Ministries, a ministry that leads activities and Bible stories for local schoolchildren. In her role in NOVO as well as Appalachian Ministries, Rachel remains focused on connecting people with local churches. Though no church is perfect, at the least it's a place for students to receive teaching from trained pastors and elders, connect with community members outside their college-friend bubble, and worship God every week. Campus Ministries is great, but it isn't church. Rachel wants students to plug in.

FOLLOW US @ucumberlands_CM

FIND US Edna Taylor House UNIVERSITY OF THE CUMBERLANDS

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Weaving Culture

I ACT because... "... I know the woman I want to be, and I know the daughters that I’m going to raise. I want to raise leaders.”

Anne Ngarhasta, '24

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FAITH FAITH IN INACTION ACTION

into Worship Written by Madelynn Furtick, '25

Since coming to Williamsburg, Kentucky, in 2020, Anne (pronounced “on”) Ngharsta has had to take initiative in her walk with Christ and in finding Godly community. It is a skill she has been taught since she was young, as her mother prepared her for life in the U.S. Her father was a pastor in a local church in her hometown of Rusha, Tanzania, in Africa.

Growing up in a pastor’s home included an understanding that, every single Sunday, you would be forced to wake up earlier than you would’ve liked to in order to go to church. You would be encouraged to read the Bible. The family would have discussions about the Lord, and so on.

But when Anne was 15, her mother took a step back and let her make her own decision about following God. “My mom was like, ‘Now you’re grown. It’s all up to you. You build your relationship with Christ,’” Anne said.

Her mother was someone she looked up to and an inspiration for her life – a very strong, powerful woman of God. She looks up to her mother as someone she wants to be like, and she hopes to make this world a better place for her kids to feel safe in, as her mother always made her feel safe.

When Anne was 17, she came to Williamsburg, Kentucky, to attend Cumberlands. She is now a senior, and no two years have been the same for her.

“You are gonna have different stages every single year,” she said. “You’re gonna have a year where you make a lot of friends, you are on top of the world, you feel like you’re thriving… and the next year, the friendship you thought was gonna last a lifetime broke up, or you had the worst heartbreak. What you have to accept and truly see is that this world is always going to try and break you, but you need to stand strong, and that’s with the Holy Spirit.”

For Anne, standing strong in her faith involves having community. While “community” has become a buzzword in Christian circles in America, it looks very different in Williamsburg than it does back home in Africa.

“America is an individualistic culture,” said Anne. “At home, we’re more rooted in family and just being around people all the time.”

Her community helps each other grow as individuals and as children of God. As she grew up, she had her community helping her to reach her highest potential. Being united throughout life is important to Anne’s community in Africa in part because they see how broken the world is. When you’re facing brokenness, one way to remain content, receive support, and be encouraged is to connect with each other and enjoy time spent together.

Another way is through worship, which looks very different in Anne’s hometown than in Williamsburg. Many churches in America follow a detailed schedule for church of opening worship, prayer, sermon, closing worship, and leaving around the same time every Sunday, Anne’s church back home operates differently.

“In my church, we start around 9:00 a.m. and go until 2:00 p.m. or really whenever, because we let our people feel the music, we really want them to feel that worship,” she said. “It is more of a physical display of what the Holy Spirit is doing inside people. People are on their knees, or some people are crying in the corner – and the song keeps going. It brings us all together.”

Many churches in America (not all, but many) are less free and vulnerable during worship; people stand and sing, and that’s mostly it. While Anne has slowly gotten more used to that, she sticks to her African roots as strongly as possible.

Neither American worship culture nor African worship culture are “right” or “wrong,” it’s more about the heart behind why someone is worshipping. So, Anne doesn’t let the American culture around her change the way she worships. Instead, she continues to worship God the way she was raised.

Anne continues to worship God and trust him as she prepares to graduate in only a few months. Going home this summer helped Anne to slow down and focus on God without the hustle and bustle of her life in America.

“I had an internship at the United Nations during the summer for two months and that really, God really helped clarify a lot of things for me because I’m graduating.”

Anne plans to graduate in the spring and looks forward to pursuing her dream of working in international relations and diplomacy for an international corporation.

UNIVERSITYOFOFTHE THECUMBERLANDS CUMBERLANDS UNIVERSITY

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"GO, THEREFORE... BAPTIZING THEM" Sunshine, a soft breeze, a warehouse, and a repurposed cattle trough. The perfect setting for a baptism.

When Jaelynn Lewis and her friend Emma Jones, both sophomores, arrived at University of the Cumberlands as freshmen, neither were devoted to Christ. Once at school, though, they began hearing the Word more, attending Immanuel Baptist Church, and seeing living examples of Gospel work through their work-study supervisors at Mountain Outreach (MO).

Emma said, “I got plugged into church immediately. It was an amazing community of people who taught me so much about the Lord and what it means to follow Jesus.

I started with a life group and friends who knew Jesus and taught me how to draw closer to the Lord."

She and Jaelynn went to several different churches and camps during the summer, typical baptism locations, but they waited until the beginning of the school year so they could be baptized Rocky Brown, director of MO, and David Bowman, MO’s construction manager, at the MO warehouse.

Emma explained, "Dave and Rocky were a huge part of both of our Christian walks.

I've never met anybody that just shows me what it means to follow Jesus and show you the love of the Lord like Dave and Rocky."

Rocky and Dave were honored that the students wanted to be baptized by them.

"These work-studies become like our kids,” Rocky said. “For the period of time that they're with us, we are shepherds to them. To be able to disciple these girls and now get to baptize them is truly an honor."

Jaelynn and Emma are working for MO again this year, helping the ministry build bedframes, renovate homes, purchase and deliver items to families in need, and more. While doing all those things matters, the most important thing is the status of the girls’ souls. With their baptism as a physical sign of an inward transformation, it looks like God is working in their hearts. Lord willing, they will continue becoming more like Christ in all they choose to do, at MO and anywhere else.

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FAITH IN ACTION

GOOD FOR THE SOUL

Funding from generous donors provided new tennis shoes, socks, and hygiene items – not to mention a fun, memorable day – for 500 children from five local schools at this year's Shoes 4 the Soul event.

All children left campus wearing brand-new socks and shoes, carrying a drawstring bag full of essential hygiene items like toothpaste and soap, and grinning from ear to ear. (And, yes, the ice cream truck Cumberlands rented to be on campus that day for the event helped.) Shoes 4 the Soul is a favorite campus event that local schoolchildren and the Cumberlands community look forward to every year.

"Last year, I was a buddy for this little boy named Jack," said Ashley Tucker, a staff member in the Office of Campus Ministries (CM) at UC, which hosts the event. "At first, he was reserved. But once he got his shoes, he was hopping everywhere. He just wanted to jump around in his new shoes."

Children are chosen by their elementary school's Family Resource Officers, who are familiar with the families in school that are facing financial struggles.

To steward funding wisely, AM finds deals that don't sacrifice quality. For instance, the Shoe Sensation store in Williamsburg, KY, offered a bulk discount on the shoes needed for Shoes 4 the Soul. Lane Roberts, a sophomore at UC, helped transport the boxes. The Shoes 4 the Soul event has special meaning for him.

"I grew up in this area," said Lane. "I've been the kid who sometimes didn't have new shoes at the beginning of the school year. Giving these kids new shoes helps them with their self-esteem and confidence."

In addition to giving shoes to kids in need, this event exemplified the Gospel to 500 children and more than 100 volunteers who may not have seen God's love embodied very well before. That alone is worthwhile.

UNIVERSITY OF THE CUMBERLANDS

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Impact

“I don’t know any Spanish.

How on Earth is this going to work?” Eli Duff, '25 Eli Duff, ’25, was skeptical. He was part of Immanuel Baptist Church’s summer evangelism group, Impact, and they were heading to Spain to do mission work for three weeks. Eli has had a strong faith in Christ for years, and the Impact leaders had trained him and the dozen other college students in Impact on different evangelism techniques. But when it came to how effective he would be in sharing the Gospel in a foreign country, Eli had doubts.

an opportunity.’ I took a whiteboard out of my backpack and drew the three circles explanation of the Gospel, writing some of it in Spanish.”

“I thought to myself, ‘There is no way I am gonna be able to reach someone here. I don’t know any Spanish. How on Earth is this going to work?’” he said.

Eli continued, “I’m writing this, and I’m trying to write some Spanish words. Erlina is translating for me during all this. In the back of my head, I’m like, ‘This is incredible, I don’t think I ever would have imagined something like this.’ These two teenagers were listening, and they weren’t trying to walk away.”

His test came as he and his mission group – a few Americans from Impact as well as a few Christian Spaniards – were heading back to the church Impact was using as a sort of headquarters. They passed by a market, and two teenage guys walked by. Something about them caught Eli’s attention – or, more accurately, the attention of the Holy Spirit within Eli – but, at first, he resisted the tug.

“I thought to myself, ‘Oh, that’s okay, we’ll keep walking,’” he said. “But Erlina stopped them and told them in Spanish, ‘My friend wants to show you something.’ I thought, ‘Alright, here’s

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FAITH IN ACTION

The three-circle diagram: one circle depicting the broken world in which we live, one that is God’s love and perfect design, and a third that is Jesus. All three circles connect with lines pointing to each other.

The boys thought about what Eli and Erlina had said for a little while. Then they said they wanted to consider it further before they really decided anything. Eli and Erlina prayed for them at that very moment, that Holy Spirit would move in their hearts.

Eli still prays for them.

He wasn’t the only one who worked up the courage – and worked through God-given translators – to evangelize curious unbelievers in Spain. Kennedi Airtrip, ’25, was also part of the

Across the World Impact team. During the trip, Kennedi had an impactful Gospelsharing experience.

She and her group (Americans plus Spaniards) were singing praise songs in the park, and Kennedi noticed a group of teenagers looking at them.

“After we got done singing, I went up to them,” she said. “I felt the Holy Spirit tell me to go talk to them. Each of us in the group had a role in presenting the Gospel and having a good conversation with the teenagers. It wasn’t like I was doing all of it or the translator was doing all of it; it was a collective work, and it was really cool seeing the Holy Spirit move in that way.”

Both Kennedi and Eli grew as Christians and as young adults over the summer. Their Impact supervisor, Brent Foley, the director of ministries at Immanuel, said, “They were challenged to share their faith with others daily – a task that often makes seasoned believers nervous. They relied on their training, trusted the Lord, and shared the Gospel with everyone from the mountains of Appalachia to Madrid, Spain.”

Eli and Kennedy are back on campus now, spending more time with English-speakers, going to classes, doing schoolwork, and so on. But they lived out what it means to make an impact across the world, and the lessons they learned from it stick with them, wherever they go.

And the Holy Spirit did move. From what Kennedi could tell, two of the teens came to know Christ as their savior that day.

Go on Mission contact Jacob Ratliff at 606.539.4343 to learn about upcoming mission trips

UNIVERSITY OF THE CUMBERLANDS

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Men's Ministry As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another.

Proverbs 27:17

Thursdays

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6:30 am

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Library Basement

Mission Band of Brothers exists to develop a community of Christian men at University of the Cumberlands dedicated to a biblical pursuit of personal holiness, advancement of the kingdom of Christ, and genuine brotherly love.

Vision Band of Brothers accomplishes its mission by training men in biblical principles and challenging them to put their training into practice in the UC community and a local body of believers.

Accountability

Commitment

Dependence on Christ 10

FAITH IN ACTION

Trust

Holiness

Women's Ministry Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!

All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: 19 that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. 20 We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. 21 God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

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2 Corinthians 5:17-21

NOVO is all about connection - first and foremost, connection with the Lord, and secondly connection with each other. The ministry hosts discussion panels featuring trusted Christian women as they answer tough questions about God and life. Among others, topics include...

Relationships Anxiety Everyday Struggles with Sin Evangelism & Missions Prayer

Inclusivity Vulnerability Reconciliation Renewal Righteousness UNIVERSITY OF THE CUMBERLANDS

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HOW CAN YOU ACT? PUT YOUR FAITH INTO ACTION.

Mountain Outreach

Appalachian Ministries

Campus Ministries

FCA (Fellowship of Christian Athletes)

Rocky Brown 606.539.4346

Rachel Lowder 606.539.4173

CM Office (ETH) 606.539.4343

Matthew Plementosh 606.539.4346