Inspire, Spring 1997

Dr. Paul Dixon is presenting his familiar "Marriage and the Family" chapel series to the student body during winter and spring quarter 1997. New features include wedding photos of administrators and faculty, and scenes from "It's A Wonderful Life." But students still enjoy Dr. Dixon's answers to their questions about dating—now sent to the president via e-mail—as well as the Letters To Philip and Letters To Karen books. When Rhonda Carnahan '96 declared the professional writing major as a freshman,she made it clear that God had called her to use this major on the mission field for His glory. And that's exactly what she is doing. Serving with International Coordinated Christian Ministries, Rhonda is responsible to write brochures, newsletters, and human interest stories in Nairobi, Kenya. In addition, she helps the missionaries there prepare speeches and presentations. She writes,"The needs here are incredible. If I'm going to convey those needs effectively, I need to see with God's eyes, love with His heart, and write with His words. That is the ONLY way I'm going to be effective. Please pray to that end." Students welcomed approximately 500 brothers, sisters, and parents to campus during Li'l Sibs weekend, February 7-8. Li'l sibs experienced college life firsthand as they attended classes and chapel, ate in the cafeteria, and stayed in the residence halls. Students and their guests enjoyed a variety of activities, including a Lab Band concert; late-night skating; a baseball card show; Yellow Jackets basketball games;and the Winter Blast, which featured air ball, a cosmic orbiter, velcro obstacle course, bungee run, and the world's best female basketball handler, Tonya Crevier. Pictured is junior Kristine Chamberlin with her li'l sibs—Karen (17), Denise (15), Donnie(12), and Kayla (6). David Standridge'80 is in his 11th year of service as a church planter/Christian publisher in Rome. His publication company writes, prints, and distributes a monthly newspaper, evangelistic booklets, Bible correspondence courses, and Christian books. In a country with so few missionaries, Dave sees literature as a tool to reach the millions."Through literature we can reach people in towns where no missionary has ever been. We also use literature to encourage Christians and help them grow—Christians who may have no church to attend or missionary to teach them," Dave said. Missionary work is a family affair for the Standridges. Dave works with his wife, BethAnne Payne Standridge '81, his three children, and his parents, who started the work in Italy. Dave's two brothers are also missionaries, Dan '80 in Milan, and Steve'83 at a camp in the mountains of Italy. 4SPRING'97 n11 Cedarville Grad On The Move Goes Where God Leads Dim F or the past five years,Don Myers'76,has been working at Landoll,Inc. in Ashland,Ohio.Don is the vice president of Landoll,Inc., the second largest children's book publishing company in the United States. The company sells its publications across the country and is recognized for its cartoon characters. Landoll has a license agreement with Warner Brothers and Disney to use any characters in their publications. Landoll's productions include children's storybooks, activity books, paint with water books, sticker books,and other educational products for children and adults. Don believes that Landon books are workable fun that benefit learners of any age. Following graduation from Cedarville College in 1976, Don went into teaching. He was well suited for teaching because he loves kids and enjoys leading groups. However, after 14 years ofteaching, Don felt God's leading to his next "mission field." As a result,Donjoined Landoll to help rebuild a facility following a damaging fire. Thisjob has brought many new perspectives to Don's life, including travel to California and Switzerland. Don believes his presentjob at Landoll is directly related to his teacher training. He still works with children, yet in a different aspect. Don and his wife,Jean, have four grown children of their own.Don balances his personal and professional life by showing Christ in all he does, whether he is in the classroom or at the office providing general counseling to his employees. 4 D on Humphreys'89 is a mover.As a student at Cedarville he"moved"from major to major until he signed up for Advanced ,, Composition.As unlikely as it may seem,this one class changed the course of Don's life. Advanced Composition convinced him to study professional writing. The moving continued after graduation when Don entered the technical communication field. He and his new wife, Becky,packed up their belongings and moved to Atlanta, Georgia, where Don began working as an Information Developer with IBM.Don worked in a "moving"department, focusing on short-term projects that lasted an average of six months.This experience taught him the importance offlexibility. While at IBM,Don helped Beth Drobinski'90 acquire an internship. The pattern continued when Beth,now employed full time atIBM, assisted Cedarville senior Angie Pappas in obtaining Don Humphreys '89 an internship with IBM. After three years atIBM,Don moved again—this time,to Cedarville to teach with Sandi Welch Harner'64 in the professional writing program. After three years of teaching,a funny thing happened.Fearing that the technical communication field was passing him by,Don did what he does best—he moved.He left Cedarville for Claremont Technology Group,a software consulting firm in Columbus, Ohio.At Claremont,Don helped establish a formal training and documentation group with another employee.He worked with the company for over 18 months before, you guessed it, he moved again.Don returned to Cedarville, realizing he could perform his teaching responsibilities and remain active as an independent technical communication consultant. Today, he's living in the best of both worlds. After all this moving,Don learned one important lesson: Getting along with others is important to a successful career. To Don,technical communicators define themselves by how well they cooperate with co-workers and work with a team. And one other thing: Don't be afraid to move.You never know where you're going to find yourself. An Unexpected Calling A fter graduating with a Christian education major, you probably would not expect to write more than 40 books and hundreds of articles, and own a writer's conference 25 years later. That was not Lin Mason Johnson's idea, but God had different plans for her. After graduation in 1971,she worked for Regular Baptist Press as assistant curriculum editor and discovered her ability to write curriculum. She went on to write for a number of different publishing houses and has not stopped writing since. Lin currently edits a magazine and directs a writer's conference. She works from her home office, which means she gets to choose her hours. She thrives on the freedom to set her own hours, yet herjob is full oflong days,and her schedule packed tight. Some days she writes for 10 hours straight if a deadline is near. On other days,she creates page layout and design and proofs copy for Church Libraries, the quarterly magazine she manages and edits. Sometimes Lin works on advertising and scheduling her writer's conference, Write-to-Publish Conference,or performs daily office duties, such as writing letters and answering phone calls. She also gets away from the office as much as possible to attend professional conferences and teach at writer's conferences across the country. Lin's first book,Leader's Guidefor The Struggle with Peace(1984), was the first of a number of other leaders' guides, devotional books,and curriculum chapters. Her awards include the Gold Medallion Book Award in Christian Education in 1992 for a book she co-edited, plus two Gold Medallion Book Awards of Merit. Lin's work opens the door to many opportunities, including last year's highlight,a conference held as part ofa one-week Caribbean cruise. Becoming a writer is not what Lin intended to do as a college student, yet the basics she learned at Cedarville have served her well. She is very happy being able to "disciple thousands of people [she'll] never meeton this side of heaven" through her writing. Lin Mason Johnson '71