Alumni Profiles
Artist's book features churches
Edwards writes children's book
Kerr demonstrates passion for peace
Pitts moves up the ranks
SOT presents awards
Artist's book features churches
By Joy May
David Liverett BA ’68 has published a coffee table book featuring 100 pen and ink drawings of churches across the country. Faith for the Journey is Liverett’s second collaboration with many of the same authors, including several AU alumni, from his first publication, When Hope Shines Through.
In Faith for the Journey writers share their experiences from congregations large and small. In most cases, their accounts are accompanied by Liverett’s rendition of the churches where these stories took place. “Drawing churches for this book was not a big leap from what I have done most of my life. As far back as I can remember, I have drawn in church,” says Liverett. Perhaps one of Liverett’s earliest works, a rough pencil drawing of a pastor in a pulpit with congregants kneeling at the altar appears alongside his story.
The transition from lighthouses in When Hope Shines Through to churches was not difficult for Liverett. “Lighthouses and churches have much in common,” he explains. “Many churches have tall spires much like the lighthouses and each are noted for having bells. The bells of the churches are rung to welcome the people to the sanctuary. Lighthouse bells are sounded to warn the people to stay at bay. Both churches and lighthouses have rescuing legacies.”
Faith for the Journey is published by Chinaberry House and is available through www.2lights.com. Prints of Liverett’s drawings are also available for purchase.
Edwards writes children's book
By Deborah Lilly
Cory Edwards BA ’90 typically uses his creative energy to write film and television scripts, but his pet iguana, Oscar, inspired him to write his first children’s book.
Oscar often enjoyed roaming around his California home, rummaging through Edwards’ shoes or hiding behind the couch. “One day I looked up and he was half way up the Christmas tree, bumping into ornaments along the way,” Edwards remembers.
Edwards was suddenly struck with the idea for a children’s book called The Christmas Lizard. In the story, a lizard named Oscar wonders what Christmas is all about, and he searches for answers in the Christmas tree. As he climbs the tree, different ornaments tell Oscar the meaning Christmas holds for them — getting toys, going to parties, sharing with the less fortunate. When Oscar meets the angel at the top of the tree, he finally hears the story of Christ.
The book was published by Honor Books and illustrated by Jonathan Martin. Fans have asked Edwards if there will be more books about Oscar’s adventures. “I haven’t been really excited about that,” he admits. “But there are fans of the book who would like to see it become a half-hour animated Christmas special. I would love to do that.” He is also working on an audio version of the book.
Unfortunately, the real Oscar is no longer around to enjoy his popularity; however, the book he inspired is available at the Web site www.christmaslizard.com.
Kerr demonstrates passion for peace
By Deborah Lilly
Scott Kerr BA ’99 began his career as a peace activist on the AU campus. He helped organize the Student Peace Initiative (SPI), protested sanctions against Iraq and interned with the human rights group Voices in the Wilderness in Chicago. Since graduation, he has become a peace advocate full time. He joined Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT) three years ago and works with a delegation in Colombia, where civilians are caught between fighting guerrilla groups and paramilitary forces and are often falsely accused of supporting the guerrillas.
Christian Peacemaker Teams is an initiative of the Mennonites, Church of the Brethren and Friends to provide an organized, nonviolent alternative to war and other forms of lethal inter-group conflict.
“I was really called to CPT’s vision of non-violence,” Kerr says. “They believe as Christians we should take peacemaking as seriously as soldiers take war-making.”
As a team member, Kerr explains, “What we do is live with [unarmed civilians] in hopes that while there’s an international presence, the armed groups will respect the people’s right to live and work.” They also encourage armed groups to consider peaceful alternatives to violence and openly object to human rights violations.
Kerr joined the CPT delegation in Colombia in May 2001 and began living with 150 displaced families forced by a paramilitary group called United Autodefenses of Colombia to relocate to the city of Barrancabermeja. Farmers in their own communities, the families lived together in an abandoned school building. They were eager to return to their homes and their farms. So far, Kerr and other CPT delegates have accompanied half of the families home, where they often find their houses either destroyed by fighting forces or overgrown by vegetation. Besides maintaining a presence at the school in Barrancabermeja, CPT has agreed to stay in the communities of returned families at least six nights a week.
Kerr and his fellow CPT workers protest against and document human rights violations in Colombia. They burn death lists in public places. They use digital cameras to photograph civilians being illegally searched. Paramilitary soldiers have threatened to take Kerr’s camera on numerous occasions but never have. But, he adds, “If a Colombian took out a camera and began taking pictures, he would be killed right then.”
For the most part, Kerr and his team members are protected from any violent backlash by armed groups simply because they are North Americans. “It’s like a twisted sense of racism,” Kerr explains. “For some reason government authorities want to make sure the rights and lives of North Americans are protected.”
But in August, the Colombia team learned of an alleged plan by a paramilitary group to kill a CPT member. The armed group was unhappy with public statements CPT made concerning the actions of the paramilitary in the Barrancabermeja area.
CPT estimates that 30,000 people are murdered each year in Colombia and an average of 11 people are kidnapped every day.
“Colombia is a very violent place,” says Kerr. It’s a fact his family realizes all too well. “It’s been tough on them,” he admits, “but they’ve been very supportive.” As has his church back home in Downers Grove, Ill.
In 1999 Kerr made a three-year commitment to CPT. With his promise nearly fulfilled, he feels led to continue working with CPT. He also sees how the past three years have changed his outlook on life, foreign policy, and the way he lives. He says, “I understand that our lives [in the United States] really do affect what’s going on in Colombia.”
Pitts moves up the ranks
By Joy May
Beverley Pitts BA ’68 has the second best parking space on the crowded Ball State University campus in Muncie, Ind. It’s just one of the many perks accompanied by her new position as provost on the BSU campus. But, she notes, it is clearly not the biggest benefit.
“I think the highlight is the excitement of getting ready to start a new academic year with some great potential for leadership,” Pitts says of her early weeks as the first female provost to serve BSU. “I also understand that I’m standing in a position that a lot of people are looking at and that I’m a model for young women about opportunity in higher education. I want to do what I can to not only create opportunities for these young women, but also to model what can be possible.”
For this AU alumna, modeling possibilities is not new. When the university didn’t offer the journalism major during her undergraduate years, she instead chose English and worked for campus publications, making her own way as a writer. After graduation and a few years teaching in the high school classroom, AU invited Pitts back as professor and eventually chairperson of the department of communication where she created the journalism program, along with a major curriculum for mass communication.
“I felt like I was providing some leadership in creating something new that was going to be good for students,” Pitts says. “What’s a real joy to me is to know that those efforts then are seeing such grand results now.”
Pitts’ job at AU was one of many benchmarks along the way to her career in higher education, but she admits it was her time as department chair that opened up her eyes to the possibilities of serving at an administrative level. “In the beginning, I thought about being a college professor, but I didn’t even know what university administration looked like. This is true in many fields; you don’t know what the structure looks like — and so it didn’t occur to me until much later. My first love of administration came with creating the department of communication at AU.”
That taste of administrative success prompted Pitts to earn her doctoral degree at Ball State and began a successive pattern of job opportunities that has led her to the office of provost. But she hasn’t lost her connection to students in the move from teacher to administrator.
“When you’re a teacher your energy is focused on young people and what they’re learning, and it’s a wonderful, personal relationship you can watch develop. When you move to a higher administration level … you have the ability to see the bigger picture and help make change and move resources around to make good things happen for students and faculty.”
In fact, Pitts stays close to the classroom. She teaches one class each academic year to stay current with her discipline and with the students. And she says that the communication skills she learned in undergrad are still indispensable for her in a new leadership role.
“Everything I learned as a student journalist and a teacher is still valuable. Communication skills are very important because life’s work is about talking with people face-to-face and solving problems together. It’s about the relationships of the people that you’re with, and I value that very much.
“The real joy of all of this is knowing that students can have the opportunity to grow and change and do what they want to do well. That makes everything I do worthwhile.”
SOT presents awards
By Kim Ousley
The Anderson University School of Theology recognized four AU alumni June 17. Tabitha Meier Kurrle BA ’66 and the Rev. Dr. John Alan Howard BA ’70, MDiv ’73, MRE ’73 received the Distinguished Alumni Awards; the Rev. David C. Shultz MDiv ’76 received the Distinguished Ministries Award; and the Rev. Dr. David L. Sebastian MA ’77 was awarded the Distinguished Service Award.
Tabitha Meier Kurrle grew up in Sao Paulo, Brazil, where her parents were missionaries. After watching her parents at work, she decided to commit her life to missions, too. She married Martin Kurrle and together they have served as missionaries in Argentina and Paraguay.
John Alan Howard has served has both a teacher and a pastor. He has led congregations at Gateway Christian Church in Edmonton, Winnipeg Church of God and Elwood Church of God, and taught at Canadian Nazarene College in Winnipeg, the University of Alberta, and Gardner College in Camrose, Alberta. Since 1999 he has served as chief operating officer and dean of faculty at Gardner College.
David C. Shultz got his start in missions as a child in the West Indies, where his parents were missionaries. Feeling a call to ministry himself, he came to the School of Theology. He is the senior pastor of South Meridian Church of God in Anderson, Ind. His ability to communicate has served him well both locally and nationally with the church. He has served on the executive staff of the Missionary Board, where he started a comprehensive communication program, traveled to six continents and met many national leaders in the church. Shultz has served the Church of God as editor-in-chief and acting president of Warner Press and served the Church of God in Southern California as state administrator.
David L. Sebastian has served as dean to the School of Theology since 1995. Prior to that, he served as senior pastor of Salem Church of God in Clayton, Ohio, and North Hills Church of God in Phoenix and associate pastor at Glendale Church of God in Indianapolis. Under his leadership, the seminary community and academic program have been strengthened and continue to grow.
