Winter 2012 - Wayland Baptist University Alumni Association

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Anchorage student finds Christ in the classroom Story by Richard Porter It never occurred to Julie Arthur that enrolling at a Christian university could ultimately lead to her spiritual salvation — and in the process give her a focus that could change her life completely. Funny how things work. That is exactly what happened and the new convert took advantage of her recent graduation address to make that point to her fellow students. Arthur graduated this past spring from Wayland Baptist University-Anchorage and was afforded the opportunity to present a graduation address during the ceremony. Her “civilian job” is a base engine manager for Pratt and Whitney and she is a member of the Alaska Air National Guard. In beginning her remarks to her fellow students she made it clear what had been her initial motivation for enrolling at Wayland. “When I first began attending Wayland Baptist,” she said, “it was because I felt it was what I had to do and not what I wanted to do.” Arthur went on to explain that she didn’t have very good self-esteem, had not been a particularly good student in high school and college didn’t seem like a realistic goal to her. She was faced with a conflict, however. Her mother had always 10 footprints “ On my 19th birthday my mother died from breast cancer. I was angry at God and hurt. I took her death personally. dreamed of her children going to college. Even that, though, was complicated, Arthur told her classmates. “On my 19th birthday my mother died from breast cancer. I was angry at God and hurt. I took her death personally,” she said, adding that even in her 30s she still was “full of doubt about myself, academics and God.” Despite those doubts, Arthur explained that out of love for her mother and respect for her mother’s dream, she went ahead and enrolled at the Anchorage campus of Wayland. “I was scared and nervous,” she said. “My first class was English 1301 with Dr. (James) Waller. He wasn’t so scary until he said he gave his wife a C. Then I thought to myself, ‘Oh no! If he gave his wife a C, what kind of a grade could I possibly get?’ ” As it turned out, Arthur wound up with a B in her first college class and that success, along with the support from her husband, Don, and her sister, gave her the confidence to keep taking classes. Something still was missing, though. “Every grade I got, every test I passed, I longed to call my mom,” Arthur told her classmates. She acknowledged that she still did not see any benefit to going to a faith-based university other than as an opportunity to fulfill her mother’s dream for her. She still was a long way from a personal relationship with the God toward whom she felt so much anger. While she admitted in a subsequent interview that she had attended church as a child, she pointed out that it had little impact on her and that her husband had no spiritual background at all, even though he had decided to take a course in Old Testament with her. Arthur told her classmates, “Don and I were not religious people. We went (to the Bible class) with the mindset that it was just another class and wondered who would get the higher grade.” Funny how things work. Arthur went on in her address “
to explain that it was in that class, without her and Don even realizing it, that a change began to occur in her life. “Before I knew it,” she said, “we were talking about God. We didn’t even realize we were having Bible studies at our dinner table. We would go to bed talking about the verses we read and how they made us feel until we fell asleep.” Then came the kicker. “That anger that I felt towards God was disappearing without me even paying attention to it. I started hearing God’s whisper of encouragement and love,” she said. It was in a New Testament course, taught by Dr. Mark Goodman, that Arthur became a Christian. “I felt the entire time that Dr. Goodman was only talking to me,” she told her fellow students. “He was pulling me out of the darkness I had been surrounded by for so long.” In the subsequent interview, Arthur elaborated. She explained that as she studied the New Testament and learned about the life of Christ and the struggles He went through – ultimately on her behalf – she began to gain a new perspective on her personal problems. At the same time, through her studies of Christ’s temptations, she determined that He already had conquered Satan and had done so, again, on her behalf. “I felt like the whole time He was saying, ‘I’ve been through this. Come on. You can do it,’ ” she said. On the podium at her graduation ceremony, Arthur laid it out for her classmates. “It went from God’s whisper to God shaking me by my shoulders and saying, ‘I never left you. I’m here.’ “The testament classes took this self-doubter to a person of faith. I not only believed in Christ, but for the first time in my adult life I Julie Arthur enjoys a post-graduation celebration with her husband, Don, and stepdaughter, Erika, after delivering her graduation address to fellow students during a recent ceremony at Wayland Baptist University-Anchorage. Courtesy Photo/Joselynn Finch Photography, Anchorage, Alaska believed in me. I learned to organize my life and school and, dare I say it, I loved college. Because of Wayland Baptist I am now a chaplain’s assistant for the Alaska Air National Guard one weekend a month. If you had told me before Wayland I would be a chaplain’s assistant, I would’ve laughed in your face. Wayland not only gave me the ability to get a degree, but to be a better wife, stepmother and steward of Christ,” she said. Arthur’s graduation address was several months ago, but her excitement still is fresh. She talked about it with enthusiasm as she thought about the way she feels God has blessed her in her new relationship with Him. “I think I realized that if I hadn’t turned my back on (God) I would have gotten through my mother’s death more easily. I was too busy blaming Him.” She agreed — funny how things work. footprints 11
Page 1 and 2: Welcome Miss Wayland
Page 3: FOOTPRINTS Volume 58, No. 3 Editori
Page 6 and 7: her. She left school and took a few
Page 8 and 9: As Dr. Herbert Grover summed up the
Page 10 and 11: Wayland grad and physician Dr. John
Page 14 and 15: Operatically Gifted WBU music stude
Page 16 and 17: Fountain releases ‘American Ivory
Page 18 and 19: Stephen Padilla, his wife, Judi, an
Page 20 and 21: Oldest alum celebrates 104 (This st
Page 22 and 23: Members of the Wayland Student Chap
Page 24 and 25: Harrelson tagged as Player/Coach Th
Page 26 and 27: Fall success for Pioneer sports Way
Page 28 and 29: Athletics Wrap saves while allowing
Page 30 and 31: From a Friend Dr. Joel Boyd Bachelo
Page 32 and 33: Wayland Mission Center Dr. Richard
Page 34 and 35: $5 million gift will fund Dean muse
Page 36 and 37: News in Brief Enrollment up; studen
Page 38 and 39: Class notes In Loving Memory Christ
Page 40 and 41: Gifts that Keep on Giving Want to r
Page 42 and 43: 2010s LANCE HEINEN, BA’12, accept
Page 44: 1900 West Seventh Street, CMB 1291

Winter 2012 - Wayland Baptist University Alumni Association

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