UC community coming to give

When people think of University of the Cumberlands during the holiday season, images of a beautiful lights and greenery decorating the campus will come to mind. However, there’s more to UC than its looks. Not only is the school a bright shining light on the hill, but it’s also a light of giving during the holidays. UC had many ways to reach out and give back to the community during this season.

“If I give, someone else may be inspired to do the same when they see the joy it can bring to a person. Imagine being the one to give someone that joy, imagine having the ability to give joy to more than one person,” said Emily Roush, a freshman biology major from Lynchburg, Ohio. “Giving is such a beautiful thing and it just makes the world a happier place.”

At the beginning of multiple opportunities to give, the Golden Can Challenge was given by the Kentucky Harvest Southeast. Since 2011, UC and Union College have competed to see who could give the most and UC won the regional Golden Can Challenge for the first time bringing in over 18, 000 pounds of food this year.

All over campus, people were giving to the Golden Can Challenge. The dorms had a competition amongst themselves to see which dorm could collect the most. While UC’s Campus Activities Board helped bring in over 800 pounds of food by setting up a Swag Store that gave away different items such as t-shirts in exchange for canned goods.

“The store was incredibly helpful,” said Roush. “I saw students bring in canned food on day one and after receiving some UC “SWAG” they decided to come back several other times with even more cans than before.”

            UC students also jumped at the chance to go out at midnight on the morning of December 3 to shop for gifts that Mountain Outreach was collecting for their Gift Day event on December 10. MO collected gifts for about 400 children in the community. Sarah Rainous, a senior English and communications double major from Cincinnati, Ohio, thought the opportunity to give kids a surprise on Christmas was too wonderful to pass up.

            “Besides, it’s a fun experience!” said Rainous. “A bunch of college students running around Walmart, tiny college girls attempting to push grocery carts overflowing with heavy gifts, big, macho guys yelling, “I got!” and strutting out the aisle proudly holding a fuzzy pillow pet or Barbie—that’s priceless.”

On December 10, many more volunteers came out to serve the almost 190 families. Boxes and boxes of food were lined up outside of the warehouse and were brought inside to sort and organize for families. The volunteers loaded up the families trunks to over flowing so that families left not only with their childrens’ special gifts, but also food to fill their pantry.

Appalachian Ministries helped families in the area by giving about 65 essential boxes to kids. The kids attend the sites that student volunteers facilitate weekly to play with the kids and teach them about the Bible.

“Give for the kids with families that can’t get them gifts,” said Jasmine Newport, AM director. “Put yourself in their position. Think about what it’s like receiving a gift from people who care for them.”

The giving doesn’t stop around the holiday season. UC’s MO and AM do activities throughout the school year for students to get involved and give back to the community.

“You are much more blessed than you realize,” said Rainous. “You live in middle class America, you’re attending a private university, you’re well fed and clothed, and you slept in a warm be last night. There are millions of people, even in America, who can’t say they have all those things. I know you may have something hard going on in your life, but everybody does.”

UC’s new campus minister and missionary: how prayers become a movement

            While University of the Cumberlands was praying for a campus minister, Chad Everhart and his wife, April, were praying about where God’s mission field was for them. After working at Appalachian State University in Boone, North Carolina for 10 years as a professor and then as a department chair, Everhart was called to vocational ministry about four years ago.

            From the very moment anyone walks into his office at UC, they know prayer is an important part of his life considering one whole wall is dedicated to prayer requests. He is diligent to listening to God as well as praying, which is obvious after talking with him about his vision for reaching every person on UC’s campus.

            “It’s not my vision,” said Everhart, “it’s God’s vison. This is definitely a God sized vision. It’s definitely not something that can be done in human power. It’s going to take supernatural strength to do it. It’s a large vision, but the fact that everybody had been praying about it, that was confirming.”

Not only was the vision confirmed, but also the very fit of Everhart, his wife, and four children moving to the Appalachian area of South Eastern Kentucky. Before he had accepted the call to UC, he thought that the call to vocational ministry would mean becoming a missionary in a foreign country; doing renewable energy sustainable architecture. However, God showed him how architecture had become an idol in his life, and that being a missionary is loving and serving God and having a love for a specific people, which for him and his wife, college students and the Appalachian people were where they felt led to.

“As campus missionary, I am here to equip students to reach their campus, reach their state, their region, their country, and the world for Christ,” said Everhart.

Everhart is a campus missionary for the Kentucky Baptist Convention, which has him mobilizing churches in the region to get more involved in campus ministries of nearby colleges. Along with that, he’s also UC’s campus minister, which involves him training students to be disciple makers who also train other believers to be disciple makers.

“We can’t just maintain the status quo,” said Everhart. “We’ve got to not only make disciples and train them up, we’ve got to make disciple makers so that this becomes something that multiplies over generations. It’s not just it happens and then stops. It’s got to continue to grow and so this is a movement we’re trying to make.”

According to Everhart, the movement will require students to be trained, equipped, and mobilized. The three main goals will be accomplished through once a month worship for the whole campus and then small groups that will take place during the other Thursday evenings.

“We don’t expect people to come to us,” said Blake Pell, a senior missions and Christian studies major from Ringgold, Georgia. “All the campus missionaries are going separate ways and having their own Bible studies and it’s not everybody getting together for one Bible study. We’re going out and reaching people that don’t get involved with worship and everything.”

Pell is one of the students involved in making worship more interactive. Before the music and message starts, Pell helps facilitate the fun events before worship like games or coffee. By having campus worship only once a month, Everhart hopes to engage more of campus as well as churches in the community to come join campus for a celebratory worship. Prayer services will also become a part of accomplishing the vision. Prayer specifically for faculty, staff, and coaches will get the students involved in getting their mindset to serve others.

“BCM isn’t just hanging out in the [BCM] house and only hanging out with themselves,” said Hannah Foster, a senior human services and psychology double major from Morristown, Tennessee. “It’s different people from different walks of life, majors, and sports teams. I’m amazed at how God has worked in so many people’s lives through BCM this semester. People who would’ve never talked to one another are talking to each other and it really has opened a lot of doors for ministry.”

Foster has been leading the BCM’s Bigs and Littles. She encourages women to minister, share the love of Christ, and remind them it’s about serving not being selfish. Foster has also enjoyed being bold during prayer services by getting out of her comfort zone and asking people if they need prayer.

Everhart has been excited and encouraged by the students’ enthusiasm to reach fellow students and others on campus and in the community. The challenges that he’s faced so far have been discovering that almost everyone on campus goes home for the weekend and during the week everyone is very busy, which can be good and bad. He encourages students to minister to others as they’re going about their daily lives and showing them that they don’t have to take extra time out of their day to love others for Christ.

“I just love how much [campus] is like a family,” said Everhart. “Hopefully as this movement grows, the spiritual family grows too.”

Brodie Craig: waiting on God's timing as she's living in Argentine time

After graduating, former students often come back to visit friends at college. For Brodie Craig, that didn’t seem as likely because she’s been living in Argentina for the past two months. However, God provided her way back to Lexington, Kentucky, during her one month break from the Word of Life program where she’s learning Spanish and studying the Bible for ten months.

Craig graduated May 2016 from University of the Cumberlands in Williamsburg, Kentucky. She took time out of her day surprising her friends at UC to chat with me about her life after college and the transition to living in Argentina, how God led her there and how He’s been working in her life through that experience.

Our time is short because she talks fast and there are lots of laughs as she’s always smiling and excited about the Lord and the life He has given her. Not only did her time at UC prepare her to use her trade of music education to further the Kingdom of God, but it also helped her to balance her time, organization skills, and to be a creative thinker.

LH: What was your experience like at UC?

                                                     Photo provided by Brodie Craig
Brodie Craig center stage with all of her music department
friends at a performance at UC.

BC: My experience was great. First year, freshman year, was kind of a blur. A lot of transitions, unexpected things. Being away from home was hard. But sophomore year, met a lot of good people, great friends in the music department and a lot of professors that really invested a lot of time and just wonderful spiritual leaders in my life in that way that really helped me through. Junior year was…oh, hard academically. And then, senior year I was just ready to be done. But in all four years, time well spent. This was definitely a place that God really wanted me to be at. I grew a lot in my relationship with Him here.

LH: Why do you think God really wanted you to be here?

BC: I think God really wanted me to be able to come to a small university, to be able to make really good life-long connections with people. And just be able to grow with them because I still keep up with a lot of people I met, even freshman year that transferred or what not. I still keep up with them and also I would’ve kind of I think lost myself, if I went to a bigger university. But here I really found who I was. And I think God really wanted me to do that because high school was bad so [laughter] transitioning to college was a good thing for me.

LH: Who did do you find you were at college?

BC: I found myself to be a person that is funny. I didn’t really know that I was funny. But I found that I was funny. And somebody that is really hardworking, even though I didn’t really like classes. I felt passionate about teaching and music. It was great that I was majoring in both of those. Biology not so much. But uh with those classes. I really, really wanted to do the work and do my best. So I found myself to become a teacher and that was a really good thing because that’s my career [laughs]. So I love it.

LH: Did you know coming into college that you were going to do that or did you discover that while you were here?

BC: I knew that I wanted to be a teacher. My mom’s a teacher and I had just worked and seen her teach, but I didn’t know I wanted to be a music teacher. I have a passion for music so I said, “Why not just put them both together and see where it goes?” And it brought me here. So I’m really happy about it.

LH: What led you to the decision to go to Argentina after all your learning here about music education? How exactly did you find out about Argentina?

BC: It was a lot of praying. I actually knew about the program down in Argentina since I was 16 years old. But I always thought it was just a dream. I never thought that my mom would ever let me do it and then, when I got accepted to college I was like, “Okay, well I’m not going to be able to do it. I’m just going to go to college cause that’s what the Lord wanted me to do.” But little did I know, he was just putting it on the back burner, which was really great.

I went to a camp up in New York with Word of Life. And they were talking about the experience in Argentina. And a man gave his testimony about the program that I’m currently going through. He talked about it and I was like, “Wow.” It caught my interest. So then, while I was studying here, it came back up in my mind one day. I called my mom and said, “Hey, remember that thing that’s in Argentina?” She was like, “Yeahhh?” And I said, “Yeah, like, let’s just start praying about it together.” And I applied and they accepted me, which is crazy. My mom cried, but she’s been really supportive and that’s been great. But yeah, it was a…my gosh, a six year process of praying about it.

LH: Wow [laugh], so how was that praying about something for six years and not knowing whether it’s going to come or not? Did you have patience or faith or was it more of a struggle? What did that look like?

BC: [She laughs and sighs] It was…yeah, as soon as I got the acceptance letter to [UC], I was kind of… I didn’t want to come at first. Because I really wanted to learn Spanish and do this program. But um I knew...like the reality person in me said, “Okay, no. I have…I have to go to college.” It was hard, but I have loved the timeline that God has given me. I’m glad that I finished college and am now able to enjoy this part of my life. I think I’ve gotten so much more out of the experience in Argentina than if I was 18. Because I can look at it from a different perspective. I’ve got four years under my belt that have helped me.

                                                     Photo provided by Brodie Craig
Craig with the group of people studying in the Bilingual
Bible Program along with her.

LH: Can you tell me a little bit about the program? Specifically what it is.

BC: It’s a ten month program. We started in September and the first semester is three months long. We have bible classes in English and we have Spanish classes to help us learn Spanish. And then also you are thrown into the culture [she laughs]. It was crazy the first day I got there I was like, “Whaaat?” [laughter] My roommates speak Spanish only. And everybody that you come into contact with they speak Spanish. So that’s different. And then you have a month long break and that is why I’m here. So I got to come home to my family [she smiles]. And in January it starts back up and they have camp season. We will still have Spanish classes, but we will be helping out with the camp: program, games, Bible studies, serving the food, cleaning the bathrooms, and everything that they need help with during that. Then, we have a month long break during March, but we’re not allowed to go home because we’re finishing our final exams for Spanish. Then, April starts and we are actually inducted into the Bible institute. All Bible classes are in Spanish.

LH: Oh wow!

BC: Yeah, [laughs] uh no translators whatsoever. We are, right now, preparing for April so that we can be able to understand what the professors are talking about [laughter]. That ends in June and if you want to stay longer, you can take more classes. If you want to stay longer, there’s three years that you can study there. I don’t know what the Lord is calling me to do right now so it’s just another time of praying about that. And um hopefully I can just get through April [laughter]. So yeah, it’s an intense process, but it’s a great one.

LH: You mentioned that your first day was a bit like “Whaaat?” [laughter] Can you explain what your first day was like?

BC: I had just gotten off a plane ten hour flight. Argentina is a lot more south than I’d imagined so it took ten hours to get there. I was exhausted because I didn’t sleep a wink. And all these people came up to me and started kissing my cheek. I was like “What is going on?! Get off me!” I’m not a touchy person just in general even with the people that I love and even people I feel comfortable with. But they just did that and that’s their culture and it shocked me. Also, they gave me a key to my room, but they didn’t tell me how to work it. It looks vastly different than keys here and you have to turn it twice. Well, I didn’t know that. I turned it once and tried to open my door and it didn’t open. I was so tired. I was like, “It’s me. It’s me. I’m not doing this right.” Yeah, it was just crazy. I was exhausted, but finally I got better after like the third day I think I was okay. I expected the kisses to come and I knew how to open the door and stuff like that, but just little things that added up to be great.

LH: How have you adapted in the past two months? How’s it become great?

BC: There’s still some days when I’m like, “Okay, can you leave me alone?” But Argentines want to be by your side, want to like really talk to you, and they don’t care about time on a watch. They care about time with people. That’s been kind of weird for me because I like my alone time. Other than that, I do love the culture even though it’s a shock. It just takes some time getting used to it and two months has been plenty of time. I was probably used to it probably by the third week, I was good.

LH: How’s your experience been there so far? In other things from learning in Bible classes to your friendships with your roommates?

BC: The Bible classes have been phenomenal…of course they’ve been in English so I’ve been able to understand them [laughter]. But they’ve been phenomenal. I’ve learned so much and if somebody asked me, “Why are you taking a year out of your life just to study the Bible?” I would ask, “Why aren’t you?” because I’ve learned so much about myself and about the Bible that I never even knew. My heart has been changed on so many things in regards to marriage and how that looks for my life now because I was so opposed to it before doing this. And now, I’m like, “Oh, I could get married someday” so that’s been crazy.

I’ve learned the value of freedom of religion. We have a study on the persecuted church and I never really thought about the persecuted church before. That sounds awful, but it just never really came up. I never really prayed for the persecuted church. We had a week long class on the persecuted church and we got to study them in depth and hear facts upon facts about how many people die a day because of being persecuted. And it just really burdened my heart and made me see that my prayers are not where they should be going. You know, like how they’re formed. I think realizing that there are people that actually die for their faith was just eye opening and we need to pray for them and their safety. And also, thank the Lord that we live in a country where we can worship freely. I think that’s one of the great things that I learned about.

                                                                    Photo by Brodie Craig
Brodie and her roommates,
Alicia, Ale, Belu, Mailen, take a selfie.

My relationships with my roommates has been [laughter]…it’s been fun and hard and just all emotions mixed into one, but great. They were really supportive of me learning Spanish and when I had a bad day they were there. Even though they couldn’t speak English, they were there to comfort me and encourage me with Bible verses. It’s a great community of girls in the room that I live in. Great role models to look up to. It’s just a blessing to be with them and God knew exactly what I needed when I arrived.

LH: What’s it been like learning Spanish?

BC: It’s been hard [laughter], but I’ve been doing really well with writing and reading Spanish. I can understand when people talk to me and ask questions, but the hard thing that I have not grasped is talking in Spanish. I have days when I’m like, “Man, I’m really not getting this. I don’t know if I ever will.” I feel like I’m not progressing like I should or something, but then I realize, I’m not just there to learn Spanish. It’s a great thing to do and to be there to learn. Ultimately, I am there to strengthen my relationship with the Lord and make connections while learning Spanish. I just have to remind myself of that daily.

LH: What does your community look like? Do you have a church there or other friends who are students? What does that look like?

                                                    Photo provided by Brodie Craig
Daniela, Brodie, Noe, Gabi, and Connie
are all students at Palabra de Vida (Word of Life)
in Argentina.

BC: On weekends, we do ministry. We go to the local churches and we help out with whatever they need. If it looks like they need help with a Bible study, we do that. If they need help cooking the food, we do that. We’ve done that a couple of times. During the week, there’s students from, I think, every country from South America represented at this school. I don’t just have Argentine friends. I have friends from Peru, Ecuador, Paraguay, from Brazil that speak Portuguese. I’m like, “Woah! I’m trying to just learn Spanish right now.” A lot of cultures mixed into one. Obviously, Argentina being the strong one. I get to hear a lot of great stores about other countries as well.

LH: It seems like you’ve adjusted well, but what’s been the biggest struggle after college?

BC: Letting go of the people and the friendships that I have here. Not letting them go completely, but not seeing them on a regular basis. I’ve made wonderful, wonderful friends in the music building. My teachers, Dr. Smoak in particular (the chair of the department), he was like a second father to me. He was really great actually. Today, I got to surprise them all they didn’t know that I was coming so that was really great. Having to be like, “Well, I’m not going to see them today or the next day or I can’t have lunch with them today or talk about their day in person” so that’s been the roughest thing about letting go from college life.

LH: What would you say to students preparing for life after college?

BC: I would say that no dream is too big to go after. I‘ve heard stories where students have just said, “Oh, I want to do this, but I just don’t know.” But I’m like, “No, you can do it.” Don’t limit yourself to just doing something just because you think it’s safe. It’s scary, life after college. But it’s also a rewarding time because you get to rely on a lot of yourself and it makes you say, “Okay, I can do this. I am this type of person, which is really cool to see.” Also, you don’t have to detach yourself from college like from the people and the friendships that you made here just because you’re not going to college anymore. I’ve heard a lot of people saying, “I’m not going to see you ever again” and I’m like, “Wait, what?” God put those people in your life for a reason.

LH: You said life after college is scary, but rewarding. How has it been scary for you and what’s the reward been like? 

BC: I’m doing something where I don’t have a job, I don’t have an income. As of right now I’m actually paying to go to school [laughs] still. Um, so that’s kind of really scary, but God has been really faithful and the money situation hasn’t been an issue so far. It’s just telling people to trust God and His plan if you follow what he wants you to do with your life. You won’t have any worry. He’ll silence those worries. Because like coming home I was worried I wouldn’t be able to pay for my plane ticket and it just all worked out.

LH: It sounds like you’ve grown a lot in your faith over the years. What has been something current that God is teaching you?

BC: Currently God is teaching me [laughter]…I would say God is teaching me to be patient. Even though I prayed six years and I was air quotes “patient,” I was not. There’s a difference between being patient and actually really being patient. Now in my life, all I want to do is be on the mission field, but I know that God is putting me in Argentina for a reason and I need to be patient and wait. That’s what I’ve been really focused on, just to be able to be still and listen to the Lord. I’ve never been able to do that very well. There’s been moments in my life where I’ve been able to do it, but consistently, I haven’t really nailed that.

LH: What would you like to do in the future with your Bible classes that you’re taking now? I know you said that you don’t really know what’s going to happen, but do you have an idea or a dream of anything?

BC: My biggest dream is to be a missionary in Ecuador, build an orphanage, and teach in that orphanage. Obviously, that will happen way later in the future. But that’s my dream. My dream right now, after my time in Argentina with this program, I would say is to teach English. I really want to get my masters in teaching English to speakers of other languages.

LH: As you’re working towards being a missionary in Ecuador and starting an orphanage, what’s your main goal in life?

BC: My main goal in life is to meet as many people as I can so I can tell them about Jesus Christ and how he loves them. And to help as many people as I can so I can tell them how Jesus helped all of us by dying on the cross. To win souls to Christ is my main goal because without Christ then, you’re not really living your life. I’ve seen it firsthand. I’ve seen people come to know Christ. I’ve seen the transformation that happens. It’s just a beautiful thing and how their lives radically change.

LH: What has made you so passionate to want to share and be a missionary somewhere to do that or just in everyday life in meeting people?

                                                     Photo provided by Brodie Craig
Christian and Brodie smile for a photo in Ecuador.

BC: I went to Ecuador when I was 15. That’s where I fell in love with the culture and the country. I met a little boy and his name was Christian. I didn’t speak any Spanish, didn’t understand any Spanish. He didn’t understand or speak any English. But we formed a friendship and I truly believe it was because we were both followers of Christ. We would meet and sit on a bench. I would always bring a coke and he would take the coke and I’d let him have it. I was just like, “Wow! You can connect with somebody who doesn’t speak your own language through Jesus. I think that that’s what really made me passionate about wanting everybody to know the Lord. Now, I’m learning Spanish so I’ll be able communicate with them [laughter] and to tell them about Jesus.

Spanish for public service: a recommended class for any major

            As finals draws to a close, the Spanish for Public Service finishes its third semester being taught at University of the Cumberlands in Williamsburg, Kentucky. The class which teaches students basic Spanish to use in their future professional field is taught by Jennifer Marsh, associate professor in Spanish and World Languages. Any student at UC can take the class without taking a prerequisite first.

            “I absolutely enjoyed the whole class,” said Kristen Swords, a senior exercise and sports science and public health double major from Ecru, Mississippi. “I was just talking to someone today, saying I highly recommend it. It was a good break from my major classes. Ms. Marsh works with us well and it was really helpful. Students would enjoy it especially if they like learning little bit of a new language.”

            Swords was advised to take the class as she’s going into the field of sports medicine and will encounter people of various backgrounds who might not speak English. The class covers basic phrases of greetings for meeting patients or others in different professional fields. Halfway through the semester after basic conversation skills have been covered, Marsh separates the students into groups based on their majors where they study specific phrases needed in their area of study. There have been groups for premed students, criminal justice majors, human services majors, psychology majors, and missions and ministry majors.

“The class is useful for people who are going into the areas of the medical field, law enforcement, or any other,” said Jessica Jordan, a senior human services major from Somerset, Kentucky. “There’s a good chance I’ll be working with families of Hispanic culture. Being able to speak Spanish benefits me and them.”

Marsh helps the students put what they learn to use by role playing scenes they might encounter in their different jobs. The phrases learned from skits for a doctor’s office scene will be different than an encounter with police officers so the departmental groups are important to the students learning. Ideally, in the future Marsh says they would like to have specialized classes for learning conversational Spanish for different careers. For now, they’ll continue to separate into departmental groups within the class and learn basic conversation in Spanish.

“I enjoy meeting students who have other majors,” said Marsh. “I’m used to seeing our own little group of Spanish majors and minors. It’s wonderful to me to see a variety of students.”

Aside from learning Spanish, they also learn and discuss in English about different cultural aspects of the Hispanic community in the United States. Since the Hispanic community in South America is different than the Hispanic community in Louisville or Cincinnati, Marsh recognizes the need to teach that as well. They discuss what family dynamics look like, the different religious practices, and other useful information when encountering people in their future places of employment.

“Because the Spanish population has increased in the U.S., no matter where students get a job, they are likely to come in contact with Spanish speaking people,” said Marsh.

Building intercultural community on UC's campus

Building a community wherever you are is extremely important and sometimes difficult. Especially in a completely new country and culture. Being apart from a familiar community, culture, and being thrown into something completely new can be exciting and a little bit scary. I experienced this during the fall semester of my junior year when I lived overseas.

I was surrounded by people, but wasn’t able to really communicate with them. I longed for friends. On my walks, I would pray to God for friends whom I could have fun with and become close to. God answered my prayers and soon after we had many friends that would come to our apartment for dinners, movie nights, and a Bible study. We didn’t take that for granted so we built those friendships.

                                                                  Photo by Lydia Huggins
Lukas Jason and Jay Sanksakulchai
look for their countries' flags at the International Food Night
on October 21, 2016.

Since I understand the struggle of transitioning to a new country and finding friends to make college feel like home, I have been involved with University of the Cumberlands’ International Student Ministry (ISM) since freshman year. ISM wants to help foster friendships through providing community groups, having intercultural events like food and game nights, and anything else to help make UC feel more like home.

“Without international student ministry it’s hard to find such a nice group,” said Lily Yu Guo, a senior business major and communications minor from China. “They encouraged and helped me a lot. I learned a lot of things. They showed me American culture. They showed me love. Even now, we still are friends.”

Lily was one of the first international students I met on campus at an International Student Ministry game night. After my freshman year of being involved in ISM Ministry, my friend, Shantel Buchner, and I felt like God wanted us to start a Bible study for international women who wanted to learn more about Christianity during our sophomore year. Reaching international students with the gospel of Jesus Christ and teaching them to walk in the ways of Jesus is the main purpose and vision of international student ministry, according to Brett Martin, the International Campus Missionary for the Kentucky Baptist Convention. It’s important to us that we build a community of different cultures and have a place for our international friends to feel comfortable asking difficult questions about what following Jesus actually looks like.

Mercy Kavaya, a sophomore business and public health double major from Kenya, has been a part of the Bible study and has stepped up to help teach it.

“It is a way of getting involved with people and having friends,” said Mercy Kavaya. “It has been like a family. [Internationals] come to learn different culture from different people. It’s good for us to share these things. We can learn from Americans and Americans can learn from us.”

UC students, Mercy Kavaya, Sze Ying Tan,
Chisato Sasaoka, Lydia Huggins, Rejoice Olaolorun,
Shantel Buchner, and Caitlyn Howell, take a photo
at the International Student Conference on November 5, 2016.

Another great place for international students and American students to interact and learn from each other is at the International Student Conference that takes place the first weekend in November in Cave City, Kentucky. Muhtar (James) Mauhmut, a senior business administration major and math from China, has been to the International Student Conference three times during his years at UC.

“The first time I went was really fun,” said Mauhmut. “We had all different types of games to play and dancing so we can know different people better. We can make more friends that way.”

As the new leaders of UC’s International Student Ministry this year, Buchner and I are still learning how God wants us to go about building the intercultural community on campus. We want to learn from international students how we can help them transition to living in America.

 “Ministry is always changing and this semester may be different than the ones before, but we are trusting God will direct us and show us how to lead even when we don't know exactly what we are doing,” said Buchner. “The truth is we never have, but God has been faithful to show us and strengthen us in our weaknesses.”

Even before I lived abroad for four months, my heart had always desired to live overseas. Since the beginning of my freshman year at UC, it was natural for me to get involved with International Student Ministry. After the many trips abroad and interactions with internationals on campus, building a community for internationals on UC’s campus is very important to me because I know it is important for international students. 

The art of being created

A 25 pound bag of clay is thrown onto the table in front of the artist. The artist carefully plans and draws an idea of what the lump of clay will become. Depending on which technique of sculpting the artist chooses, they either move the clay around to form a shape or cut off chunks of clay to roll into coils to stack on top of each other.

The sculptor puts in a lot of effort into the time-consuming process to create something out of the clay. If the clay gets too dry, the artist needs to cut slits in the top of the clay, then fill it with a gooey mixture of clay and water; the pliable clay will be able to mesh with the once dry clay. The excess clay that isn’t needed is scraped off and what’s left is carefully molded to transform the planned artwork. Sometimes the walls of the artwork’s structure may become too thin and will tear. The sculptor has to add more clay to make it stronger. Once it is the correct proportions and a smooth texture, then the detail work is done with sharp needle like tools to carve into the clay.

After all of the messy work and exertion, the piece is fully formed. Before the piece is finished though, it has to sit for a while to dry out before being put into the kiln. The sculpture has to be baked at a very high temperature. If a glaze wasn’t put on the artwork before it went into the kiln then the final touches can be painted on after it’s been fired. What was once just a lump of clay has now come to life in the shape of something beautiful.

Lydia Huggins sculpting clay.

As an artist and a follower of Jesus, the experience of sculpting from clay became very meaningful to me. Being able to create makes me feel closer to the Creator. Sculpting gave me an even more intimate view of how God sculpts us. Out of all the people in the world, the fact that no two people are exactly alike (even identical twins become different and unique in their own way) is evidence to me that God takes time and effort to create a beautiful artwork…you.

God planned to create you. He carves out the unnecessary parts of your life. Although it may hurt, it is necessary for Him to form you into who you are becoming. Sometimes, we become too dry and He has to cut into us and fill us with something messy to attach and build something new from us.

At times, we will become thin and frail and will need to be strengthened by the hands of the Creator. Just as the detail work must be painful to the clay, so are our growing pains to become something more wonderful. Then, often in life there is a peaceful season where it seems like we’re waiting for something to happen. And then the fire comes and it seems like nothing will ever be good again, but just as Jesus was with Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego in the fire, He is with us too.

Although we may not understand the sometimes uncomfortable process that God takes us through, there is a purpose. Isaiah 29:16 (NIV) says something similar, “You turn things upside down, as if the potter were thought to be like the clay! Shall what is formed say to the one who formed it, “You did not make me”? Can the pot say to the potter, “You know nothing”?

Accepting who you are is difficult. For a while, being comfortable with the hobbies and skills you have collected is enough, but it will not always last. During spring semester of my sophomore year of college, I began to be burnt out from writing and being a journalist wasn’t enough. Thankfully, that was during the same semester that I discovered my enjoyment for sculpting with clay. God knew that I would need another creative outlet during a stressful time. Finding another piece of me through art wasn’t what made me feel more complete. Experiencing the Creator in a creative way brought me closer to Him, which is where I feel most satisfied.

The potter knows exactly how to form you into who you are. No one else was made like you. You are wonderfully made in His image.

UC seniors figuring out the future

During students’ senior year, there is a lot of stress in figuring out the next step of their lives. Almost every senior struggles with planning the future, especially when their ideas aren’t working out the way they imagined. Soon to be graduates are wondering and worrying about the future while they’re waiting to hear back from their dream jobs or graduate schools.

David Poore, a biology major at University of the Cumberlands, is one of those students. He is waiting to hear whether or not he got accepted into medical school. According to Poore, not knowing which door is open or closed can be extremely scary, but he’s learning to be patient and trust God during this time.

“It’s an everyday thing,” Poore said. “Being in the limbo of nothing’s open and nothing’s closed and you don’t have 100 percent assurance that you’re doing what you’re supposed to be doing is where I’m at.”

Many students don’t know what exactly comes next. Not only because of the fact that no one can predict the future, but also because some students don’t know exactly how they will use their major in the real world. Shantel Buchner, a human services and Spanish double major, is one of those students who doesn’t have immediate plans after graduation.

“Weirdly enough, I’m okay with it,” Buchner said. “I always looked at other seniors and thought they were crazy for not knowing what they’re going to do when they’re graduating in eight weeks. It seems like you should have a plan, but God has given me a lot of peace about not knowing what is happening next because there’s never been a time where He hasn’t provided a way of knowing what to do next.”

Buchner has many ideas of how to use her degree, gifts and knowledge in the field of international missions, social work or a combination of both. After living in Ecuador, she found a desire to share the gospel and glorify God in all she does. Another human services major and also a missions major, Kaitlin DeJarnette, has learned a lot from her majors’ departments and have put them to use during college through relationships and UC’s Appalachian Ministries.

“You get opportunities to meet a lot of different people on a spectrum of life,” said DeJarnette. “AM has allowed me to use that knowledge. There are a lot of kids dealing with different things in their families like drugs and divorce. The missions and ministry department helps me to share the gospel and human services does well to help me see their struggles, help them cope and let them know they’re not alone.”

DeJarnette encourages fellow students to experience as much as they can in college because there are so many good opportunities that could help them get a job in the future and have lots of fun.

            Although not knowing what is going to happen next is stressful and scary, Dejarnette says it’s also freeing and exciting because anything can happen.

“God has been teaching me a lot through this,” said DeJarnette. “His plans are going to happen no matter what I do. I’m not going to be always this stressed out and confused about it. There’s eventually going to be a time where I’m doing something that He has led me to do, that I love doing.”