Annually, Indiana Wesleyan University presents the Distinguished Wesley Seminary Alumni Award to a deserving candidate. Two of the finalists this year include John and Patty Bray. John and Patty currently work at the university, where John serves as Dean of the Chapel and Patty teaches Old Testament Survey and mentors young women in the community.
Even as the couple continues to serve in the IWU community, their educations from IWU still have a large impact on their lives. John said, “In formative periods of my life, IWU equipped me for life’s practical ministry opportunities. It shaped my thinking.” His favorite professor while studying at IWU was Wilbur
Williams, and at Wesley Seminary was Chris Bounds.
Patty says earning her master’s degree at IWU taught her how to be a, “life-long learner.” Her favorite professors while receiving her master’s degree included Wayne Schmidt, JoAnn Lyon and Steve Lennox.
Before returning to IWU to serve as Dean of the Chapel, John and Patty pastored for 41 years at Heritage Wesleyan Church in Rock Island, Illinois. After serving at Heritage, they lead as interim pastors at First Wesleyan Church in Battle Creek, Michigan, and then Patty served as the interim senior pastor at Fall Creek Wesleyan Church (now, Trinity East Fishers) in Fishers, Indiana.
This award is granted to an alumnus or alumna of the Seminary who has exhibited excellence in serving his or her profession, community, church, or alma mater in the spirit of Jesus Christ, and will be awarded during the Homecoming Weekend of October 7th.
—
Written by Dezaray Barr, Writer for the Alumni Office. Dezaray is a Sophomore Strategic Communication and Honors Humanities double major at Indiana Wesleyan University in the John Wesley Honors College. At IWU Dezaray is involved in PRSSA leadership and runs both the JWHC Blog and her own blog. Visit Dez’s website atwww.dezaraybarr.weebly.com.
Wesleyan youth exhibit talents and abilities while receiving scholarships through the Wesleyan Church Campus Challenge program. Since the 70s, then called “Teens N Talent” (TNT), students who aspire to attend college have been awarded scholarships. Some students have exceeded $20,000. In a recent conversation, Dr. David Keith, who began the program shared, “It was a way for us to coordinate with churches and districts as well as in partnership with the Wesleyan Colleges and Universities to give opportunity for students to express their God given talents.” The Youth Department under his leadership was thinking of all the talented youth in the Wesleyan Church and wanted a way to help develop youth, giving them opportunities to help fund college expenses. “It was a way of expressing talents that the Lord has given to our students. It was a way for students, who have God-given abilities, to give glory to God as well as encourage their faith and the faith of others,” he added. “It started out as a way to further encourage students with scripture memorization and express their spiritual development. God has endowed young people with talents of many kinds,” stated Keith with a sincere joy in his voice.
IWU is a buzz with over two-hundred talented students, siblings and parents. They were in attendance to compete and receive recognition and awards including scholarships. Talents include music, art, creative skits and dramas, as well as writings. “It’s really quite remarkable to see so much talent in the Wesleyan Church exhibited by our youth,” says Tom Sloan who has recruited and hosted groups on the university campus during his entire student recruiting career, recently retiring. Tom has witnessed many who have received scholarships and now alumni of the program are bringing their children to compete. “What motivated students is usually their parents and pastors who see the potential of their students and encourage them in their talents,” he added.
Parents like Jim & Emily Vermilya are here to support their children, Silas & Aynsley. “I participated in the program when I was in high school,” says Jim. This year’s competition includes many children whose parents were themselves recipients of the talent scholarship. Silas earned $1,200 this year toward scholarships while his sister earned $600.
Tom Sloan said, “This year we have doubled the number of entries. There are over one-hundred students with over two-hundred entries.” He has been participated in Campus Challenge (then TNT) since he was 14 years older, supporting the program for over 50 years! “There isn’t any better way to earn scholarship support for Wesleyan Colleges and Universities,” adds Sloan. Sloan has been a champion for this program and celebrates the many next generation youth competing for scholarships and planning to attend Indiana Wesleyan University. Even after retiring from the IWU Admissions Department this year, serving over 35 years, he continues to support the event at IWU. “This is not an IWU program but scholarships are awarded through the University,” he adds.
Grace Poole is one such student that entered several categories. Here talents are supported by her parents. IWU Grad, Theresa earned scholarships where she was a teenager and attended IWU. “My name is Grace Poole and I am planning to attend Indiana Wesleyan University,” stated Grace before her performances. Her talents earned her $2,800 this year alone.
Rev. Rick Weesner has been leading this effort for over twenty-five years. Rev. Weesner says, “When I see a student at IWU I am encouraged that I had a part in their student success. I get satisfaction from seeing them pursue their goals.” He has the support of the University as well as his wife who has championed this effort. He enjoys the opportunity given to students to help pay for their college cost. It is been both a challenge because of the many entries to organize as well as a reward to see students achieve such high honors and be rewarded scholarship monies. Weesner adds, “IWU supports this every year. The staff is always supportive and encouraging. They go out of their way to host us! I appreciate all the volunteers who sign up willingly to serve as judges for each category of talent.” It takes dozens of people who volunteer their time. The event is staffed also by IWU employees who set up and run the audio and video needs of this event.
Sophie earned $1,200 through the events she entered.
Supported by the Wesleyan Church, through a partnership with each university of the Wesleyan Church, the scholarship program has significantly reduce the cost of education. What began with a simple vision has awarded student hundreds of thousands of dollars. IWU grad and founder of the program, Dr. David Keith, says, “It started out as a way to further encourage students with scripture memorization and express their spiritual life but it is clear that the program has grown in size and scope.” There are many more categories students can enter. Current coordinator for the North Central Region, Rev. Weesner says, “We want to see students earn scholarship by developing their talents in whatever talent they have.” (Rick Weesner pastors a church in the West Michigan Wesleyan District, Garrison Hills Wesleyan Church.)
IWU Grad, Lloyd Woodard remembered when he entered was the very first year. “I won first place but I was the only one who entered that category,” he laughed. He participated as a judge in the art category. Top awards were given to Shelby Meek, earning $5,000 and Christian Ames, earning $5,400.
Campus Challenge is an annual event held at each of the Wesleyan Colleges and Universities. Many talents are shared from generation to generation of young people. Scholarships can be used for each of the schools. Results of the competition are available at The Wesleyan Church Department of Education and the Ministry.
Written by Rev. Rick Carder, Director of Alumni & Church Engagement at Indiana Wesleyan University.
The following story follows Dr. Richard Harris, who broke away from KKK leadership in order to follow God’s calling in his life. His story is one that shows how God can transform anyone’s life and just how important it is to love your neighbor.
“As the ceremony continued, I had started looking at the items on the altar in front of me. It was adorned with American flag, the Confederate flag, an open Bible, the sword, some silver bowls, and a large flaming cross. The fire was evidently fueled by bottled gas and during the ceremony, someone kept turning the flame lower and higher depending upon the atmosphere that the man in charge wanting to set. … Through it all, I kept hearing a voice within me soothing me, calming me, saying, ‘This is your destiny, Richard. This is your destiny.'” – excerpts from “One Nation Under Curse.”
Richard Harris with the book he authored and his KKK robes
It was the late 70s when Richard C. Harris picked up the Bible and began reading it for himself. It was because of this one decision that his worldview was forever transformed. In fact, the Imperial Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) encouraged him to include religious rhetoric in his hate speech while promoting the KKK. “I know now that it was really the Holy Spirit directing me because I didn’t really know where to begin when I picked up the Bible,” Harris said when he reflected on being directed to begin to read the book of John. “My motivation was to become a national leader for an organization that taught hate and racism,” he added. Harris described how his life changed and he began to understand love.
The story of the Samaritan woman in the Bible helped him understand love differently, “I knew a Samaritan was a half-breed, a race-mixer as the Klan called them. Half Jewish half Gentile. Jesus goes to the well and this halfbreed woman is there. He asked for a drink, and she is shocked that he spoke to her because ‘Jews don’t associate with Samaritans.’ At this point, the Klan chaplain would close his Bible and say, ‘Now, Jews are smart enough to know they shouldn’t associate with half-breeds, and how much smarter are we than Jews? We don’t associate with half breeds either!” That was the whole point of the story — don’t have anything to do with half-breeds. Race-mixers are bad; even Jews don’t like them.”
Harris shared the more he read the Bible, the more he decided that what he thought was true was really a lie. But God was working to transform his life even as he ran the business of the KKK. Ironically it was a retired pastor, the father of fellow Klansman, who spoke to him about his future, this man said, “Richard Harris is going to be a powerful instrument for God’s Kingdom.” Years later these words still evoke a tender, “emotional influence in his life,” recalls Harris. “The pastor saw potential in me and witnessed God’s love for me while I was promoting hate.”
Dr. Richard Harris
Harris has served over thirty years in the Free Methodist Church and is now a staff pastor at a predominately black Missionary Baptist Church. Through everything, though, God transformed his life. In the mid-to-late 90’s, he felt that he needed to be intentional about race relations. “What I thought was the truth, turned out to be a lie,” says Harris. As he read the Bible beginning in the book of John, Harris shared with me about how he stopped short of reading the full story of the Samaritan woman and her interaction with Jesus, a Jew. “What I read at first,” recalled Harris, “was that the Samaritan woman said to Jesus that Jews and Samaritans don’t get along.” However, as he tried to justify his beliefs against the story from the Bible, he came to realize and discover an epiphany in his own life. He came to know that what he was preaching was hate not the truth.
At first it took the prompting of one of his students when he taught at Purdue while also pastoring in LaPorte, Indiana. He shared the story about how one of his students, a black woman, indicated to him that she knew who he really was.
“After class she approached me and she said, ‘I know about you and your past. I know that you have been in the KKK and about how you have changed’,” he recalled. She was the leader of the Purdue Black Americans Student Union. She shared with him that she would like him to speak at their next gathering. Furthermore, she indicated that she already printed up posters and was promoting the event. The event was so popular that they had to relocate us three times because of the Fire Marshall rules. They were overcrowded. Hundreds actually showed up to hear me speak for the first time and give my testimony of how I was transformed and left the KKK,” he said.
Harris, at one time the second youngest Grand Dragon of the KKK in the United States, promoted and recruited members to the hate cause for four years. “I grew rapidly in the organization and even had four bodyguards to protect me in those days,” says Harris. Even though he controlled much throughout the organization in Indiana, he was not satisfied and looked for a higher ranking opportunity. The only position offered to him at the time, however, was chaplain of the national KKK organization. This proved to be a turning point in his life because it meant reading the Bible, cover to cover.
In Harris’s book, One Nation Under Curse, he discusses how he “ran one of the largest underground terrorism organizations”. Over thirty years later, he captivates his audiences with stories they will never hear anywhere else and challenges them with lessons he has learned on his journey from racism, bigotry and prejudice — to acceptance, love and tolerance.
He shared about how his life was transformed because of the love of Christians in his life. His message of hate toward people who were different from him was turned to an attitude that honored those he was taught to despise. For over thirty years, he has served as a pastor in the local church. His ministry has grown, as well as his educational training. Soon after his conversion he felt a call to ministry and began that pursuit of education at a nearby Christian school — Indiana Wesleyan University (Marion College).
Rick Carder, Tricia Harris (Richard Harris’s wife) & Richard Harris
“Some of the professors at the time even knew what I was but they still loved me and welcomed me in their classrooms,” says Harris. Some of those professors at IWU included Wayne Caldwell, Lee Haines and Bill Bixler. “Marion College contributed to an ever-changing belief system that brought grace & love into focus for me,” recalled Harris.
Harris is now a professor of Communication at Southeastern University. Earning his bachelors degree in Christian Ministries from Marion College (now Indiana Wesleyan University) in 1982, MMin Pastoral Ministries from Bethel College, MA in Communications from Spring Arbor University, and finally earning his EdD, from Nova Southeastern University. Read more.
When asked how he would summarize his book, Harris answered, “It’s a book about being intentional about race relations in this country.” The book has provided Harris with many opportunities to speak into be intentional about race relations. Even though coming up today, he has received death threats, he continues to promote reconciliation in his community.
Harris indicated that he has found a wonderful community in his local church that provide support and care for he and his family. He continues to teach and write as well as inspire others to be involved in race relations throughout the United States. Read more.
Written by Rev. Rick Carder, Director of Alumni & Church Engagement at Indiana Wesleyan University.
Kevin Batman ’82 is the General Treasurer/CFO of The Wesleyan Church serving to practically resource the missional priorities of The Wesleyan Church. In his position he is responsible for Finance, Human Resources and Facility Management.
Francis Mustapha was born in Madina Village, Sierra Leone. Seven of his siblings, including his twin brother, died before age five. Francis was not expected to live, but his father heard of an educated woman who had training as a nurse. He took Francis to the clinic she had established in another village, 20 miles away, and said, “We have heard that you have been educated. Here, prove it.” Today, Francis says, “The only difference between me and my seven siblings is the intervention of this educated lady. For me, education is life.”
Although Madina children did not go to school, Francis attended a Christian elementary school 20 miles away and later a Christian secondary school 40 miles away. He graduated at the top of his class but was denied funding for college. “Because of corruption, it isn’t what you know. It’s who you know,” he explains.
When his biology teacher, Tom Davidson, heard about it, he bought Francis a plane ticket to America. Francis enrolled at IWU because Davidson had taught here. He worked on-campus and in factories to pay for school and lived with IWU professor Margaret Hodson during vacations. “She was a mother to me,” he says.
He graduated in 1972 with a B.S. in biology, a decision he credits to Davidson’s teaching skills and passion for science. However, it wasn’t until graduate school that Francis decided to become a teacher himself. In the late 1970s, Francis and his wife Bobbie (IWU ’76) taught at U.S. schools, but Francis wanted his wife to live in Africa. They moved to Liberia, where Francis taught at a university for three years while Bobbie taught at the international elementary school connected to the college. Later, the couple relocated to Sierra Leone.
Sierra Leone is the size of South Carolina. Liberia is located to the southeast. Madina Village is 140 miles southeast of Freetown.
As Sierra Leone’s economic and political spheres deteriorated, Francis feared for his family’s safety. “Right after we [returned to America], a ten-year war ensued,” Francis says. The war destroyed over 1,270 elementary schools, at least two major universities, hundreds of high schools, and most of the nation’s hospitals.
Francis and Bobbie continued teaching in America, but Francis’ heart remained in Sierra Leone. “I weep over the country,” he says. “If mission efforts were ever needed for Sierra Leone, it’s now.”
To save Sierra Leone, education is key: “In the current generation, corruption is all they know… They’re not going to hear. So what do you do? You focus on the future. The children.” Francis’s lifelong dream was to return to Madina and build a school. In the 1990s, he planned to turn that dream into reality.
Two attempts to build a school failed due to rebel warfare and a destructive fire. Tired of losing money and materials, Francis deferred his dream until he retired in 2011. Two weeks later, he flew to Sierra Leone with $50,000 of his retirement money to build the school himself.
Francis talked a local mining company into using its bulldozer to clear the land for the school.
With support from Francis’s home church, Good Shepherd, construction began. Project leaders built the school in phases, only progressing when they had the necessary resources. Francis was amazed to see how God provided funds; twice, Good Shepherd helped raise $60,000 in under three months. He compares his own contribution to the little boy whose lunch fed the five thousand: “My motivation was, ‘This is my two fishes and five loaves. Jesus, here it is.’”
In 2013, Bobbie came to Madina to pre-register eligible students and organize the classrooms. “That school is not going to go without her,” Francis says. Bobbie was involved throughout the school’s construction and opening. She is the one who suggested painting its exterior blue, white, and green – the colors of the national flag – and painting the classrooms bright colors, to compensate for the lack of electricity. Bobbie also made Madina Village School a sister school to Arlington Elementary, where she teaches in the U.S. Arlington students sent school supplies to Madina, and students wrote each other letters.
Registration day was difficult for Francis. “We had to turn away over 300 students,” he says. Typical classes in Sierra Leone are crowded with more than eighty students and lack supplies, making learning difficult. Madina Village School’s classes are capped at 30, with two teachers in each room, to more thoroughly educate students. “90% of the children going to that school have never been to school,” Francis explains.
Students in one of the classrooms at Madina Village School. The classrooms have no electricity, but it’s hard to tell from the bright picture!
Madina Village School’s second academic year was postponed by the 2014 Ebola outbreak, which shut down all of Sierra Leone’s schools. According to Francis, the most important element for combating Ebola is education. Madina Village School’s teachers and nurse – the only certified, trained school nurse in the country – held Ebola education seminars for the community. People could opt for voluntary quarantine, and outside visitors underwent mandatory isolation. “To this date, we’ve never had a single case of Ebola in that community,” Francis says.
He is proud of the role the school had in avoiding Ebola: “The school being there for one year gave us credibility … but I didn’t know [its impact] was going to be this soon or this big.” Francis plans to return to Madina for the school’s March 30th reopening.
Future plans for Madina Village School include a new well and a health clinic. Francis says having a sustainable clean water source is the school’s number one priority, because the current well often dries up. Leaders will soon begin raising funds for the clinic as well, because the closest hospital is 30-40 miles away.
Workers digging the school’s current well, which needs to be replaced with a deeper well.
In its first year, Madina Village School educated almost 300 pre-K through third grade students from at least five villages. The school will eventually expand to educate students from pre-K through high school. He hopes IWU will play a role in these expansions by permitting nursing and education students to complete intercultural requirements and practicums in Madina Village.
Francis is grateful for how God is working in Sierra Leone: “God is the one that has the solution, [and] the solution to most of the problems is education. That’s the only hope. I don’t expect to see extreme change in my lifetime. My hope is to plant the seed.” For more information about Madina Village School or to donate, please visit www.madinavillageschool.com.
One of Madina Village School’s two academic buildings.
Written by Megan Emily. Megan is a senior English/Writing major and member of the John Wesley Honors College. She operates a blog (megzilla99.wordpress.com) about finding hope and security.
To honor her service and commitment to helping others the Miriam A Cromer, RN Nursing Scholarship has been established. This scholarship will provide financial assistance to nursing students at Indiana Wesleyan University. Please make a donation in lieu of flowers.
You could call it a reunion – of sorts. Michael W. Smith came to Marion, Indiana in the Spring of 1987. Invited by then Marion College Student Government Association, this concert was too big for the campus. “We held the concert at the old Memorial Coliseum, what is now the Star Financial YMCA” says Rick Carder, current IWU Alumni Director. It was under his student leadership with the Student Activity Council that he came to town.
This year’s Homecoming on October 4 will feature Smith in concert along with IWU’s Chorale. “I think that this year’s experience would completely blow him away at how much we (IWU) have changed in 27 years. The concert venue now is a 3,800 seat Chapel-Auditorium” says Carder.
Michael W Smith has always had a gift for delivering songs that capture the hearts of the listener and give voice to their thoughts and feelings. During his three-decade career, the Kenova, West Virginia native has shaped the Christian music landscape with such songs as “Friends,” which was named the No. 1 Song of All Time by CCM Magazine and “Healing Rain,” a powerful anthem that remains one of the best-loved songs in his extensive repertoire.
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 4, 2014
7:30 PM
CHAPEL AUDITORIUM
Tickets can be purchased by calling the Phillippe Performing Arts Center Box Office at 765-677-2630 or online.
College friendships last forever. The song written by Michael W. Smith “Friends are friends forever” was the popular song the year we graduated and it truly spoke truth of our friendship.
“Friends Are Friends Forever, if the Lords the Lord of them. And a friend will not say never, cause the welcome will not end. Though it’s hard to let you go, in the Father’s hand we know, that a lifetime’s not too long. To live as friends.”
It all began during the years of 1983-1987 at Marion College then (now IWU). Six girls from different cities, different states with different majors. Deena Graf-Evans from Tipton, IN (nursing), Melodie Allison-Heer from Avis, PA, (Business), Colette Graber-Sylvester from Nappanee, IN (Med.Tech), Kathy Cady-Moorlach from McCordsville, IN (elementary education), Julie Green-Mowery from Flint, MI (Music/Business) and Dawn Woodard-Hobson from Indpls, IN (Social Work). At different times in our years together, we became roommates and suite-mates.
It has been 25 years since we have graduated and our friendship continues to grow in the Lord. We have shared in each other’s weddings, the births of our children, the trials and joys of raising our children, and now entering a stage of watching our kids graduate from high school and go to college.
Through the years we have taken several trips together besides the Spring Florida trips in college. Following graduation, we took a trip to Florida before starting our new jobs and some of us getting married that summer. We have met in Ft. Wayne, IN for weekends away of shopping and dinner and many laughs. Other trips include women’s retreats, a trip to Colorado when Melodie and her family moved away for a year. We frequent Applebee’s and BW’s in Marion for dinner during the week nights for those of us who live closer. We often close the place down with long conversations and many laughs. There have been times that we even included our husbands and children and have gone camping in Northern, IN and had parties at each others homes during the holidays. On one of our trips we decided to name our girls gatherings by using the first initial of our last names – thus originating the name “MESH.” Most recently this past February, we visited Julie & Erick Mowery in Cancun to see their ministry with Back2Back and were able to serve with them for a few days and get in some beach time.
Besides trips, email and Facebook have helped us tremendously in keeping in touch with each other’s lives. We are able to pray for each other and our husbands and children as we all go through different stages and different trials in our lives.
Deena (‘87), a nurse, and her husband Scott Evans (IWU alumni) moved a few years ago to Colorado Springs, CO, and have two boys -one working full-time and one graduating from H.S. Melodie (’85), a resource aide, and her husband Phil Heer (IWU alumni) moved back from Colorado and live in Fishers, IN. They have a boy and a girl in high-school and their oldest son, Matt graduated from IWU this past December. Julie (’87), a professional harpist, and her husband Erick Mowery (IWU alumni) lived in Caledonia, MI and have a girl who is a sophomore at IWU and a boy in H.S. However, Erick and Julie left the states to be missionaries with Back2Back Ministries serving in Mexico beginning when they dropped off their daughter, Eliza, to IWU on September 2, 2011. Colette (’85), a Med. Tech. and her husband Rob Sylvester live in Syracuse, IN and have a boy at IUPUI and a girl in H.S. Kathy (7), a homemaker, and her husband Rich Moorlach live in Fishers, IN and have a two girls in H.S. and a boy in middle school. Dawn (’87), a social worker, and her husband Jeff Hobson live in Wabash, IN and have a girl who is a sophomore at IWU and a boy in H.S. who is taking a class at IWU. Dawn’s daughter and her former roommate, Julie’s daughter were roommates their Freshman year at IWU.
Though distance divides us, our friendship that was started in 1983 at Marion College/IWU continues to be strong. We attribute this to our beginnings at Marion College/IWU and the strong bond we share in our Lord Jesus Christ and a vow to stay close. The tradition now continues with future alumni attending IWU currently.
Friends ARE Friends Forever when the Lord’s the Lord of them.
“Preparation and expectation are key words for Charlotte and me and the community we lead in Washington Heights, Manhattan. In a few short weeks we will launch Trinity Grace Church – Washington Heights”, says Gary.
Washington Heights is the sixth TGC neighborhood parish planted in NYC in the past six years. The multi-ethnic neighborhood of 228,000 people is largely Latino and is the poorest neighborhood in Manhattan.
Charlotte ’80 and Gary ’78 came to Washington Heights nearly ten years ago after 15 years with Global Partners in Lima, Peru. “It is exciting to see God’s original call coming to fulfillment: to see a multi-cultural community established that begins to reflect the scene around the throne of God in Revelation 7:9”, Wiley says.
From a recent newsletter the Wiley’s stated that;
“Ten years is a long time to wait, but it has been a period of learning, growing, and maturing in our own lives. Five years ago the Father led us to Trinity Grace Church where we have served in the areas of justice, pastoral care, and discipleship. And all the while God was renewing our call to see a church planted in Washington Heights. Now it is much more than our story: there is a growing community of God’s choice saints at TGC who have embraced the vision as their own.”
On Palm Sunday weekend TGC Washington Heights will launch its first public gathering.
“This is a time of great excitement as we secure a venue, prepare a worship team, initiate a children’s ministry, and set everything into place. They also recognize the great challenge of sharing the Good News of the Kingdom of God and our Lord Jesus Christ in a tangible way with our very needy neighborhood.”
Annually, Indiana Wesleyan University presents the Distinguished Wesley Seminary Alumni Award to a deserving candidate. Two of the finalists this year include John and Patty Bray. John and Patty currently work at the university, where John serves as Dean of the Chapel and Patty teaches Old Testament Survey and mentors young women in the community. 
Wesleyan youth exhibit talents and abilities while receiving scholarships through the Wesleyan Church Campus Challenge program. Since the 70s, then called “Teens N Talent” (TNT), students who aspire to attend college have been awarded scholarships. Some students have exceeded $20,000. In a recent conversation, Dr. David Keith, who began the program shared, “It was a way for us to coordinate with churches and districts as well as in partnership with the Wesleyan Colleges and Universities to give opportunity for students to express their God given talents.” The Youth Department under his leadership was thinking of all the talented youth in the Wesleyan Church and wanted a way to help develop youth, giving them opportunities to help fund college expenses. “It was a way of expressing talents that the Lord has given to our students. It was a way for students, who have God-given abilities, to give glory to God as well as encourage their faith and the faith of others,” he added. “It started out as a way to further encourage students with scripture memorization and express their spiritual development. God has endowed young people with talents of many kinds,” stated Keith with a sincere joy in his voice.
