Abilene Christian College - Prickly Pear Yearbook (Abilene, TX)

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“Home Away from Home” Where can you get fresh, homemade bread, or sing and drink hot chocolate around a fireplace? Where can you find out someone’s favorite comedian, card game or cookie? Home, of course. And home-away- from-home. Several ACU faculty and staff members and Abilene residents open their homes regularly for students to eat, interact with others, discuss plans, and just relax and feel atDr!john Willis, professor of Bible, and his wife open their home to students almost every Sunday night. An average of 40 students gather for an evening meal provided by the Willis’, an interaction group exer- cise and a devotional. The Willis’ enjoy it because they get to know the students better and the students enjoy it because they get to know each other better. Dr. Don Garrett and his wife also have students in their home almost every week for Sunday lunch, and they always have a full table. The discussions are typical of family discussions — lively and loud. “They’re all kind of our family,” said Garrett. To complete the home at- mosphere, Mrs. Garrett always serves homemade bread which she prepares on Saturday morning. Dewby Ray, director of alumni campus activities, tries to have students in her home every week. “I love the involvement,” says Dewby. The Rays typically have a group of freshmen over early in the semester. Then every Thanksgiving and Christmas, they entertain a group of students who don’t go home. Throughout the year, they invite groups of students they work with. Why? Dewby says the only way you can get to know students is to work with them on a special project or have them in your home. Harold Lipford, regional director of development, and his wife Jeanette, an instructor of music, frequently have students in their home who share needs or aims for the school and themselves.Both the Lipfords and the Rays have an “open door policy” in which students are invited to come in and use the homes at certain times during the week to cook, sew, wash clothes or just relax. Vice President and Mrs. Robert Hunter have also entertained several groups. Mrs. Hunter told of one occasion when a Sing Song group came to practice in their home, and police were called to straighten the parking situation because cars were parked all over the street. “They’re all kind of our family.” 1 Don Garrett Assistant Dean Gary McCaleb and his wife try to get a mix of students in their home. He said this gives new students an opportunity Lewis, professor of Bible, said they have anywhere from 1 to 30 students in their home at a time. Mrs. Lewis said they enjoy it because the students are “an in- spiration.” Mrs. Lewis told of one amusing incident when a student left their home to pick up his girlfriend at another professor’s home. He said he wasn’t sure where to go but that he “walks by faith and not by sight.” As he spoke these words, he opened the door and backed into the closet, which was next to the front door. Students usually pop into the home of Roy Shake, associate professor of biology, whenever they want to. Mrs. Shake says she enjoys college students because they are fun to be around. Others just need someone to listen to them — so the Shakes do. But the real reason they have students in their home, she said, is because they have six children of their own, and she hopes “someone else would care about them enough to give them a home-away-from- This page: Mickey Lee, Dewby Ray and Debbie Davis discuss activities. Opposite page, clockwise: Dita Keesee enjoys a Willis’. Gary McCaleb talks with Cathy Cobb. Guests share food and fellowship at the Ray's.

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The Way We Wore