Voices
Fall 2006
HPER Convention
On November 12, 2006, 4 upperclassmen HPER majors attended the Missouri Alliance for Health, Physical Education, Recreation, and Dance Convention at the Lake of the Ozark’s Lodge of the Four Seasons. This convention provided workshops, demonstrations, and exhibits to connect students with the most current methods of teaching and the latest equipment and trends for their career fields. They also were able to discover how integration of faith and vocation can be demonstrated through stewardship of healthy lifestyles and how to effectively influence the lives of students by personally modeling physical fitness and a healthy diet.
“The MOAHPERD Convention was a beneficial and rewarding experience. It helped me better prepare for my teaching career and learn new ideas that I could implement into the classroom to make the experience more enjoyable for all students.”
— Justin Fasnacht
Missions Trip - Mattersey Hall, England
On November 16, 2006, eight Evangel students, under the direction of Dr. Steve Badger, traveled to Mattersey Hall, the only Assemblies of God Bible college in England, to help with special classes held at the school called “Intensives,” during the week of November 20-24. Throughout their time at the school, the students interacted often with MH students, visiting with them in the Intensives, meals, chapel services, dorms, and the recreation lounges on campus. They were also given the opportunity to not merely listen to lectures and discussions, but to play active roles in the discussions. While in London, the students also had the opportunity to visit a variety of popular landmarks including Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abbey, and the St. Paul’s Cathedral. As Dr. Steve Badger remarks, “The trip superlatively succeeded in being an education, a cultural, and a spiritual experience for our students. They gained experiences in everyday life in a large foreign city including exchanging money, using public transportation, and traveling safely.”
“[God] used Roy Todd (evangelist at MH) to awaken me spiritually in the evangelism lectures, to something I’ve never known before… We prayed with the students for an outpouring in Britain and they prayed the same for us personally and in our country. I hope the excitement and genuine thirst for Christ that I felt and saw at Mattersey Hall is unleashed in a supernatural way on this campus and taken all over the world.”
— Megan Canupp
“Getting out of the United States had an effect on my perspective of the rest of the world… I would definitely recommend this trip to anyone that would have the chance to go. I thank God that I had the opportunity to go on this extraordinary journey.”
— Dani Picken
Saxophonist Jean-Marie Londeix
On September 20-21, Evangel had the opportunity to host renowned saxophonist Jean-Marie Londeix. While visiting Evangel, five students were able to attend a master saxophonist class taught by Mr. Londeix, listen to a lecture about the history of the saxophone and its mark on 21 st century music, and watch Dr. William Street perform a saxophone recital.
“This experience helped me understand God’s call as a teacher in my life…it allowed me to hear students that are attending school just as I am and see how a professional critiques them.”
— Kristy Brown
“The visit of Jean-Marie Londeix has been the most impressing and beneficial experience within my personal studies at Evangel University’s Music Department. I realized that my personal worship to God does not only include my heart’s intent to glorify God in my music, but also to seek the purest form of excellence in how I play that music.”
— Jordan Izumi
Business and Economics Mentoring Experience
For most college students, one of the ever-lingering questions on their minds is whether or not a job opportunity will be available after having spent years working on a degree. For the Business and Economic students who attended the mentoring experience under Cheryl Matejka, a former Chief Financial Officer of Barnes Jewish Health Care of St. Louis who is now holding a position with the St. Louis’ Sisters of Mercy, the process may now seem a little easier. The weekend mentorship with the students included a Friday night dinner with juniors and seniors, then expanded to include some freshman and sophomore accounting majors during a Saturday lunch. During Matejka’s time at Evangel, she used her time to explain how she has intertwined her faith and career, and individual mentorship times were made available for students who wanted to spend more one-on-one time with her. Students also were encouraged to create resumes, prepare interview questions, and prepare extensive strengths analysis in preparation for the invaluable, individual times of mentorship. As one student explained, “It keeps me wanting to do accounting.”
“It helps students to know what employers are looking for in interview candidates. Interviewing is stressful and students can use all the help they can get.”
— Jon Krepinevich
“The event was very insightful and important in creating a network.”
— Andrew Carrier
Summer 2006
National Fine Arts
With 10,000 students flocking to Orlando, Florida, for the 2006 Assemblies of God National Fine Arts Festival, August 6-12, and all the excitement that the event entails, there was only one thing that was missing – 26 Evangel students! With Lifeworks help, 26 Evangel students of various majors and interests came together to volunteer in sunny Florida where they spent seven days working, smiling, and assisting in whatever ways needed. Though there was excessive summer heat, the students worked diligently before the conference in an un-air-conditioned warehouse to put more than 15,000 packets together for the in-coming students and their families, then served in a variety of different positions throughout the conference including registrars, door monitors, and information desk workers. The students also were given the opportunity to attend some National Fine Arts sessions and services, as well as get an inside look on a major Assemblies of God operation. As Shauna McCumber wrote, “It was so awesome to be around 10,000 students and other leaders that had a passion for God! I loved being used by God this week as I volunteered and served in any way that I could.”
“Serving others is not a chore; it can be very fun and rewarding in itself.”
— Andrea Greer
Vienna, Austria Internship
Valerie spent approximately six months working at an international church in Vienna, Austria. As the office assistant to the Pastor, Valerie carried out jobs such as: answering phones in German, creating a database for the international bible curriculum, and planning church events. She also participated in a week long outreach and a fifty-minute long production for children that taught the message of salvation. In summing up her experiences in Vienna, Seaman said, “I see the hand of God using these times to give me dreams for the future. I discovered a love for a people an ocean away and a desire to learn the native language to better show them God’s love.”
Spring 2006
Bethany Benson Reflection
“I have always felt a call to missions and media in my life,” says Bethany Benson, a broadcasting studies senior, but “this was the first time that I was able to “try out” my calling.” The “time” of which Bethany speaks was a Book of Hope mentorship to Rwanda, Africa, from May 24 – June 7, 2006, a time in which Bethany says she “learned a clearer calling on my life… and the opportunity to explore media missions.” During the two weeks of her journey, Bethany was able to be merely a lens-view away from people completely different from her and yet in many ways the same. She cites that one of the hardest parts of her mentorship was to be unable to step away from the camera and reach out to someone in need, yet she also learned the value of having media coverage of situations. Bethany says a door was also opened to the children who wanted opportunities to play with the camera, and through the enormous undertaking of working in a foreign country with a skill she has been learning during her years at Evangel, Bethany says “the trip ministered to [her] life in countless ways.”
“I wanted to go on this trip to help clarify my career goals. Media missions has always been my heart, but I never knew if it was something I could actually do – simply because I had never tried! This trip gave me that opportunity.”
— Bethany Benson
National Character and Leadership Symposium Reflection
February 22-26 brought great things for three hard-working Evangel students as they attended the 13 th annual National Character and Leadership Symposium at the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Led by Lt. Col (Ret.) Dale Garrett, an Evangel social science professor, the students attending were Derek Carlson, a junior government major, Delana Ingram, a sophomore Spanish and biblical studies major, and Jared Clay, a sophomore pre-law major. As Professor Garrett stated, “Students were chosen to attend the symposium based on their interest in the military and their leadership and character observed in the classroom around the Evangel campus. The idea is to bring some of America’s best students together and let iron sharpen iron.” Certainly sharpening did occur as the students, along with more than 125 students from 97 universities, attended the “Courage in the Face of Adversity” event, with a wide-range of speakers, including athletes, philosophers, astronauts, military officials and survivors of extreme adversity. As Carlson said wrote in his reflection of the event, “One of the things that occurred to me was that everyone possesses the ability to overcome adversity and attain leadership. As such, the conference challenged me to do just that – going out and attempting to exercise courage in the midst of unfavorable circumstances.”
“Being an aspiring military officer, almost all of the conference was relevant to my chosen vocation. Moreover, because that vocation mandates character, leadership, and courage, the conference’s emphasis directly affected the outlook I have on my career field.”
— Derek Carlson
Christina Damman Reflection
Imagine a young man rushing into a doctor’s office having accidentally sliced his hand from one side to the other. Now imagine what you would do if you were the one that had to help in the fixing of it. Such an experience was real life for Christina Damman, an Evangel biology major, who, with Project Envision’s help, had the chance to shadow Dr. Charles Mauldin, an occupational physician at Springfield Physical Medicine. As Christina states, “It was an amazing opportunity for me, because I was able to go with Dr. Mauldin to see all of his patients, discuss their conditions with him, review his medical textbooks and professional journals, observe how he related to the patients as well as his staff, and even assist him in some situations.” Christina was also able to take time to interact with patients and in her words, “the most important thing I have derived from this experience [is] that when I look at people, I should focus on their needs, and how I am able to help them.”
The internship in which I was able to participate this summer allowed me the opportunity to learn more about medicine in one brief summer than I feel I have been able to glean in my five semesters taking my pre-med courses.”
— Christina Damman