Walla Walla University - Mountain Ash Yearbook (College Place, WA)

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religion Looking back on the year, Ran- zinger says, “Our theme was, ‘Love is . . . We wanted students to become more aware of loving their neighbors. I don’t know whether or not that goal was realized, but I feel we planted a seed. In this type of job, you don’t often see results because they develop slowly. So sometimes you wonder if the seed will ever grow. You just have to believe that it will.” Ranzinger and Haffner were not alone in sowing seeds this year. Forty WWC students left their motherland and traveled to places like Japan, Nepal, the Marshall and Caroline Islands, Egypt, Greece, Hong Kong and Australia to spend the next nine to 12 months as student missionaries. Most of them taught English and Bible. However, SMs also go abroad to answer the need for tutors, elementary school teachers, assistant pastors, assistant deans, builders and even farmers. And while the SMs were gone, Jeanette Wagner and Myron Ise- minger, directors for student mis¬ sions, reminded us to think of our SM friends. They wrote the names of the SMs on air mail letters, left the blank pages taped onto tables in the cafeteria (or other sites) and encouraged us to write a word or two. Often the letters were mailed with writing crammed onto every available bit of space from students who just wanted to say hello. Thanks to this, the packages and the Collegians that Wagner and Iseminger sent, SMs felt a little closer to home. In addition to our Student Mis¬ sionaries, ten taskforce workers were scattered across the continen¬ tal U.S. to work in much the same capacity as their fellow students abroad ... as assistant deans, assistant pastors, librarians, elementary school teachers, medical assistants, etc. . . . Debbie Stentzel took respon¬ sibility for keeping taskforce workers in touch with the latest campus excitement. Apparently, news from WWC meant as much to the taskforce students as it did to SMs, at least according to a worker who wrote the Collegian: “I have spent six months in the mission fields of Montana and every letter from home (WWC) is enough to blur my vision for a minute .... Sure, the job is rewarding and the ‘natives’ fun to get to know, but there is nothing like hearing from the people who populate the campus of Walla Walla College.” The SM and taskforce programs are branches of Campus Ministries, as are the Adopt-A-Grandparent, Big Brother Big Sister programs and the Collegiate Adventist for Better Living (CABL). Becky Hughes, student director for CM, worked closely with Chaplain DeHaven throughout the year. Together they worked with in¬ dividual program directors to keep things running smoothly. More directly reponsible for coordinating the Adopt-A- Grandparent program were Mike Lambert and Jayne LaChapelle. Lambert reports that student par¬ ticipation was high during the first of the year, reached its peak at the Christmas banquet which hosted 60 to 70 guests and tended to decline as the year progressed. Big Brother Big Sister also needs more student support, ac¬ cording to Eric Molander, co¬ director for the program with Vicky Ringering. He estimates that 30 students participated in the pro¬ gram, “which doesn’t really cover the amount of potential kids we have.” Molander feels that Big Brother Big Sister has more potential than most college 20 Mountain Ash

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religion When I moved out of the dorm and into my own apartment, I remember thinking (a bit smugly) that I had finally beaten the system. No more sitting through the equivalent of five worships a week. No more lists in the dorm hallway reminding me I’m 12 worships behind. No more wild stampedes at 6:28 p.m. through Foreman lobby, across the skywalk and down the stairs to Conard Chapel . . . just in time to breathlessly slide into a pew and hear, “Now let’s turn to hymn 421 and sing ‘All Things Bright and Beautiful,’ all five verses.” I beat the system! So why do I regret missing Wednesday Inner- notes; the music-oriented worship put together by my classmates and friends? Why do I harken back to hall worships every Thursday night and recall how we flopped into chairs or onto the floor and sang songs or just listened to our R.A. read a story? Sometimes I even catch myself humming a few bars of “All Things Bright and . . . .” Okay, so maybe I haven’t beaten the system. I soon found out that village students are free from worship requirements, but they still have to keep up their chapel attendance. You’d think going to chapel would quell even the faintest nostalgia for religious regimentation. (Who hasn’t com¬ plained about those hour-long sit- in sessions when your stomach growls for lunch and your backside yells for mercy?) To tell the truth ... I actually enjoyed this year’s Tuesday morn¬ ing pilgrimages to the church. Of course there were still times when chapel turned into little more than an escapade of daydream-pass- notes-up-and-down-the-aisle- whisper-to-some-three-rows- ahead-of-you-study-for-the-quiz. But on the whole, Walla Walla College offered us a bumper crop of well-prepared, interesting presentations. I know this because every time I skipped chapel, someone would give me rave reviews on it, usually concluding with a remark like, “You should’ve been there!” Once you’ve heard that statement enough you begin to believe it, and your whole perspective changes. So you see, there really is no way to beat the system. WWC’s religious activities and opportunities reach out to me (and you) at every level of our college existence. Our ASWWC spiritual vice presidents, Mark Ranzinger and Karl Haffner, were always plan¬ ning something to get us involved . . . from events simple as a prayer breakfast in the SAC to Bible Con¬ ferences at Camp Wooten to the fall quarter Community Work Day. On that day, roughly 70 students laid aside their books and their Sunday laundry to rake leaves in two of the area’s parks, clean and tidy up a crisis counseling center in Walla Walla and conduct some outside work at the Veterans Hospital. Spring or summer, day or night, the spire of the College Church (left) serves as a land¬ mark that draws faculty, students and community members alike under the all- encompassing shadow of his love. Augustine Chukuma, WWC ' s foremost blind musi¬ cian (below), lifts his praise at a vespers service. Mountain Ash 19

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religion students realize. “It’s a chance to get away from things and spend time with a kid who looks up to you ... to pro¬ vide a positive role model that shows Christianity is a good way of life.” Brett Robinson and Darla Grabow directed the CABL pro¬ gramming this year. That is to say, they concerned themselves with a myriad of activities aimed at help¬ ing students live healthier lives. Since students notoriously misuse and abuse their minds and bodies, especially during dead week and final exams, it’s clear that CABL has a ready-made niche for itself within the campus community (and a long, hard job ahead). Speaking of long, hard jobs, let’s not forget the week-of-spiritual- emphasis speakers. I’ve heard en¬ thusiastic praise for Ray Tetz’s fall quarter presentations. Looking at some of his sermon titles for the week, “30,000 Reasons To Go Home,” “The Rubble Strategy,” “Christianity For The Complete Klutz,” gives you a feel for his sense of humor and knack for holding on audiences rapt at¬ tention. I’ve also heard positive remarks about winter quarter’s special week presented by our own students. Roving reporter that I am, I ac¬ costed a total stranger in the cafeteria line and asked her what she thought. Her answer: “The students seemed to be really honest and natural and their topics were good ... in expressing their different views on love.” An entertaining and meaningful speaker for fall quarter, a series of thoughtful and sincere sermons for winter quarter and Des Cummings, Jr. in the spring . . . what more could we ask for? We certainly couldn’t have asked for a greater variety of Vespers programs because when it came to Friday evening meetings, everyone had their turn - CABL, OPS, ASWWC, Presi¬ dent Sorenson, the band, the choir, Portland Campus, Village Club, Campus Ministries, Fellowship of Christian Athletes and many more. Name someone and they probably gave a Vespers service. Wintley Phipps, the baritone who sang for the Democratic Na¬ tional Convention in San Fransciso? Yes, we’ve had him here. How about Nielson and Young, the renowned pianists? You bet. They came toward the first of the year. Lyle Jensen (far left) tests a tune on Karl Haffner during Bi¬ ble camp at Camp Wooten. Crackerjack storyteller Edwards (left) spellbinds a vespers au¬ dience with yet another hear- and-learn tale. Josephine Cunnington Ed¬ wards, beloved story-teller (and author of Swift Arrow, one of my favorite childhood books)? Oh yes, she’s been here too. After Vespers there was always Afterglow. Some of the songs changed this year, as they always do. Afterglow leaders came and went, as they always will. But the warmth of fellowship and guitar chords remained. So you see, no matter which way we turned this year, we were part of the system . . . mainly because the system is not limited to mandatory chapel attendance and a certain number of worship cards. It includes all sorts of other religious activities in which we take part voluntarily . . . such as Campus Ministries, prayer break¬ fasts, Vespers, Sabbath School, Church .... There really is no way to beat the system, and why should I want to? It’s one of the best ones around. Mountain Ash 21