Shaw is an associate professor of religion at the university and also the director of the Wayland Mission Center. One of his goals in taking students on mission trips is to give them opportunities not only to serve others, but also to grow in their own Christian maturity and understanding of other cultures.

To that end, Shaw has led the university to establish a partnership with the Greater Detroit Baptist Association — a partnership that not only allows them to experience inner-city mission efforts, but also to gain a better understanding of the Muslim culture and religion. Dearborn is a good place for that because according to the Website, www.muslim-academy.com, “more than 33,000 Arab-Muslims from Iraq, Lebanon and Yemen are living in this state in America.”

Shaw said that concentration of Muslims was one of the driving forces behind establishing the partnership with Baptists in the area, and in particular it was a key area of focus for this year’s mission trip.
“The impetus for that entire mission, I believe, came from the Lord and when we began evaluating a city, a place we could go to as the Wayland Mission Center, in the United States, I felt very, very burdened for Detroit and Dearborn,” Shaw said.

In preparation for this year’s trip, however, he ran into a problem. Baptists in the area were not working with Muslims. As he did his research, he discovered that neither the Greater Detroit Baptist Association nor the state convention had any active ministry efforts aimed at the Muslim community. In fact, he discovered that not even the North American Mission Board, which coordinates Southern Baptist mission work in the United States, had any active work among the Muslims of Dearborn.

Eventually, though, he was able to find three organizations that were conducting ministry efforts in the community and was able to team up with one of them. It was through that partnership that Wayland students were able to gain some insight into Muslim culture and religion.

Shaw explained that as part of their work with the organization, students helped local workers teach English to Arab immigrants. They also taught them citizenship — things such as the Pledge of Allegiance, the components of the Constitution and the different branches of the government — because many of the immigrants are seeking U.S. citizenship.

However, one of the highlights of the partnership was a visit to a local mosque where the Wayland students were able to observe prayer time and also have a conversation with the Imam, and Iraqi immigrant.

For Ashley Price and Sam Martin, the trip to the mosque was an eye-opening experience.

Price is a sophomore from Pampa who is studying business education and intercultural missions. One of the things she cited as being a memorable experience for her was “working with the women at the mosque.”

“Before, I hadn’t had much contact with anybody of an Islamic faith, just kind of hearsay and from my opinion. When I started working with the women I got to see how sweet they were, but you could just see in their eyes how oppressed they were and how they don’t have the opportunities that we do,” she said.

It was that contrast between what she saw in the Muslim women’s eyes and the freedom that she felt as a Christian that had a great impact on her, and the contrast wasn’t confined to the women. She felt the same thing as she listened to the Imam, who she believed saw the session with the young students as “game.”

“I hadn’t realized how suffocating that religion would be and how free I am in Christ and the forgiveness that we have that other religions don’t have because they are based on works. They have to work their way into heaven and you’re never good enough when you’re working for something. But God gives us that forgiveness and that grace and that’s really eye-opening for me because I haven’t thought that before,” Price said.

Martin, who is from Plainview, is a sophomore as well, and he is studying justice administration. He explained that his biggest challenge on the trip centered round the visit to the mosque.
“My biggest challenge is I like to argue,” he said matter-of-factly.

“We went to the mosque and they told us specifically, ‘Don’t argue with (the Imam), just listen to him,’ and it was really hard for me to just sit there and be quiet and just listen to him try to convert us.”
Martin said that after a tour of the mosque and a brief presentation on Islam, the Imam opened the discussion for questions. The sophomore said he and his fellow students took advantage of that opportunity and asked “really good questions.”

Both students expressed that they had felt a heaviness in their souls as they watched the people pray at the mosque that day and Shaw said that was a topic of conversation afterward as he helped the students process the experience.

“I assisted them in processing their sentiments and feelings by discussing what Christ did on the cross of Calvary,” Shaw said. “His atoning blood shed for all humankind is for the salvation of all; notwithstanding, forces of evil are present in the world today, working in divergent and often unassuming ways.”

A senior from Amarillo, Saultz will participate in Wayland’s spring commencement ceremony at 2 p.m. on Saturday, May 11, in Hutcherson Center. She will graduate with a Bachelor of Science degree in molecular biology with a minor in mathematics. And she will graduate with the respect of her faculty and peers.

The 2013 Female Citizen of the Year award winner, Saultz came to Wayland in the fall of 2009 after graduating from Amarillo High School. She played for the Flying Queens basketball program for a year, giving up the game to focus on her education. Saultz’s dream was to major in education then find a job coaching and teaching history.

So, naturally, she enrolled in biology and math.

“I could have [graduated] earlier if I had known what I wanted to do right away,” Saultz said. “It took long enough to figure that out.”

Saultz said her interest in science stems from the educational track her older sister, Emily, pursued while a student at Baylor University. Saultz said her sister minored in chemistry and ended up taking a number of science classes pursuing a pre-medical degree.

“I decided that I wanted to take science classes, too,” she said.

Saultz quickly became a fixture in the labs of the science building, studying and conducting research projects. Her research group is one of the groups working with the effects of blood root on breast cancer cells. Chemistry and biology students have been working on the research that is showing promising results in the area of breast cancer. Saultz has also been involved with the American Chemical Society and the Mathematical Association of America.

“I like science for nerdy reasons, I guess,” Saultz said. “It is interesting. It’s hard, but when you do understand something it is rewarding to fully understand the concept.”
Saultz said her course of study has required a lot of work and meant spending a lot of hours in the science building and library, but the encouragement and support she received from her professors like Jessica Faucett, Dr. Adam Reinhart and Christa Smith made it all worthwhile.

“And not just them,” she said. “[The professors] have really invested in me and taken the time to talk to me and get to know me. I have gotten to know them and they have helped me out when I struggled.”

Saultz said her entire Wayland experience has had a positive impact on her life. The amount of hands-on learning has helped her truly grasp the education and understand how to figure things out on her own.

“We’ve been taught to research and figure it out and sometimes, I hate that, but it’s been good,” she said.

Saultz will receive her diploma on Saturday along with more than 100 master’s and bachelor’s degree graduates. Wayland will hold a ring ceremony at 9 a.m. for graduates and alumni who have purchased a class ring and choose to participate. Torch and Mantle, a celebration where graduates thank their mentors and encourage an underclassman, will take place at 10:30. Torch and Mantle will be followed by the graduation luncheon in the Laney Student Activities Center. Commencement begins at 2 p.m.

The 2013 Female Citizenship Award winner is Libby Saultz.

A native of Amarillo, Libby is the daughter of Sharon and David Saultz. She came to Wayland after graduating from Amarillo High School in 2009. She will graduate with a Bachelor of Science degree in molecular biology and a minor in mathematics this spring. While at Wayland, Libby has been an active member of the American Chemical Society, the Mathematical Association of America and Student Foundation.

The Male Citizenship Award winner for 2013 is Keenan Harris.

A native of Perryton, Keenan is the son of Keith and Dorla Harris. He came to Wayland after graduating from Perryton High School in 2009 and will graduate this spring with a Bachelor of Science degree in mathematic education and a minor in History. While at Wayland, Keenan has served as a President’s Ambassador and been involved with recruiting for the School of Education. He has been a student leader for Koinonia and other events on campus. Keenan is currently the college minster and leads music at Colonial Baptist Church and he coaches track at Plainview Christian Academy.
The Association of Former Students also recognized an outstanding male and female student as Freshman of the Year as voted on by the Wayland faculty and staff. Laura Castillo, of Plainview, was named Freshman Woman of the Year and Brandon Argueta, also of Plainview, was named Freshman Man of the Year.

Wayland also recognized students with other special awards. Award winners were:
Spinning Wheel Awards: Philip Avants, Katie Bice, Lorenzo Dolphus, Janelle Durrough, Krista Lennox, Angela Lichtie, Nicholas Morales, Aubrey Pedigo, Jenna Swift and Lance Williams.
Senator of the Year: Jaclyn Alford
Religion: Thomas Estes
Religious Education: Laremy Simmons
Recreation and Camp Management: Jessica Martinez
Timothy Award: Matt Molina
English: Rebekah Brown
Spanish: Tim Stone
German: Caitlin McCulloch
Chinese: Lindsay Inscore
Latin: Amanda Page
Biology: Libby Saultz
Chemistry: Jessica Kenneson
Mathematics: Caleb Schumacher
Geology: Hunter Green
Political Science: Michael Holubik
Justice Administration: Ian Mather
Sociology: Brianne Anderson
Psychology: Alyson Lockhart
History: Rachel Laue
Elementary: Carissa Clower
Secondary Education: Victoria Herbert
Middle School Education: Jancee Cotton
Special Education: Krisann Earp
Exercise and Sport Science Education: Trevor Burkhead
Exercise and Sport Science Fitness Management: David Cone
Accounting: Rebecca Day
Business Administration: Scott Langford
Management Information Systems: Samantha Garcia
Management: Ashley Rima
Marketing: Caitlin Walker
Economics: Anders Ellingsberg
Finance: Maria Carrillo
International Management: Nathalia Valencia
Excellence in Art: Monte Ratchford
Piano Award: Andrea Hamric
Vocal Music Award: Christopher Kirby
Choral Music Education: Gerardo Olivares
Church Music: Benjamin Ufford
Instrumental Music Education: Clint Lockhart
Theory and Composition: Brian Spruill
Excellence in Theatre: Coleman Scroggins
Excellence in Communication Studies: Rachel Smith
Excellence in Media Communications: Jordan Herrod

Who’s Who Award: Angel Azua, Hildon Boen, David Brousseau, Rebekah Brown, Hailey Budnick, Trevor Burrow, Connor Carpenter, Charles Carr, Carissa Clower, David Cone, Jancee Cotton, Rebecca Day, Catherine Dunn, Kendra Dunn, Taylor Eaves, Anders Ellingsberg, Thomas Estes, Matthew Evans, Samantha Garcia, Keenan Harris, Victoria Herbert, Angel Hernandez, Jordan Herrod, Michael Holubik, Lindsay Inscore, Sarah Johnson, Jessica Kenneson, Chris Kirby, Scott Langford, Rachel Laue, Angela Lichtie, Clint Lockhart, Elizabeth Miller, Matthew Molina, Gerardo Olivares, Amanda Page, Monte Ratchford, Jon Riddle, Ashley Rima, Damaris Rios, Michelle Ritter, Jarrett Ross, Libby Saultz, Caleb Schumacher, Coleman Scroggins, Joanna Shutts, Brian Spruill, Morgan Switzenber, Ben Ufford, Devin Valentine, Caitlin Walker, Lance Williams, Jenna Wilson, Kaylie Young

Pioneer Scholars: Taylor Eaves, Thomas Estes, Keenan Harris, Victoria Herbert, Lindsay Inscore, Angela Lichtie, Alyson Lockhart, Clint Lockhart, Ian Mather, Ashley Rima, Libby Saultz, Brian Spruill, Jenna Wilson.

Rachel Laue - President's Ambassador

This fall, Laue’s paper “Fighting the Cold War at a Baptist College: Anticommunism in the Wayland Baptist College Trailblazer,” will be published in the West Texas Review, the journal for the West Texas Historical Association that is based at Texas Tech University.
“It’s not often that an undergraduate can even get a paper considered for publication, much less published,” Laue said.

The history major from Great Falls, Mont., wrote the paper for her historical methods class, looking at anti-communist sentiment in the college newspaper during the cold war. At that time, college campuses were typically more politically involved than they are today. As a result, Laue found no shortage of opinions being published in the Trailblazer, Wayland’s student newspaper.

“They were probably more opinionated than a newspaper staff should be,” Laue said. “There were some pretty considerable biases in their articles.”

While Laue found looking at the history of Wayland fascinating, it was her own history that almost kept her from attending college. By every definition of the word, Laue is a non-traditional student, although you wouldn’t know it unless she told you.

“I didn’t go to college at age 18 like everyone else,” she said. “I was 22 when I came here. It hasn’t really been awkward for me because I blend in. I look young.”

Being the first member of her immediate family to attend college, Laue was on her own to find the right fit. It was only in a last-ditch internet search that she found a school that was affordable and offered everything she was looking for in a university.

Born in Missouri, Laue spent her childhood moving back and forth between Missouri and Montana, on nearly a yearly basis. The second of four children, Laue said the constant movement and being home-schooled made it hard to make friends.

“There were a lot of places we lived where I didn’t know anyone. We didn’t go to school, so we didn’t meet people. A lot of places we lived, I only knew my family. That was it,” she said.

Laue explained that her family moved so much partly to look for work and partly because “they were just restless souls.” She said her family was poor and everyone had to work to make ends meet. That meant she had to stay at home and help raise her younger brother and sister.

“I was my siblings caretaker for about nine years, until they were old enough be left alone,” she said.

At the age of 22 Laue finally had a chance to do something she wanted to do – go to college. She began looking in the south – to find a warmer climate, she said – for a faith-based college.

“I decided I would like to go to a Christian college. I didn’t want to deal with having a drunken roommate at 4 o’clock in the morning. Which may or may not happen. …,” she grinned.

Being raised a Baptist, she was looking for Baptist schools first, but the expense of private education was keeping her from finding a suitable school.

“Private institutions are usually really pricey,” Laue said. “I had almost given up and finally, just one last Google search and Wayland came up. I hadn’t seen it in any other search I had done. I think I just put in Baptist Colleges and there it was.”

The next fall, Laue started college as a 22-year-old freshman. She found enough funding to pay for school and chose to live in the dorm with the younger students.

“There were still people around my age,” she said. “I was 22 and 23 and there were still a lot of seniors and older students around. My junior year was the first one where I thought, ‘they are so young.’ There started to be a significant gap.”

Laue’s junior year was also the year she fell victim to a mysterious illness that ended up forcing her to stay home for the entire spring 2012 semester. The onset of the illness, the main symptom of which was extreme exhaustion, was in the fall of 2011 when she missed an entire month of classes.

“I got really sick. They couldn’t figure out what was wrong,” Laue said. “I did kind of rally enough to finish the semester, but when I went home, the doctor said I couldn’t come back to school.”

Laue returned in the fall of 2012, but still feels the effects of the illness.
“I wasn’t sure I was going to be able to stay because I felt so bad,” she said. “I have been doing better this semester. I’m not sure what the difference is. I’m a medical anomaly, apparently.”

Laue picked up where she had left off the previous year. She serves as a President’s Ambassador, an elite group of students hand-picked to represent the Office of the President and the Offices of Advancement at various functions on and off campus. She also has been named to several academic honor societies and was selected this fall to represent the School of Behavioral and Social Sciences as its research champion.
Laue plans to graduate in December and then continue her education in graduate school studying history and archeology. She has a heart for missions and hopes to one day visit the “deepest, darkest jungles of Africa.” An historian by choice, Laue is a writer by nature. She has always been interested in journalism and considered majoring in it before deciding to focus on history. A member of the Sigma Tau Delta literary honor society, Laue pursues creative writing as a hobby. Just don’t ask her about her poetry.

“I don’t do poetry. My poetry is really bad,” she said. “April is a poem-a-day month. I’ve been trying to do that and it is horrible.”

Still, she is currently writing a western, a fantasy story and a “Bridgett Jones” type novel about being a single girl. … And she says she didn’t inherit her parents “restlessness.”
“Maybe I’m a little free-spirited,” Laue laughed. “It just manifests itself a little differently.”

According to Dr. Sammy Van Hoose, an associate professor of business at Wayland and the group’s faculty sponsor, the 10 regions are not named and teams are free to compete in any region they choose. Wayland’s team competed against 33 other teams from Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana and Arkansas, and by winning the regional championship, earned the right to advance to the national competition later in the year.

According to its Website, www.enactus.org, the organization is “a community of student, academic and business leaders committed to using the power of entrepreneurial action to transform lives and shape a better more sustainable world.”

Enactus comes from the words “entrepreneurial,” “action” and “us.”

Wayland team members are: Charles Carr (president), Christine Borges, Maria Carrillo, Rosaura Luevano, Celia Juarez and Phoung Voung.

Van Hoose said the organization did a number of fundraisers through the course of the year to raise money to attend the competition and put in a total of approximately 13,000 volunteer hours in service to Plainview and the surrounding communities. In the process, they worked with small businesses, the Plainview Chamber of Commerce and other municipal and business organizations.

Van Hoose said that as part of the competition, the team highlighted three of its projects from the current year.

The first was a series of computer competency courses in which students tutored area residents in needs ranging from computer basics to more advanced computer operations.

The second project involved team members working with a family farm in rural Hale County, helping them upgrade their computer and internet system. As part of the process, the farmers purchased some agricultural software and the students installed it and helped implement it. Van Hoose said that in addition to saving the farmers approximately $100,000 in their farming operation, it also allowed them to save approximately 3 million gallons of water a month.

Finally, Van Hoose said the team highlighted its drug drop-off program. Through that program, area residents are allowed to bring any type of medication or pharmaceutical to a collection point and leave it, no questions asked. The process is overseen by Wayland Baptist University police who then work with the Plainview Police Department to destroy the material in a way that is EPA approved. The sponsor explained that by taking advantage of the drop-off program, drugs can be disposed of in a way that prevents them from leaching into the water system or in other ways damaging the environment. While the program started out slowly a few years ago, Van Hoose said over the past year Enactus has taken in more than 900 pounds of drugs and medication.

As regional champions, the team advances to the 2013 Enactus U.S. national Exposition in Kansas City, Mo., May 21-23.

Zoe Benson, Wayland soccer player

PLAINVIEW – Zoe Benson was a picture of contradictions – 6’ tall and an imposing member of the Wayland Baptist University soccer team who according to her personal profile brings “height and strength” to the team. But on this day she was scared out of her mind.

It was a Sunday morning, she was about six rows deep in the middle section of First Baptist Church, Plainview and it wasn’t the first time she had been scared at the church. It was different this time, though, because as Dr. Tim Marrow, pastor of the church, began the prayer before the alter call, the church’s university minister, Greg Northcutt, walked out into the congregation and stood beside the college junior. When the prayer ended and the invitation for response began, Northcutt walked with Zoe to Dr. Marrow and she made her decision to become a Christian public.

After the fact, as Zoe thought back on the morning, she explained that she had been struggling with that decision for several weeks, but is scared to get in front of people so she had not been able to muster the courage to walk down the aisle.

While that “public profession of faith,” as it is called in Baptist ritual, is not a requirement of becoming a follower of Christ, it is an important part of the process because it lets others know of the individual’s decision and gives them the opportunity to provide emotional support.

That had been explained to Zoe and once it was over, she was glad the church incorporated that into the process, but it didn’t make it any easier when the time came to step out into the aisle.

As it turns out, the soccer player from Chico, Calif., who also is studying biology at Wayland, didn’t come to the school for spiritual reasons. In fact, she almost didn’t come to the school at all because it was a religious institution. She came to play soccer and study science. From a religious standpoint, she had spent much of her childhood and teen years leaning more toward atheism.

“My family isn’t religious at all. When I was real little, I would go with my best friend to church but it was more just to hang out. It wasn’t really church.

“I made a personal choice that I didn’t want any religion. I was going to be an atheist and that’s how my life was going to go and it was going to be fantastic,” she said.

When Wayland’s Head Women’s Soccer Coach Shiloh Posey recruited her, initially she recoiled at the thought of coming to Wayland.

“Shiloh Posey came and talked to me about coming to Wayland and I was like, ‘Nope! It’s a religious school and I don’t want to deal with that,’ ” she said.

However, the coach persisted and eventually convinced her that “it’s not actually that bad” and she would “be okay.” She wanted a college education so she decided to go ahead and come to the school, but only to play soccer and study science.

However, once Zoe got to Wayland her attitude began to change and the change started with a note from Northcutt, one that he sends out regularly to the students at the school.

“Badly enough, they said that they would give you food and they would do your laundry,” Zoe said with a grin.

Northcutt explained. The church has two washers and two driers in its Family Life Center and college students can come on Monday-Thursday nights and do laundry without having to spend their quarters to use dorm or public facilities. The center also has Wi-Fi and a gymnasium so the students can work on homework, get on social networking sites or play ball. On Sundays, he continued, the church encourages adult Sunday School classes to provide lunch for college students and to come and eat with them as a way of establishing a connection between the church and the university.

Surprisingly, he said, Zoe never took advantage of either of those programs. The soccer player laughed and agreed, but pointed out that she did start coming to the church.

“I decided maybe I should just give it a try. Let’s learn about it,” she said. Then she added the kicker.

“I just couldn’t stop going,” she said.

As it turned out, that decision was part of a general change in attitude toward Christianity that actually started at school. Wayland requires that students attend Chapel each week and Zoe really didn’t want to do that but didn’t have a choice. She went. Then she began to meet people who didn’t fit the mold of the people from her past who had offended her by “pushing religion down my throat.”

“I came to Wayland and it was intimidating at first, the whole religion thing and having to go to Chapel. Then I realized that Chapel wasn’t so intense. Donnie Brown (Wayland director of Baptist Student Ministries) wasn’t so scary. He’s kind of nice. He’s kind of cool. Then I came home last summer in 2012 and I went to a Baptist church with one of my mom’s coworkers and she kind of helped me with a few things and kind of walked me through how you go to church, how you go and dress and talk and hang out and all that stuff. So that was nice and then I came here and thought, ‘Why not go? Why not go to church, and that’s when I fell in love,” she said.

Brown laughed when he heard that he was “kind of cool,” but then he talked about Zoe’s transition from doubter to believer.

“I first met Zoe on the soccer team,” he said. “When she first got here I spoke to the soccer team once a week – just a short devotional with them, hung out with them a little bit.”

From that introduction, he started having “friendly conversations” with her that really had little to do with spiritual issues.

“I was just being a friend,” he said.

“Last year I spoke to all of the athletes on campus right at the beginning of the semester. Dr. (Greg) Feris (Wayland Athletic Director) had me do that. Zoe had some questions about faith, you know, ‘Is there a God and is this really real?’ ”

He and Northcutt began to make themselves available to Zoe and tried to answer the questions she was beginning to ask, but gave her plenty of room.

“I just encouraged her to keep searching. God’s big enough to ask the tough questions and if He’s really real and you seek Him out, He will reveal Himself to you,” Brown said.

In the meantime, Zoe had begun going to First Baptist Church and had discovered that church wasn’t such a bad place either. The people she would meet on Sundays were friendly and caring. They liked her and they asked her how she was doing. The church put her to work, letting her help in the children’s program where she began to care for 1-3 year-olds.

It all started to overwhelm the college student, but in a good way.

“I don’t know how to explain it,” she said, “but I walk in there and I say ‘hello’ to everybody because people there are so wonderful. They’re so sweet. It’s not just a Sunday thing that they’re sweet. I know a lot of them outside of church. Everybody is sweet. I love to love them. They’re wonderful. It’s exciting to see that. I get excited every time I see one of them outside of church. They’re like, ‘Hey, how are you?’ ”

Still, she was struggling with the decision to become a Christian.

Then she got a chance to go on a medical mission trip to Honduras with the university’s biology department. She decided she would go because it was a chance to travel out of the country and to work with fellow science students and build her resume. But there was one other aspect that intrigued her.

“I can work on my relationship with God – see if He can use me, see what I can do with Him and see if this is really what I want, if I really want to be in a church,” she said.

Brown said that he began praying for Zoe and the trip to Honduras.

“I prayed that God would continue to reveal Himself and that especially on that trip God would really work in her life and reveal who He is to her and evidently, that’s what took place. I mean God showed up,” he said.

Zoe echoed that.

“The trip to Honduras really helped me, I guess, find myself a little bit. I know those mission trips are supposed to be for other people. We’re supposed to go to help people and not help ourselves so much, but it opened my eyes a lot more than I expected,” she said.

Once she got back to Plainview, it wasn’t long before she found herself in the pew at church wanting to step forward, but being scared.

“For the past three or four Sundays I’ve been like, ‘Go Zoe! Go! We’re going to do it today! Ugh! I can’t do it. I can’t do it,” she said.

Then Northcutt offered to come to her and walk up the aisle with her so she wouldn’t feel so alone.

That worked. She went forward. But she still was scared.

“It’s nerve wracking. I can’t get up in front of people. My face was bright red. My knees were shaking. I felt awful up there. I felt like I needed to puke but I was up in front of people so I didn’t,” she said, adding that when she first turned around to face the crowd of people, many of whom were fellow students and others whom she had become friends with, she didn’t see anybody that she recognized.

But then she added that it was worth it and she actually was glad the church made that part of the process.

“I think (making the decision) personally is great but doing it publically really lets everybody know and gives people a lot more hope and support. When I looked out in front of everybody I couldn’t see a face that I knew for the life of me. When everybody came up (after the service) I knew a lot of people and a lot of my friends were supportive. They were like, ‘Congratulations.’ It was really cool,” She said.

PLAINVIEW — A group of Wayland Baptist University students, faculty members and alumni will have an opportunity in March to gain valuable experience in missions while demonstrating God’s love through evangelism and medicine.

According to Wayland Professor of Biological Sciences and Chemistry Dr. Adam Reinhart, who also serves as the university’s pre-health director, he will take a team of 12 people, including seven students to an area approximately 30-45 miles northeast of the Honduran capitol of Tegucigalpa from March 11-18. Over that one-week period, the team will conduct several medical clinics, do some construction work at an orphanage and visit an international school. Team members also will do gospel presentations and teach children’s Bible stories to those who are seeking help through the clinics.

Reinhart said the trip is being done in cooperation with his friend, Joe Denton, who is a missionary in the area and the clinics will be operated by local doctors.

“They’re more established and know what to look for and are better equipped to treat people there,” Reinhart explained.

The group will be bringing in some general medical supplies, although it is limited in what it can bring in because of customs concerns. Reinhart also explained that the American dollar will buy more medicine in Honduras than it will in the United States.

Given that fact, he said what the team really needs is for people to make monetary donations that will enable them to buy the necessary prescription medication once they get in country.

In general, he said, one of his focuses is helping supply prenatal vitamins.

“There’s a huge need for prenatal vitamins, especially prenatal vitamins that have a lot of folic acid,” he said. “The amount of medicine we can buy once we’re there, in terms of vitamin supplies, and stuff like that, we can make a big impact on lowering the potential rates of birth defects in that one little area we’re going to.”

He added that anyone interested in donating to help with the purchase of medicine should contact team member Amy Rendon at 806-291-3602 or by email at rendona@wbu.edu.

As far as the team members’ actual roles in the medical clinics, Reinhart said they will help with general triage-type work, prescreening patients and getting vital signs that will be passed along to the doctors.

Many of the students who are participating in the trip are preparing for careers in the health industry, Reinhart said, adding that the best time for them to get a taste of medical mission work is as undergrads.

“Once people are in medical school or dental school it makes it very difficult for them to leave that to even do a short-term mission trip,” he said.

Two of those students are Jarrett Ross and Jessica Kenneson. Ross, a senior from Tulia, is studying molecular biology and chemistry and Kenneson is a sophomore from Wiggins, Colo who is studying the same fields. Both have an interest in the medical field and Ross has been accepted into the medical school at Texas Tech, although he doesn’t know what his specialty will be.

He is excited about the trip and agreed that now is the time to go on a medical mission trip.

“I feel that meeting someone’s physical needs is a gateway to helping meet their spiritual needs. I feel that is my calling,” he said as he talked about the upcoming trip.

Kenneson is interested in medical research and she was a late-comer to the team, approaching Dr. Reinhart on the last day of signups. She had seen posters about the trip but didn’t commit to participating until she attended a presentation by Wayland alumni Dr. John Blevins in which he talked about his own medical mission trip to Africa.

“I love mission trips,” she said with a smile. “I’ve always wanted to go and apply my passion for science to missions and medical mission trips make that possible . . . and it’s fun.”

In both cases, that is the kind of enthusiasm that gets Reinhart excited.

“The side of the trip that impacts our students the most,” he said, “is just giving (them) a more global perspective of what God’s doing around the world. Everything doesn’t look like it does here and people around the world face different kinds of challenges that we don’t experience in this part of the world.

“It’s really a good way for God to get ahold of somebody and really increase the amount of ministry they’re doing here. If you want to take the surest, shortest way to take somebody from a pew-sitter to really being involved in ministry, send them on a short-term mission trip,” he said.

Dr. Marti Runnels, Dean of the School of Fine Arts and Director of Theatre, is reaching back 23 years to resurrect the first play he ever directed at Wayland as this year’s WBU Homecoming musical. The play is scheduled for Oct. 18-20 at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $12 for adults and $5 for children.

“When I first came here, I thought it would be a great first show,” Runnels said. “I thought it was a great show to start with because it appeals to everyone.”

Runnels explained that there are certain sections of comedy that are very entertaining to varying segments of the theatre crowd, but don’t have the same kind of universal appeal that is seen with Schulz’s Peanuts characters.

“If you start talking about Peanuts or Charlie Brown, you can almost see a smile come across everybody’s face,” Runnels said.
Based on the Peanuts characters, “You’re a Good Man Charlie Brown” is a musical that looks at little moments in Charlie Brown’s life. Charlie, Snoopy and the gang experience everything from Valentine’s Day to baseball season and emotions ranging from wild optimism to utter despair.

The next show on the schedule is “Shorts – Sweet Little Sixteen,” running Nov. 15-18 with shows at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Friday and Saturday and a 2 p.m. matinee on Sunday. Tickets cost $8.
A staple on the WBU stage, “Shorts” is a collection of short plays ranging from the comedic to dramatic, generally directed by a WBU theatre upperclassman. This year, however, Runnels said “Shorts” will be different.

“We have more students involved in theatre than ever before,” Runnels said. “While our department is as big as it has ever been, they are mainly underclassmen.”
This year’s set of shorts will be directed by former students who are still in the area. The list of directors includes Tisa Whitfill and Jennifer Riley who teach at Plainview High School, and Wes Naron, a longtime Plainview resident who is teaching at Cotton Center.

Following “Shorts,” Runnels will step away from the Wayland stage to produce and direct the play “Seven” for Second Baptist Church in Lubbock. Runnels directed “Seven” for Wayland a few years ago and has reassembled the cast to perform a fundraising benefit for Women’s Protective Services.

“Seven” takes a look at seven women from seven different countries around the world and their rise to powerful positions.

“It’s a story of empowering women who in many cases have endured incredible hardships,” Runnels said. “It’s not a victim play. It’s a play about the places these women have taken in their own countries — incredible positions of leadership and how they got there.”

“Seven” will show at 7:30 p.m. on Nov. 30 and Dec. 1 in Lubbock. Tickets for these shows must be purchased through Select-A-Seat at 806-770-2000.

Wayland’s spring show will be a production of David Mamet’s “The Water Engine” scheduled for Feb. 28 and March 1 and 2 at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $8.

The show is the story of a young inventor who found a way to run an engine on distilled water. Set in the 1930s, the controversial technology is sought after by crooked lawyers, while newspaper stories and murder threaten its unveiling.

“It’s a very unique piece of theatre because it is a combination between a play and a radio broadcast,” Runnels said. “When an audience watches this piece, part of the time they will be watching as if they were in a radio studio with people behind microphones and somebody doing sound effects. As they watch the radio drama it starts becoming the play that the radio drama is enacting. It moves between the representational and the presentation … between the fantasy world, radio drama and the actual drama that is unfolding.”

Wayland will also present “The Water Engine” as the school’s entry into the Christian University Theatre Festival on March 4-6. Tickets to Wayland’s show will cost $4.

The Wayland theatre season will culminate in another trip to Ruidoso for the Spencer Theatre Collaborative on June 7. Runnels has not yet decided on a show for that production.
Season tickets, not including “Seven” and the Spencer show, are on sale for $26 or two for $50. For more information, contact the Wayland Theatre Office at 806-291-1060.

Luminate and Coffey Anderson perform at Big Weekend.

PLAINVIEW – Contemporary Christian artists Luminate and Coffey Anderson will headline a free concert at 7 p.m. on Friday, March 30, in Wayland Baptist University’s Harral Memorial Auditorium.

Drawing inspiration from his Texas roots, Anderson has released four albums. He grew up in Bangs, focusing on basketball. While in college, a chance meeting with his girlfriend’s father sparked an interest in music that led him down another path. Anderson moved to Las Angeles to pursue the music business, eventually landing a spot on Nashville Star in 2008. Although he made the final four, he was eventually cut for “not being country enough.” Since then, Anderson has made it his mission to write and perform songs that cannot be pigeonholed into just one genre.

Anderson’s most recent album was released in September of 2010. He has been the opening act for artists such as Chris Tomlin, Boyz II Men, John Michael Montgomery, Blake Shelton, Chris Cagle, Trace Adkins and Leeland.
The Texas-based pop/rock group Luminate pays homage to artists such as U2, The Fray, and Switchfoot with a unique sound that is derived through the talents and creative ideas of the five band members. Through its self-titled debut album, Luminate is trying to spread the word of Christ’s love through music.
The concert is in conjunction with Wayland’s Big Weekend, a college preview weekend for high school juniors and seniors, as well as college transfer students.

Admission to the concert is free and open to the public.

PLAINVIEW – Approximately 100 guests, dignitaries and Wayland Baptist University Trustees crowded into the small auditorium at the Museum of the Llano Estacado to witness the unveiling of the name for the new men’s dormitory.
Joined on the podium by Donna Meade Dean, widow of Jimmy Dean, Wayland President Dr. Paul Armes praised the late country entertainer for his passion for his craft, contributions to education and the “best sausage made in America.”
“As a token of our appreciation for the relationship we have had and continue to have with this wonderful couple, and as a way of honoring the life and passion and dreams of Jimmy, it is my honor and privilege to announce that this beautiful new structure will be named Jimmy Dean Hall,” Armes said.
An emotional Donna Dean spoke to the audience after an artist’s rendering of the building containing the words “Jimmy Dean Hall” above the front door.
“I’m terribly emotional,” she said. “Jimmy used to say I would cry at card tricks.”
Dean said that Jimmy would be proud to have his name connected to Wayland.
“Jimmy’s passion in life was education,” Dean said. “He didn’t get to graduate from high school because he had to support his family, but he educated himself nonetheless.
“He educated himself and he always felt that education was the key to success.”
In 2008, Jimmy and Donna Dean donated $1 million to Wayland – the largest cash gift ever given to the school. Since that time, the Deans have continued to support the school. Jimmy, who was born in Olton and raised in Seth Ward, just north of Plainview, died at his home in Richmond, VA, in 2010. The 94,000 square foot facility bearing his name is three stories, consisting of 175 rooms with 300 beds. It is scheduled for completion this summer and will be open to house students in the fall of 2012.
“May all those who walk the halls of Dean Hall and all those who inhabit it, be blessed,” Dean said.