Muse. Multnomah University Students Engage A Student Publication
ISSUE 1
International Edition
Letters from the editors
Monica Winders
Aaron Esparza
This first issue of Muse is exciting for me. We have toiled to present you with a publication that will not only bring you news, but yearned to bring you an inspiring and impactful journal brought to you by, well, you. I remember reading a story last year in The Voice newspaper that caught my attention. The story was about the issue of diversity on our campus. It caused a shake, and I liked it. Why isn’t there more diversity at Multnomah? Is Multnomah doing a good job of recruiting to the masses? I spoke with many about this issue. There was a reaction, and a response, and that is something I hope for in Muse. Our three core goals are to inform you, inspire you, and hopefully impact you. I envision a journal that will allow you to express yourself and respond to our culture, whether good or bad. I desire a journal that will be relevant. I hope that you will share with the rest of the student body, your thoughts, your stories, and your creations. This journal is for you. As this first issue is released, I want to encourage you to belong to it. And by that, I mean own it. It will be what you make it. Feel free to contribute. I urge you to share, to provoke, and inspire.
The 75th anniversary of Multnomah University is being celebrated. I am only a tiny part of the bigger picture of the lives of the people here. As we launch this new publication, I want this to be a representative voice of all of us. I want the stories of the life of a security guard on his rounds. I want to share what students are talking about, laughing about, learning about. I want the seminary student who is struggling as a pastor—as he find the answers for his broken congregation—to speak up and be vulnerable to all of us about the journey of being in ministry. I want the relevance of Multnomah and its influence of alumni to be shared. I want us to discuss the relevant theologies that we are debating over today. Let’s be influencers of our times. I invite you, readers, to take part in helping share with us the stories that are being told, yet are not being heard. Share with us the thoughts that are musing all inside your brains yet without outlet. You are the ones that will help make this publication ours, the true voice of the students. Without you, I believe these writings could fade. So let’s represent the significance of our institution, because if we do not, there is no one else to pick up the torch. Now, more than ever, the responsibility lies on our shoulders. It will have to be a choice. It will have to be intentional. But I believe we can all work together to share the cutting edge of theology and hot topics amongst our sphere of influence. Let’s dare to be bold and relevant in our passive society. If we don’t, then the loudest voice will prevail. And why should Christians choose to be silent? We have new roots. New start. New beginning. Now, who wants to join in? –Aaron Esparza
Co-Editor, Muse Designer, Stugo Communications Director
Enjoy. In His Love, –Monica Winders
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Co-Editor
Cinco de
MUSTACHE
October 5-November 4
it grows on you.
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New Student Orientation Highlight
New student orientation. 80s BLOCK PARTY
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STUGO members: Austin Davis (Advocacy & Relations Committee) & Trevor Whitman (STUGO President)
Muse.
Multnomah University Students Engage “I will meditate on all your works and muse on all your deeds.” –Ps. 77:12
staff EDITORS | Monica Winders & Aaron Esparza EDITORIAL DIRECTOR & FACULTY ADVISER | Cornelia Seigneur ARTS & CULTURE EDITOR | Tiina Mall FEATURES EDITOR | Kristen Leach INSIDE MU EDITOR | Liz Clark REPORTERS | Megan Daline, Tiina Mall, Kristen Leach, Laura Stone, Liz Clark ISSUU Publication Designer | Monica Winders CONTRIBUTING WRITERS | Ben Tertin, AJ Elzinga. Trevor Whitman, Joe Borelis, Danny Vore PHOTOGRAPHERS | Aaron Esparza, Monica Winders , Kristen Leach, Andrew Roland Muse is a collaborative effort between Multnomah University’s STUGO Communications Department and the Fall 2011 Journalism Department. **Cover Photo by Aaron Esparza
MUSE If you’re interested in contributing to Muse, or if you have any questions, please contact our editors: Cornelia Seigneur cseigneur@multnomah.edu
ADVERTISING For advertising inquires please contact: Monica Winders 503-251-6782 mwinders@multnomah.edu
Aaron Esparza aesparza@multnomah.edu Monica Winders mwinders@multnomah.edu ARTS & CULTURE Tiina Mall kmall@multnomah.edu FEATURES Kristen Leach kleach@multnomah.edu INSIDE MU Liz Clark emurrell@multnomah.edu
http://www.multnomah.edu
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Issue 01, October 2011
Photo: Monica Winders
01 Letter from Moncia Winders & Aaron Esparza 06 Letter from Cornelia Seigneur & David Groom
Inside MU 19
23 25 26
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Faculty Focus: Dave Jongeward by Liz Clark Degree Completion Program Team by Megan Daline New Wine, New Wineskins by Liz Clark Student Q&A by Moncia Winders & Aaron Esparza
Features
Passion for the Word with Dr. Rebecca Josberger by Monica Winders Through the Eyes of a Refugee by Kristen Leach
Perspectives
07 Thankful by AJ Elzinga 13 I am the Second Man by Joe Borelis 21 STUGO Letter by Trevor Whitman 22 Fine...Whatever by Ben Tertin 54 Students Need a Voice by Dave Jongeward
Arts & Culture 28 39 38 43
Seasonal by Matt Howen Food Tour with Tiina Mall Thoughts on War by Danny Vore Crossing Seas & Crossing Streets by Aaron Esparza
55 End Page ~ Roots for a New Voice by Cornelia Seigneur
Collaborating to bring you Muse Magazine by CORNELIA SEIGNEUR & DAVID GROOM
The 2011 Journalism Department and the Stugo (Student Government) Communications Department are honored to collaborate together to present to you the new student publication, Muse Magazine. We envision Muse informing, inspiring, and impacting others via the written words and arts. Much dreaming, laboring, time, energy, effort, planning, and prayer has gone into what you are reading today. We hope to be a place where students can voice their thoughts, feelings, ideas, prayers, and musings on God and life and culture. We desire to engage readers and draw in more writers. And, most importantly, we pray it would honor our Lord Jesus Christ. This new student publication is a starting point for sparking mutual dialogue and questions and stories. We wish to engage the entire Multnomah community, a new voice, one that is relevant, vibrant, and real. Please join us in our Muse! And, we offer a special thank you to Laura Stone for finding the Issuu publishing platform for us to use. Enjoy!
Cornelia Seigneur is the new Journalism professor at Multnomah and Editorial Director/Faculty Adviser for Muse Magazine
The title in and of itself took a village. From a list of 20 plus names dreamed up by students and staff, Muse seems to fit perfectly. Consider: 1. Muse, the acronym – Multnomah University Students Engage. It is our hope to engage students, staff, and faculty in conversation and dialogue about issues, life, culture and God. 2. Muse, the noun. As, in an inspiring poet, artist, or thinker. We want to be creative and to consider ways for the Muse to hit us. 3. Muse, the verb. We want to ponder, to think, to question, to reflect upon life. And, to comment thoughtfully. 4. Muse in the Bible. Consider, “I will meditate on your works and muse on all Thy deeds.” –Psalm 77:12
David Groom is Dean of Campus Life (which oversees Stugo).
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perspectives Photo: Monica Winders
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Living a life of
THANKFULNESS by AJ ELZINGA
Recently I have come to realize that I am not a very thankful person. I used to think I was thankful because I could tell you about the many things that God has done for me, and I have my moments when I feel thankful to God and others, but the pattern of my life has not primarily been one of thankfulness. It’s very easy for me to look around and see all of the things that are wrong in the world. I can easily point out the many cracks, problems, and imperfections with Multnomah as an institution. I am surrounded by people who have deep problems and real messiness. I could tell you a very long list of all the attributes and behaviors of people that bother and annoy me to great length. And if I were to really be honest, I would also admit that as I look at myself, I see no end to the brokenness and failure that seems to define me. When my focus is spent on the negatives and problems with life, there is no room left in me for genuine thankfulness. Growing up in the church, I have always heard people talk about the importance of thankfulness as they quoted verses about entering God’s presence with thanksgiving. Along with them, I could tell you about how Paul almost always begins his letters by testifying to how often he thanks God for people. Knowing the truth about thankfulness cognitively is a good
“...I don’t want to see how
messed up
and
selfish I truly am...”
first step, but it did not change the way I live. Because I generally limited thanksgiving to something I felt obligated to do, it usually felt forced and fake. The beginning of change in my heart has been a deeper realization of the depth of my brokenness and sin because it points directly to the depth of God’s love. I don’t want to see how messed up and selfish I truly am, but as God is mercifully ripping away the ignorant layers that cover my depravity, I am brought to a place of dependency I have never known before. My intuitive response to sin is to strive to be obedient, but I inevitably fall again and feel even more discouraged. It is only as I grasp that I can do nothing on my own that the process of thankfulness can begin. Everyday when I wake up, I am faced with the choice of whether or not I will choose to thankfully let my Savior live his supernatural life through me and see the world through the perspective of what he faithfully has, is, and will do; or I can strive on my own and be discouraged with the brokenness of myself and others. I wish I could say I am now living a completely thankful life. I am still in the growing process. My only hope is found in choosing to remember the faithfulness of God because it’s only then that I can truly be thankful. –AJ Elzinga is a senior Communication major.
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promo. + Second downloader gets an exclusive pre-release demo (because 2 is my favorite number). + 42nd downloader gets a free digital download of the CD when it is released in December (because 42 is the number of children that were mauled by bears after they mocked Elijah). +82nd downloader gets a free copy of the CD when it is finished (commemorative of our beloved sketchy 82nd avenue of roses). ***Must input 97220 (School Zip Code) to be included in the promo*** + LIKE me on facebook. com--https://www.facebook.com/pages/HannahG/110940865601464 +FOLLOW me on Twitter @ hannahglavor. +SUBSCRIBE to my YouTube Channel - glavorh
Passion for the Word
Photo: Monica Winders
by MONICA WINDERS
“I have four children, and a husband,” said Dr. Rebecca Josberger, a professor of Hebrew and Old Testament studies at Multnomah University’s Biblical Seminary. “I have to add (my husband) because he’s the best part,” she said giggling. Rebecca Josberger is now widely known for her evident and obvious love for reading the Bible, after kicking-off Multnomah’s Christian Life Conference as the first speaker in mid-September. Because of the buzz, I had to ask her how she acquired such a passion for the Bible—a passion that has spread like wildfire and has begun to infect each person with a desire and hunger to read the Bible with zeal. “I have an incredible blessing. My job is to study the Word. To do what Multnomah wants me to do, I have to saturate myself in the Word, and I’ve fallen in love with it,” said Dr. Josberger. Although her requirement to read the Bible in order to teach looms over her career, she did not fail to be excited about answering my cliche question about what Bible character she relates to most.
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In September you were the first speaker of the Christian Life Conference because you are known for loving God’s Word. What do you think it takes to love God’s Word as much as you do? I don’t always think of [this] love as unique. But I have a feeling it is. It’s a desperate hunger to know the Lord more, and that’s where most of my prayer life is focused—just wanting to know him and asking for hunger. Sometimes I don’t feel like I have any hunger or passion for the Word and all I do is pray for hunger and passion. I love the Word because I feel like I come to know the Lord better through it. It all centers on my relationship with Him.
walked through these beasts, and I have no idea what that’s about. I was lost when I would read the Word but I knew that’s where the answers were. My first year back [in the states] I was a freshman at Taylor University and we had required Bible classes. And in those classes, teachers taught me how to read the Word as a book, as a divine but also human book. And showed me how God reached into culture and conveyed who He was within the parameters of their understanding.
And suddenly God was in context and I understood so much more. Now I look back and think my understanding, then was pretty limited, and I feel like my understanding now is pretty limited. But I get to read and study it all the time and there is just an exciteMy journey though—I haven’t always loved the Word ment that comes from learning more about Him in the as much as I do. In high school I was an exchange stu- pages. dent to Germany and while I was there I didn’t know any believers for about six months. The culture was As a parent and a full-time Hebrew profesdifferent from my American culture and I didn’t know sor at Multnomah, what does your time, quite how I was supposed to behave. In the states it’s not legal to drink, in Germany it is. The way that men schedule-wise, in God’s word look like? and women interact was different from the way they We’re busy. I have an incredible blessing in that my job interact [in America]. is to study the Word, and not only that, a lot of places I was in a really conservative background and over let you study the Word and require you to study the there it was much freer. I just wasn’t sure how I was Word to teach, but they teach about the Word, and at supposed to behave and it came into question for me, Multnomah, we teach the Word. And so that was the “Why do I live the way that I live? Is it because I’m an big transition the first year coming here. I wanted to read all of these scholarly works and I realized, to do American, or is it because I’m a Christian?” what Multnomah wants me to do, I have to saturate I started searching the Word to find out what laws I myself in Word and I’ve fallen in love with it. am accountable to—American laws, German laws? And it ultimately came down to, “I want to live what Christ wants me to live regardless of culture.” So I started pouring over the Scriptures. And I’m sometimes bothered when I hear this because for most people when they pour over the Scriptures God enlivens it and they see so much—and I didn’t. I didn’t feel like He did that for me, and I didn’t understand the Word. I desperately wanted to walk away every time with great insight. I’d walk away going, “Ok, there was a man swallowed by a fish and [I have] no idea how that pertains me.
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And Abraham had some covenant with God, and God
“...I have to saturate myself in the Word and I’ve fallen in love with it.”
What character of the Bible do you most relate with and why? David, David, David. It’s his passion—his incredible passion. I pray and hope and plead with God that I never make the same kind of mistakes that he made. But sometimes I feel like my sin is just as grave and my passion is just as intense, and I wonder how in the world will God have anything to do with me and or would want to. And yet, David points that God can handle me, first off. And anyone who will dance naked with passion before the Lord… I know I haven’t done that, but have you seen me teach? It’s like “spaz” up there. I get so excited for the Lord and I leave the classroom thinking, “Oh, why couldn’t I have been a little more dignified?” And it’s okay with God. He created that, and He relishes in that. And what David reminds me is that it’s the condition of the heart and the repentance of the heart and the longing of the heart after the Lord that matters so much more than the missteps and the stumbles. And David is a picture to me of the graciousness of God. If you live a life pleasing to God, He’ll do with it what He wants. He will not forget it. I do friendship the way David does friendship. I’m open with my life the way that David was open with his life. I do repentance the way David does repentance. They don’t always look that flattering for David, but God loves him so deeply that it gives me hope. If God can handle David, He can handle us.
What is one piece of advice you would offer a student who is struggling to love God’s Word? I think a lot of this stems from prayer life. If nothing else, ask for hunger. Ask God to help you realize the importance of time spent getting to know Him better—time spent in the Word and time spent in prayer. And sometimes I think, hunger for hunger is enough. Be hungry to want to be hungry for the Lord, and He will meet that. My bottom line answer is prayer.
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perspectives
I am the Second Man The journey to becoming a second man for me started before I was born. That sounds insane, but it is the truth. I came
from a family that, to put it lightly, was a cesspool of sin. It goes as far back as my family tries to remember, and
each generation has repeated these sins, and even added some new ones. Drugs, greed and sex seemed to fuel the reason for living, and it devastated everything in its path. Broken families and pain were the only things left. That’s where I come in; I am starting off this journey around the time that I was ten years old, although the journey itself didn’t start here for me. I entered a group home – a 21st Century name for an orphanage – in San Jose, California for the first time. My mom had been recently arrested on several different drug charges. With that, her arrest felt like it was the start of my captivity. I can’t seem to find the words to describe what it is like to call a place home, where people don’t love you and aren’t watching you because you share a familial bond, but because that is their job. It isn’t that it was their fault that Monica Winders you were there, but
2ND
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Photos:
by JOE BORELIS
there was a numbness that came from seeing so much brokenness; that numbness came from most of the adult interactions I was in. That first night that my sisters and I came to the group home and were checked by the on-site nurse, our stuff was checked for any weapons or drugs. They then guided us to where we were going to be staying. I was split up from my two sisters by being put on the guys’ side of the campus. I was walked in and introduced to the man who was the supervisor, and he made sure that none of the students ran away. The first thing he let me know was that if any one ran they called the cops and that person was sent to juvenile hall. He then showed me to my room, and said lights out in an hour. Next, I went into the main room, and looked at about 20 students ages 10 to 14 all watching T.V. Some kids immediately came up to me and asked what my parents did to make me end up there. Under my breath I quietly tried to defend my mom’s honor but to no prevail, and the staff finally told us to head back to our rooms. They had a desk outside that a staff member sat at all night to keep watch. Sitting down in my room, I looked around at the eggshellwhite walls, the brown cabinets, and the scarlet patterned carpet. It then hit me like a ton of bricks that I was without a family; I
was without anyone to support me in this moment. I was as locked up as my mom was for her sins, and I was locked in this place that I so desperately wanted to be separated from. I remembered back to all the kids that asked what my mom had done to make me end up there, and I felt as though I was guilty of the same thing, and that I was going to always be this broken, locked up, and lonely boy without a family to call his own. When I came to the end of all those different thoughts, the sky fell on top of me, and I lay down and cried. I felt knocked down and out. I was branded with the sins of my family and I was finally paying for it. Jumping ahead several years, I ended up in Washington with a youth group on a mission trip. I rode on a bus for 30 hours only to realize just how crazy Christians were to me. Even though I was trapped within the confines of the four metal walls there, I felt free. During a chapel the Friday night before we headed off to start working, there was a presence that I couldn’t explain. There was an altar call (as cheesy as that sounds), and I decided to go up to the altar. There, I was impacted so deeply that my knees hit the floor, and I cried like the first time in that group home. Yet, these tears didn’t remind me of being locked up,
but instead introduced freedom to me for the first time. These tears didn’t condemn me for my own sins or the sins of my family, but they now cried for forgiveness. I was convinced I was in the same room as my Savior, who made me new. He didn’t erase my past, but rather He gave me a brand new life; a life that is excited about a future with Him.
“During a chapel the Friday night before we headed off to start working, there was a presence that I couldn’t explain... I was impacted so deeply that my knees hit the floor, and I just cried...” I am a second man. Even though I was so close to repeating the sins of my family and even when I fail now today, I realize that He is raising the dead in me, and that I have a new life. I now can be a part of this second family that is going to be used to change the world. I am a part of this family forever and nothing can change that. I am redeemed. I am a second man.
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“TWENTY-FOUR” The inspiration for “I am the Second Man” feature. by JOE BORELIS
“See, I’m not copping out, I’m not copping out, I’m not copping out; when you’re raising the dead in me. Oh, oh I am the second man. Oh, oh I am the
second man now.”
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This anthem that is sung out by Jon Foreman in Switchfoot’s song “Twenty-Four” is incredibly captivating. When I try to put my finger on it, it is quite elusive. What’s captivating about it is so much more than good vocals or a bunch of talented musicians playing amazingly expensive equipment. It is much more than that, and the song continues to grow on you overtime. But why does it have such a powerful effect on me? When I think about it, everyone can relate to it in a special way. The reason touches our very soul because we all relate to Jon Foreman’s understanding of redemption. Our relation to the song begins when the verse states, “Twenty-four failures in twenty-four tries...” We realize that every time we have tried we have failed. The song relives a testimony that our lives plugs in to. I find that we can relate to failures in every aspect of our lives, but we find hope in the chorus. Even in the midst of our failures and mistakes, we need not quit because life is different; that Spirit will raise us up with Him. When Foreman exclaims he is not copping out and that he is the second man, he is stating how we are not who we were before. We are new creations, “second men.” The old is truly gone, and we can reflect on our past and see that it reveals who we are today. We don’t quit, for the dead is continuing to be raised in us.
When Foreman calmly sings the outro, we can realize that we wrestle the “Angel,” and He changes our name so that we can see this world change. Yes, we can share our stories because Jesus wants to change the world through us. We can see that this song is recycled off Paul’s statement of us being new creations according 2 Corinthians 5:17-19. And now, through our own shared stories, we can be used to change the world through the reconciliation we have known from the Father to inspire those around us. –Joe Borelis is a junior Youth Ministry major.
Twenty-Four by SWITCHFOOT Twenty-four oceans, Twenty-four skies Twenty-four failuresAnd twenty-four tries Twenty-four finds me, In twenty-fourth place With twenty-four drop outs, At the end of the day Life is not what I thought it was, Twenty-four hours ago, Still I’m singing ‘Spirit, take me up in arms with You’ And I’m not who I thought I was Twenty-four hours ago, Still I’m singing ‘Spirit, take me up in arms with You’ There’s twenty-four reasons, To admit that I’m wrong With all my excuses Still twenty-four strong See, I’m not copping out, Not copping out Not copping out, When you’re raising the dead in me Oh, oh I am the second man Oh, oh I am the second man now Oh, I am the second man now And you’re raising these... Twenty-four voices, With twenty-four hearts All of my symphonies, In twenty-four parts But I want to be one today, Centered and true I’m singing ‘Spirit take me up in arms with You’ You’re raising the dead in me, I wanna see miracles To see the world change, Wrestled the angel for more than a name For more than a feeling, For more than a cause I’m singing ‘Spirit, take me up in arms with You’ And you’re raising the dead in me Twenty-four oceans With twenty-four hearts All of my symphonies With twenty-four parts...
Through the eyes of by KRISTEN LEACH
a REFUGEE
One cup of beans and 10 cups of corn every 15 days, for 15 years. With a past full of food rations and dangerous living conditions, it may seem surprising that the one thing Stephen Lasu does not take for granted is education. The value he places in education has set the course for his life-long journey to teach the Bible in his home country of Sudan. Stephen was born as a refugee in Uganda to Sudanese parents. They lived in the Moroto District of Northern Karamojon for 12 years during the war in Sudan. During Sudan’s 10 years of peace, his family moved back to their home in Yei for a time. When war broke out again in 1983, Stephen’s parents escaped back to Uganda, while he fled to a refugee camp in Daddab, Kenya. He would never see his parents again.
It was in Kenya, where he married his wife and had their daughter, Akujo. But life was far from peaceful. In 1992, when they were running from a warzone, a piece of machinery became lodged in his wife’s leg, and she died soon afterward. Camps in Kenya are mostly made up of refugees from Sudan, Somalia and Ethiopia. At the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees camp in Dadaab, Kenya, Stephen taught peace-education to Somali children. Peace education is a program set up by the UN to accomplish their 50-year vision for peace. The purpose is to teach children in refugee camps the value of living in peace and unity so when the time came for them to go back to their countries, they would remain living in peace within their
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Stephen Lasu & Family
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own tribes and with the surrounding tribes. While teaching peace education, Stephen found a way to bring Jesus into his lessons, even though quoting straight from the Bible was not allowed. He would tell stories of Jesus and how Jesus kept the peace and fostered unity. In 2003, it was Stephen and his daughter’s turn to leave the refugee camp in Kenya for Toronto, Canada, where they were enculturated into Western society. Akujo was only 11 at the time. Stephen then married his second wife, Rose, in Portland, Oregon. They happened to be from the same tribe in Sudan. Stephen and Rose have a little boy, Taban, who turned two on September 29th of this year. The Lasu family moved to Gresham in April 2009, and they became involved with First Baptist Church in Gresham. While sharing his passion for taking the Bible back to Sudan, his pastor told him he should study the Bible at a Bible school in Vancouver or at Multnomah University. Stephen chose Multnomah, and began his studies in 2010. Majoring in Pastoral Studies in the undergraduate school at Multnomah, Stephen believes his time here is
helpful, “100 percent,” he said. Although he loves it here, he says, “I need to go back.” Stephen said there is such a need for the churches over in Sudan to teach Jesus, and not just their literature. Even though Stephen does not know when he will graduate, because he is taking just 13 credits this semester, he has full intention of bringing Jesus back to churches in his home country one day. His heart’s passion is expressed vividly when he said, “Everyone has to be like Jesus. You have to live by the Word. Shine among people.” But how do you bring them Jesus when the level of education in South Sudan is so low, that their schools are overflowing with students just waiting for someone to teach them? Especially now that South Sudan declared its independence from the North in July 2011, the South is starting out with nothing. With his past of living each day just to survive, on beans and corn year after year, Stephen sees the biggest need in the Sudan as education. It’s “basic for development,” and “without education, people will not develop.” –Kristen Leach is a senior Communication major.
Did you know? These are just some of the countries represented at Multnomah University: Sudan Canada India Mexico Philippines Scotland Sweden Taiwan Uganda Zambia South Korea Chad Japan –Source: Liz Clark and Lee Ann Lahodny, Administrative Assistant to the Registrar
Pray for Sudan. +Pray for missionaries to Southern Sudan. +Pray that Sudan will soon open schools, hospitals, and churches, especially in the South because they are starting from scratch. +Pray for their government to bring unity within each tribe and surrounding tribes. **Stephen is hoping to go back to Sudan next summer for three months if his church can help support him. What if we could help send Stephen home?
–If you’re interested in getting involved with or teaching in Sudan, contact Stephen Lasu at slasu@ multnomah.edu Stephen’s son, Taban, and student, Erik Mendoza
Photo: Monica Winders
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Jongeward FACULTY FOCUS:
Associate
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+Dave with his buddy Richard.
Dean of Student Support
Photo: Dave Jongeward
Photo: Andrew Rowland
by LIZ CLARK Dr. David Jongeward’s new role as Associate Dean of Student Support enables him to be directly involved in Multnomah students’ lives. He oversees student support departments and non-curricular programs: the Career Services Department, Student Services Department, Student Ministries Department and Athletic Department How has assuming your new position changed your role at Multnomah? “I’m administratively moving away from the academic arena and working with programs that deal directly with students. In my role now, I can justify hanging out in the coffee shop because part of my job is being in the know with students. Now that I’m supervisor of the athletic department, I have to go to volleyball games. I used to go to them anyway, but now I get paid to do it. So far, I’ve spent a lot of time working through problemsolving issues with student issues. “ What’s something interesting that most people don’t know about you? “My parents, my older brother and sister had gone to Multnomah, but I didn’t choose Multnomah for three reasons. One reason was that I didn’t want to cut my hair. Number two, I was going
through kind of a masculine identity adolescent phase and everywhere I went I was known as “Dean Jongeward’s boy” – my dad’s son. My dad was an influential alumni, missionary speaker, and leader. So frankly, I wanted to go somewhere where nobody knew my dad. Ironically, I would later join the faculty at Multnomah and get the title of “associate dean.” Now I’m Dean Jongeward! And the third reason was that God used Stu Weber to challenge me to go to Wheaton and I felt God leading me to Wheaton. The whole idea of a Christian liberal arts college resonated with me. I majored in psychology, which I could never major in at Multnomah back in the day.” What do you think about the new student publication? “I cannot imagine a university without some kind of student publication. Students have a right to have a vehicle to express their thoughts. When we had to drop The Voice last spring, I felt terrible because it’s not just the logistical and financial issues, it’s the principle of student voice. If students don’t write and don’t take advantage of this, it just might go away.” So, you ride your bike to work? “Last year, I rode to work every day except for two or three weeks throughout the school year. The ride
is about 21 miles round trip to Multnomah and back up to Vancouver. It’s very therapeutic for me not only physically and mentally, but also psychologically and spiritually. During my rides, I’ve had lots of creative and amazing thoughts God’s brought to mind and then I get a chance to chew on them and they become quite significant. Who’s Richard? There is a homeless man that I have gotten to know who is on my bike trail. His name is Richard. Every day that I ride, I stop and talk to him on my way home. When you stand on the street raising money like that, people yell at you and others ignore you. I have never seen any other bicyclist ever stop or say hi. Everybody passes him by. It’s like the good Samaritan story. Everybody passes on the other side of the road. I just decided that I want to be Jesus in Richard’s life. We talk about anything and everything. I usually miss him in the morning, but today I came in later. I said, “Richard, how’s your day going?” and he said, “Terrible, nobody’s given me anything yet.” I told him, “I’m going to pray for you today, Richard, and when I come home this afternoon, I’m expecting good things – it’s fun Friday, after all!”
–Liz Clark is a senior Journalism major.
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perspectives 21
// STUGO PRESIDENT
Trevor Whitman
My name is Trevor Whitman and I have the great privilege of serving Multnomah University as Student Body President for the 2011-2012 school year. This school year will consist of many obstacles, challenges, successes and failures but as I like to say it is all apart of the adventure. While being at Multnomah I have had the honor of being apart of Student Government as a senator for the past two years, working in the Promotions and Communications department as the Assistant Web Developer and playing on the JV basketball team last year. I think it is crucial for us as students at Multnomah to invest our time and talents into the university so that we can get the most out of a collegiate experience that will change our lives forever. Figuring out who we are outside of the comforts of family and familiarity is a key essential to being a healthy adult and Multnomah is a great place to set that foundation. The community at Multnomah fosters an environment where we are encouraged to pursue our endeavors. Sometimes that leads us to ministry opportunities, leadership positions, sports teams, academic excellence or jobs in the greater Portland community.
It is because we are all invested into many different facets of Multnomah that it is important for Student Government to be a team that promotes unity among students as we move in separate directions. My investment into Student Government at Multnomah University has proved to be a place where team members are encouraged to stretch themselves and be placed in situations that will foster personal and team growth. Having this support and freedom is intensely motivating. The past two years, I have served on the Events and Activities committee as well as the Advocacy and Relations committee. Both of which taught me life skills that I will use on a usual basis post graduation. Whether I was learning how to coordinate large groups of people or how to interact with our administration on an equal level, I discovered that everyone involved learned valuable lessons from each other. I am encouraged to see growth not only in myself, but also in our team this next year. If we can develop an environment of trust and honesty among the team itself, I am convinced we will experience great success. Any time students feel like they are empowered and that they belong to something larger than themselves, they can accomplish anything they put their minds to. We directly serve the student body by initiating changes to
Multnomah’s campus, fostering authentic community through events, being liaisons between the student body and the administration and countless other ways throughout a school year. On top of serving the University to the best of our abilities, my hope would be that we would also serve the surrounding Portland community by implementing events such as days of outreach through our Spiritual Life committee. My deepest desire concerning Student Government for next year is to create unity among the team, and in turn have that unity seep into the culture of the student body at Multnomah. Creating school-wide unity among students will be extremely beneficial, but bridging the gap between the students and the administration is also something I am passionate about. Using our liaison programs built into the Student Government constitution will provide this bridge to ensure that the administration and Student Government are all on the same page. If you are either a prospective student or a current student and are willing to be challenged physically, emotionally and spiritually then Student Government might be for you. We have a real opportunity to make positive change that will affect Multnomah for years to come‌ Will you accept the challenge?
perspectives
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Ben Tertin serves as the Pastor of Students, overseeing Imago Dei Community’s junior high, high school and college-age ministries. He focuses his vision for student ministry on contemplative worship, in-depth teaching, close mentoring-discipling relationships between leaders and students and frequent times of celebration for the student-leader-parent communities. Ben is a Bible & Theology student, an outdoorsman and a writer who lives in Portland with his wife, Ali, and young daughter, Annabelle.
Fine...Whatever.
by BEN TERTIN
Fine, I thought. Whatever.... I may have stopped hem When I found out that ming, but I was definitely still Multnomah was requiring me to hawing when I stepped into my spend an entire year of student church’s Junior High room on that ministry within a local church, I first day. Do my time. Check the was furious. Out loud, I said I was “frus- requirement box on my college trated” and “confused,” but inside I transcript, and get out: this was was ferociously angry. What right my plan. But by the second week, all did these guys have to dictate the Holy Spirit’s plan for my life? They that was changing. A group of junior high didn’t even know me. boys clung to me. Some made me I was studying journalism, laugh; others broke my heart. By not youth or pastoral ministry. I had already done two years of stu- the middle of the semester, any thought of leaving the ministry dent ministry in fields I actually wanted to enter. Now just shut up wasn’t even on the radar. By the end of the semester, the overseer of and obey some arbitrary red-tape law made by some administrator? that group asked me to take over a high school group. I hemmed and hawed and Those poor high schoolwhined like a child until, finally, ers put up with my ultra-complex director of student ministries Jim teaching notes and awkward leadSaemenes said: “Here’s the deal, ership as I grew into the pastor I Ben. Our school values local ministry, and this is a requirement for have become. The trials presented through those early years of stuyour degree. Nobody is holding dent ministry in a local church you at gunpoint; you can attend have refined and shaped me into any school you want to. But to graduate from here, you have to do my church’s Pastor of Students, where I now oversee all junior this.”
high, high school and college ministries. A different kind of life is unfathomable at this point.
“What right did these guys have to dictate the Holy Spirit’s plan for my life?
When I was flopping and floundering like an arrogant fool, I was convinced that whatever I felt like doing was actually God’s holy will. Authorities were to be challenged, not obeyed- treated with cynical, even furious, skepticism. But Jim was the wiser, and he didn’t cave to my juvenile whimperings. Without his truly Christian guidance, I would still be chained like a convict to my own best plans. I guess you could say that God uses Multnomah’s student ministry department to break chains and set students free.
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Degree Completion Program Hires New Academic Advisor/Recruiter
HOLLY CLOUGH
COLETTE LINETTE BETHURUM EATON
Photos: Aaron Esparza
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+Holly, Colette, and Linette make up the Degree Completion Program team.
Q&A
with Holley Clough
Degree Completion Program Director
by MEGAN DALINE
When asked what it was like to return to Multnomah after an almost 20-year absence, Linette Bethurum said she loved the way education transported her to another world. Now she’s helping others do the same. Linette was hired last month as the new advisor/recruiter for the Degree Completion Program. Replacing Joel Kersey, who accepted a job as a Bible teacher and chaplain at a Christian high school in California, Linette joined the staff in September. Herself a 2010 graduate of Multnomah’s DCP, Linette first attended Multnomah School of the Bible in the early 1990’s, majoring in Youth Ministry. It was at Multnomah that she met and married her husband, Ryan. Choosing to stay home and raise their children, 8 year-old twins boys, Colin and Daniel, and 11 yearold daughter, Kaitlyn, Linette said, “Finishing my degree was always in the back of my mind” because “education has always been very important to me.” Her chance finally came when her twins entered kindergarten. Two of her favorite things about returning to school were interacting with amazing professors and classmates and finally having time to focus on ministry. Linette chose to fulfill her student ministry requirement by volunteering at the Pregnancy Resource Center in her hometown of Sandy. “I’ve always had a heart for sexual purity in youth,” Linette said, “and the PRC was a perfect fit.” When she graduated, her degree in Leadership and Ministry uniquely qualified her to take over as Director there. While she loved the experience at PRC, she felt a tug in her heart to instead return to Multnomah, this time in a leadership role. Linette is thrilled to work as the new academic advisor/recruiter in the program from which she received her degree.
When did the DCP begin? The first cohort of students began attending in 2007 and graduated in 2009. Who attends the DCP? The program is designed for working adults with two years of college already under their belts. Students must be a minimum of 25 years old to participate. There is a wide range of ages though, and we have students coming back who are in their 20’s, all the way through their 60’s. I understand that when students enter the program they stay with the same cohort throughout the two-year program. How many cohorts have there been to date? There have been 13 cohorts of students so far. Seven of them have already graduated. What is your vision for the future of the DCP? We hope to add a Business and Ethics major in the future to complement our current Leadership and Ministry and Biblical Foundations majors. –Megan Daline is a student in the Degree Completion Program and a student in Professor Seigneur’s Newspaper Workshop.
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Dr. Paul Metzger
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Contact New Wine, New Wineskins at newwine@multnomah.edu for more info.
by LIZ CLARK
Photo: Aaron Esparza
New Wine, New Wineskins
“Our goal is to find common ground...”
What is New Wine, New Wineskins? The Institute for the Theology of Culture: New Wine, New Wineskins of Multnomah Biblical Seminary exists to engage culture in a relational and incarnational way. New Wine members strive to share their lives with others, as Christ did, to reach America’s multi-faith culture. Dr. Paul Louis Metzger founded New Wine. “New Wine uses a dialogical approach, which means we listen to other views to learn from and understand them,” said Dr. Brad Harper, who’s the Associate Director of New Wine. “Our goal is to find common ground by going through our worldviews, not around them, to build a better world.” Break Down Barriers New Wine uses three avenues to fulfill their mission to engage culture: an internship to train leaders, a biannual academic journal to inform readers and a bi-annual conference to impact attendees. New Wine addresses hard topics such as religious pluralism, cross-cultural contextualization, genetic engineering, the increased urbanization of the world, the environment, and politics. “Two Wailing Walls and the Peoples of Promise” The Israeli-Palestinian conflict was the shared topic for the spring 2011 conference and New Wine’s journal titled Cultural Encounters: A Journal for the Theology of Culture. “The evangelical tradition tends to be very pro Israel and can easily overlook the fact that God loves Palestinians too, as well as, the Israeli and Palestinian Christians who are persecuted by both sides,” Dr. Harper said. Evangelical, Jewish, Muslim, pro-Israel, and political voices addressed this issue at the conference. The conference, which Multnomah hosted, complemented the Spring 2011 Cultural Encounter articles on the same topic. Dr. Metzger’s editor’s introduction and three articles by different authors are available for free online viewing. Readers can also subscribe to the journal for $27.50 for a year in the United States. “Worshipping in the Matrix” New Wine’s fall 2011 conference, “Worshipping in the Matrix,” will engage the topic of how technology and social media affect Christians’ communion with God and the church. Quinton Schultze, professor of communication arts and sciences at Calvin College, will be the key note speaker. Scheduled for November 5 at Imago Dei Community, located 1302 S.E. Ankeny in Portland, the conference runs from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Register now: General admission is $20, MU faculty & staff are $10, and student are $5.
Q&A TIME
with New Students.
Adrian Henske
by AARON ESPARZA & MONICA WINDERS
John Sindy Rochester Sibold
Photos: Monica Winders
Condon, Oregon Age: 25, Transfer Student English Minor
Vancouver, Washington Age: 35, Transfer Student Youth Ministry
Fairview, Oregon Age: 18, Freshman Psychology
What surprised you most when you came to Multnomah? How much the students are in love with God. It was amazing to see how much their daily lives and their actions reflected the character of Jesus Christ.
What surprised you most when you came to Multnomah? To be honest, it was how accepting and honest people were with me, even though I was a little older, as if I was actually “one of them.” At first I thought I would feel like an outsider but didn’t feel like that at all.
What surprised you most when you came to Multnomah? It was how nice everyone was. And also how professors challenged us to read the Bible and not to just treat it like a textbook. But to actually engage into it.
What is your ministry passion? I have a heart for people who are hurting. I don’t know if I have a plan to fulfill that, but I want to be receptive to however God will use that desire.
What is your ministry passion? I believe the doctrine of “no absolute truth” has crept into the church and I want to fight against that. I don’t want to be someone that shouts at the darkness from afar, but someone who, while in the darkness, builds a lighthouse in the midst of it.
What is your ministry passion? I’m really passionate about serving people. No matter what I get out of this experience I want to serve the people with the knowledge I gain. Whether it’s an MU bubble or not, it’s still a bubble. We hardly think about the ways we treat others and how we affect them. And for me, it starts by caring, even if it’s just a smile to brighten their day. 26
ARTS &
CULTURE 27
Photography by Matt Howen
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This is the page that I fill with the juices that flow over the sides of the engine as it tries desperately to start up in the cold, stiff, dead of a writer’s winter. This is the page where I crank out the words just to get the machine moving. The machine? The mental machine connected to the rest of me that needs to dictate these tapping, key hopping fingers in the assembly line of a multitude of homework assignments. And now I’m off to refuel with some very loved tea. –Tiina Mall
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“Moral change is not accomplished through immoral means.” -Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. DANNY
Photo Courtesy: Danny Vore
by DANNY VORE
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. lived out the command to love his enemies. He is an example to all of us, and we should study his life and his actions and apply them to our lives. I wish I could use my magic powers to raise King from the dead, clone him one hundred times, and then place them all over the world. Or, perhaps more realistically, we can do what he did. It is possible, you know. It would cost you everything, but you can join me, you wouldn’t be left alone. We can go from continent to continent, preaching the Gospel and spreading peace, or at the very least, you can be a peacemaker in your neighborhoods, your schools, and at your Churches. See, there is hope, but it will take a group of committed people that want to live recklessly for Christ.
We can change the order of things. Bombs could go from the ground, reverse back up into the air and onto the planes. The planes could fly back to the airport where people could place the bombs back onto the shelves where they could collect dust and eventually rot. George Orwell once said that, “The war is not meant to be won. It is meant to be continuous.” It definitely seems that way sometimes, but I do have hope that things will change. I have this hope in me that tells me that the old way of doing things is passing away. There is joy in my heart because I know that when Christ returns, there will be no more war. “There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.” –Revelations 21:4
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Photos: Tiina Mall
Food Tour with Tiina Mall. T TIINA MALL MEETS LIDIA PATKOWSKI, AN OWNER OF A SOUTHWEST POLISH FOOD CART. by TIINA MALL
hree weeks ago I was walking along Southwest 10th Avenue going to my favorite Thai food cart, I Like Thai, where they serve some of the best Thai iced-tea—and that’s coming from someone who has been to Thailand numerous times. As I waited for my food, I started to look a bit farther down the street and saw a woman with a genuinelyfriendly and kind face. Her smile was so warm it seemed to pull me towards her. She was sitting in front of one of the food stalls wearing an apron.
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Curiously, I read her cart’s sign out loud: Traditional Polish Cuisine- Euro Dish. The woman smiled and called out to me in a thick Polish accent, “Best Polish sausage in Portland.” But, I had already ordered Thai that day. Today, I finally returned to Lidia’s cart to find out a bit more about her story, her love for food and people, and to taste the food she makes. I asked her if she would share more of her story with me.
Lidia’s story Five years ago, Lidia Patkowski was also walking along Southwest 10th Avenue and Southwest Alder when she came upon a group of Portland’s famous food carts. As she looked around she couldn’t find a Polish food cart. Lidia pauses in her story to look at me with something between an indignant and mischievous glint in her eye. Then, she animatedly raises her hands and says, “I saw a couple food carts. . . no Polish food . . . and I thought, ‘Why not?!’ So I got the idea to open one.” I ask her how long ago that was, and Lidia – complete with her trademark smiling – leaning with a sparkle in her eye, embarks on another short story. She opened just a few months after she got the idea to start a food cart. Lidia has been cooking wholesome traditional Polish recipes for Portland for the past five years. Lidia bought a trailer on concession: “I like my trailer,” she says. “It’s good, and I can cook. I love to cook!” She looks around and takes in the street atmosphere, and tells me that another joy-of-cooking for her food cart is the friends she makes. She smiles at me: “Especially, I like the friends who like my food,” she winks. To help me remember how many years she’s been open, she explains to me that her favorite number is five. “Five is a good number, no? Five is my favorite number.” She tells me that when she was a girl her maiden name started with a B and that made her number five in her class roll call. She liked being number five. “See? Now you’ll remember.” And on the 6th of December this year, “See, six comes after five” is her fifth year food cart anniversary.
A customer stops by. I step aside to make room for the customer to order from Lidia. Another customer cues up as well. While I wait to continue my conversation with Lidia, I look at the food photos around her trailer window, and I catch up with my notes. The customer waiting to order asks what I’m doing. I explain I’m writing a food review and a short feature about Lidia and her business. He nods and says that is really good. He looks very serious as he recommends the dumplings: “They’re amazing!” The customer in front of him leaves. He orders a pork schnitzel sandwich and… of course… dumplings. The customers leave. Lidia and I continue our conversation. She asks me if I like to cook. I answer, “Yes, I love to cook, but I don’t know much about restaurant cooking styles.” She lifts her hands, palms up, and shakes her head telling me that is ok. She explains that everyone just needs a specialty. “Homemade food is my specialty,” Lidia notes. She points to the name Euro Dish. “That’s the name, but the important part is “Traditional Polish Cuisine,” she says pointing above the name on her cart. Her voice emphasises the word traditional. She shares with me that all her recipes are Polish family recipes. “I learned to cook from my Mama and my older sister,” Lidia shares. She says people don’t want to make the traditional dishes because it takes a lot of time, “but I enjoy it.”
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We pause our conversation again as another customer orders. I can smell the food. My mouth is watering. I’m going to need to try this. “With mustard?” She asks the man. He nods. As she hands him his food, she exclaims “Mmmm… Fresh Schnitzel!” She encourages the customer in his first bite. He seems more than satisfied.
her to tell me one more story. “Please, tell me one of your memories of learning how to cook,” I request as I smile at her already fond of her in a way similar to how I enjoy my Auntie’s company. Lidia made her first cheesecake when she was about 17. She was so excited. It looked perfect and it smelled delicious. All she had left to do was let it set and then take it out of the pan and put it on the glass dessert platter. Her older sister’s husband came into the kitchen. He wanted to help her. “Here, here let me help you,” he said. Before she had time to explain that he had to wait to transfer the cake from the pan to the platter, he had excitedly already taken hold of it. . . and the beautiful cheesecake went splat all over the floor! Lidia cried. Her brother-in-law and her family told her not to worry, and that she would be able to make many, many more cheesecakes. Since that event she has, and has done so with artLidia prepares a sampler plate for me. ful hands. As another customer orders, I try Lidia’s cooking I order cheesecake to take back for my roommate. for the first time. Before I leave, I thank Lidia for her time and our lovely “Oh my goodness!” I inhale. “This is SO, SO, SO conversation. As I walk away, a friend meets up with me. I DELICIOUS!!!” can’t stop talking about Lidia and her food. I try each dish she has given me, and I am at a loss Thank you Lidia for your amazing contribution to for words. All I can do is nod and say “good” or “delicious.” Portland’s 200 and something food carts. I am very glad She smiles as she prepares the other customer’s dish – that out of so many choices, I found yours. Schnitzel sandwich for the gorgeous and petite lady in the Dziekuje! (Lidia taught me how to say “thank you” in Polish.) black dress. Even though it’s not the homemade Indian food I grew up with, Lidia’s cooking gives me the same comfort and warmth deep in my belly as my mouth is also flooded with flavor. I want to keep eating, but I also want to hear more stories from Lidia. So before I leave to finish my food, I ask
“I can smell the food. My mouth is watering. I’m going to need to try this.”
“This is SO, SO, SO DELICIOUS!!!”
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Lidia’s Polish Menu I browse the menu while I wait. I grew up with Indian cuisine so these dishes look unlike anything I am used to, but I’m always open to trying new types of food from different cultures. My family has ingrained in me that sharing food is an important and beautiful way to share hearts across a great expanse of cultures. I wonder to myself if I will like this. Lidia’s warm smile has already won me over, though, and if that wasn’t enough, the smells issuing from her window are absolutely delicious. THE MENU Polish Sausage* • Beef stuffed cabbage (Golabki)* • Pierogi (dumplings)* • Bigos- Original Polish hunter’s stew* • Beef and vegetable Goulash with Kopytka (potato dumplings) • Schnitzel (Polish Style)- Pork with rice o Also a chicken version o Both can be ordered in a sandwich style too. • Chicken Paprikash • Polish Plate- Includes Pierogi, Kielbasa and Golabki. • Desserts o Cheese Blintzes o Gluten-free Vienna style Cheese Cake.* *The starred dishes are the ones I sampled. My favorites were the Pierogi, sausage and cheesecake. But I would give 4-5 stars to every dish.
Lidia is at the top... top 10. While waiting, I also notice an article posted on the window of the cart in which Lidia’s food cart was featured in Women’s Day, a national magazine. The more I learned about Lidia and smelled her cooking the more I was intrigued. http://www.womansday.com/Articles/Food-Recipes/Food-Trucks-Worth-Lining-Up-For.html NEXT MONTH…food cart journey… Thai? Korean? New Mexican? Or one of Portland’s Fusion food carts? Follow my column to find out where I eat, who I meet, and some more options for tasty treats for you and your friends as well. Email me at: kmall@multnomah.edu
Crossing Seas & Crossing Streets by AARON ESPARZA
AARON ESPARZA, A SENIOR COMMUNICATION MAJOR, VENTURED TO THE PHILIPPINES THIS SUMMER AND FOUND THAT YOUR AVERAGE AND CLICHE MISSION STORY ISN’T SO AVERAGE AT ALL.
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Photos: Aaron Esparza
I’m tired of hearing about mission trips. The stories of how God moved and touched the lives of many seemed all cliché for me here at Multnomah University. At least, that’s how it was before I went to the Philippines this last summer for two months. It was my first time overseas. And I was also alone. This wasn’t my first “mission trip.” Previously I’ve been to Nicaragua for a short 10-day venture. Yes, I wrote the letters of support, got all these people hyped up for it, and when I arrived, I had the image of a big “S” on my chest. I thought, “I’m going to save this country for Jesus!” How American of me. What happened in those ten days was a picture of me blundering around the dusty streets and hot sun looking like a tourist as my translator friend guided me around the village and city. I wasn’t with a team. I didn’t help build anything. The people there were very capable in doing it themselves. So I gave people money and played music. They seemed to really like that, though this made me feel more like a sidekick rather than superhero. As I came back to the US from that trip feeling so small and out of touch, I questioned, “how much of a bubble was I really living in? Was it worth all these people’s money for me to go? Why didn’t I see great revivals or demonic exorcisms or healings happen?” Though really, I wasn’t expecting those things to happen. I just thought it’d be cool to see it. Skip ahead two years. Opportunity grew for me to go to Philippines for the summer of 2011. This time, I didn’t want to write letters of support. I didn’t want to publicly announce anything. Doing so would leave me with a greasy car-salesmen type of feeling. So I prayed, “Okay God, if you want me to go, you’ll provide the $1400 plane ticket. Now show me a sign”. That day, someone gave me a $300 check and another a $100 check. The next day, I picked up an envelope of money for $341.88 of cash and coins. At this point, there really wasn’t any backing down because the money donation in the envelope was anonymous. All it said on it was “From Jesus” with a lot of x’s and o’s. Odd. But they always say God has a sense of humor – even when he uses other people. Skip ahead two months. As I jumped off the airplane in Davao City, Philippines, I contemplated my purpose on that 36-hour day journey of 6,580 miles. I met a Jewish-
born pagan on the airplane who lived among the native tribes in the mountains and was very disgruntled with Christians trying to convert them from their rituals – like cutting off people’s heads and putting them on pikes to warn off enemies. I also met an American on another connecting flight who had six different girlfriends in six different parts of the Philippines. Of course, the girlfriends didn’t know about each other. That would just create too much drama. Despite the reasons for the old Jew or the American had for coming to that country, I knew my mission was somewhat different. I had ambiguous purpose. Just enough planned for two church conferences, retreats, and doing ministry practically everyday.
“Okay God, if you want me to go, you’ll provide the $1400 plane ticket. Now show me a sign.” In it all, I was told to expect the miracles, revival, demonic exorcisms, and healings this time. And amidst all (what I called) bad hermeneutics and improper exegesis according to Multnomah’s standards, my expectations were met and surpassed of the supernatural. During the first week, the biggest flood the city has ever seen came suddenly in the night by rainfall. With hurricanes you have warnings, with flash floods, you do not. Thousands of homes and businesses ruined with over twenty-five deaths of mainly children and elderly. What did I learn from this as I helped with giving out rice and scraping muddy filth out of living rooms for hours with buckets and pieces of wood? Dependency and persistence. As long as nobody died (for each family), they were still able to continue smiling and be happy. Many lost everything, but they lived in community and found ways to survive. I wondered how Americans would have responded if they lost everything. Perhaps ask for a handout from the government instead of their neighbors? We usually like that; It’s much more impersonal that way. 44
Skip ahead another two months. I am back in America. Of course, I had culture shock when I returned and observed and watched my society. My first thought was, “Americans are so rude and inconsiderate!” Then I stopped and realized, “Wow, I’m rude and inconsiderate!” To think, it took me a culture of very loyal, loving people to show me how cold and independent I really was in comparison to other societies. This is definitely something not learned cognitively in a textbook. It takes someone with a heart full of love to minister to a heart that is cold, and mine was ministered to. How much
“...it took me a culture of very loyal, loving people to show me how cold and independent I really was in comparison to other societies.”
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more could your heart be touched by those whom we allow? It took me a detachment from my cold society to learn this. I think back to various memories of my trip: I remember watching a child take a cold bath from a spicket using just a plastic cup. I remember being asked for sexual favors while I was walking home one night by a random man (which I refused politely as I told him about the love of Christ). I remember going days without food and sometimes water as I fasted with the congregation. I remember the generosity of the church family there who payed for my meals and treated me like I was their own. I remember the beaches. I remember the hot, smoggy, weather as pollution stuck inside the pores of my body every time I became frustrated with the public transportation and decided to walk. I remember praying for a woman with the church in the Intensive Care Unit at the hospital and hear the next day that she was cured and checked out of the hospital. And I remember being in a room with 148 men and seeing
the realities of a mass exorcism involving spasms, screams, throwing up, as the leaders conducted a means of deliverance. This wasn’t a joke. This was a battlefield. In that culture, they don’t doubt the realities of the spiritual. Here we do. Why?
“In that culture, they don’t doubt the realities of the spiritual.
Perhaps reason prevails because of our very own reasoning and trust in our own cognitive understandings and the physical. If we feed ourselves physical, we gain physical. It us learn the love from the One who is Love and go. will take a taste of the spiritual to see the spiritual. It took me going across the ocean in order to realize that I had the capacity to go across the street – to go to Yet, what is that balance between correct doctrine and those close to me. And most importantly, to go to family. doing ministry? The balance of mending and sending? Because family is our first ministry. What are we waiting Why is it that Americans, especially my peers on camfor? We (especially men) are very good at excuses – we pus, can be so “busy,” yet are still searching for a ministry will never stop being “busy” until the day we die if we ever-so-casually in order to fulfill a requirement...because, wanted to. So, we must be intentional. that’s all they view ministry as now: a requirement. Be intentional with love. Let His kingdom come and not I’m tired of just hearing about missions trips. Turn the our virtual and pseudo kingdoms. Make time. Stop the hearing into action and let us become mission-minded! games. Stop the excuses. Now, fall in love with the Savior. Our neighbors, anyone who draw neigh, need love. So let
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Students need a Voice FACULTY OPINION FROM DAVE JONGEWARD
Ever since I was part of the Academic Dean Council’s decision to drop the Journalism program here at Multnomah University with the implication included eliminating the school newspaper, I could not imagine what Multnomah would be like without an opportunity for students to write their opinions, ideas, and creative expressions in some form of a student publication. Students need a voice. Students should have a voice. Students have a right to express their opinions. I believe very strongly in the place and the priority of a student publication here at Multnomah University. Personally, I am so excited that there will be continued and on-going opportunity for “student voice” on this campus. I may not agree with every thought, idea, or opinion expressed or written, but I totally believe in and support the idea that every student who has a thought, idea or opinion should have an opportunity to express it. Therefore I am pleased, happy, and am eagerly anticipating the launch of our student publication this year!! You have all my support and blessing!!
“I am so excited that there will be continued and ongoing opportunity for ‘student voice’ on this campus.” 54
“Students have a right to express their opinions.”
Roots for Students to have a New Voice by CORNELIA SEIGNEUR
Several years ago I was at a Willamette Writers Summer Conference and I met David Kopp who was a speaker on Christian publishing at the event. David is an editor with Multnomah Publishers as well as the past faculty adviser for the student newspaper here at Multnomah. He still has family that works here. I remember thinking then about his connecGod use the words He has given you to make a differtions with Multnomah University, and pondering ence in this world. how that would be my dream job — to be the faculty And one of my greatest joys is helping othadviser for the student publication here. ers—especially students—find places where they too Flash forward, and here I am, helping launch the new student publication, Muse Magazine, serving can be published. I love connecting people. Which is my goal as editorial director and facas the adviser and editorial director. . . I love how God ulty adviser for our school’s new student publication, works. Muse Magazine. Connecting students with stories. I highly value student newspapers. Connecting students and faculty. Connecting the My own journey as a freelance writer for The University and the Seminary and the Degree CompleOregonian newspaper began with a seed that was tion Program by sharing all of their stories in Muse planted during my years on the staff of my college and Magazine. high school newspapers. The opportunities I had as a We are excited to present you this online student journalist to write columns and stories as well student publication. Much dreaming, laboring, time, as serve as a copy editor laid the foundation for the energy, effort, planning, and prayer has gone into professional opportunities God has given me today. what you are reading today. The fall 2011 Journalism Writing for the student newspaper gave me department that I oversee—primarily my Newspaper roots. Workshop students—is happy to collaborate with And, when aspiring authors ask me how they the communications department of STUGO to bring too can get their words into print, I always go back to you this new voice of the students. those roots. We hope to engage readers and draw in more In fact, when I first approached The Oregonian writers. We hope to be a place where students can to freelance for them, they asked for clips from places I had been published. In addition to presenting stories voice their thoughts, feelings, ideas, prayers, and musI had written for a weekly newspaper, I shared articles ings. And, most importantly, we pray it would bring honor to our Lord Jesus Christ and represent MultI had written for The Beacon, the student newspaper nomah well. at the University of Portland, where I was an under Students need a voice, a place to express their graduate English major. The stories I had written as a thoughts and feelings, to ponder life and God and student mattered to The Oregonian newspaper. culture; they need to know that their voice matters. Since then, God has opened the door for me to This new student publication is a startpen hundreds of stories on faith, family and culture ing point for conversation, dialogue, questions and for our city’s daily newspaper. I have also been published in The Huffington Post, Christianity Today and stories. It is starting point for reflecting on life and engaging one another. It is a starting point for us all. Cultural Encounters among other publications. It is It is a new beginning. Fresh roots to grow. simply a great feeling to see God use the words He has given you to make a difference in the world. –Cornelia Seigneur is the new Journalism professor at Multnomah There simply is no greater feeling than seeing and Editorial director/Faculty adviser for Muse Magazine
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