Cedars, December 2017

December 2017 5 COVER STORY Gamma knife treatment is a non-invasive surgery often used as an alternative to whole- brain radiation therapy or traditional surgery. Cato made a swift recovery and is back serving students and the university. He oversees Production Services, chapel bands, HeartSong and is involved in Global Out- reach. He also serves as a professor for some of the university’s worship classes. Cato said he felt called to study at Ce- darville after he was married. He wasn’t aware of God’s plan for him at the time. He was moving to a town where he had no per- manent residence or income. He followed the call God gave him anyway and graduat- ed as a music major. After graduating, Cato worked at the university’s radio station before hearing about and applying for a position in the Christian Ministries office overseeing the traveling music teams. Since then, Cato has become involved in the numerous minis- tries mentioned previously. Josiah Kenniv, a senior worship major, has been under Cato’s direction as a mem- ber of HeartSong since 2014. Kenniv said that what struck him the most about Cato through the years has been his intentional- ity behind everything that happens on the stage of a worship set. He said that there is meaning and thought behind every aspect of HeartSong from the physical presenta- tion of the members at an event to the words that are said between songs. “There is nothing random when it comes to Jim,” Kenniv said. “Spontaneous, maybe, but not random.” Through his association with Chris- tian Ministries at Cedarville, Cato has been able to travel all over the world for the Gos- pel. He said that now that his position has caused him to work more closely with Glob- al Outreach, he had wanted to start taking advantage of more opportunities. During the week of fall break, Cato was planning on attending a trip to Eastern Eu- rope through Global Outreach. Some things fell through for that trip and he wasn’t able to attend. He said the opening up of the fall break week led him to decide to attend the fall break trip to Houston to serve commu- nities affected by Hurricane Harvey. When the team began working on Mon- day, Cato said he was extremely impressed at the work the students were doing. He was glad to be able to organize students that were all so clearly passionate about their work. Jonny Gaunt, a junior sports manage- ment major who was with the team on the trip, said Cato is a fantastic leader. “Even before I met Jim, I’d heard from my close friends who have been on Heart- Song how great of a person he was,” Gaunt said. “After working with him, it became clear to me how God’s gifted him to be a good leader, and also how passionate he is about missions and sending people to do God’s work.” Micah Gerber, a sophomore broadcast- ing and digital media major who was the videographer for the Houston trip, said that while he didn’t know Cato before the trip, it was clear from the beginning how passion- ate he was about God. Gerber said that he often stressed how important it was for the team to be praying for others. The team saw this as the opportunity to remain constantly in prayer for him. Cato reflected that one of the most res- onating lessons he learned from his trip to Houston was the power of Christian com- munity in his life. During the whole pro- cess, Cato was inundated with messages and emails from friends and strangers alike from Cedarville, all letting him know that they were praying for him. He received pic- tures of entire groups of people meeting to- gether to pray for him. JonWood, the vice president of Student Life and Christian Ministries, visited Cato in the hospital for almost two days before Cato’s family arrived, supporting him and making sure that he was being taken care of. Cato said that by the end of the week some of the nurses questioned whether Wood was his son because of how concerned he was. “It was all just very overwhelming,” Cato said, “just seeing how big the hearts were in these people who were trusting God to help me through.” Zach Krauss is a junior pharmacy/music double major from central Texas and cam- pus reporter for Cedars. He loves music, theatre, biology, community, and meeting new people. photo by Lauren Jacobs Jim Cato will have the remaining bits of his brain tumor removed later in December. (937) 766-9852 105 W Xenia Ave, Cedarville, OH 45314 From oil changes to brake jobs we have proudly served the Cedarville community for over ten years. Free shuttle service for University students!