March 10, 2015

In this issue…

• Current News
• Family Updates
• Personnel Updates

Current News

Students elect new executive council for ASCBU

Students have elected a new executive council for the Associated Students of California Baptist University.

The new officers for the 2015-16 school year are Executive President Makenna Lammons, Executive Vice President Jordan Lanksbury, Vice President for Finance Katie Juarez and Vice President for Communication Ashlee Smith.

Her term as president will be the third office Lammons has held in the ASCBU. A sophomore psychology and criminal justice double major, she began as a freshman representative on the ASCBU Senate and continued this year as director of office affairs on the council.

Lammons talked about how the current president, Trent Ward, brought remembrance events for 9/11 and Veterans Day to campus.

“I want to continue that because I’ve seen that it’s had a positive impact on students,” she said.  “In the past, we’re known for our Christmas party in the winter and recess in the spring. Those are great traditions, but I want to continue what Trent has done, because it’s also serving the student body.”

Another goal Lammons has is to partner with the university and install automatic doors at the Alumni Dining Commons between the dining room and the patio area. Students struggle opening the doors holding trays.

“When I look at students, I try to find little ways to serve them,” she said.

Lanksbury, a business administration sophomore, wants to provide opportunities for students to join outreach programs and fun events on campus.

“I plan on making an impact on student’s lives here at CBU and making it evident that ASCBU wants to do the same,” he said.

This year, Juarez, a junior accounting major, is a residential representative. While being the vice president for finance goes with her major, there was another reason she wanted to be on the council.

“I just love what ASCBU is about,” she said. “I love being able to serve the students in whatever way I can, especially in an area that I think that I do well.

Juarez’s goals are to ensure the budget is being used efficiently and also to get students involved on campus.

“You make more friends that way, you make more relationships, you can build relationships with professors,” she said. “You can learn more and work on being a better person more than just working on your major.”

Smith, a freshman communication disorders major, is a commuter representative this year. She wants to better communicate events to students, get them information early enough so they have time to plan and inform them of the services ASCBU provides.

“I thought it was an area that I could effectively serve the student body and make it an area of improvement in ASCBU and be able to help it grow,” she said.

 

Chili cook-off reveals best recipes, campus favorite

California Baptist University diners at the Alumni Dining Commons enjoyed some award-winning chili at lunch March 4. Or at least chili that was voted favorite at the recent chili cook-off.

Fifteen students, faculty and staff submitted recipes for the contest. Executive Chef Giuseppe Pitruzello narrowed down the recipes, then he, his sous chef and pastry chef picked the top three, all from students. Diners sampled the three recipes and then voted for their favorite at the ADC Feb. 26.

“Chili to me is a robust, one-dish wonder that I could dip some cornbread in, or a piece of bread and wipe around the plate, and feel like I had something inexpensive but yet delicious and filling at the same time,” Pitruzello said.

The finalists were Jennifer Ahlberg, a freshman communications disorders major; Emily Done, a sophomore communication disorders major; and Jennet MacDonald, a sophomore nutrition and food sciences major.

Ahlberg said she and her best friend make the recipe every year on Halloween.

“The recipe is so different because it has so much flavor with a just a little spice to it, which is perfect for me,” she said. “I don’t like spicy food.”

Done’s recipe came from her mother, she said.

“A distinctive quality is that we don’t add beans, which makes it ‘real’ chili,” Done said.

MacDonald’s recipe came from her grandfather who was a firefighter and cooked for his firehouse. Chorizo and cumin make it unique.

“It’s good because you can make it your own,” she said. “You can make it spicy, make it hot.”

Students had their favorites, whether it was the meatiness, the spiciness or the sweetness that grabbed their palates. The cook-off even got Dionasys Kalentermidis, a criminal justice major, to try chili for the first time.

“I thought it would be too spicy. It’s nice to know it’s not,” he said.

The winning recipe was from Ahlberg. She received a Provider gift card, a box of Hot Tamales and her chili was served at lunch March 4.

“The whole plan is to get the students involved and to have them come in and try something and have them select something and kind of a jury of their peers. It’s a monotony breaker just to say that we’re having fun,” Pitruzello said. “We’re just trying to keep engaged and keep things fresh and new, just so they don’t feel like they’re just coming to the cafeteria.”

 

Moody Bible professor tells students about God’s grace

Dr. Christopher Yuan shared his story of God’s love and grace in his life during chapel services March 2 and 4 at California Baptist University.

Yuan is a professor at Moody Bible Institute and last year earned a doctorate from Bethel Seminary in St. Paul, Minn. But before that happened, he was on a very different path, he told chapel audiences.

While attending dental school, he began living promiscuously as a gay man and experimenting with drugs. He was expelled from dental school and later was imprisoned for drug dealing and discovered that he was HIV positive.

“According to the world, I had it all. Money, fame, drugs and sex,” Yuan said. “I had exchanged the truth of God for a lie and I began worshipping and serving the creature, rather than the creator.”

While he was still at dental school, his parents became Christians. His mother prayed for him and continued to reach out to him.

“My mother began to pray a very bold prayer — ‘God, do whatever it takes, whatever it takes to bring this prodigal son to you,’” Yuan said.

It was while he was in prison that he became a Christian. He felt called to full-time ministry in prison and when he was released, he began attending Moody Bible Institute, where he is now a professor.

“From prisoner to professor, how about that for a resume?” Yuan said. “But God has done far more abundantly beyond all that we have asked or thought.”

Yuan’s desire is to minister to those working through issues of sexuality and to those living with HIV/AIDS. He speaks locally and internationally, on college campuses and in churches. His parents often speak with him, and he and his mother co-authored a book, “Out of a Far Country: A Gay Son’s Journey to God, A Broken Mother’s Search for Hope.”

He acknowledges in his younger years he had no interest in God, made bad decisions, which resulted in bad consequences. But the reality is everyone is sinful, he said, and everyone’s days is numbered.

“Not one person in this room – student, faculty, staff, administration – has ever been promised tomorrow here on earth. But don’t we take tomorrow for granted?” he said. “As a child of God, I must live with a sense of urgency.”

 

Rapper Trip Lee visits CBU campus, talks about music

Trip Lee, rapper, pastor and author, spoke to students at California Baptist University this week about music and worship. He also performed a concert on campus Feb. 24.

“God created music, and he gave it to us for our enjoyment and for his worship,” Lee said. He released his fifth album last fall and his second book in January. “Music captured how I felt about things and inspired me. I was really in love with music and that eventually led me to write my own.”

Music is used in worship for many reasons, he told the students. The main one is to praise God and celebrate his work. Lee talked about how the Israelites broke into song after crossing the Red Sea. He questioned why Christians are often uninterested in praising God in chapel or in church.

“If you’re a Christian today, you always have reason to burst out in joyful songs of praise, because you have been delivered from great doom,” he said. “We’re always standing on the other side of the Red Sea looking at the miraculous way that God has delivered us.”

Music can also be used to express pain and frustration. Lee talked about a health issue he has struggled with that resulted in the song, “Sweet Victory.” The song has connected with people, because everyone can relate to pain and frustration in their lives, he said. Scripture is real about pain and suffering, with both Job and David writing songs about it in the Bible.

“It might be kind of depressing that we find songs like this in scripture, but instead it should be a comfort to us,” Lee said. He reminded students that the Bible inspires us in all life’s circumstances.

Music also encourages others, and it is a gift God has given us to enjoy, Lee said. While it’s a big part of everyone’s life, we should be careful how we use it.

“Let’s not just mindlessly enjoy our music; let’s not mindlessly ignore opportunities to praise God,” he said. “It’s been given to us to enjoy but also (to use) to worship God.”

 

Family Updates

The Gordon and Jill Bourns College of Engineering and the CBU’s student chapter of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) hosted Mark Woodson, president-elect of the ASCE on March 6. Woodson spoke to students on the topic Engineering the Future.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dr. Anthony Chute, professor of church history, and Dr. Matthew Y. Emerson, assistant professor of Christian ministries for Online and Professional Studies, have published their latest issue of the Journal of Baptist Studies. The theme of this issue is One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church: Baptist Reflections on the Church in the Nicene Creed. Articles by Emerson, Dr. Chris Morgan, dean of the School of Christian Ministries, and Dr. Luke Stamps, assistant professor of Christian studies, are included. The link for the journal can be found here: http://baptiststudiesonline.com/the-journal-of-baptist-studies-7-2015/

 

 

About 35 CBU athletic training students, alumni and faculty joined more than 170 California Athletic Trainers Association members at the State Capitol to promote a new bill, AB 161, which would make it unlawful for any person to call himself/herself an athletic trainer or a certified athletic trainer who has not been certified or completed eligibility requirements to be certified by the Board of Certification Inc.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Amy Gwilt, financial coordinator, attended the annual Cal Grant Day in the Capital Feb. 24 with two CBU students. Annabel Zandi and Rustan Welch met with senators and assembly members to share how the Cal Grant allows them to finance their educational goals. The event is sponsored by the Association of Independent California Colleges and Universities.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dr. Daniel Prather, professor of aviation science, taught a one-day course Feb. 24 titled Staffing Needs and Job Related Training for Aviation Departments at the National Business Aviation Association Leadership Conference held in Tucson, Ariz.; a one-day course March 1 titled Effective Leadership in Business Aviation at the Helicopter Association International Heli-Expo held in Orlando, Fla.; and a workshop March 6 titled Becoming an Effective Leader at the Women in Aviation International Conference in Dallas, Texas.

 

 

 

Dr. Bruce Stokes, professor of anthropology and behavioral science, participated in the Fourth Borough Park Symposium in New York City Feb. 16-18. The symposium featured scholars who were invited to discuss the Messianic Jewish Movement. The meeting brought together Israeli Messianic Jews and Palestinian Arab Christians from Bethlehem to discuss their marginality from their own people groups because of the common faith in Yeshua (Jesus) as Messiah and the difficulties of the Jewish-Palestinian conflict in Israel and Jerusalem. Stokes is currently updating his doctoral dissertation research on the Messianic Movement in America and Israel.

 

 

 

 

Dr. Dave Pearson, professor of kinesiology and faculty athletics representative, recently served as the NCAA site representative at the Division II western region wrestling championships in Pueblo, Colo.

 

 

 

 

 

Dr. Gayne Anacker, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, presented Coming Home: The Spiritual Journey of C.S. Lewis Feb. 11 at First Congregational Church in Redlands for the church’s 2015 Kirk Series.

 

 

 

 

 

Dr. Mary Ann Pearson, associate professor of public relations for Online and Professional Studies, spoke to a group of communication and public relations majors at California State University San Bernardino Feb. 24 on Seven Tips for Success after Commencement.
 

 

 

 

Dr. Namhee Kim, assistant professor of communication disorders, and two CBU student representatives from the National Student Speech Language Hearing Association volunteered Feb. 20 for the SOS program at Grove Community Church. The SOS program is a monthly evening program for special needs children and their siblings while their parents got out. The students were exposed to various disorders and age groups. The group plans to continue participation in March and April.

 

 

 

Dr. Angela Deulen, assistant professor of psychology, successfully defended her dissertation for the doctor of education degree in organizational leadership at Pepperdine University.

 

 

 

 

Lisa Logan, student accounts counselor, is CBU’s Employee of the Month for March. The Employee of the Month Nomination Form included the following statements: “Lisa has a great work ethic. She consistently gives her all to serving her students and her team to the best of her ability. Lisa’s excitement about serving our students is infectious.  She is always ready to help students with a smile and a caring attitude. She’s a focused individual who values the Lord, her family, and her students. These values are seen through her dedication to and involvement at church, in the community, and at CBU.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

Personnel Updates