Inspire, Winter 1995

11.Profi Jeff Fawcett'82, assistant professor of marketing at Cedarville College, was recently honored by the Cleveland State University Chapter of Beta Gamma Sigma. Beta Gamma Sigma is a national organization that is The Honor Society for Collegiate Schools of Business. It is the highest-ranking scholastic honor one can earn at Cleveland State University in any field. Jeff is currently enrolled in the Doctor of Business Administration program at Cleveland State University, carrying a cumulative grade point average of 3.94. Jeff has been at Cedarville since 1987and looks to complete his doctorate in the spring of 1995. • On Friday, November 11,over400 grandparents were recognized at the 7th annual Grandparents Day at Cedarville College.The celebration began with a special chapel service focusing on Veterans Day.Other weekend events included performances of The Diary ofAnne Frank,an orchestra and woodwind concert,and a free meal in the cafeteria! Lori Phipps,junior psychology major,and her grandparents pause for a photographic moment as part of the Grandparents Weekend package auctioned at Homecoming 1994. A New Beginning I oy Patterson's testimony ofGod's grace in her life reminds us ofthe power ofprayer in His eternal plan. When Australian Dennis Patterson '84 transferred to Cedarville in 1983, he askedprayerfor Joy, his estranged wife halfa world away.Joy was the specialfocus ofthe prayers ofthe entire collegefamily on November 2, 1983, thefall quarter Day ofPrayer. She tells ofher lostness,and how the Lord ended her separationfrom Him—andfrom her husband—on that very day. The happiest memories I have of my early childhood were the years I was together with my sisters and brothers. We were separated after our mother died.I was seven years old,and it was one ofthe saddest days in my life. My mother was in her third marriage when she died ofleukemia.My natural father was an alcoholic,spending his life in and out ofjail, until finally one day it all ended in the gutter outside a pub where he was robbed and bashed to death. Other early memories were also painful. From the time I was about three years old until about a year after my mother's death,I was a victim ofincest wrought by different family and extended family members.Later Ifound out that my sisters had similar experiences. As I grew into my early teens I was a quiet, very shy,insecure,introverted,and lonely person. I experienced guilt and depression and at 15 took an overdose of sleeping pills to try to somehow escape these feelings. I was married at 18 and by 22 had two little girls. By the age of24,I was experiencing many dark days ofdeep depression where I felt I could no longer cope with life. For hours,sometimes days,I would sit on the floor,cry for my mother,get angry at God,and fall into despair. It was on such a day that I remember feeling something snap inside ofme.I had ' already left my husband and children and was back visiting them,and on this particular day,I stood in front of my husband and threatened to cut my wrist with a razor if he didn't give me the car keys. Reluctantly,he gave them to me and I drove away,confused and out of control. I didn't stop until many miles and many years had passed.In my search for happiness(love,joy and peace)Ijourneyed most ofthe way around Australia and lived in many different places,always moving,always searching,and always in all the wrong places. I had allowed many forms of physical abuse to enter my life. I had no love or respect for myselfand basically lived life on a razor's edge,not really caring ifI lived or died. Drugs became a large part of my life and I used many kinds, often dangerously mixing them.Finally,even the needle became an option and I used it for narcotics,including heroin on a couple of occasions, but I thank God it was not enough to lead to full addiction. At one point I was drugged out continually for a period oftwo years. Drugs had become an everyday necessity, and life withoutthem meant facing a deep pit ofemptiness, despair, hurts,and the real world which I didn't want to face nor live in. Early in our separation, my husband,Dennis,gave up hisjob as a musician in the entertainment industry,rededicated his life to God,and with our two growing daughters, was now devoted to praying for me,along with Christian family and friends. For the nextfive years Dennis would write regularly. Occasionally we would see each other—sometimes through what I now believe to be miraculous circumstances. I could see the changes in him.He would tell me about an inner peace andjoy he had as he now lived his life in obedience to God,and he revealed a zest for life that I had Members Of A Family T he Cedarville College family is notjust an abstract term we throw around on special occasions in chapel. It is a strong, vital force that binds together over 17,500 students,graduates,faculty,and staff. With numbers like that, you never know when or where you will run into a member ofthe family. The first leaves ofautumn had already turned.The warm reds and golds were outlined against a beautiful,clear,blue sky when Ron Cale boarded USAir Flight427 in Chicago heading for Pittsburgh International Airport and home—home to his wife Karen Hamilton'69.But Ron didn't make it home to Karen that day.Instead,she and their two children Steven, 17,and Rachel, 12,learned that he was among the 132 passengers killed as the plane approached the airport. Late that evening,Karen's mother placed a phone call to another member ofthe family,her son Bill Hamilton'68,who lives in a small town in northeast Ohio. Without official confirmation that Ron was actually on the ill-fated plane,Karen's mother,Bill's wife,Barb,and their son,Steven,headed for Pittsburgh to be with Karen when the news came. Thatsame Thursday evening,Dan,a USAir manager of Passenger Services Systems International, picked up his two daughters,ages 11 and 6,from an evening program at school. His wife,Glenda,was out oftown on business. Dan and his daughters arrived at home and busied themselves with dinner and homework.While they worked,Dan turned on the television only to hear the devastating news ofa downed USAir plane. With Dan's ten-years experience with USAir,he knew all too well what was happening at work. And since he lived only eight milesfrom the crash site, he soon heard the constant wailing of sirens. With a not seen in him before. He wasn't going to give up on me or our marriage. What he had seemed very real and genuine. But at this time I couldn't see it the way he did. I was living on afarm in Queensland,keeping goats. I had grown crops of marijuana,had delved into the Hari Krishna sect and new age practices, and had touched on things in the occult.I had been involved in seances,astral travel,and had visited clairvoyance and fortune tellers. I was searching,and my heart was always longing for truth,contentment,and that something called "happiness." One day,alone on the farm,I felt that I had come to the end—a very dead end. Life no longer had any purpose;it didn't matter to me ifI never saw another day,and I was beginning to have very strong thoughts ofsuicide. Then from that deep dark pit that I was in,I cried out to God.I called out to him loudly,"God,do You hear me? Do You really exist and if You do,who am Ito You?Do I matter to You? Look at what You have done to me!" I was angry and all the bitterness inside me was directed at God.My heart continued to cry out."What is love anyway? And God,if You really exist,I want to know it." As I cried out,I accused Him of all sorts ofthings. Butsomehow I began to tell Him how lost and desperate I was and that if He really did exist I would give myself to Him completely,I would give Him my will totally. Ijust wanted to change. "Please change me,"I cried. I no longer wanted to be the person that I knew I was.I asked Him to forgive mefor all the wrong I had done and to come into my life and change me.Ifinally found myself believing in Him.Like a small voice within I heard Him speak to my heart. "Joy,I am the way,the truth,and the life" and again,"I am love—God is love." These words seemed to pierce my heart and as simple as they seemed,I knew God was giving me answers.It was whatI had been longing to hear. After searching for a Bible I had been given some years earlier,I looked to find who had said,"I am the way,the truth and the life." I discovered that Jesus had said these words. "Way"...Jesus was the way to go. Jesus...was...the...way!"Truth"...He is true—I could believe it. And"Life"—not death as I had been previously contemplating—and God is..."love."If!know God,I can know real love. How I'd longed to know what real love is! On my knees I answered Him,saying,"I am beginning to understand what You are telling me and I am ready to try things your way. What do you want me to do?"God spoke to my heart immediately,"Go back to your husband." I now know that at this time I became a saved believer in the Lord Jesus Christ. Not looking back,I left the farm and drove to my sister Lyn's farm in Queensland.Lyn and her husband also had recently found Jesus. I told her that I had given my life to God and needed to share this with Dennis.He was studying at Cedarville College, U.S.A. where,I later learned,staff and students were also praying for me. From Lyn'sfarm,I finally located Dennis by telephone. He was visiting a family in a small town in Virginia, where he and our daughters were about to sit down to their first Thanksgiving meal—a Thanksgiving meal that was about to become a celebration to mark the end ofseven long years. I had called to say,"I have found the Lord,"though I now see that He had really found me.I told Dennis that, if he was still willing,I was ready,in God's strength,to try to rebuild our relationship. On the evening ofDecember 20,1983,my plane landed at the Kansas City airport where my husband,Dennis,was waiting—in a heavy snow storm with a dozen red roses— for a new beginning. Dennis and Joy Patterson live in Sydney, Australia, where Dennispastors Ingleside Baptist Church. Their daughters, Jodie and Clare, are preparingfor Christian missions. God has also blessed thefamily with three sons since Dennis and Joy were reunited:Zachary,5,Jamie,3,and Jordan, 1. Both pictures were taken by Cedarville students or staffwho were on mission trips to Australia in 1994. strong sense offamily responsibility,Dan was torn with the desire to care for his two daughters and his desire to reach out and help in some way. Meanwhile,Karen's mother,Barb,and her son,Paul,had arrived at Karen's to await confirmation ofthe dreadful news.They prayed,they hugged,they cried. They waited. And then the call came.It was true. Ron had been a passenger ofFlight 427. At midnight,Dan called the office and found that they were looking for employees to work with the families ofthe victims. Leaving the girls in a neighbor's care,Dan arrived at the USAir Command station at 5:00 a.m.asking"What can I do to help?" By 2:00 that afternoon the volunteers were called into the USAir Club and were told that40-50families were unassigned. They began to call the names.Ron Cale was the second name called,and without hesitation Dan volunteered. At that moment the only connection that Dan had with the Cale family was simply they were a family in need and he was a USAir employee. As he walked up the sidewalk to the Cale's door,Dan was overwhelmed with the realization that he had never done anything like this before. He had no idea what he would find. He said a short prayer for the family as he walked into the house. What he found in the home was an unexpected calmness.And when Barb told him,"This is a terrible disaster, but we know where Ron is. He's with his Savior," Dan knew the Source of their peace. The nextfew days were busy ones for Dan and the family members.They talked for hours.Dan was contacted by all the out-of-town family members and arranged transportation for them to come to Pittsburgh. He met them at the airport and family eed and a USAir employee..." (continued on next page) 4WINTER'95