Fort Wayne Bible College - Vine / Light Tower Yearbook (Fort Wayne, IN)

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Paul and Debi Talley ffer GU'ts in Music for the Service of God ' Paul and Debi Talley have both been gifted with an extra- ordinary musical ability. Debi, majoring in music at B,C., and Paul, majoring in pastoral training, have played and sung in various churches throughout the area during the past Semester for their Christian Service assignment. Music has always been a part of PauI's life due to his family's well-known musical ministry. l-le began playing the accordion when he was five Cpracticing four hours a dayj, and he later began playing the trumpet. Debi began playing the piano at five years and had her first recital at six in front of almost a thousand people. ln the fourth grade she began taking violinllessons, and although she didn't enjoy the lessons, she later taught herself how to play the cello. Looking back, Paul realizes that being in a travelling family has its drawbacks as well as advantages. Even though he has never had a neighborhood to call his own, he has travelled to eighty different countries, a privilege very few have ever had. This has given him an opportunity to see what the mission field is really like. Paul has learned a great deal from travelling abroad and appreciates America a lot more because of it. He was never in one place longer than two weeks, so he was unable to develop lasting friendships. ln its place though, he has met and talked with people all over the globe! PauI's education up through high school was done by correspondence. Learning this way prepared him for college Paul stated, Correspondence gave me a good background for general college work because you had to do everything. lf you don't put anything into it, you won't get anything out... it's good discipline. Second semester Paul and Debi plan to tour in the Ohio, Michigan, and Indiana area as a gospel team representing the college. In the near future they plan to go on into full- time evangelism, using a combined music and preaching ministry. They also hope to travel abroad as well as extensively touring the States. Through this type of ministry, Debi and Paul will be able to reach thousands for Christ, telling them of the wonderful friend they have found in l-lim.

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.ws 0 .-- Q ,'k assi Melanie Longstaff and Morti spin a fanciful tale for a class at the Fort Wayne Christian School. Talented Tw0s0me-- g ,fs us .tt VV X 61 Melanie Longstaff and Dummy Do you know anyone who enjoys talking to herself? How about Melanie Longstaff! lilo, she is not tetohed in the heady she talks to herself and is rewarded by thoughtful and attentive eyes of young children. Melanie is a ventriloquist. She has performed with her friend, Morti Snerd, before countless chil- dren in Sunday School and now she hopes to continue her efforts in her Christian Service assignment, Child Evangelism. She started her unusual hobby at the age of 13. She had worked with puppets before, and one day, while viewing Ted Mac on the boob tube, she made up her mind that she wanted a dummy of her very own. Her parents finally consented to her wishes and purchased her an ordinary-looking dummy. By watching attentively and by studying in a booklet, she eventually polished her hobby into the art she knows today. Her only regret is that she didn't start a year or two earlier. Melanie owns two dummies--the original dummy being small and normal looking, her new one having the look of a sneaky country boy. Morti Snerd, the second one, filled me in on a few details concerning his life. He was born in a factory in Kansas City in May or June of this year Csince he is hard-headed, his rememberer doesn't always workj. He is actually older than he looks. G-le told me he is old enough to know better.J He is very fond of girls. One fine day, when he was minding his own business, an overexcited fan jumped up and kissed him! Poor Morti can't read or write, so he has never been in school. He doesn't mind though, since not having classes means more time to sleep and practice stories Morti tells alltypes, of stories, but Bible stories are his favorites, especially Noah and the ark. Morti's audience is not always children. Occasionally a lucky Elementary Ed. major suffering through Kiddy Lit or Language Arts has had the chance of listening to Morti's golden voice. As Morti continues to pursue his hopes of education, perhaps we all can welcome this fellow dummy into other of our classes.

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Is A bortion Ever E thi cally Rzght? The Hrs! of the college ethics series BY DR. ROBERT J. HUGHES Ill Today abortion is the most com- m0l'llb' 9fTlOl0yed form of birth control in the world. Abortion has been defined as the ezpusion of a human fetus within the first twelve weeks of pregnancy, be- fore it is viable. . . We notice that functionally abortion terminates a pre- Qflancy resulting in the death of the fetus. Whereas the operation is to be done before the fetus is considered alive--that is be- fore it could possibly remain alive after removal from its mother, as practiced now the operation is not always limited to these early days of pregnancy. Also, cases are on record of operation teams having to wait for the fetus to die even after removal of an eight-week old fetus. The Question: ls An Abortion Ever Ethically Bight! To find some guidance as Christians we turn to the Scriptures, but there we meet virtual silence. Many of the prior circumstances that make abortions popu- lar--love, family, sexual chastity tpre- marital, marital, extra-maritalj, social and economical concerns--are pointedly dealt with in Scripture. However, except for a brief regulation about accidental miscarriage due to injury by fighting men to a pregnant mother CExodus 21:22-255, no reference to abortion appears in Scripture. As formally defined abortion is to be prior to life. But can we determine when life actually begins? Opinions range from the moment of conception to the time of the first independent breath by the infant. Genetically no break appears from conception on. The ferti- lized egg is alive with all the genetic potential to develop into the adult as deter- mined bythe DNA of the 46 chromosomes, Yet the fetus cannot live on its own until weeks later. So some have viewed it as part of the mother until birth. Even with reference to life before birth we do not have such specifically stated in the Scriptures. However, using the Biblical references to David CPsalms 139: 13-185, Jeremiah fJeremiah 1: 4-57, John the Baptist CLuke 1: 13-17, 41, 445 and Jesus tLuke 1: 31-33, 352, we might be indirectly led to conclude that to God these individ- uals were specific personalities with destinies planned even in some cases be- fore conception. Beyond these special cases little else is found. Since abortion does involve the death of the fetus which, in the absence of definite negating information, may be considered a human person, we may check the areas in which man is respon- sible to terminate the life of another human. Capital punishment commanded for murderers fGenesis 9:63 Numbers 35: 9-345 as well as for other crimes or immoral acts is never applied to the unborn. Complete destruction of populations given over to judgment explicitly by God would undoubtedly include both infants and fetuses CJoshua 6:21g I Samuel 15:33, but these aqain do not find parallels in our present problem. But even in these cases we note that termination of life was not left to individ- ual discretion, but was defined by law and was to be overseen by the courts Celders, town councils, kingsj of the day. On the other hand, infanticide, usually used for religious purposes, is severely condemned by God and strictly forbidden in Israel CDeuteronomy 18: 9-145 Leviti- cus 20: 1-55 ll Kings 16: 35 17:17g 17:31g 21:65 23:1OJ. If any possibility remains that a fetus might be a living human, even though unborn, it would appear very dangerous to cause its death under any but the most extreme tragic moral choices. Even then it must be considered a desperate lesser of two evils. That the Christian should remain in the arena of Birth Control even though undesirable practices are being used is in- dicated from man's Creation Mandate to reproduce, populate the earth and gain dominion over it CGenesis 1: 26-283. lf we are approaching a saturation point in population certainly the human race needs guidance from Biblically-minded men as we wrestle with life on this planet. If left without such help, sinful man will use his potential for evil ends CGenesis 8:21, 11: 1-97. Clt is inter- esting to note that 747, of the member- ship of the British Abortion Law Reform Association are atheists or agnostics tfiardner: ABOBTION: THE PERSONAL DILENIMA, P, 553. We also find that God Himself sets for us examples as He remains involved in man's sinful society in the areas of slavery, polyg- amy, and divorce, even though neither should have ideally been a part of man's living. God, instead of with- drawing from the question, kept His ideal before us in Scripture, placed regulations upon man's sin to deter it, and patiently moved His people toward His ideal. We find this explicitly illustrated in the area of divorce by our Lord in lvlatthew 19: 3-12. Per- haps the same principle is to be followed in the areas of birth control which presently includes abortion. With some ease we discuss this question academically. However, when w as a husband, wife, family member, pastor, physician, nurse, social worker, father or mother, may personally face the question it will be much more difficult. Any previous shaping of our minds by Biblical and spiritual thinking will become very important to our decision. We make the best decision we can and cast ourselves upon the mercy of our heavenly Father Who with compassion remembers that we are of dust. G 1 8 l