Inspire, Winter 2005

20 Winter 2005 s SGA chapel closed on Friday, September 30, the chaplain led students in worship and gave them an opportunity to come forward with an offering for victims of Hurricane Katrina. Three baskets were positioned on the platform at the front of the Jeremiah Chapel as the worship team began to play. What happened next was one of the most rewarding experiences of my 20-plus years at Cedarville. Even now, more than a month later, memories of this service stir strong emotions of gratitude and thankfulness. Earlier that week, Dr. Bill Brown challenged us to think of ways that we could respond as a University to this disaster. I met with students later that evening, and we discussed different goals that we could reach for together. After a period of brainstorming we said, ”What if we sought to raise $100,000 and send 250 volunteers to help disaster victims?” These numbers, especially the financial goal, were far beyond what we had ever accomplished as a student body, but after consulting with Dr. Brown, Pastor Bob Rohm went ahead and announced these goals to the student body. We anticipated taking a full year to reach for these goals, and we were sure that we would need plenty of help from alumni, donors, and others to supplement the contributions made by our students. The day that the goal was announced, student body chaplain Ben Waddell approached me and asked if the student body could take the first offering that Friday, just a few days after the goal was announced. As God’s providence would have it, I was scheduled to speak in chapel that Thursday, the day before the offering. I had a message ready to go that I had worked on over the summer, but on Wednesday afternoon I felt that God wanted me to talk about giving instead. I turned to II Corinthians 8 and 9 and quickly pulled together a new message centered on the following nine principles from this passage: 1. To be able to give, it takes grace. 2. Give as much as you are able ... and beyond. 3. Give entirely on your own. 4. Recognize that it is a privilege to share. 5. Giving is a test of the sincerity of our love. 6. Our giving should reflect a concern for the inequities in our world. 7. Careful administration of our gifts honors God. Gifts Abundant b y D r . C a r l R u b y ’ 8 3 , C U V i c e P r e s i d e n t f o r S t u d e n t L i f e 8. Don’t give grudgingly. 9. Generous giving often results in thanksgiving and praise to God. That night, student leaders canvassed the residence halls, asking their peers to pray and to give. As they went through the halls, I am told that a line began to form at the campus’ only ATM machine — a line that eventually stretched all the way across the lower level of the Stevens Student Center as students prepared for the offering. On Friday morning we had a fairly typical student chapel service, but as the service came to an end students were given an opportunity to come forward with their gifts. In a very low- key manner, Ben told his classmates if they wanted to give they could come forward while we closed the service with a few praise songs. Almost at once, nearly the entire student body responded. The aisles were quickly packed. Within minutes the line stretched all the way to the back of the chapel and up into the balcony. Soon the baskets were overflowing with cash and checks. Perhaps the most moving moment for me was watching as one student in a wheelchair struggled to get close enough to the stage to present her gift. Nearly $65,000 came in all at once for those who had been affected by Hurricane Katrina. After chapel, there were two boxes in the Student Center where students and staff could continue to give. An additional $10,000 came in during the rest of the morning and early afternoon. Gifts continued to come in, and in a little over a week we surpassed our goal of raising $100,000. There was an energy on campus unlike anything that I had ever experienced as we stood back and watched what God was doing. Attention quickly shifted to recruiting volunteers, finding suitable projects for our students, and raising more money to cover the cost of the trip. It would cost nearly $90,000 to send so many students to the area affected by the storm, and we had promised students that their offering would go directly to people and ministries affected by the storm, not to transportation costs. Dr. Carl Ruby ’83 leads a devotional time on the bus to New Orleans. There was an energy on campus unlike anything that I had ever experienced as we stood back and watched what God was doing.