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Joshua Janney [email protected] Citizens of Bedford and sur- rounding counties came out to “Never Forget,” a prisoner of war/missing in action (POW/ MIA) awareness event, at 11 a.m., Sept. 21. The ceremony was origi- nally supposed to be held at the National D-Day Memo- rial in Bedford, Va., but rainy weather forced the event to be moved into the nearby Bedford Elementary School at 806 Ti- ger Trail. The event featured former Air Force Disc Jockey Adrian Cronauer, who was portrayed by Robin Williams in the mov- ie “Good Morning, Vietnam!” Cronauer spoke about his po- sition as special assistant to the director of the Pentagon’s POW/MIA Office, which he took over after 9/11. According to Cronauer, the POW/MIA Office does three things. The first is making sure that the soldiers are prop- erly trained and equipped so that they do not get left be- hind or become a prisoner of war. The second thing that the Pentagon does is follow up on every credible report that they receive in America. “We do not pay, ever, for any information about missing Americans,” Cronauer said. “But if a report does lead to an alive American, then we do reward them.” According to Cronauer, the majority of the office’s time and effort is spent trying to ac- count for those who are missing or still unaccounted for. The Joint POW/MIA Account- ing Command (JPAC) sends out teams led by professional archeologists to go to plane crash sites and burial grounds of POW camps to retrieve the remains of missing Americans. “When they (find Ameri- cans), they bring them back to the POW identification lab in Hawaii,” Cronauer said. “And then a professional will take the bones or whatever we bring back and try to identify who they are between the remains themselves and the things we find buried with them.” Cronauer noted how ad- vancements in technology and the use of DNA have made it easier to identify soldiers in recent years. He estimated that somewhere between 50 and 100 people are found every year. See MEMORIAL, A6 INSIDE THE CHAMPION Les Miserables opened with record ticket sales Friday, Sept. 13 Barr sisters journey from Northern Ireland to play field hockey for Liberty Lynchburg residents attended Get!Downtown Friday, Sept. 13 Sports News Feature News Opinion Sports Feature A1 A4 B1 B8 A8 B1 B8 Cameron promotes ‘Unstoppable’ A7 30 th Tuesday, September 24, 2013 Volume 31 • Issue 4 Liberty University Lynchburg, Va. Today: Mostly Sunny 75/55 Tomorrow: Partly Cloudy 77/55 libertychampion.com ‘83 ‘13 libertychampion.com Bond rate increases Bowden inspires Bedford will ‘Never Forget’ Piper brings global focus The D-Day Memorial held a ceremony to bring awareness of POW/MIAs of America Moody’s awards LU Aa3 JOSHUA JANNEY| LIBERTY CHAMPION REMEMBER — People pay their respects to America’s soldiers. RUTH BIBBY| LIBERTY CHAMPION JOY — The Children of the World perform at Convocation Friday, Sept. 20, after the completion of Global Focus Week. Greg Leasure [email protected] Moody’s Investors Service upgrad- ed Liberty University’s bond rating Monday, Sept. 9, from A1 to Aa3. Ac- cording to Moody’s, an Aa3 rating is given to organizations “judged to be of high quality and very low credit risk.” According to the report, the change reflects the university’s increases in cash reserves and operating perfor- mance, as well as its general growth, among other things. “This momentum, if continued, will produce sufficient cash to fund transformative capital investments as well as to build reserves over time,” the report read. “The growth in rev- enue and cash and investments makes Liberty a true outlier in Moody’s port- folio of not-for-profit universities.” Other factors included in the in- creased rating were the growth of Liberty University Online (LUO), its growing enrollment, flexible and mostly liquid assets, surpluses, and significant increases in cash and investments. See MOODY’S, A3 Mark Tait [email protected] Nearly 10,000 students gathered in the Vines Center Friday, Sept. 13, to hear from a man who once coached before a home crowd of more than 80,000. Bobby Bowden, the winningest coach in Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) college football history and for- mer leader of the Florida State Semi- noles, discussed God’s guidance and provision in his life as he shared his story at a Convocation service. “Sixty years ago, I was sitting right were you are,” Bowden said. “I can look back and see exactly how God put my life together.” Bowden said he developed pneu- matic fever at 13 years old. The ill- ness kept him from attending school and exercising. Doctors projected that Bowden would only live to be around 40 years old, but Bowden asked God to intervene. “A couple years later, I did get healed,” Bowden said. “I told God I would serve him through athletics, and that’s what I tried to do.” Bowden told the story of his jour- ney to becoming head coach at Flor- ida State and attributed each one of the jobs he acquired to God’s work in his life. He said he never applied for a coaching position he received. For each of the six jobs he held throughout his career, the teams called him. “Ain’t God good. Ain’t God good,” Bowden said. See BOWDEN, A3 Gabriella Fuller [email protected] Liberty University’s Cen- ter for Global Engagement (CGE) hosted its biannual Global Focus Week Sept. 16-18, welcoming more than 60 mission agency rep- resentatives and prominent guest speakers such as John Piper, Naghmeh Abedini and Bob Creson. According to CGE, Global Focus Week is a se- mesterly tradition that en- courages students to delve deeper into the world of in- ternational evangelism and global work. The theme for the fall 2013 event was “Take Your Degree Glob- al,” a movement that CGE is encouraging students to get involved in by adding a minor in global studies. John Piper, theologian and chancellor of Beth- lehem College and Semi- nary, kicked off the week of events with his Convocation message Monday morning, Sept. 16. In his first visit to Liberty, Piper challenged students to find joy in per- secution for the name of Christ and embrace suffer- ing for a death-defying gos- pel. “Confidence in fullness of joy and pleasures forev- ermore in the presence of Jesus on the other side of this so-called dying is the root of love that is willing to lay down its life for the sake of the nations,” Piper said. “This confidence that you cannot die but only have in- creased pleasures produces martyrs who die in love, not martyrs who kill from hate.” See GLOBAL, A6 celebration
16
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Page 1: Liberty champion 24 sept 2013

Joshua Janney

[email protected]

Citizens of Bedford and sur-rounding counties came out to “Never Forget,” a prisoner of war/missing in action (POW/MIA) awareness event, at 11 a.m., Sept. 21.

The ceremony was origi-nally supposed to be held at the National D-Day Memo-rial in Bedford, Va., but rainy weather forced the event to be moved into the nearby Bedford Elementary School at 806 Ti-ger Trail.

The event featured former Air Force Disc Jockey Adrian Cronauer, who was portrayed by Robin Williams in the mov-ie “Good Morning, Vietnam!” Cronauer spoke about his po-sition as special assistant to the director of the Pentagon’s POW/MIA Office, which he took over after 9/11.

According to Cronauer, the POW/MIA Office does three things. The first is making

sure that the soldiers are prop-erly trained and equipped so that they do not get left be-hind or become a prisoner of war. The second thing that the Pentagon does is follow up on every credible report that they receive in America.

“We do not pay, ever, for any information about missing Americans,” Cronauer said. “But if a report does lead to an alive American, then we do reward them.”

According to Cronauer, the majority of the office’s time and effort is spent trying to ac-count for those who are missing or still unaccounted for. The Joint POW/MIA Account-ing Command (JPAC) sends out teams led by professional archeologists to go to plane crash sites and burial grounds of POW camps to retrieve the remains of missing Americans.

“When they (find Ameri-cans), they bring them back to the POW identification lab in Hawaii,” Cronauer said. “And

then a professional will take the bones or whatever we bring back and try to identify who they are between the remains themselves and the things we find buried with them.”

Cronauer noted how ad-vancements in technology and

the use of DNA have made it easier to identify soldiers in recent years. He estimated that somewhere between 50 and 100 people are found every year.

See MEMORIAL, A6

INSIDE THE CHAMPION

Les Miserables opened with record ticket sales Friday, Sept. 13

Barr sisters journey from Northern Ireland to play field hockey for Liberty

Lynchburg residents attended Get!Downtown Friday, Sept. 13

SportsNews FeatureNewsOpinionSportsFeature

A1A4B1B8

A8 B1 B8

Cameron promotes ‘Unstoppable’

A7

30thTuesday, September 24, 2013

Volume 31 • Issue 4Liberty University Lynchburg, Va.

Today: Mostly Sunny 75/55 Tomorrow: Partly Cloudy 77/55 libertychampion.com‘83

‘13

libertychampion.com

Bond rate increases

Bowden inspires

Bedford will ‘Never Forget’

Piper brings global focus

The D-Day Memorial held a ceremony to bring awareness of POW/MIAs of America

Moody’s awards LU Aa3

Joshua Janney| Liberty Champion

REMEMBER — People pay their respects to America’s soldiers.

ruth bibby| Liberty Champion

JOY — The Children of the World perform at Convocation Friday, Sept. 20, after the completion of Global Focus Week.

Greg Leasure

[email protected]

Moody’s Investors Service upgrad-ed Liberty University’s bond rating Monday, Sept. 9, from A1 to Aa3. Ac-cording to Moody’s, an Aa3 rating is given to organizations “judged to be of high quality and very low credit risk.”

According to the report, the change reflects the university’s increases in cash reserves and operating perfor-mance, as well as its general growth, among other things.

“This momentum, if continued, will produce sufficient cash to fund transformative capital investments as well as to build reserves over time,” the report read. “The growth in rev-enue and cash and investments makes Liberty a true outlier in Moody’s port-folio of not-for-profit universities.”

Other factors included in the in-creased rating were the growth of Liberty University Online (LUO), its growing enrollment, flexible and mostly liquid assets, surpluses, and significant increases in cash and investments.

See MOODY’S, A3

Mark Tait

[email protected]

Nearly 10,000 students gathered in the Vines Center Friday, Sept. 13, to hear from a man who once coached before a home crowd of more than 80,000.

Bobby Bowden, the winningest coach in Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) college football history and for-mer leader of the Florida State Semi-noles, discussed God’s guidance and provision in his life as he shared his story at a Convocation service.

“Sixty years ago, I was sitting right were you are,” Bowden said. “I can look back and see exactly how God put my life together.”

Bowden said he developed pneu-matic fever at 13 years old. The ill-ness kept him from attending school and exercising. Doctors projected that Bowden would only live to be around 40 years old, but Bowden asked God to intervene.

“A couple years later, I did get healed,” Bowden said. “I told God I would serve him through athletics, and that’s what I tried to do.”

Bowden told the story of his jour-ney to becoming head coach at Flor-ida State and attributed each one of the jobs he acquired to God’s work in his life. He said he never applied for a coaching position he received. For each of the six jobs he held throughout his career, the teams called him.

“Ain’t God good. Ain’t God good,” Bowden said.

See BOWDEN, A3

Gabriella Fuller

[email protected]

Liberty University’s Cen-ter for Global Engagement (CGE) hosted its biannual Global Focus Week Sept. 16-18, welcoming more than 60 mission agency rep-resentatives and prominent guest speakers such as John Piper, Naghmeh Abedini and Bob Creson.

According to CGE, Global Focus Week is a se-mesterly tradition that en-courages students to delve deeper into the world of in-ternational evangelism and global work. The theme for the fall 2013 event was “Take Your Degree Glob-al,” a movement that CGE is encouraging students to get involved in by adding a minor in global studies.

John Piper, theologian

and chancellor of Beth-lehem College and Semi-nary, kicked off the week of events with his Convocation message Monday morning, Sept. 16. In his first visit to Liberty, Piper challenged students to find joy in per-secution for the name of Christ and embrace suffer-ing for a death-defying gos-pel.

“Confidence in fullness of joy and pleasures forev-

ermore in the presence of Jesus on the other side of this so-called dying is the root of love that is willing to lay down its life for the sake of the nations,” Piper said. “This confidence that you cannot die but only have in-creased pleasures produces martyrs who die in love, not martyrs who kill from hate.”

See GLOBAL, A6

c e l e b r a t i o n

Page 2: Liberty champion 24 sept 2013

Nathan Skaggs

[email protected]

Liberty University’s Office of Military Affairs hosted its second-annual military spouse brunch Saturday, Sept. 21 in the Hancock Welcome Center.

The event was intended to introduce military spouses to each other in order to build a support group within the military community at Liberty, according to Meghan Ellis, as-sociate director of military af-fairs.

“With Military Affairs here at this school, we really want to give all of you the opportunity to connect with each other and know that you’re not alone,” Ellis, also a military spouse, said in her opening statements. “We’re all in this together.”

Ashley Eskridge, military outreach coordinator, de-scribed the basic goal of the brunch.

“This event is a great time for all our military spouses to connect and have a time of fel-lowship with one another,” Es-kridge said.

Following the formal wel-come by Ellis, the spouses participated in an ice breaker game called “What’s in Your Purse?” Laughter ensued as everyone got to know one an-other better.

Ellis introduced the keynote speaker for the day, Carol God-win. Godwin, wife of Provost Dr. Ron Godwin, shared her testimony and a message of en-couragement with the spouses.

“God has a plan,” Godwin said. “He is faithful. Surround yourself with people who will love and encourage you.”

While sipping on tea, God-win said she believed one

of God’s greatest gifts is friendship.

“The good news is friends are there for the good times and the bad,” Godwin said.

Throughout the morning, military spouses shared their stories with each other over a catered brunch of scones and quiche.

Bethshan McLeod, wife of a Navy Reserve officer, shared about the importance of the event and the camaraderie it promotes.

“(The brunch) was a won-derful opportunity for military spouses to get together and meet new people who are in the same situation,” McLeod said. “Deployment is a very difficult thing for the military member as well as their families, and it can put you into a tailspin.”

Ellis, whose husband Staff Sgt. Ryan Ellis has been de-ployed three times with the Marine Corps and the Army, shared how the late Dr. Jerry

Falwell helped her husband during his first deployment in February 2003 by having all of her husbands fees incurred during that semester waived.

According to Ellis, it is now the job of the Office of Mili-tary Affairs to assist students, like her husband, during the hard times of deployment.

Ellis said she hopes to branch out with the next event.

“We really want to involve and include Lynchburg military spouses,” Ellis said. “I’m hoping that the next time we have this it will be very community driv-en as well as supporting of our Liberty spouses.”

Ellis said she hopes to have another event in spring 2014.

“It’s always been our goal to have (a spouse event) once every semester because we do that for our veteran students,” Ellis said.

SKAGGS is a news reporter.

Greg [email protected]

Sophia [email protected]

A shooting at the Washington, D.C., Navy Yard killed 12 people and left at least eight injured when gunman Aaron Alexis opened fire Monday, Sept. 16.

According to NBC News, Alexis en-tered the building with a valid pass and made his way to the fourth floor, where he began shooting employees at random with a shotgun.

Alexis terrorized the third and fourth floors before making his way to the atri-um. His shooting spree lasted 30 minutes before first responders were able to kill Alexis, NBC News reported.

Liberty University later disclosed that four current and former students had been personally affected by the incident in Washington. Current students Alexan-dra and Meghan Kohler’s father, Frank Kohler, was among the 12 killed, as well as alumna Isabel Bodrog’s father, Martin Bodrog, and alumna Heather Hunt’s fa-ther, Richard Michael (Mike) Ridgell.

Liberty senior Jen Tenney, a close friend of Isabel Bodrog, said she first heard about the shooting at approximately 9 a.m., and the two started praying for those affected by the tragedy. It was not until 10 p.m. Monday night that the two women heard that Isabel Bodrog’s father had been one of 12 victims of the shooting.

“When I heard about the Navy Yard

shooting, I was so horrified,” Tenney said. “… Having a personal tie to someone that works there made me sick, because I didn’t know what to expect of the out-come.”

According to Tenney, the Bodrog family has received a lot of support from Liberty students and faculty.

“I think that is what makes Liberty unique,” Tenney said. “We’re so big, yet we still operate like a family. I’m thankful that the leaders of this university lifted up people like Isabel and the victims of this.”

Tenney said both she and Isabel Bodrog attended a “celebration of life” service for Martin Bodrog Saturday, Sept. 21 at the Bodrog’s home church in Washington.

“It was beautiful and touching,” Tenney said. “Mr. Bodrog was an amazing man.”

Meghan Kohler, a current Liberty stu-dent, is adjusting to the thought of life without her father.

“It’s been really hard thinking about all the things that I’m going to miss out on doing with my dad, but God has re-ally given me a peace I didn’t think was possible to have in a situation like this,” Meghan Kohler said. “I know God has a plan to use this for something great.”

According to Meghan Kohler, her whole family has felt encouragment from

friends and from the university. “Some of my friends came down for the

life celebration for my dad this weekend, and I’ve had so many people texting me and messaging me saying that they are praying for me,” Meghan Kohler said. “They have all sent me so many encour-aging Bible verses that have really helped. Also, in Convocation, I know that every-one prayed for my sister, my mother and me, which is really encouraging.”

As those close to the victims of the shooting mourned, Tenney reflected on how the incident affected her views on gun control.

“It has changed my views a lot,” Ten-ney said. “I used to honestly think every-one should have a gun … Now I think the process should be a lot more challenging to acquire weapons.”

According to CNN, Alexis’ motives are still a mystery because he did not survive, but people have begun to speculate about what may have led up to this event.

Alexis was known to have psychological problems and heard voices in his head, a CNN report said.

LEASURE is the editor in chief.

HAHN is the news editor.

Liberty Champion/A2NEWSSEPTEMBER 24, 2013

VISIT THE CHAMPION’S WEBSITE AT LIBERTYCHAMPION.COM. CHECK US OUT ON FACEBOOK.

1. SNOWFLEX WILL BE OPENING NEW SLOPES FOR TUBING.

3. MORE PICTURES OF LES MISERABLES WILL BE AVAILABLE ONLINE.

2. WOMEN’S HOCKEY LOST IN THE FINAL SECONDS TO TRI-CITY.

Brunch supports spouses

Fink dies

Current and former students receive encouragement after losing family members

The Office of Military Affairs hosted the event Saturday in order to foster fellowship

Photo Provided

LEGACY — “Preach the word.”

Photo Provided

DINE — Military spouses got the chance to encourage one another over lunch.

Mark Tait

[email protected]

“Jehovah, Jehovah, my Jehovah.”These were the final words of be-

loved religion professor Dr. Paul Fink as he looked up to heaven moments be-fore passing away Saturday, Sept. 7, at Lynchburg Regional Hospital, accord-ing to his daughter Cathy Eubank.

He is survived by his wife Mary and his children Anne, Glenn, Jerry, Cathy, Dawn and Gary, according to Eubank. Fink arrived at Liberty in 1979, where he taught religion classes for 34 years before retiring in May 2013.

“He has left men who want to preach the Bible the way the Bible wants to be preached,” Rory Chapman, who took four of Fink’s classes, said.

According to Chapman, Fink’s cours-es required a large amount of work, but the results were rewarding.

“It was the one thing that made us love him so much, because he chal-lenged people, because he made sure, if you’re going to study the scriptures, if you’re going to know the word, then you have to do it right,” Chapman said.

According to Chapman, Fink’s classes, particularly his inductive Bible study course, will impact his ministry and those of his classmates for years to come.

“Everybody will tell you that they still use his methods,” Chapman said. “I still even use his formatting method for writing sermons.”

Liberty senior Jack Graves took Fink’s inductive Bible study course as well.

“He was my favorite professor,” Graves said. “Without him, I would not know how to study the Bible like I do today. He taught me the proper way to handle God’s word. He also taught me to take it really seriously.”

According to Graves, Fink was seri-ous about the study of the Bible, but he also had a great sense of humor along with a willingness to help his students.

“You could always visit him or call him if you needed help, not even just with homework … if you had any type of problem, he was always willing to talk,” Graves said.

According to Eubank, Fink did not only impact the lives of his students. He had a great influence on his children’s lives as well.

“Dad demonstrated his love for Christ through everything he did and how he cared for us and provided for us,” Eubank said. “Christ was number one in his life, then mom and us kids.”

According to Eubank, Fink and his wife, Mary, gave birth to their son Glenn and adopted Anne, Jerry, Cathy, Dawn and Gary.

“He adopted me into his family and taught me to love God and to know him with all my heart, just the same way God adopted me into his family and still teaches me to love him each and every day,” Eubank said.

Fink did not only serve as a professor and parent, but also as a soldier, accord-ing to Eubank.

“He loved his country and what free-doms came from our service men and women,” Eubank said. “His brother Glenn died (in the D-Day invasion). I won’t forget him telling us. ‘I was on the Iowa, and Glenn was on the Juneau. I looked one minute, it was there and, the next, it was gone.’”

According to Eubank, Fink loved his country as well as teaching students.

“He always said, ‘Preach the word. Preach the word. Preach the word,’ and it’s a three word mantra that will pret-ty much always be a mantra of every single one of his students,” Chapman said. “If I were him, I would be happy to have left a legacy like that.”

TAIT is the asst. news editor.

FYI In 2006, the Of-

fice of Military Af-fairs consisted of

eight full-time em-ployees and ap-proximately 5,000 military students. Currently, the of-fice employs 49 and is projected to have nearly 28,000 military

students by June 2014, according to Meghan Ellis,

associate director.

D.C. shooting hits home“God has given me a peace that I didn’t

think was possible ...— MEGHAN KOHLER

Page 3: Liberty champion 24 sept 2013

Liberty Champion/A3NEWSSEPTEMBER 24, 2013

Ruth BiBBy | LiBeRty Champion

GUIDANCE — Bowden shared stories of God’s direction and provision throughout his life and encouraged students to “put God first.”

Visit  our  homepage  frequently  for  weekly  menus,  calendar  of  events  and  news  you  can  use.

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However, it’s important to note that they are prepared in a facility which uses these

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Scan  the  barcodes  in  our  dining  hall  to  keep  a  virtual  food  diary.

MOODY’S continued from A1

“We came to the real-ization over the last 25 years that significant cash reserves and endowment funding was needed to ensure that Liberty Uni-versity could fulfill its mis-

sion to provide Christian education for generations to come,” Chancellor Jerry Falwell, Jr. said. “It is re-warding when rating agen-cies recognize Liberty’s commitment to and recent successes in building those resources for the future.”

Liberty’s Christian iden-

tity, lower cost and resi-dential campus experience including intercollegiate athletics” were listed as positives on the residen-tial side, but the report especially highlighted the growth of LUO.

“Prospects for sustained strength in online enroll-

ment growth are good given institutional prowess, academic cost structure and economies of scale,” the report read.

The outlook for Liber-ty’s financial future was de-scribed as stable. Although the report cited the univer-sity’s current lack of diver-

sity in revenues, Moody’s predicted that more time should allow the school to improve in that area.

“The university has lim-ited revenue diversity, with student charges compris-ing 91 percent of FY 2012 revenues,” the report read. “The University’s explo-

sive enrollment growth, diversity of academic pro-grams and relatively low cost help mitigate the risks of concentrated revenues.”

LEASURE is the editor in chief.

BOWDEN continued from A1

Liberty student Seneca El-liott said she enjoyed hearing Bowden’s story.

“It was just amazing to see how God has worked in his life and has given him all these jobs, and it’s exciting to think what’s God going to do in my life,” El-liott said.

In addition to sharing his sto-

ry, Bowden advised students to always be sure God is their first priority and family their second priority when making decisions.

“Don’t do nothin’ if you don’t think God wants you to do it,” Bowden said. “If you’ll follow that, then I think you’ll end up successful.”

Bowden also cited Proverbs 4:23, which says, “Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it spring the issues of life.”

To illustrate the verse, he told the story of the University of Il-linois football team snapping an 18-game losing streak against number-one-ranked Michigan in 1939. He asked students how the win was possible.

“They wear the same pants,” Bowden said. “They wear the same helmets. They got the same set of muscles, but it’s not the same team (that lost so many games), because the issues of life

come from where? The heart.”Along with providing advice

and sharing his story, Bowden did not fail to give his audience several laughs.

“My wife, she used to get on me every year and every game,” Bowden said. “‘Bobby, you do love football more than you do me. Bobby, you do love football more than you do me,’ and I said, ‘College or pro?’”

Bowden returned to Liberty

for his first time since visiting in 2007. He said he was impressed by the university’s growth but saddened by the death of Dr. Jerry Falwell, Sr.

To view his entire message, visit youtube.com/libertyuniversity.

TAIT is the asst. news editor.

Page 4: Liberty champion 24 sept 2013

Jacob Tellers

[email protected]

Why?Once the dust settles after a tragedy, this

is the question that inevitably will be asked. In the case of the recent shooting in D.C., this question was brought up less than 24 hours after Aaron Alexis walked into the Navy Yard and killed 12 people.

It is madness, an act that is impossible to comprehend, yet we still demand answers. We look around for something or someone to blame, as if knowing the cause will provide closure.

Gun control and violent video games are easy targets that provide the quick solution, which is very appealing.

“Ban all guns! Ban violent media!” This is the cry coming from the vengeful crowd.

This desire for justice, this search for a solution, is not wrong, but it is misplaced and misguided. The hard truth is that this shooting is not a simple issue that can be responded to with the pre-planned, cookie-cutter answers the media is so quick to pro-vide in the aftermath of tragedy.

There are many sound arguments on both sides of these issues, and in the haste to defend one side or the other, the un-derlying problem is usually ignored. The blame often lies outside these two favorite scapegoats and instead falls on the murkier issue of mental health.

According to CNN, Alexis claimed to hear voices in his head, experienced epi-sodes of paranoia where he believed he was being stalked by three people, and had eight incidents of misconduct during his time in the Navy.

Alexis began to receive treatment for his mental issues roughly a month before the shooting, according to the Atlantic Wire.

Along with these mental issues, Alexis had two previous incidents of gun violence.

The New York Times reported that

Alexis fired several shots at a construction worker’s car in 2004. Alexis was arrested in 2010 for what he claimed was just an accidental firing of his gun in an apartment complex. According to the New York Times, Alexis’ neighbor claimed that Alexis had previously been threatening her.

With mass shootings, motive is often elusive. There is no rational reason to murder people solely for the sake of mur-dering them.

While violent media could be a contributing factor, and potentially lax

gun control could have provided the opportunity to commit the crime, the deeper issue is mental health. A sane person simply does not act the way Alexis did. If similar tragedies are to be prevented, the U.S. needs to be able to both recognize and respond to mental health problems in a more effective way.

Unlike proposals dealing with gun con-trol or violent media, it is much harder to enact solutions to mental health problems.

Determining whether or not someone is mentally unstable is a subjective task, but it needs to be attempted. With Alexis,

the signs were clear. If proper actions had been taken to restrain him, this tragedy may have never occurred. There needs to be a system in place so that when some-one who is mentally ill shows signs of violence, that person’s ability to own guns can be restricted, and if confinement or treatment is needed, it can be provided.

We may never fully understand why these tragedies occur, but we can be vigi-lant in watching for the signs in order to work to prevent them.

TELLERS is a sports reporter.

OPINIONA4 September 24, 2013

Humans can be surprisingly impa-tient, especially when it comes to phones.

Apple released the new iPhone 5S and iPhone 5C Friday along with iOS7, the company’s newest operat-ing system for its phones. As expected, lines stretched on for days, and Apple struggled to keep up with demand for the device.

As I watched my classmates plan their iPhone purchases or anxiously wait for iOS7 to download, I could not

help but notice the incredible impa-tience that smartphones have created. Some people even chose to download the update right af-ter it became avail-able Friday morning, leaving them without a phone for much of the day when they could have just down-loaded it overnight.

As an Android owner, I have seen how addicting a smartphone can be, and I can only imagine how much stronger that effect can be with an iPhone. In a business sense, Apple has worked hard to create

a brand that millions of people keep coming back to, and I have no prob-lem with that. However, I think that it is time we consider what our buying habits say about us as a society.

The fact that people waited hours upon hours in line, many times to replace a now-outdated phone they bought less than a year ago, astounds me. Technology moves at a lightning-fast pace these days, but we, and our wallets for that matter, are not always required to keep up.

I know several people who own out-dated, simple phones, and they could not be happier with their decision to stick with what works. In fact, I would say that those people seemed much

more content with their phone than any iPhone owner I have met.

There is nothing wrong with buying the best phone on the market and en-joying it. But when the pursuit of the newest device becomes the highest pri-ority seemingly every few months, it is time to re-evaluate some priorities.

I understand the appeal of an iPhone, but it does not take much technology to show how impatient we really are. So when the iPhone 6 inevitably renders today’s iPhone 5S useless, remember that “wait” is not a four-letter word.

LEASURE

by Greg Leasure

Nation mourns Naval Yard shooting

Learning to love our neighbors in Lynchburg

The recent massacre in Washington, D.C. left 12 dead and several injured as a result of shooter rampage

In order to successfully share our faith, Liberty students should be mindful of testimonies in the community

Photo Provided

MOVING FORWARD — A change of command ceremony in the D.C. Navy Yard Monday, Sept. 23, signals a return to the routine after mourning.

Sara Warrender

[email protected]

Among the lanyards, sweatshirts and our tacky car stickers, Liberty Uni-versity students can typi-cally be spotted a mile away. Whether we are at-tempting to buy groceries with Flames Cash or cut-ting someone off in traffic with our parking stickers flashing in the afternoon sun, we have grown to be a big part of the Lynch-burg community. So, we’re back for another semester of school, but is the local community happy with the atmosphere we brought back with us?

Our actions show the quality of our relationships with Christ. To be servants of Christ, we must also be

willing to be servants of others, regardless of where we are in the community.

Most Liberty students have heard the rumor that we do not tip well, or at all, but one Liberty student, Katy Davis, brought up a good point. She said that Liberty students often view restaurants in the same way that we view Doc’s Diner.

“(T)hey don’t realize that there is a difference between on-campus din-ing and off-campus dining,

and the respect that goes along with it,” Davis said. “Yes, these are college peo-ple exactly like us. They need our tips just as much as we need a job.”

After interviewing many businesses, let me speak for them. We do not own this town. God gave us land in which a college was planted. God gave us this chance to study, better our-selves and grow through Him. This land, this cam-pus and this opportunity is not ours. God gave this

chance to us.Luke 12:48 states, “For

unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall much be required.”

We go to a Christian university. Wherever you go, the name, “Christian,” must go also.

“If we don’t live it out right, they look at us and say, ‘That’s the way a Christian acts, it’s who they are,’” Dr. Elizabeth Sites, an assistant professor of psychology, said.

Liberty students cannot

act a certain way, then ex-pect the local community to take our college and our faith seriously. When we pick up our books we must also pick up our crosses.

“How we drive when we leave the parking lot, that all has to do with how we reflect our God and how we reflect on this univer-sity as well,” senior Ryan Hepler said. “Tipping is an extension of generosity, which would be an exten-sion of holiness. Our min-istry isn’t just what we do, it’s who we are.”

Many Liberty students are blessed to experience short-term mission trips, but for the majority of the year, our mission field is Lynchburg. We cannot feed the hungry in Ni-caragua, then ignore the

people here who are in need of a good influence, a true friend or a listen-ing ear. Sometimes being a witness or a missionary means putting down your plane ticket and opening your heart to the needs in our local community. So next time you decide to leave campus, remem-ber that just as your car is stamped with the Liberty logo and Christ’s name, your heart is stamped with the influence of Christ.

As the Rev. Jonathan Falwell, senior pastor of Thomas Road Baptist Church, always says, “We must go out into the com-munity and earn the right to be heard.”

WARRENDER is the feature editor.

“When we pick up our books we must also pick up our crosses

— SARA WARRENDER

Page 5: Liberty champion 24 sept 2013

David Van Dyk

[email protected]

For more than five decades, violence and bloodshed have broken the land of Colombia, forcing civilians to either run in fear or join the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). Operating out of the South-Eastern regions of the jungles, this terrorist organization has wreaked havoc for years.

Now, according to the New York Times, FARC and their government have decided that enough blood has been spilt over this half-century long war. After the deaths of approximately 220,000 people, according to a report by the National Center of Historical Memory, both sides have seen enough.

Peace talks are now being held in Ha-vana, Cuba, but several obstacles still stand in the way of agreement. After forging a modification to the constitu-tion to allow for peace talks, the govern-ment of Colombia saw legal accusa-tions against the law.

According to Helen Murphy, a writer for Reuters, the law was deemed con-stitutional by a Colombian high court.

“Gustavo Gallon, a lawyer with the Colombian Commission of Jurists, had filed the legal challenge to three phrases in the text of the law that he said would allow lawmakers to select which cases of genocide, crimes against humanity and other war crimes, could be inves-tigated and punished, leading to impu-nity for many,” Murphy said.

Though I can see where there might be worries for legal injustice, a bigger problem exists — a problem that has become evident in the past 50 years and in the lives of hundreds of thousands of people who have been either killed or displaced.

The wars and violence must end.Hostility between the two sides saw a

large spike after the failed peace talks in 2002, after which Colombia requested a large sum of money from the United States to combat the FARC.

Since then, the conflict has seen its peaks and valleys. Interestingly, the economy in this Latin American coun-try has seen impressive progress. The Colombian peso has confirmed growth in the past decade, according to Mat-thew Bristo and Andre Soliani, report-ers for Bloomberg Businessweek.

“The Colombian peso has rallied 47 percent in the past decade, the best per-forming major currency in Latin Amer-ica,” Bristo and Soliani wrote. “Colom-bia’s IGBC stock index has gained 552 percent in local currency terms over the same period, compared to a 228 percent gain for Brazil’s benchmark Ibovespa index.”

Even as Colombia sees economic growth, there is an undeniable need for peace in this war-torn country. As I look at Colombia and even Latin America, I see a land that can achieve great things and jump hurdles that no one else can.

From boasting a dominant soccer team throughout the late 20th century to being the third-largest oil producer in Latin America to having a seat on the United Nations Security Council, Co-lombia has shown what it is capable of, even under the herculean task of mak-ing peace with FARC.

As Cuba plays host to two battle-wea-ry belligerents, my hope is to see peace restored to the nation. How this will be done remains up to them. For now, we wait to see what happens when two warriors become weary of waging war.

VAN DYK is an opinion writer.

Liberty Champion/A5OPINIONSEPTEMBER 24, 2013

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LETTERTO THEEDITORPOLICIES& INFO

The Champion encourages community members to submit letters to the editor on any subject. Letters should not exceed 400 words and must be typed and signed. The deadline is 5 p.m. Friday. Letters and columns that appear are the opinion of the author solely, not the Champion editorial board or Liberty University.

All material submitted becomes property of the Champion. The Champion reserves the right to accept, reject or edit any letter received—according to the Champion stylebook, taste and the Liberty University mission statement.

Send letters to:

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Greg LeasureEDITOR IN CHIEF

administrationDeborah HuffFACULTY ADVISOR

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contentSophia HahnNEWS EDITOR

Mark TaitASST. NEWS EDITOR

Gabriella FullerOPINION EDITOR

Derrick BattleSPORTS EDITOR

Tom FooteASST. SPORTS EDITOR

Sara WarrenderFEATURE EDITOR

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photographyRuth BibbyPHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR

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LIBERTY CHAMPION

Turmoil in Colombia

Going to World Cup

Pastors Rick and Kay speak outThe Warren family made their first television appearance since the upsetting suicide of son Matthew Warren

Men’s soccer team triumphs in qualifier for seventh year

AbigAil bock | liberty chAmpion

WAR — Colombia faces terrorism.

Gabriella Fuller

[email protected]

Two parents were thrown into a living nightmare as news of their son’s death headlined every major media outlet April 5, 2013.

Now, less than six months after the emotional and heartbreaking family trag-edy, Rick and Kay Warren are speaking out about their journey, their grief and, ultimately, their God.

The Warrens appeared on an exclu-sive interview with CNN’s Piers Morgan Tuesday, Sept. 16, to discuss the life and death of their son, Matthew Warren.

Matthew Warren was only 27 years old when he took his own life. The suicide ended what had been a life defined by battles with mental health.

“The day that I had feared might hap-pen one day, since he had been born, and the day that I had prayed would never happen, happened,” Rick Warren told Morgan in his first interview since Mat-thew Warren’s death.

Since being interviewed in what Mor-gan has called “the most inspiring inter-view I’ve ever done,” the megachurch pas-tor and his wife have willingly returned to the national spotlight, placing themselves at the center of public attention.

Few individuals could ever display the amount of bravery and resolve that the Warrens have recently shown. Rather than grieve in silence, the couple opted to expose their pain so that millions might learn the message of healing and hope.

When asked about their faith, the War-rens responded with steadfast confidence.

“I never questioned my faith in God,” Rick Warren said. “I know God is a good God. God isn’t to blame for my son’s death. My son took his own life. It was his choice.”

Kay Warren exhibited similar reassur-ance and contentment when confronted by Morgan.

“Matthew’s body was broken,” Kay Warren said. “That gun broke his body, and he was buried in brokenness. But he’s going to be raised in glory.”

What a beautiful picture of God’s all-surpassing peace. Though the Warrens could have reacted with any number of emotions, their only answer was to point

back to the goodness of God. It could not have been easy for the pair

to describe in great detail the demons that their son battled. And it certainly could not have been easy to relive the excruciat-ing moment of his death.

And yet, here stands a family, burdened beyond belief, glorifying Jesus Christ. What an incredible testimony to a world so often misguided by hypocritical faith.

In his first sermon since his son’s pass-ing, Rick Warren voiced his anguish and his insights.

“We intend to spend the rest of our lives comforting others with the same comfort we have been given from God,” Rick Warren told the audience of Saddle-back church. “Your deepest life message will come out of your deepest pain.”

Though heart-wrenching beyond what words can describe, the pain of the War-ren family was not in vain. Matthew War-ren’s life was not an accident, nor was his death a surprise to God.

God glorifies himself in mysterious ways. Despite the death of their child, he is still faithful.

As in Isaiah 61, the Warrens were given beauty for ashes, joy instead of mourning, and praise instead of despair.

Their obedience in drawing near to God in a time of crisis and confusion is inspiring. Through them, the world was given a glimpse of the Father’s steadfast love for his hurting children.

Though they may never understand the answer to the question why, God’s plan is perfect, his faithfulness unconditional and his presence sufficient.

As C.S. Lewis wrote in his book “The Problem of Pain,” the pleasures of life are easy to ignore, but pain insists on being attended to.

“God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains: It is his megaphone to rouse a deaf world,” Lewis wrote.

Thank you, Rick and Kay Warren, for rousing us in our deafness and for strength-ening us in our understanding that in all circumstances, God is enough. Thank you for allowing His power to be perfected in your weakness and for unashamedly dis-playing his all-sufficient grace.

FULLER is the opinion editor.

Tom Foote

[email protected]

Does the World Cup matter to the major-ity of Americans?

Probably not, but perhaps it is time for Americans to get behind their ever-improv-ing men’s national team.

While most Americans would claim to never watch or care about soccer, television ratings would seem to differ. According to Nielsen ratings, the 2010 World Cup final drew more than 24 million total viewers in the U.S. — a record for soccer. And the U.S.-Mexico World Cup qualifier Sept. 10, 2013 drew a 1.9 rating — again, the high-est for a World Cup qualifier in U.S. history.

These are great signs for the increasing popularity of soccer in the United States. But soccer is still not covered or viewed as one of the major sports. However, this may change after the 2014 World Cup depending on the success of the U.S. men’s national team.

The 2-0 victory for the U.S. over Mexico Sept. 10 clinched a seventh-straight World Cup appearance for the team — something not even powerhouses such as England, France or the Netherlands have accomplished.

Yes, the U.S. does not face the same level of competition in the CONCACAF re-gion that many of the European or South American teams face, but qualifying for the World Cup is an impressive feat in any region.

While the U.S. is not able to challenge itself consistently in CONCACAF, man-ager Jurgen Klinsmann has scheduled very difficult friendlies, and the team has been able to hold its own versus top quality teams from Europe. A 4-3 victory over then second-ranked Germany in May sparked a record 12 match-winning streak, which also

included a Gold Cup title and a win at pre-viously 13th-ranked Bosnia-Herzegovina.

The players for the national team have also challenged themselves across some of the toughest leagues in Europe. Michael Bradley, Jozy Altidore and Clint Dempsey are just a few of the Americans who have made a tremendous impact at the top tier of European soccer in countries such as England, Italy and the Netherlands.

No longer is the U.S. a laughing stock in world soccer, but with world-class players, an experienced manager and increased fan support, the team rightfully has high expectations for the 2014 World Cup. So maybe it is time for Americans to get behind their national team and give the beautiful game the chance it deserves.

FOOTE is the asst. sports editor.

“ As in Isaiah 61, the Warrens were given beauty for ashes, joy instead of

mourning, and praise instead of despair.— GABRIELLA FULLER

google imAges

EMBLEM — New uniforms celebrate 100 years of U.S. soccer.

Champion correctionsThe recycling article on A6 incorrectly listed Morgan Muszall as Students for

Stewardship recycling coordinator. Muszall works for Liberty Field Operations.

Page 6: Liberty champion 24 sept 2013

Downpour Torrential rain fell for four straight days

on Colorado’s eastern side, according to adjunct faculty member Jessica Cromley.

The worst of it was centered around Boulder, with a record of 17 inches of rain that fell Sept. 10 - 13. According to CNN, on Sept. 12, amidst the rainfall, Boulder saw 9.08 inches of rain come down, which is almost half of its 20-inch yearly rainfall average.

According to Denver Post writer William Porter, an estimated 4.5 billion gallons of water fell on 25 square miles of Boulder during these four days.

Boulder’s main river, Boulder Creek, was producing a flow rate of 4,500 cubic feet per second. During the flooding, Boulder Creek pushed 140 tons of water every second, which is approximately the weight of a standard railroad locomotive, according to Porter.

Dylan [email protected]

Northern Colorado has been hammered by heavy rains and catastrophic flooding since Sept. 9, causing six deaths and leav-ing thousands of homes destroyed.

Although Colorado is half a country away from Liberty University’s campus, Liberty Online adjunct faculty Jessica Cromley and Trisha Anderson are both in the midst of the disaster.

According to Cromley, her family’s home is a mere eighth of a mile away from a river, so when the National Weather Ser-vice (NWS) issued warnings about “bibli-cal rainfall,” things got tense. Thursday, Sept. 12 marked the day when things started to become worrisome.

“Our family has owned this home for 30 years, and there was only one other time that the NWS indicated a surge over flood stage was anticipated,” Cromley said.“ We went to bed not knowing what to expect the next morning.”

The phone rang at 12:45 a.m. with a pre-evacuation alert, Cromley said.

“For the next six hours we tried to sleep and just waited for the next phone call.”

The Cromleys live near Fort Collins in Larimer County. According to Cromley, they were never forced to evacuate, but the water from the river came within 200 yards of their house.

“At one point, my mom put a stick in the ground to measure the rise for one hour. When we went back to check, the water level had risen three inches,” Cromley said. “God spared us from any property damage, and we did not have to evacuate. Compared to so many others, we are ex-tremely fortunate and richly blessed.”

The church that the Cromleys attend, Timberline Church, was used as a Red Cross evacuation center to assist displaced people, according to Cromley. Many fam-ilies were separated. People brought any-thing they could carry with them, includ-ing dogs, cats and even parrots, according to Cromley.

“It was heartbreaking to realize that the backpacks they carried might be all they had left,” Cromley said.

Yet in the wake of so much destruction and loss, Cromley said that the people of Colorado have banded together to be-come stronger than ever. Good will and compassion abound in the citizens of the affected areas.

“There is a sense of hope which can temper the loss and despair that so many are facing,” Cromley said.

Fellow adjunct faculty member Ander-son relayed stories of how Colorado has united in the face of this disaster.

According to Anderson, when a Uni-versity of Colorado Saturday football game Sept. 14 was cancelled due to

flooded roads, the football team took all the food meant for concessions that day and served it to evacuees. Anderson’s church is also a Red Cross evacuee center and has had a huge amount of support from the community.

“There have been about 600 people come through there to get a hot meal, spend a night, reconnect with family,” An-derson said. “The amount of volunteers and service being offered is amazing.”

Roads around Anderson’s home are re-opening, and she said she was not forced to evacuate.

Although many like Cromley and An-derson did not sustain any property dam-age, the early state emergency office gave estimates saying that 18,000 houses had been damaged and 1,500 had been de-stroyed in the affected areas.

The local Virginian organization Glean-ing For The World (GFTW), based out of Concord, has organized a relief effort to send non-perishable foods, baby supplies, cleaning supplies and personal care items to affected areas in Colorado.

GFTW has already sent one shipment of 4,200 blankets to Colorado, and will continue to send more supplies as they become available, according to GFTW Communications Director Andrew Young.

Young said if people are looking for ways to help, they can donate money, products, or come volunteer at a ware-house or collection site.

For more information on how to help with the disaster relief, visit gftw.org.

FRIBERG is a news reporter.

Liberty Champion/A6NEWSSEPTEMBER 24, 2013

Colorado floods devastateHeavy rain causes destruction, killing six and impacting members of the Liberty family

Lauryn McDoweLL | creative coMMons

FLOODING — A Colorado local boats through an area devastated by excessive rain.

MEMORIAL continued from A1

“It’s so small a number because it takes such … effort to bring people back and to identify them,” Cronauer said. “Now we’ve got DNA, but back in Korea, World War II and Vietnam we didn’t have DNA, so we have to rely on other things.”

April Cheek-Messier, president of the National D-Day Memorial Founda-tion, said that document-ing the loss of soldiers, name-by-name, was im-portant to honoring them.

“It is our obligation as American citizens to en-sure that we continue to locate and bring home every last service member who has serviced this great country,” Cheek-Messier said. “Today, and every-day, we should be mindful of the sacrifices made by our veterans — by those who were held as prison-ers of war, by those who have paid the ultimate sacrifice and by those still unaccounted for.”

According to Felicia Lowrance, the education coordinator at the Na-tional D-Day Memorial, the key to assisting POW/MIAs is the raising of awareness.

“When you think across our country we have the Korean War memorial, the Vietnam Wall Memo-rial for soldiers who have paid the ultimate sacrifice to protect our country, but we don’t think about those men who were captured or are missing,” Lowrance said. “As far as getting involved, it is getting in-volved in events like this that really help.”

Felicia added that Na-tional D-Day memorial events similar to “Never Forget” are open to stu-dents. For more informa-tion, visit DDay.org.

National POW/MIA Recognition Day is na-tionally observed and proclaimed by the United States president every year as a time of remembrance.

JANNEY is a news reporter.

GLOBAL continued from A1

Also at Convocation on Monday was fellow guest speaker Naghmeh Abe-dini, wife to imprisoned Iranian-American pastor Saeed Abedini. Naghmeh Abedini shared her testi-mony and the trying times her family has faced since her husband’s eight-year sentence in Evin Prison in Tehran, Iran.

“The kids and I desper-ately want him back, but we are proud that he has chosen to stand up for his faith and to proclaim the gospel in a dark prison and bring hope to those people,” Naghmeh Abe-dini said.

Before leaving, Nagh-meh Abedini urged stu-dents to boldly proclaim Christ to the world.

“I pray that the Lord would awaken your desire to ask for nations for your inheritance, and that you would be on fire for the liv-ing God,” Naghmeh Abe-dini said.

The Children of the World choir from World-Help performed at Convo-cation, followed by a pre-sentation from president of Wycliffe Bible Transla-tors Bob Creson, Wednes-day, Sept. 18.

Creson spoke to stu-dents concerning his life

calling to make the gospel available to every tribe and tongue. He also encour-aged students to become involved in the “Race to 2025,” a project dedicated to producing the Bible in every language by the year 2025.

Global Focus Week also presented students with the opportunity to meet representatives from sev-eral of Liberty’s partner organizations, as well as participate in events such as Experience France, hosted by Christar, and Experience Bible Transla-tion, hosted by Wycliffe.

Nathan, whose full name was withheld for safety reasons, is a Global Teams coordinator at CGE and one of several personnel from CGE that helped bring Global Focus Week together.

“I thought Global Fo-cus Week was fantastic,” Nathan said. “Having Dr. Piper here was a great way to kick it off, but overall, I think it set the tone for what our school is about in training champions for Christ and recognizing that Christ has a heart for the world.”

According to Nathan, many students were able to gain awareness of what God is doing around the world and how they can engage in that.

“By God’s grace bring-ing people into our paths, both myself and a lot of people here in the office had conversations with students about short term trips and how to get in-volved,” Nathan said. “There were also con-versations with students who have been involved in short term trips and want to know what the next steps are to be able to pursue working overseas long-term, which is really exciting.”

According to Nathan, who has spent significant time in France, the Experi-ence France event was very authentic.

“It was cool to see stu-dents engage in a culture, French culture as well as North African culture, and gain perspective on what life is like for people of different cultures, as well as what it is like to be a worker in another cultural context,” Nathan said. “A lot of students were inter-ested in what God is doing in that area of the world.”

Tucker Whitley, a junior and global studies ma-jor, was one of the many students who was able to speak with representa-tives from various orga-nizations, most of whom have spent years of their lives overseas.

“Global Focus Week,

especially during the fall when we are able to work closely with all of our part-ner organizations, is very impactful,” Whitley said. “I love getting to know the representatives. They were able to mentor us, and seeing them through-out the back hallway of DeMoss was almost like walking through a hallway of family.”

Whitley enjoyed listen-ing to the week’s speakers, and even took a picture with Piper.

“John Piper, of course, was awesome,” Whitley said. “It was a dream of mine to meet him. I was

able to thank him for be-ing one of the greatest en-couragements of our age and of our generation. He definitely challenged us, and I’m going to take that challenge personally and follow the great commis-sion with all my heart.”

According to Whitley, Global Focus Week offered students a practical picture of mission-centered living.

“When representatives come here, students are able to see them face-to-face, they are able to ask questions, and they are re-ally able to put their hands around what the great commission actually is,”

Whitley said. “That is so valuable. It is something that we definitely should take advantage of, and I think it was so helpful so that we can, as students, get a glimpse of what great commission work is, espe-cially global work.”

According to CGE, Liberty will host its spring 2014 Global Focus Week Feb. 9-14. To learn more about Global Focus Week or how to “Take Your De-gree Global” visit liberty.edu/globalengagement or email [email protected].

FULLER is the opinion editor.

ruth BiBBy | LiBerty chaMpion

MOTIVATION — John Piper speaks about reaching the world for eternal reward.

4.5 billion gallons

9.8 inches of rain

4 days

Page 7: Liberty champion 24 sept 2013

Emily Webster [email protected]

Students filing into Lib-erty University’s Vines Center for Monday morn-ing’s Convocation were met with an unexpected request as speaker Kirk Cameron took the stage.

The actor and producer asked students to be a part of the introduction video for his new film “Unstop-pable,” premiering Tues-day, Sept. 24 in more than 700 theaters across the nation. After instructing students on what to say for the cameras, Cameron took the stage again.

“Liberty University is what?” Cameron enthusi-astically asked the Liberty student body.

“Unstoppable!” they replied.

Cameron spent time in Convocation not only speaking about his new film, but also interviewing people who have found God’s love and compassion in the face of suffering, one of the main themes of Cameron’s film.

One of the men Cam-eron interviewed was Tim

Lee, a Vietnam War veteran and evangelist. Lee, who is a familiar face at Liberty, re-counted the story of how he lost his legs during Vietnam and how he was able to trust God through this trial.

Charles Wood also ap-peared on stage, giving an account of God’s faithful-ness through the death of Wood’s son, a navy seal who was killed as he tried to defend the U.S. embassy in Benghazi one year ago. Performances by three-time Grammy-nom-inee Mandisa and Warren Barfield, whose song “The Time is Now” is featured in the trailer of “Unstop-pable,” took place during Convocation as well.

“(The world) might try to harm you. They might try to stop you, but the gospel is unstoppable,” Barfield said before performing.

Using Convocation as a promotion for his new film, Cameron said he is hoping hundreds of thou-sands of people come out to the premiere Tuesday night.

“I’m hoping that people leave the theaters with their faith not weaker, but stron-

ger, and having an under-standing that God is good in everything that he does.”

In the trailer to his film, Cameron encour-ages viewers to join him in discovering the an-

swer to why God lets evil happen in this world.

“I think (the film) will impact a lot of people, be-cause it is such a big ques-tion to answer that people have,” freshman Brandice

Clemens said.Students said they en-

joyed the way it was present-ed, because it was different from any other Convocation due to student interaction and Cameron interviewing

special guests. Others said they are excited to be a part of the introduction to the premiere.

WEBSTER is a copy editor.

Dylan Friberg

[email protected]

Liberty Mountain and the greater Blue Ridge area have been popular trail running spots for years, but earlier in Septem-ber, the trails were promoted by Trail Runner Magazine, which featured two Liberty University employees.

The magazine encourages off-road exercise as a way of living healthier and has ranked Lynch-burg the second-best trail run-ning community in the nation. The magazine’s September is-sue specifically detailed Liberty’s trail system and highlighted Lib-erty staff Jamie and Brenton Sw-yers on the cover.

“The article was definitely great publicity for the Lynch-burg area as a whole,” LaHaye Student Union Associate Direc-tor Jamie Swyers said. “I have read the magazine in the past, and it is a great resource for trail runners.”

The magazine detailed Lynch-burg’s diverse array of trail run-ning opportunities, including places such as Blackwater Creek, Peaks View Park and the Liberty Mountain Trails.

According to Associate Direc-tor of Student Activities Josh Yeoman, who is also a trail run-ner, people like Lynchburg for the sport because it has a diverse

number of quality trail races that span different distances.

“I hope the article brings at-tention to Lynchburg, Liberty, The Liberty Mountain Trail Se-ries and the Liberty Mountain Trail System,” Yeoman said. “I hope to see new faces at our (Student Activities) races this year. I believe people in the sur-rounding areas like Roanoke and Charlottesville might now be more willing to come to Lynch-

burg for a weekend to race or just enjoy the trails.”

The Liberty Trail System con-sists of more than 50 miles of trails made for walking, running, hiking and biking, according to Liberty’s website.

According to Yeoman, Dr. David Horton, an exercise sci-ence professor at Liberty, was the pioneer of the Liberty Trail System. Yeoman said that, until 2006, Horton, his running class

and Lynchburg’s community of ultra runners were the only ones making the trails.

“In 2006, Vice President of Auxiliary Services Lee Beau-mont helped to make the trail system what it is today,” Yeoman said. “Lee helped develop the system into something that the entire community could use.”

Jamie Swyers said she loves trail running because of the community that surrounds it.

She loves being around a crowd that enjoys spending hours outdoors.

“Trail running is just a stress-free environment,” Jamie Swyers said. “I love that the sport is less about pace, splits and exact mile-age, and more about enjoying the hours training. During a long trail run, if there’s an overlook with a view, most of the time we stop and enjoy it. We don’t stop our watches or worry about the minutes wasted. We hike the tough climbs and eat real food during runs. It’s tough train-ing and hard work, but without a high-pressure atmosphere. It’s just a special sport that’s easy to fall in love with.”

Although heavily used by regular trail runners, the Liberty Trail System is available for all of the Lynchburg community, Yeoman said.

“You don’t need to be a trail runner to enjoy the Liberty Trail System,” Yeoman said. “The trails are there for anyone to en-joy. People can come mountain bike, run, hike or just go for a leisurely stroll.”

FRIBERG is a news reporter.

Liberty Champion/A7NEWSSEPTEMBER 24, 2013

Magazine highlights trail system

Cameron speaks to student body

Trail Runner Magazine features Blue Ridge trails, as well as Liberty employees Brenton and Jamie Swyers

The ‘Unstoppable’ star covered tough topics, asking how God has proven faithful amidst the evils of the world

Ruth BiBBy | LiBeRty Champion

‘UNSTOPPABLE’ — Cameron interviewed Vietnam War veteran Tim Lee about God’s faithfulness.

photo pRovided

NATURE — Jamie Swyers and her husband, Brenton Swyers, run the trails of the Blue Ridge Mountains.

In David Platt’s new book Follow Me, readers learn whether they are truly saved according to biblical standards and discover what it really means to be a Christian.

This eye-opening book is a must read for everyone who calls themselves a Christian.

FollowMeBook.org

Available through bookstores and online retailers.TYNDALE and Tyndale’s quill logo are registered trademarks of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.

AWAKEN TO THE CALL

30th‘83

‘13

of

CELEBRATING THE

Page 8: Liberty champion 24 sept 2013

Mary Beth Dinges

[email protected]

With the 2013 election for Virginia state governor quickly approaching, Lib-erty University students and faculty are filling out registration forms and preparing to vote in early November.

The 2013 ballot will have three main candi-dates running for Vir-ginia governor: Demo-crat Terry McAuliffe, businessman of Fairfax County and chairman of the Democratic National Committee, Republican Ken Cuccinelli, attorney general of Virginia, and Libertarian Robert Sarvis, a lawyer and small busi-nessman.

“The nation’s atten-tion will be focused on the Virginia gubernatorial election in 2013 because it is the only hotly con-tested race of the season,” Chancellor Jerry Falwell, Jr. said Monday. “Millions of dollars of out of state money is being poured into the campaign. It is a golden opportunity for Liberty students to make their votes count. I en-courage every Liberty stu-dent to register to vote in the next few weeks. And it is not only the governor’s race that is at stake. The number of students who register and vote locally greatly impacts how City Council votes on many is-sues that directly impact Liberty and its students.”

Campaigns and voting advertisements can be seen throughout Lynch-burg and near Liberty’s campus with several un-official clubs as well. Ian McConell is a senior in the Helms School of Government and the vice chairman of the College Republicans of Liberty.

McConell started to develop an interest for politics in high school and was also involved with the College Republicans of Liberty during the Rom-ney campaign.

“It’s something that I love ... it is very important

to get your voice heard not only for the nation, but also for your Christian values as well,” McConell said when asked how and why he got involved with politics.

The College Republi-cans of Liberty is an un-official club on campus that promotes republican candidates and works with the community to get the voice of the students heard. College Republi-cans of Liberty is a branch off of the College Repub-lican National Commit-tee, which helps students and adults to gain experi-ence and become future leaders in the nation.

Youth for Cuccinelli was recently developed as another unofficial club on campus to support the Republican candidate for this upcoming election.

During the presidential election in 2012, Falwell said the objective is not to put Republicans over Democrats, but instead to have students participate. Liberty as an institution is not concerned about the party affiliation, although many support the Repub-lican party personally.

“Students need to vote to have their voice heard ... to be able to say, ‘At least I’ve tried,’” McCon-nell said when asked why he thinks students need to vote. “One vote may not make a difference, but 500 people will.”

Student voting has been important since the uni-versity’s founding in 1971. Until 2012, students who were interested in voting had to travel to Heritage High School to cast their ballot. In recent years, Liberty asked the city of Lynchburg to allow voting on campus to make it easi-er for students to get to the polls. Students now have the privilege of being able to vote on campus in the Vines Center across from DeMoss Hall. Student voting and involvement in politics in Lynchburg and in the state makes a dif-ference as the city council decides whether to ap-

prove the construction of many infrastructures on and off campus.

Residential students can vote in the Vines Center Nov. 5 from 6 a.m.-7 p.m.

According to the Vir-ginia State Board of Elections, Virginia law re-quires all voters to provide an acceptable form of identification at the polls. Anything from a Virginia voter registration card, valid Virginia driver’s li-cense, military I.D., con-cealed handgun permit to a valid student I.D. issued by any institution of high-er education is suitable for identification.

Voting registration ends Oct. 15, and polls open Tuesday, Nov. 5 to vote for the new governor of Vir-ginia.

For more information on identification and vot-ing, visit the State Board of elections at sbe.virgin-ia.gov/votinginperson

DINGES is a news reporter.

Sophia Hahn

[email protected]

Even though superstitions surround Friday the 13th, peo-ple ventured out onto Main Street to enjoy loud music and fair food at Lynchburg’s fifth-annual Get!Downtown event.

Street vendors lined Main Street between 8th and 13th St. to promote their establishments and rejuvenate the streets of downtown.

Lynch’s Landing Event and Communication Coordinator Stephanie Keener helped or-ganize Get!Downtown with the National Main Street Program to introduce students to activi-ties in Lynchburg.

“One of our missions is to create events that attract peo-ple to downtown Lynchburg,” Keener said.

According to Gladiola Girls owner Renee Wood, events like Get!Downtown show Liberty University students the world that lies beyond Wards Road.

“They say that 8,000-10,000 people come out for the event,” Wood said. “It is fun to help them kind of discover Lynch-burg, restaurants and activities.”

Attendance increas-es every year, making it a “back to school tradition,” Keener said.

“The main purpose is to cel-ebrate downtown and back to school,” Keener said. “Educa-tion is a big part of Lynchburg, six colleges and all the won-derful secondary and primary schools too. It’s a special part of our community, and down-town is a nice place for everyone to come together and celebrate that.”

Lynchburg Salsa supervi-sor Elizabeth Pfister said she is proud of Lynchburg, the chance she has to support the city and for Salsa to be known as one of its hidden treasures.

“Get!Downtown is one of my favorite events of the year,” Pfis-ter said. “I love my little town, and there is stuff to do if you look for it, and (salsa) is one of the great things.”

According to Pfister, she has helped run Salsa for nearly five years and has seen a large increase in attendance, partly due to annually participating in Get!Downtown.

“Last year, I think we hand-ed out over a thousand flyers,”

Pfister said. “It has grown a ton. Some nights, it is so big that we even have to cap it.”

Pfister said they have tried to work with Liberty to make it safe for their students by setting a dress code and making it an alcohol and smoke-free environ-ment.

“Myself and other directors that are there are constantly monitoring so that nobody can

possibly get in trouble for any-thing,” Pfister said.

Get!Downtown sent buses to all of the Lynchburg colleges to pick up students and bring them to the event. According to Keener, this gives students the chance to meet people from oth-er colleges and see what down-town has to offer.

“Almost everyone that I have rung up tonight has been a new

customer, so that’s great to do,” Wood said. “And that is what we want. We want people to know that we are here, that we are open seven days a week.”

Gladiola Girls is a ministry, according to Wood. She believes that style is a choice and women do not need be indecent to be beautiful.

“I think that looking feminine isn’t about how much skin you are showing,” Wood said. “Ev-erybody has a style, and I try to create something that I hope ev-eryone can find.”

Other businesses chose to schedule their grand open-ings for the same night as Get!Downtown, such as the White Hart re-opening.

According to the new owner, Abe Loper, the White Hart plans to have the same vibe as it had before. He also said many college students frequent this Lynchburg coffee shop and are happy it has re-opened.

To find out more about busi-nesses and activities in Lynch-burg, visit lynchslanding.com or downtownlynchburg.com.

HAHN is the news editor.

Liberty Champion/A8NEWSSEPTEMBER 24, 2013

Get!Downtown revives businessLynchburg celebrates business by inviting people to stroll up and down Main Street at the fifth-annual event

Ruth BiBBy | LiBeRty Champion

COMMUNITY — People take the streets at this annual event.

Politics in ForestThe Chamber hosts the ‘political event of the year’Emily Webster

[email protected]

Virginia senators, delegates and region-al candidates flooded Thomas Jefferson’s Poplar Forest as the Lynchburg Regional Chamber of Commerce (LRCC) hosted a biennial social event Thursday, Sept. 19.

The event, designed by LRCC to allow politicians currently in office and those running for office a chance to mingle and meet with the Lynchburg business com-munity, included food from The Babcock House Bed & Breakfast and live music performed by the Olde Stuff Band.

According to Edie Swann, director of advocacy and special programing for LRCC, this event is a long-standing tradi-tion in the Lynchburg region.

“It’s just a wonderful outdoor event,” Swann said. “It’s a casual environment for the candidates and legislators … to speak to the crowd.”

According to Swann, the event used to take place once a year, but when the economy took a turn for the worse, so did attendance. However, Swann said this year’s turnout proved a good one, with more than 100 people in attendance.

“It’s a chance for (politicians) to talk one-on-one with the folks in their district and talk with their constituents in a casual atmosphere,” Swann said. “And I think it’s growing again. This event (is) up 20 percent from last year. And I think peo-ple like being able to just chat with their elected officials and with candidates in a kind of a relaxed environment.”

Stephen Newman, Virginia state sena-tor from the 23rd district, attended the event and described it as a good place to connect with people who are making LRCC work, as well as to discuss politics.

“The Chamber of Commerce … really gets it,” Newman said. “They are focused on jobs and economic development, and that’s critical. In so many areas we’ve seen the chambers and other groups kind of wander off into a little bit of everything and become the advocate of nothing. This group is focused on what is really important, and that’s a testament to the chamber staff and to Rex Hammond (president and CEO of LRCC) in par-ticular.”

Also in attendance was Kathy Byron, Virginia House of Delegates for the 22nd district, who said the event is the highlight of the election season, and it is a great opportunity to share her record and mes-sage with voters during election time.

“I want to show my support to the busi-ness community and show my pro-busi-ness record from the last 13 years, fight-ing for pro-business policies in Central Virginia that have created jobs and pro-vided economic opportunity to the area,” Byron said.

During the event, those in attendance heard from state senators, delegates and candidates as short speeches were made. Tom Garrett, Virginia state senator for

the 22nd district, said in his speech that one of the concerns of LRCC, the state of Virginia and the nation is what is being done to create economic opportunity jobs and growth.

“A lot of the men and women who are here tonight are leaders of private busi-nesses, leaders of local government and policymakers who will set the environ-ment in which jobs will be created or not, in which people will gain employment or not,” Tom Garrett said in an interview. “And those are important people to talk to when the issues come back around to the economy.”

Concern for employment was a theme throughout the speeches, as Scott Gar-rett, of the Virginia House of Delegates for the 23rd district, also commented on this topic.

“We are absolutely focused on getting meaningful employment to all Virgin-ians,” Scott Garrett said in his speech. “Four years ago, when I was first elected to the general assembly, the unemploy-ment rate in the commonwealth of Vir-ginia was 7.4 percent. My friends, today it is 5.7 percent, and that ain’t enough.”

Another theme senators and delegates had in common was the impact that Liberty University has on the politics of Virginia.

“One could argue that they’re the most influential political school in the Com-monwealth of Virginia,” Newman said. “I don’t think any other school can attri-bute a direct election of a state delegate like Liberty University can. (When) Scott Garrett was elected, he was elected, in no small part, on the turnout from Lib-erty. But also it’s the conservative anchor for all of Central Virginia … to a lot of people state-wide and nationally, it is an anchor for the conservative movement.”

Tom Garrett said he genuinely ad-mires what Liberty has done to en-gage the student body more than any other institution.

“Liberty students with whom I come in contact are informed and engaged, and they can give reasoning for why they feel how they feel on various issues,” Tom Garrett said. “(T)he existential challenges that we face as a community, as a com-monwealth and as a nation, those are the ones that are going to determine what kind of world we hand to the next gener-ation. And if you don’t know what’s going on, you will not contribute to the solution of those problems. And so I think LU has developed a culture of students who are engaged and informed.”

With the upcoming elections, the con-sensus from delegates and candidates such as Byron and Scott Garrett was this event was a great opportunity to meet the business people of Virginia and educate them on what is being done on their be-half, and what can be done for them in the future.

WEBSTER is a copy editor.

Registration begins

Sept. 4 - Oct. 10 Liberty’s voter registra-tion campaign begins with registration tables set up in DeMoss Hall and the Tilley Student Center.

Oct. 1-14Online voter registra-tion tables with laptops and wireless printers will be accessible in DeMoss Hall.*

Oct. 1 & 8 Voter education and registration will oc-cur in residential hall meetings.

*Voter Registration will continue to be available at all Flames football com-muter tailgates.

Voter registration

Page 9: Liberty champion 24 sept 2013

SPORTSSEPTEMBER 24, 2013 B1

M. D1 Hockey Volleyball Cross Country M. SoccerLiberty West Va.

6 3UMBC Liberty

3 1Men 1st, Women 2nd

at VMI InvitationalLiberty American

1 0

Field Hockey

W. Soccer vs. Charleston Southern Sept. 25 @ 3 p.m.

Field Hockey vs. St. Louis Sept. 27 @3:30 p.m.

M. Soccervs.VMI Sept. 24 @ 6 p.m.

Footballvs. Ky. Wesleyan Sept. 28 @ 7 p.m.

M. D1 Hockey vs. Towson Sept. 27 @ 7 p.m.

WE’LL SEEYOU ATTHEGAME

Barrs raised

Ruth BiBBy| LiBeRty Champion

MESSY CONDITIONS — Kendall Couamin returns a squib kick in the third quarter as the rain intensifies at Robins Stadium.

Downpour of emotions

Docksteader brothers net hat tricks

Ruth BiBBy | LiBeRty Champion

LETHAL DUO — The Docksteader tandem tallied seven goals during the weekend.

Derrick Battle

[email protected]

Playing against a coach who brought cur-rent Liberty football juniors and seniors into the program makes for an emotional setting. No matter the end result, a bittersweet taste is all that remains. For former Liberty Flames (2-2, 0-0 Big South) and current No. 20 Rich-mond Spiders (2-2, 0-0 Atlantic 10) Head Coach Danny Rocco, it was just that, as the Spiders defeated the Flames Saturday, 30-21.

“I’m relieved this game is over,” Rocco said. “I’ve been waiting for this game to be over since February … I watched film on (Liberty) in the summer just to see what they look like, and they are a great team. I knew that after last week, this week turned into a must-win game. It was tough. I was there for six years and built many relationships.”

Among the 8,076 in attendance, Flames fans made the trip to Richmond to support their team, sometimes chanting and yelling louder than the Richmond fan base.

A steady rain that glistened over Robins

Stadium became a downpour by the third quarter, which caused second half blun-ders. A Liberty fumble, interception and two blocked field goals in the third and fourth quarters made the difference.

“We had two turnovers, and they didn’t,” Liberty Head Coach Turner Gill said. “We have to capitalize on our opportunities. We have to learn from our mistakes.”

Although known for the passing game, Richmond came out running, catching the Flames defense off guard and gashing them for huge chunks on the ground. With 9:51 left in the first quarter, Spiders running back Jacobi Green broke open a 51-yard run. This set up a field goal, and the Spiders took a 3-0 lead.

The Flames answered on the next posses-sion. Quarterback Josh Woodrum went 4-4 for 59 yards on the drive, hitting wide receiv-er Gabe Henderson three times. The Flames capped off the drive with tight end Brandon Apon catching a 20-yard touchdown strike from Woodrum. Liberty took their only lead of the game, 7-3.

Before the end of the first quarter, Rich-mond quarterback Michael Strauss and his offense began to show their balance, keep-ing Liberty’s defense on its toes. The Spi-ders ended their five-play, 65-yard drive with a 2-yard touchdown from running back T.J. Moon.

“I thought we would do a good job hold-ing off their run game,” Gill said. “But we had to make adjustments in the second half to eliminate the success on the ground.”

After a Strauss touchdown pass gave the Spiders a 17-7 lead late in the second quar-ter, wide receiver Dante Shells caught a 32-yard pass from Woodrum to set the Flames up in the red zone. Four plays later, at the 9-yard line, the Spiders could not contain Woodrum, who scrambled left and dove for the pylon, putting the Flames within three points.

However, after Woodrum’s touchdown, the Spiders balanced attack and 13-yard touchdown run by Moon gave the Spiders a 23-14

See EMOTIONS, B3

Tory [email protected] Tellersjtellers @liberty.edu

The Liberty Flames men’s Division II hockey dominated Elon and Millersville this past weekend behind the strength of hat tricks from Brad and Devon Docksteader.

LU squashes Elon, 10-1

The Flames played controlled, physical hockey as they steamrolled Elon, 10-1, in front of a packed house Friday, Sept. 20.

It did not take long for the Flames to get their scoring going. Within the first few minutes, Devon Docksteader snuck a shot past the Elon goalie and gave Lib-erty a lead they never lost. The goal had more significance for Docksteader, as it counted as one of his three total goals on the night — the first hat trick of his college career.

Devon Docksteader and his brother, Brad Docksteader, proved to be a danger-ous duo against Elon. In addition to Dev-on Docksteader’s hat trick, older brother

Brad Docksteader scored a goal of his own. They combined for four of Liberty’s 10 goals.

“I guess it makes (me) want to play

harder and be a step ahead of (my brother),” Devon Docksteader said.

The Docksteaders were not the only players to shine Friday night, however. Ju-nior goalie Cary Byron shut out the Elon Phoenix until he was given a rest midway through the second period.

“When I’m in the net, I’m just focusing on the next shot,” Byron said. “When you start thinking about the score, that’s when you’re going to psyche yourself out, but (our defense) made it easy for me.”

The Flames defense allowed only one goal from Elon.

The offense also looked sharp at times, particularly with their puck control. Short, quick passes allowed the Flames to move the puck effectively around the net. Senior Bobby Cervone scored a particularly dif-ficult goal in the first period, smacking a loose puck into the net only

See TRICKS, B4

Two blocked field goals and two turnovers hurt Flames in soggy 30-21 loss to Richmond

Alex [email protected]

Thousands of miles and an ocean separate Lur-gan, Northern Ireland, and Lynchburg, Va., but three sisters made the journey and currently play field hockey at Liberty University.

Older sister Natalie, along with twins Bethany and Ser-ena, are the three Barr sisters of the Liberty field hockey team. Natalie Barr is a sopho-more co-captain who leads the team in points through its first seven games, while Beth-any and Serena Barr are the only freshmen to start each of the team’s first seven games.

Last season as a freshman, Natalie Barr led the Lady Flames with 40 points and 16 goals. Her contribution helped Liberty make its first appearance in the NorPac Championship game against Stanford in the team’s second year playing in the NCAA.

Not only do the Barr sisters make large contributions on the field, they have also made sizeable contributions off the field.

The Barr family has been involved in mission work in Uganda since 2008, when they initially went to do AIDS prevention with their father, who is a doctor. Charlene Barr — one of seven Barr sisters — was particularly touched by the Ugandan people and felt a strong need to give back to the youth of the nation, according to Natalie Barr.

“In Uganda, we were all impacted, but Charlene (Barr) especially, because she knew

See PASSION, B2

LibertyLa Salle2 1

Sisters unite passion for field hockey, missions

Page 10: Liberty champion 24 sept 2013

Courtney Tyree

[email protected]

No one will ever win the de-bate of whether or not cheer-leading is a sport, but one thing is for sure, the Liberty Univer-sity cheerleading squad works in-credibly hard to do what they do.

“I don’t think cheerleading is a sport per se, but I think my cheerleaders are athletes,” Head Coach Jennifer Sydnor said. “I know my athletes work really hard and do things that a lot of people cannot do.”

According to Sydnor, the Lib-erty cheerleading squad practic-es four days a week and works on strength and conditioning two to three times a week.

The squad is made up of ap-proximately 46 members, which is split into two different squads, the red squad and the white squad.

Sydnor explained that the red squad is mostly made up of up-perclassmen, and it competes at the Universal Cheerleading Competition in January each year.

The Flames have placed every year they have competed in the competition, capturing fifth the first year, ninth the second year and sixth this past year.

“We, of course, want to hit a perfect routine and get first place,” junior member Mor-gan Hoeritz said. “But it is also important to know that ev-erything we do is for the glory of God, and we are there to represent him.”

Hoeritz and senior Rachael Calloway agreed that placing at nationals is a main goal of theirs, but that there are more impor-tant things than just a title.

“Everything we do is for God’s glory, so being a light to other schools means more to us than a title,” Calloway said. “However, we are going to work just as hard as anyone else to place in the top five.”

Liberty’s white squad is made up of mostly underclassmen. Ac-

cording to Sydnor, this squad competes at Christian Cheer-leading of America nationals in March.

Liberty University’s cheerlead-ers not only compete in compe-titions throughout the year, but they are also responsible for cheering at football games, vol-leyball games and both men’s and women’s basketball games.

“I put a lot of hard work and effort into being a Liberty cheer-leader,” Calloway said. “Being

an athlete means to train when no one is watching. Putting in extra time will ultimately show in the end.”

While cheerleading often goes unnoticed, Liberty team members show dedication and effort in practice, games and competitions.

“I have been cheering for al-most 12 years, and it has always been a huge part of my life,” Hoeritz said. “I love competing at nationals and being able to be

a light in a totally secular envi-ronment. I honestly would not know what to do with my life if I did not cheer.”

Sydnor expressed her grati-tude for being able to be a part of Liberty’s squad.

“As a coach, the Lord brought me here (and) … I know that my heart is to give back to the ath-letes,” Sydnor said.

TYREE is a sports reporter.

PASSION continued from B1 if she lived in a place like Uganda, she wouldn’t have survived to the age she (did),” Natalie Barr said.

Afflicted with cystic fibrosis, Charlene Barr started a charity called “Charlene’s Project” to ed-ucate Uganda’s children. But her health took a turn for the worse just a few months after the family’s visit. Charlene Barr lost her battle with cystic fibro-sis in 2010, but her char-ity has received hundreds of thousands of dollars in donations. The family has already built two schools in Uganda with the funds, according to Natalie Barr.

While the Barr sisters were making an impact in Uganda, Lady Flames Head Coach Jodi Murphy was at work using sports as her drive.

Murphy is the founder and president of Pathfind-er Hockey, an organization whose mission is “to use field hockey as a means to help young people around the world and within the U.S. find the path that leads to good health, posi-tive change and hope,” Murphy said.

Oddly enough, the for-eign country in which Pathfinder does a majority of its ministry is Uganda.

Murphy was originally targeting a different player from Northern Ireland after a tip from a coaching colleague, but when that player found out about Murphy’s mission trips to Uganda, she immediately redirected Murphy to Natalie Barr, who had just begun her first year of col-lege in Northern Ireland.

“Natalie (Barr) and I shared a far greater com-mon thread than just (field)hockey,” Murphy said. “So that was a big piece of why she came over — so we could partner in ministry.”

Once Natalie Barr be-came a Lady Flame, the door was opened for her sisters Bethany and Serena Barr to make the journey across the Atlantic to play on the team as well.

“We came out to visit Natalie (Barr) and had a look around the university, and we (Serena and Betha-ny) looked into the thought

of coming (to Liberty),” Bethany Barr said. “Then we came out on our official visit and we loved it. And we’ve always ... enjoyed playing together. So it was an opportunity to get to play together again.”

The sisters are part of a young core of talent for the Lady Flames. Nata-lie Barr is the program’s all-time leading scorer, totaling 20 goals and 12 assists through 27 career games.

“I think (the sisters’ chemistry helps on the field),” teammate Han-nah Doherty said. “They know where each other (is) gonna go on the field. And off the field, we are able to joke around because they love each other so much. They’re all best friends.”

Best friends, teammates and ministry partners, among other things, the Barr sisters are bonded by much more than just a last name.

TICHENOR is a sports reporter.

Liberty Champion/B2 SPORTSSeptember 24, 2013

Raising their voices for the fans

Photo Provided

MAKING A DIFFERENCE — Three sisters from Northern Ireland ended up at Liberty after a series of miraculous events.

ruth BiBBy | LiBerty ChamPion

COMMITMENT — Liberty cheerleaders display their team spirit during the football team’s loss at Kent State, Aug. 29.

The Flames cheerleading squad competes nationally and rallies the crowd at Liberty sporting events

“NATALIE (BARR) AND I SHARED A FAR GREATER

COMMON THREAD THAN JUST (FIELD) HOCKEY

— JODI MURPHY

Page 11: Liberty champion 24 sept 2013

Courtney Tyree

[email protected]

While sitting in his living room at home, Josh Woo-drum’s dad asked him if he was ready for his first var-sity start. Little did Wood-rum know, the start would be just the beginning of a successful football career that still is in the making.

“When I got to middle school, I saw all these people in high school, and I (thought) ‘Man, I really want to go play college football,’” Woodrum said.

Woodrum graduated from Cave Spring High School in Roanoke, Va., in the spring of 2011. Al-though he had offers from several schools such as Duke, Wake Forest, Uni-versity of Connecticut and Vanderbilt University, none seemed to stick out like Liberty did.

“I just kind of fell in love with it,” Woodrum said. “It felt like home

more than anything. Then I committed here, and it’s been going good ever since.”

After sharing time with quarterback Brian Hud-son for the two games of the season, the 210-pound quarterback won the battle for the position and started his first collegiate game at Montana Sept. 15, 2012. Woodrum threw for 322 yards with two touch-downs on 34-44 passing.

“(I) couldn’t have asked for a better place to have a start and kind of go up from there,” Woodrum said. “And Gardner-Webb obviously was the best game I have ever had as a player in college.”

Woodrum recorded 373 passing yards (25-31) and threw for three touch-downs against Gardner-Webb Oct. 6, 2012.

As a redshirt freshman in 2012, Woodrum set a program record for fresh-men with 1,963 total yards and also led the Big South

Conference in pass com-pletion percentage.

Woodrum explained that last year his main purpose was to be a game manager more than any-thing. This year, he has bigger goals — he wants to be more of a playmaker.

“Last year, ( H e a d ) Coach (Turn-er) Gill put me in a posi-tion where I could ex-ecute short throws, get us first downs and just manage the game,” Wo o d r u m said. “But this year, I want to get the deep throws and the

intermediate throws. My goals are just to be one

of the offensive playmakers — not so much just some-one who is just con-sistent … but more

of a

t h r e a t through the air at ev-

ery game.”When asked about

the 2013 season, Woodrum said that

Old Dominion University will

be a tough m a t c h u p .

He also explained the im-

p o r t a n c e of a win against Coastal

Carolina University as a

precursor to a Big South Championship.

Woodrum went on to express how important it is for students and fans to support the Flames.

“In my mind, hav-ing the students here is tremendous,” Woodrum said. “It gives us encour-agement and makes us want to come out here and have a good game and please the crowd. Overall, we couldn’t ask for a better home-field advantage.”

Gill commended Wood-rum on his leadership skills on and off the field.

“If your quarterback has the leadership skills, he is going to raise the bar for everyone around him,” Gill said. “He is a tremen-dous asset.”

With time for growth and improvement, Woo-drum is looking forward to building a résumé that NFL scouts will ponder over the next three years.

“Hopefully I have a good season this year and

build from there as far as my junior and senior campaigns go,” Woodrum said. “Obviously the NFL is in my dreams and aspi-rations, so hopefully that will work out.”

From sitting in the living room to playing in his first collegiate game and hope-fully one day playing in the NFL, Woodrum is mak-ing his dreams come true everyday.

“We thank God for (Woodrum) being here at Liberty University,” Gill said.

TYREE is a sports reporter.

Liberty Champion/B3 SPORTSSeptember 24, 2013

Re-­electRON GILLISPIE

Lynchburg Sheriff

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From game manager to playmaker

EMOTIONS continued from B1lead heading into halftime.

Richmond wide receiver Ben Edwards worked to get open and was active in the first half, catch-ing six balls for 85 yards.

“First of all, I would not say (Liberty cornerbacks Walt Aikens and Kevin Fogg) are good, they are great,” Edwards said. “We re-ally had our hands full preparing for them.”

The Spiders ability to move the ball at will ended at halftime. The Flames defense only al-lowed 21 Richmond yards in the third quarter.

“At halftime, we made the nec-

essary adjustments that we need-ed to make,” Flames linebacker Nick Sigmon said. “We made more plays on the defensive side of the ball.”

In the first half, Richmond gained 332 yards on offense, with 116 of those yards coming from Green.

“We had a bitter taste in our mouth that we didn’t produce enough rushing yards in the last two games,” Green said.

On the Flames first possession of the second half, cornerback Kevin Fogg’s 36-yard kick return gave Liberty good field position. Two plays later, running back Desmond Rice slashed through

Richmond’s defense down the right sideline for a 46-yard touchdown run, cutting the defi-cit to two.

While Liberty’s defense began to adjust to Richmond’s scheme midway through the third quar-ter, heavy rain drenched the field. A Rice fumble gave the Spiders great field position deep in Flames territory.

“I was coming through the hole,” Rice said. “I don’t even think I got hit. I didn’t hold the ball with two hands, and it banged off one of our players.”

Coming out in the wildcat formation, Edwards took a di-rect snap and rushed into the end zone, giving the Spiders a

30-21 lead. Richmond corner-back Wayne Pettus came up with three key plays that helped solid-ify a Spiders victory. Along with his four total tackles, he had two blocked field goals and an inter-ception late in the fourth quarter that proved beneficial.

“(The two blocked field goals were) very big, (because) we only won by nine,” Pettus said. “If they would have made the first field goal, they would have been down by six and (on) the second one, they would had been down by three.”

Rice ended the game with 12 carries, a career-high 106 yards and a touchdown. Rice ran for more than 100 yards in a game

for the first time as a Flame.“(Rice) is a really good kid,”

Rocco said. “I’m proud of him. My son and him are real close friends, and it was good seeing how hard he ran tonight.”

Woodrum went 23-42 for 241 yards with a touchdown and an interception. Safety Jacob Ha-gen had 11 total tackles, corner-back Walt Aikens had 10 total tackles.

The Flames will play the Ken-tucky Wesleyan Panthers at Wil-liams Stadium Saturday, Sept. 28, at 7 p.m.

BATTLE is the sports editor.

Ruth BiBBy | LiBeRty Champion

POISE — Woodrum is a capable scrambler and passer.

Redshirt sophomore quarterback Josh Woodrum has transformed his game to become a leader this season

FYI In 15 career

games, Woodrum has a 66.3 completion

percentage

Page 12: Liberty champion 24 sept 2013

TRICKS continued from B1seconds before crashing into the goal.

Jordan Barstead, Jeff Bos-chman, Ben Freymond, Daniel Huntington and Josh King also scored goals to bring the Lib-erty total to 10.

Head Coach Chris Lowes seemed pleased with his team’s performance, although he re-alized they still have improve-ments to make.

“We still made more mis-takes than I would like to see three games in,” Lowes said. “We took a few penalties, which allowed us to work on our penalty kill, but we would like not to make that a habit.”

Lowes said his team’s mind-set stayed the same from start to finish.

“The mentality shouldn’t change, and that’s what we were preaching — that we still want the same intensity of a tie game,” Lowes said. “By no means were we asking our guys to slow up and stop putting them in the net.”

There was also one more im-portant piece of the game — the fans. The LaHaye Ice Cen-ter was packed with dedicated fans Friday, including many who stayed to the very end.

Flames beat Millersville, 8-4

Liberty’s Division II men’s hockey team scored eight goals

Saturday on its way to beating the Millersville University Ma-rauders, 8-4.

Brad Docksteader led the Flames with a hat trick, scor-ing one goal in each period. Five other Flames added goals of there own as well. Liberty finished the first period up 3-1 over Millersville.

In the second period, Brad Docksteader scored less than 20 seconds in after circling around Millersville’s goal and slipping the puck past the goalie.

Later in the period, Bos-chman scored when he exited the penalty box at the exact moment the Flames defense cleared the puck, giving him the opportunity to capitalize on a one-on-one.

Goals by forward Freymond and Docksteader late in the third period put Liberty up 8-2 with a little over 2:30 left in the game. However, Millers-ville took advantage of power plays to score two goals in the final two minutes of the game, bringing the score to 8-4.

In the third period, Millers-ville took advantage of two Flames penalties. Defenseman Lucas Ebel received a five min-ute penalty for boarding with 2:24 remaining in the third period. Thirty seconds later, his teammate Johnny Cotton received a two-minute penalty for tripping. Millersville took advantage as Chris Collins and Zack Zulliano each scored to

finish out the game.While Liberty held control

for most of the game, Lowes was not pleased with the deci-sion making of his players.

“A couple of them, I didn’t like,” Lowes said. “Our guys know better. A couple of them were guys just battling, (and) ... other ones were part of the game, and they come with the territory. But you can’t give up five-on-threes against good teams. They exposed us.”

Lowes also talked about his overall impression of the game.

“It was a bigger test than we’ve had all year so far, and I thought we played pretty sol-id,” Lowes said. “We probably played 40 good minutes of 60 and tonight it was enough … We took a few penalties, and they capitalized, but on five-on-five I thought we played solid.”

Lowes said home games Sept. 27 against Christopher Newport University and Sept. 28 versus Bowling Green State University will be good tests for his team, and that playing complete games and avoid-ing plays just for show will be two keys for the upcoming weekend.

ABRAHAMSEN and TELLERS are sports reporters.

Liberty Champion/B4 SPORTSSeptember 24, 2013

Ruth BiBBy | LiBeRty Champion

SMOOTH TRANSITION — Freshman defenseman Ryan Sidun handles the puck against Elon.

Oklahoma State’s trail of corruptionJonathan Husker

[email protected]

Charles Caleb Colton, an 18th century English cleric, once said, “Corruption is like a ball of snow, once it’s set a rolling, it must in-crease.” In the case of the Oklaho-ma State (OSU) football program, this quote certainly rang true.

In 2000, Les Miles accepted the job of head coach of the OSU football team. The program be-came a well-oiled machine, upgra-ing in nearly every way possible. As a result, OSU improved to an 8-5 record in Miles’ second season as head coach. Just two years ago, the team finished 12-1, capturing the Big 12 conference title. Yet, no secrets remain hidden forever, and in recent weeks, the dishonesty within the OSU football program has come to light.

An eye-opening Sports Illus-trated (SI) story first revealed the corrupt happenings. In the article, multiple reports of various NCAA violations — including taking mon-ey from boosters, academic cheat-ing, drugs and sex — surfaced from the mouths of players themselves.

Money was distributed imper-missibly. Many of the best players said they received cash-filled enve-lopes directly from boosters. Play-ers also said they earned money through sham jobs.

Academic fraud was a problem too. Current Dallas Cowboys star wide receiver Dez Bryant reported-ly had much of his homework done by tutors, even during his academic All-American year, simply because he was too lazy to do the home-work himself. Several other players never attended certain classes they were enrolled in, yet were still given As as final grades.

According to the SI article, drug use was a widespread issue as well. In the past eight years, 31 players reportedly used marijuana while they were on the OSU team. Sev-eral players even got high before games. Three players also con-fessed to selling marijuana.

In order to entice new re-

cruits, some members of a volun-teer recruiting program entitled “Orange Pride” had intercourse with the potential players accord-ing to the SI article. The idea was to make the prospective athletes believe that these would be regular occurrences if they chose to come to OSU.

These events are simply wrong. Players, coaches, teachers and ev-eryone else involved should have had better judgment in knowing that they were part of something that not only violated NCAA regu-lations, but was also morally and ethically wrong.

What took place at OSU did not benefit the players, or anyone else involved, in any way.

Recently, both the Ohio State football program and the Univer-sity of Miami football program had similar scandals brought to light. Ohio State and Miami both faced significant penalties. Miami had several players suspended dur-ing their 2011 season, while Ohio State received a one-year bowl ban, as well as other penalties. Consid-ering the severity of OSU’s actions, their punishment will likely be sig-nificantly worse.

Corruption is indeed like a ball of snow. Yes, Miles began with the intent of creating a winning football team. While he did build a team that had multiple winning seasons and a conference title, the desire to win became more impor-tant than doing what was right.

As these events have come to light, OSU’s accomplishments have lost merit. The achievements gained through dishonesty and corruption cannot be regarded as highly as those which are earned honestly and legitimately, as is the case in every facet of life. No lies, dishonesty doings, or corruption will remain hidden forever. Miles and the OSU football may learn that the hard way.

HUSKER is a sports reporter.

BReann BLaCk | LiBeRty ChampionTom [email protected]

Page 13: Liberty champion 24 sept 2013

Gabriella Fuller

[email protected]

The friendly atmosphere of Father’s Table stood in stark contrast to the gloomy Lynchburg weather as I walked into the cafe on a rainy Saturday morning.

Inside, head chef and owner Ken Reed greeted me and kindly invited me to help myself to the breakfast buffet and a cup of fresh coffee as he sat down to share his story and the history of his bakery.

Located on 18396 Forest Road, Father’s Table is a locally owned and family-operated cafe and cater-ing business. According to Ken Reed, owning the bakery fulfills a lifelong goal.

Ken Reed attended culinary school in New York, and has more than 40 years of job experience.

“I love what I do,” Ken Reed said. “It’s a happy, warm place. Good food, good conversation, good Christian music playing in the background.”

Though not everyone who walks into Father’s Table is Christian, Ken Reed has made the bakery his mission field, showing the love of Christ to all who venture inside.

“We want to present the gospel in a nonconfron-tational way,” Ken Reed said.

Customers will find scriptures interspersed throughout the bakery, and the name was even in-spired by a devotional radio program.

This is the third year that Father’s Table has been open for business. However, according to Ken Reed, success has not been without difficulties.

“We have the challenges of small business,” Ken Reed said. “It seems like the odds are against small businesses in this country, so we fight those odds every day.”

Despite challenges, Ken Reed affirmed that the bakery has a faithful clientele and maintains a loyal following.

“We let our customers do the judging,” Ken Reed said concerning the quality of the food.

According to Ken Reed, the bakery’s best sellers are its doughnuts, particularly the maple bacon, which sell out by early morning. Ken Reed offered me what he considered a close runner up, coconut macaroon — a doughnut that could also take first place.

Ken’s son Seth Reed is one of chefs at Father’s Table and a recent Liberty graduate. He took a mo-ment of his free time from the kitchen to sit down and give his insight on the company.

“I love working with Dad,” Seth Reed said. “We’ve always had a very strong relationship. He’s my best friend.”

The Reeds begin looking at the production sched-ule at 3 a.m., filling catering orders and baking every item fresh from scratch.

“Usually when he gets here he makes coffee, reads his Bible, then starts the day off,” Seth Reed said about his father, Ken Reed.

Though days are long, generally 12-16 hours, Ken Reed is passionate about what he does.

“I’ve learned the spiritual lesson that no matter how things look, we still need to just trust,” Ken Reed

said. “Things can look bleak, but we have to realize where our resources are really coming from.”

I left my interview with Ken and Seth Reed en-couraged and well fed. The food is delicious and the mouthwatering pastries leave you promising to come back. More than just a destination for flavorful food, Father’s Table is an atmosphere of home away from home. It is unlikely that I will meet a more genuine family or more welcoming space than at Father’s Table.

For more information, visit fatherscafeandcatering.com, and according to Ken Reed, customers who present this article in store will receive a buy one get one free doughnut.*

FULLER is the opinion editor.

Emily Brown

[email protected]

Although the shop seems simple at first sight, there is much more behind the desserts that fill the display cases of Chestnut Hill Bakery than just the baking process.

The bakery has been providing sweet treats since 1968, but only recently did the shop come under the ownership of Richard and Glenda Hin-kley, who purchased the store in April of 2011.

In addition to their other jobs — Glenda Hinkley as a part-time teacher for Lynchburg City Schools and Richard Hinkley as chief of the Liberty Univer-sity Police Department — the two also work to pro-duce the desserts that are made daily from scratch.

“(It) seems to be the standing joke that not too many bakeries are run by cops, but we have a blast with it,” Richard Hinkley said.

As they took over Chestnut Hill, Richard and Glenda Hinkley wanted to keep the essence of the bakery the same, according to Richard Hinkley. They kept all the original desserts offered since 1968 and even had their distributor chemically match ingredients that had been discontinued.

“It made no sense to change the recipes … be-cause obviously, since 1968, the place obviously has done something,” Richard Hinkley said.

But in addition to ensuring the same quality of products previously produced, Richard and Glen da Hinkley also brought some new desserts

to the bakery. According to Glenda Hinkley, the Hinkleys decid-

ed to expand their offerings to include not only the original cake flavor, but also several different flavors for specialty orders. Glenda Hinkley also began to offer more than 15 different flavors as cupcakes.

In addition to the cupcakes, Chestnut Hill cus-tomers can choose from a variety of desserts, in-cluding several kinds of handmade pastries, cook-ies and doughnuts, by walking into the shop and placing call-ahead orders. The bakery does birth-day orders as well.

According to Glenda Hinkley, the bakery often fills orders from parents who live out of town and want to send their children at nearby colleges a cake or cupcakes. The staff delivers the order and will even include a handful of balloons if requested.

“I used to literally say ‘Lord help me to be a blessing,’ because somebody’s birthday gets this,” Glenda Hinkley said. “… We just think, ‘Oh it’s a business, here’s a birthday cake.’ No, somebody’s having a celebration, and we get to be part of it. That’s the part I love.”

Additionally, Chestnut Hill sells thousands of pies and packages of bread around big holi-days. The bakery has also produced huge or-ders for businesses and organizations, including a 2,000-brownie order for a local business and a 6,000-cupcake order for Liberty’s 2013 gradua-tion reception. Currently, Chestnut Hill provides 250-300 doughnuts each week to students who

participate in Gillville, Liberty’s fan campout prior to home football games.

Overall, the Hinkleys see their business as an opportunity to touch others.

“It’s just a bakery, but you know what? It’s something God’s given us to bless other people,” Glenda Hinkley said.

Chestnut Hill Bakery is located at 5216 Fort Ave. and is open Monday-Friday, 6 a.m.-5 p.m. and Sat-urday, 6 a.m.-3 p.m.

According to the Hinkleys, guests can present a copy of this article for a free cupcake with the purchase of a cupcake.*

BROWN is a copy editor.

Sophia Hahn

[email protected]

As I stepped off the streets of Wyndhurst and into a cozy, family owned bakery I was welcomed by the aroma of homemade breads and desserts as well as a friendly atmosphere.

Montana Plains Bakery, which is owned by Steve and Lucia Coates and their son, Joey Hertzberg, has been open for 16 years.

“Through all of these years we have kind of evolved, done different things and maybe that is it,” Lucia Coates, who also serves as head chef, said. “We are just constantly evolving and doing new things to keep our customers satisfied and excited about coming into the bakery.”

According to Steve Coates, when the bakery opened, they only made bread. Now they have ex-panded to cooking pies, cakes, sandwiches, soups and much more.

“We use real ingredients,” Steve Coates said. “Real vanilla, it is not imitation. Real butter, there is no margarine here at all. No artificial flavors. It is all natural.”

Montana Plains tries to purchase local products whenever they can, which helps to give the bakery its European-Southern blend style, Lucia Coates said.

“I try not to be trendy, you know?” Lucia Coates said. “You want to keep current with what is going on in cooking and baking, but I feel like if you start

being trendy and you don’t really stick with what you think is a good product, then you can run into the wrong.”

Lucia Coates is always looking for new recipes, whether by making changes to existing ones or creating them from scratch.

“Every baker bakes a little differently,” Lucia Coates said. “If you try to get them to do everything exactly the same, people have a harder time learn-ing how to do that.”

According to Steve Coates, Montana Plains is al-ways focused on having quality products that their customers crave.

“The key to a good bakery is that it has got to be fresh and you have to have a variety,” Steve Coates said. “That is a challenge when you are building. It has to naturally grow because you have to build clientele for each product.”

I had the pleasure of tasting several items that the bakery is known for — a chicken salad sand-wich on cottage cheese dill bread, two brioches, an éclair and Friday bread.

Every bite of food that I had from Montana Plains was filled with delicious flavor and appreciation for fresh ingredients. Their bread was moist. Nothing was over salted, or overly sweet. The serving sizes were generous and well worth the cost. Everything was just right.

According to, Steve Coates the bakery also has a big wedding cake business and is getting a vehicle license for catering deliveries. The owners are also

making their shop more technology-friendly by adding Wi-Fi and making a webpage.

“Nothing is going to be better than that child-hood memory of that bakery, but what is great about it is, over time, kids and people think of us and our products as a bakery they have grown up with,” Steve Coates said.

According to Steve Coates, customers can pres-ent this article for a free drink with the purchase of a sandwich.*

HAHN is the news editor.

Liberty Champion/B5FEATURESeptember 24, 2013Breann Black | liBerty champion

GaBriella Fuller | liBerty champion

FRESH — The bakery is Ken Reed’s mission field.

ruth BiBBy | liBerty champion

SWEET — The bakery has been open since 1968.

Sara Warrender| liBerty champion

DISPLAY — The bakery has been open for 16 years.

*Offer is limited to only one free item per person with the purchase of specified item. Each guest must present a separate copy of the article at time of checkout.

Page 14: Liberty champion 24 sept 2013

Jeremy Beale

[email protected]

The Bible tells a story of a young man confronted in the middle of the night by an unknown traveler. Locking hands in head-to-head combat, the young man fought valiantly against the traveler until the break of dawn.

This is the story of Ja-cob, “The Grasper of Heels,” who fought with God and became blessed with new life.

Forty young men gath-ered Friday, Sept. 20 in the wrestling room located near the south end zone of Williams Stadium to test their will in a 24-hour training event called the “Jacob Challenge.”

“The Jacob Challenge was both a team bond-ing experience and fund-raiser designed to test the team both mentally and physically,” Liberty Uni-versity Assistant Wrestling Coach Allen Hackmann said. “The secondary goal of this event was to raise $10,000 in funds for the wrestling team’s travel ex-penses and gear.”

Wrestlers gradually be-gan filling the room, not knowing what they faced.

Filled with anticipation for this long day, wrestlers walked in and began to organize their cubbies, lace their shoes, bandage their bodies and sit quietly, watching as the short hand of the clock edged toward six.

“Walking in the room, I was a little bit nervous,”

returning All-American and Liberty University junior Chase Boontjer said. “I just got to thinking that this was one of those unique opportunities that I could look back on and say, ‘I did that.’”

Asking these young men to extend themselves in preparation for the long season ahead, the Jacob Challenge demanded their full attention.

“My anticipation walk-ing into the room was to work hard, be tired and get mentally tough,” returning Liberty University wrestler and junior Josh Sanders said.

As heat began to fill the room, the wrestlers gath-ered around the coach in preparation and prayer for the trial, asking God for guidance, safety and deter-mination.

Hour after hour, the in-tensity grew, as wrestlers battled it out on the mat. The participants exhaust-ed themselves, running the steps of William Sta-dium, flipping tires in the stadium and attempting to battle fatigue all night.

“These are the times you will remember,” for-mer NCAA wrestler and Liberty University alum-nus Jonathan Perkins said. “Stay persistent during these moments, because once something like the Ja-cob Challenge is over, you will never be able to forget it.”

With each tick of the clock, wrestler after wres-tler began to feel the threat of failure. How-

ever, strengthened by their bonds to one another and their willingness to commit to the challenge, the team pushed through.

As the wrestlers reached the 23-hour mark, they began just as they started. They again laced up their shoes, bandaged their bod-ies and sat silently, await-ing their final test — a 20-minute grind match.

“All I can ask of you guys is to push yourselves past your fatigue and take comfort in knowing upon completion of this you will have accomplished some-thing that most men could not,” Liberty University Head Wrestling Coach Jess Castro said. “In this final hour, it is a chance to truly define yourselves and experience what it means to push through the pain.”

As the wrestler reached the mat, the final hour of the Jacob Challenge had arrived.

As the clock’s final stroke

hit six, and the men jour-neyed outside the wrestling room, they were no longer seen as Jacobs – “Graspers of Heels,” — but Israels—

“Fighters of God.”

BEALE is a feature reporter.

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Wrestlers compete in Jacob ChallengeLiberty athletes participated in the 24-hour training event to raise money for traveling expenses and gear

Photo Provided

POWER — Liberty wrestlers were no longer seen as Jacobs — “Graspers of Heels” — after the 24-hour training.

Photo Provided

TAP OUT — Wrestlers underwent a 20-minute grind match at the 23-hour mark.

Page 15: Liberty champion 24 sept 2013

Tobi Walsh

[email protected]

Students, faculty and families lined up outside of the Liberty University Art Gallery for the open-ing night of the Lee Weeks exhibition Sept. 19, which showcased some of the comic book artist’s best work.

“It’s an honor to be here at Liberty,” Lee Weeks said as he signed autographs and wowed some of his younger fans with magic tricks. “It’s amazing. I’ve just watched the whole ex-hibit blossom over the last few days.”

The show, which runs until Nov. 10, displayed various pieces of Lee Weeks’ work from his dec-orated career. According to his biography on Lib-erty’s website, Lee Weeks started his career in the

early 1990s. Lee Weeks has drawn for both Mar-vel and DC Comics, but is most remembered for his work in “Angels Unaware” in the Daredevil series.

Guests of the show were invited to browse the gal-lery while enjoying punch and light snacks. Superhe-roes like Hulk and Wolver-ine were just a couple of the many pieces the show had to offer.

Studio art major Shosha-na Lin said that although she had spent seven hours setting up the gallery for the show, she still was not tired of Lee Weeks’ work.

“I’m a huge comic book fan,” Lin said. “I’m amazed at the incred-ible detail that went into his work.”

Lin, who attended a question-and-answer ses-sion with Lee Weeks ear-lier in the week, said that it

was interesting to hear him talk about his salvation and listen to some of the tips he had for aspiring artists.

“He showed us how to make things exciting just by placing objects in different ways that you wouldn’t re-ally think to do,” Lin said.

Carson Dortch, a graph-ic design major, said that it is great to see Liberty bringing in popular artists such as Lee Weeks.

“It’s a great opportunity to see what kind of talent is out there,” Dortch said. “I’m really fascinated by what someone can do with paper and a pen.”

Dortch’s friend Garrett Shue, who is also a graphic design major, agreed how great it was to see Weeks’ work up close.

“You just look at the square frames and see what kind of perspective went into creating some-

thing like that,” Shue said. “It really makes you think as an artist.”

Caleb Hall, another graphic design major, was also impressed by the show.

“It’s really awesome to see someone like Lee Weeks here at Liberty,” Hall said. “I couldn’t be happier to get the chance to look at some of this artwork up close. You can look and see where the pencil marks used to be.”

Another guest at the show was Lee Weeks’ daughter Vaughn Weeks, who is a student and an RA at Liberty.

“I can’t say it was like growing up with every other father in the world,” Vaughn Weeks said. “Me and my sister probably know more superheroes than a normal 20-year-old girl should.”

Vaughn Weeks said that

even though she knew that it was a big deal grow-ing up with Lee Weeks as her father, it was not the comic book artwork that impressed her.

“Honestly, I’ve never seen someone marvel so much at new ideas and God’s creation as much as my dad,” Vaughn Weeks said. “His love for the Lord is incredibly chal-lenging and very evident in the eagerness with which he talks about his God. I know my dad is a great artist, but he is also a great man.”

The gallery, which is free and open to the public, is located on the fourth floor of the DeMoss Hall. The hours are Monday-Friday, 8 a.m.-7 p.m. and Satur-day, 10 a.m.-7 p.m.

WALSH is a news reporter.

Melissa Skinner

[email protected]

Liberty University School of Law hosted Experience Law, an event des-ignated for prospective law students, Friday, Sept. 20, and Saturday, Sept. 21.

Guests of the event attended a law class and panel discussions with faculty and students addressing questions about the school Friday. Admissions and fi-nancial aid sessions during the day also guided prospective students.

Attendees were invited to use some of Liberty’s facilities Saturday. Some participants took advantage of the Lib-erty Mountain Snowflex Centre while others explored campus and the city of Lynchburg.

According to School of Law Director of Admissions Annette Pettyjohn, the most important session of the day is en-titled, “How to Succeed in Law School.”

“We offer this session to help pro-spective students prepare for law school and help them learn, in advance, tac-tics and various study habits needed to succeed through law school,” Petty-john said. “During a reception at the end of the day, faculty and staff were available to answer questions from pro-spective students.”

According to Pettyjohn, Liberty University’s School of Law is unique because it is the only law school in the

country that offers six semesters of law-yering skills.

“Liberty recognized the need to teach students law theory through a Christian worldview, along with lawyering skills needed to start their own practice,” Pet-tyjohn said. “We have had several stu-dents graduate from our program and start their own practices immediately. We want our guests … to realize the uniqueness of this program.”

Illinois, Tennessee, Florida, and Ohio were three areas represented among the 35 potential students from around the nation who attended the event. A pro-spective student from Nigeria, as well as several residential students enrolled in various undergraduate programs at Liberty, also came to the event.

According to Bethany Brock, a jour-nalism student at Cedarville University in Ohio, the discussion panels from fac-ulty and students helped her realize her passion for law.

“Law is a field where you can become a master in your field and do a lot for the Lord and America by promoting religious freedom and first-amendment rights,” Brock said. “My goal if I be-come a lawyer will be to persuade the field of law for God. “

The next Experience Law Weekend will take place Nov. 1.

SKINNER is a feature reporter.

Liberty Champion/B7FEATURESeptember 24, 2013

MILER continued from B8

University’s Soar Dunk Team and Liberty’s mascot, Sparky.

After the packet pickup, all races will begin Saturday at 8 a.m.

Participants such as Bill Draper have enjoyed the race for years. Draper, who is 85 years old, has partici-pated in every 10 Miler since 1973, when the first race was held. Draper has lived in New Jersey for the last 37 years, but has made an effort to be at the starting line for every 10 Miler.

“I have met a lot of inter-esting people in the last 40

years of the race and made a lot of friends,” Draper said. “The races are always exceedingly well organized, as well as full of comradery and fun.”

In addition to Draper, the 10 Miler will host Kathrine Switzer, the first woman to officially enter and run the Boston Marathon in 1967, according to virginiatenmil-er.com. Switzer will be re-turning to Lynchburg, where she began her running ca-reer at Lynchburg College, for the event.

Fordorko said that because Liberty has a large hand in supporting the race, there will be hundreds of Liberty employees and students at-

tending the event.According to Paul Carma-

ny, a Liberty assistant athlet-ic communications director, Liberty junior and runner Caroline Parris is a potential competitor this year, because in 2012, she placed 72nd overall in the 10 Miler with a time of 1:06:43. She finished first in her age group and 15th among other females.

Those who wish to partici-pate in any of the races can sign up at the packet pickup.

WARRENDER is the feature editor.

BENSON is a feature reporter.

Photo Provided

ENDURANCE — This year marks 40 years of competition for the 10 miler.

Visitors explore law

Lee Weeks exhibit showcases artMarvel and DC Comics artist showed students his tricks of the comic book trade, Sept. 19

BROTHER continued from B8

I was unsure of what I wanted to do outside of school,” Bryant said. “I knew I had to do some-thing and had heard a lot of things about the Big or-ganization, so I joined.”

According to the Big Brothers Big Sisters web-site, roughly 90 percent of children who were paired with a Big were reported to make better choices during their childhood.

“The Big program is definitely a good experi-ence,” Bryant said. “I always wanted a little brother or sister, so I defi-nitely felt that I would have a good impact on her, but I would say (my Little) has definitely taught me what it means to be a big sister.”

Bryant also said that not every Little is from a bad home, but may come from one where parents may not necessarily have enough time to spend with their child or children.

“The program requires eight hours of time to be spent with a Little per month, but I spend around 10 to 15 hours,” Bryant said. “My Little and I en-joy going out to the movies the most.”

Bryant said students interested in joining the program should not wor-ry about being a bad Big brother or sister.

“For anyone interested in the program, all I can say is jump in, because all a Little expects is to hang out with a Big,” Bryant said. “The first time I met mine, I loved her.”

According to Bryant, once all her nerves were gone and it was just her and her Little, she real-ized she not only gained a friend, but a sister.

According to bigcva.org, “as a volunteer, you have an opportunity not only to impact a child’s life today, but to transform their po-tential for tomorrow.”

BEALE is a feature reporter.

Kyle eriKson | liberty ChamPion

ON DISPLAY — Aspiring artists and comic fans alike gathered Thursday, Sept. 19, to admire the work of experienced artist Lee Weeks.

FYI

Big Brothers Big Sisters welcomes volunteers year-

round. For information, visit

bigcva.org.

Page 16: Liberty champion 24 sept 2013

Sara [email protected] [email protected]

With the Genworth Virginia 10 Miler quick-ly approaching , more than 4,000 people are preparing to run in the 40th annual event.

The 10 Miler will take place Saturday, Sept. 28 and will begin at E.C Glass High School.

“The race is meant to be a footprint that captures what Lynch-burg is,” Jeff Fordoko, the 10 Miler director, said. “People from all over come to experi-ence our city.”

Fordoko and volun-teers are continually en-couraged by the positive

difference they see in the health and wellness of the community.

In addition to the 10 Miler, other races, including the 4 Miler, 4 Mile Walk and the Amazing Mile Chil-dren’s Race — offered in half mile and quarter mile increments — of-fer the opportunity for people of all ages and physical conditions to participate. There

are also Safety Aware-ness Fitness Excellence (SAFE) Strides training team meetings offered by the downtown and Jamerson YMCA. The training teams are run by YMCA-trained pro-fessionals who coach participants to meet their fitness goals for this year’s event.

Festivities begin with the packet pickup, which will be held at Amaze-ment Square, Thursday, Sept. 26, 12-7:30 p.m. and Friday, Sept. 27, 12 p.m.-5 p.m. Accord-ing to virginiatenmiler.com, the packet pickup will feature live music, games, Liberty

See MILER, B7

Katey Roshetko

[email protected]

Alluvion Stage Com-pany’s rendition of Les Misérables christened the Liberty University theat-rical season with colorful and compelling perfor-mances that began Friday, Sept. 13 in front of a sold-out audience. Theatergo-ers were transported to 19th century France and given a fictional taste of the real-life uprising in Paris in1832.

“Opening weekend was so surreal,” the actress who stars as Eponine, Sarah Seaman, said. “The ener-gy in the audience was pal-pable. It had a heartbeat.”

According to several cast and crew members, their first shows were a huge success.

“I’m very proud of all the hard work of the cast and crew,” Connor Worthington, men’s ward-robe manager for the show, said. “We keep getting a lot

of positive feedback from the audience.”

According to walnut-streettheater.org, the mu-sical premiered in Paris in 1980. Five years later, the English-language version opened in London. While critics were not impressed, the show was warmly re-ceived by the public. In its 28 consecutive years being run, the play has been per-formed in over 40 coun-tries and translated into 22 languages. Now, this award-winning musical has arrived in central Vir-ginia for the first time.

“I absolutely loved the show,” senior Liberty stu-dent Sam Farnsworth said. “The music literally sent chills down my spine.”

Despite being written as a secular show, Les Mi-sérables tells a very con-victing Christian message — everyone is in need of redemption. As it comes to an end, one phrase sums up the three-hour show — ‘To love another person is

to see the face of God.’“No matter who you are,

you are born with a God-shaped hole, and nothing can fill that but the (God),” Kelli Overmyer, who plays the virtuous Fantine, said. “People need hope. People need love. Les Mis pres-ents, I think better than any other musical, the concept of God’s grace from Romans 8. Pure, sac-rificial love conquers all in this show.”

Even the most solemn shows need comedic relief. Christopher Nelson and Stephanie Lambert were perfectly cast as the raun-chy innkeepers, Monsieur and Madame Thénardier. They lifted the crowd from sober consciousness into uproarious merriment.

“When their characters were introduced, the show had been really serious,” Farnsworth said. “They came in right when we needed to laugh and were absolutely hilarious.”

However, the Thénar-

diers do not fit into the family-friendly category of characters. According to Nelson, they symbolize “the growing darkness in the story, a representation of life without faith.”

“It’s important that I give him life so that the contrast is shown even more vividly between a life marked by unbelief and a life marked by redemp-tion, as is the case with Val Jean,” Nelson said.

Undertaking a show like Les Misérables can be a hard journey from the very beginning. Rigorous re-hearsals and healthy habits were required for both ac-tors and crew members.

“Putting together such a big, complex show in a short amount of time meant that the rehearsals were intense and quick,” Worthington said. “The thing that pushed us to get it done was our desire to do it well. Everything the show stands for really mo-tivated us to succeed.”

Within the enormous scope of Les Misérables are incredible characters that require great passion and vulnerability. Fantine is one such character.

“It felt like a lot to live up to until I realized one thing — there are so many other girls who are cur-rently doing this role all over the world,” Overmy-er said. “… The Lord has given me this incredible opportunity, and I don’t want to live a moment of it in fear.”

Both Overmyer and Seaman have touched the hearts of many by telling their characters’ stories with humility and consis-tently giving the glory to God.

“I realized that my duty in this show is not to as-tound people or make them like me,” Overmyer said. “I am one of many servants to the Lord’s pur-poses for this show. It’s his story, after all.”

Seaman went on to de-

scribe the appreciation she feels for the opportunity to be a part of the perfor-mance.

“Bringing (Les Mi-sérables) to life is such a blessing, and one I’m hon-ored and grateful to the Lord for the opportunity to perform each night,” Seaman said.

The show will continue to run through Sunday, Oct. 20. Tickets can be purchased online at ticket-return.com, over the tele-phone at (434) 582-SEAT or at the Vines Center box office. Discounts are avail-able for students, seniors, military members and children.

“I hope the audience will see a story of a man who is being redeemed by God and that it will re-mind us all that no one is a lost cause,” Nelson said.

ROSHETKO is a feature reporter.

FEATURESEPTEMBER 24, 2013 B8

Ruth BiBBy| LiBeRty Champion

ART —Les Miserables takes viewers on a journey to19th-century France and gives a fictional taste of the real-life uprising in Paris in 1832.

Curtain opens with Les Misérables

10 Miler approachesServing the children

photo pRovided

SISTER — Courtney Bryant volunteers.

Jeremy Beale

[email protected]

Nerves filled her heart moments before they officially met. All the background infor-mation she had been given about the little girl raced through her mind. Then the door opened, and they met. Her fears calmed as a new relationship was born.

One year ago, Courtney Bryant, a Lynchburg, Va., local and Liberty Univer-sity junior, made the decision to join the Big Brothers Big Sisters of Central Virginia program and is still a volunteer today.

According to bigva.

org, “the mission of Big Brothers Big Sisters of Central Virginia is to provide children facing adversity with strong and enduring, profes-sionally supported, one-to-one relation-ships that change their lives for the better.”

According to Bry-ant, she intended to leave an impact dur-ing her time at Liberty. Not knowing how she would make a differ-ence in the Lynchburg community, she decid-ed to take a chance.

“Transferring from George Mason Uni-versity and coming into Liberty,

See BROTHER, B7

Alluvion Stage Company presented Liberty’s first play of the season to a sold-out crowd Friday, Sept. 13

FYI Women’s cross coun-

try team members Kate Spencer, Kaitlyn

Hutchins, Megan Versen and Mary Cate

Cooper are running the 4 Miler this year.

The Genworth Virginia 10 Miler kicks off Sept. 28