By Erika Drake

Walking into Ravished, each student was welcomed with greeters, loud music and the escape
from the chilly Friday night. By 8 p.m., East Lodge lobby was packed with nearly 800 students
from Taylor, Anderson, Huntington, Ball State and Indiana universities, as well as University of
Kentucky, for a night of worship.

“We did not even advertise that much, I just made a video and a poster on Facebook,” said
Hannah Gray (jr), a leader in the event. “Obviously God had other plans for the time.”

Ravished was hosted by the leaders of The Well, a weekly worship night in the loft of the
Chapel-Auditorium. Last year, Sylvana Paternite (jr) had the idea to have a worship gathering of
all the different Christian universities around IWU, according to Gray.

“When else do our schools come together? Only for sporting events, it seems like. So we
thought, ‘Why not join in what God is doing in our campus together?’” Gray said on the reasons
for the combined worship.

Paternite took care of a huge amount of the details, organizing and talking to the administration,
according to Gray.

The Well’s leadership also attended student-run ministries at Anderson, Taylor and Huntington
in preparation for the event. The IWU students talked to those at the ministry night, inviting them
to the event.

The worship night was named Ravished based on Song of Solomon 4:9 KJV: “You have
ravished my heart.” Ravished was created as a night to simply worship, without the idea of
getting anything in return, but solely because God is good, Gray said.

Students from surrounding universities seemed just as eager to worship in unity. Huntington
students Benjamin Cable (fr) and Giuliana Ruiz-Moreno (fr) found out about the event through
the Ravished Facebook page. The hour drive was well worth it, according to Cable.

“To be surrounded by others who want to share in worship – that’s an awesome thing,” Ruiz-
Moreno said.

Marisa Haskins (sr) learned about Ravished at the worship night she leads at Anderson, called
10:07. She came to support her sister, Natalie Haskins (jr), who attends IWU and played
keyboard in the band at Ravished. The sisters have led a worship night at Taylor University
together in the past and said they were glad to be a part of another event that united their
universities.

Taylor student Luke Tilden (sr) found out about the event through a friend who attends IWU.
Like Ruiz-Moreno, a night to worship in unity is the reason Tilden attended.

“Also it is a great way to meet new people in good community,” Tilden added.

Students from public schools also attended. Emily Seibert (fr), from Ball State University, found
out about the event through the Navigators. The Navigators is a Christian organization of
approximately 50 members at Ball State.

“We don’t have a worship night, so we jumped at the idea of it,” Seibert said.

Ravished was designed as mostly a worship night, but three speakers gave short messages
between songs. During the two-hour-long event, the leaders asked each university to pray for
the others. The students circled around each other and whispered prayers with hands on each
others’ shoulders, as a visual sign of unity between the universities.

Gray said she believes that unity was stirred in the heart of the IWU campus, which allowed for
the success of the night. Gray said she is certain there will be a Ravished 2014.

The snow started coming down about 9 p.m. Indiana Wesleyan University students started getting their hopes up about 11 p.m.

When all was said and done the next day, Monday, March 25, Marion’s emergency services reported a total of 11.5 inches of snow. Parts of IWU’s campus received up to a foot of snow, with eight inches in some places coming before sunrise.

Morning came, but to the dismay of students, an email from the university canceling classes did not.

John Jones is the vice president for technology and facilities services at IWU and is the school’s primary monitor of severe weather. Jones chairs a committee that convenes when conditions might call for a cancellation, one that met early that Monday morning and made a recommendation to the university’s management team to keep the school open.

According to Jones, the committee reached this consensus based on local authorities’ decision to issue a travel watch instead of a travel warning. A warning prohibits all non-emergency travel on roads, while a watch grants travel to and from work, allowing IWU to open for its faculty and commuting students. Jones said the decision to cancel classes happened late morning, and shut campus down at 3 p.m.

“Since a decision was made early in the morning hours to be open, there wasn’t a significant benefit to closing later in the morning or at noon,” Jones said in an email, noting the fear of endangering night class traffic. “As the day progressed, there was a growing sense that employees and commuter students may have difficulty traveling home since it continued to snow most of the day.”

The decision to cancel classes involves more than just telling professors not to come in, making Jones’ job a bit trickier.

“Closing the campus is a complex undertaking and that is why it doesn’t happen very often. If the campus is closed because of a weather event, teams of essential employees are still required to be onsite to handle the basic life safety elements of a residential campus. Closing also impacts class schedules, campus visits, special guests/guest speakers, scheduled events, etc.,” Jones said, noting decisions are made with safety first in mind. “We follow the recommendation of local authorities, but encourage employees and students to use their best judgment when deciding to travel.”

Many professors took advantage of that best judgment, as many classes were cancelled in the morning despite the school remaining open. At least one professor stayed home but Skyped into his class in the morning.

Anne Bruehler, assistant professor of TESOL, held most of her classes, minus an afternoon session that was cancelled because of the 3 p.m. closure. Bruehler said faculty didn’t receive any communication concerning the situation until the all-campus notice about noon that day. She said faculty can get just as excited for snow days as students, especially when the roads are hazardous.

“I would have preferred if they would have closed earlier, especially because it seems like they closed once the roads were fine,” Bruehler said. “I live just a few blocks from campus, so I could walk in, but the roads were really bad in the morning, and I know a lot of people didn’t come in just because they were so bad.”

Bruehler’s husband, Dr. Bart Bruehler, assistant professor of New Testament, was one of those professors who cancelled a small, commuter-heavy class that Monday.

While Anne Bruehler said adjusting syllabi to account for cancellations “can be a hassle,” she said professors are able to make accommodations to make up the lost time.

Even two weeks later, student opinion on the matter is still split. Some students, like Alyssa Campbell (fr), said although she enjoyed the snow the night before, she hoped for a cancellation that next day. Even so, she said there wasn’t too much danger to residential students.

“I think it could have been almost a hazard for some people,” said Campbell, who was on crutches at the time. “But I think we did fine. The sidewalks were clear; you could get where you needed to go.”

Other students, like Patrick Carter (so), saw more potential harm in the situation. Noting the commuter students and professors, he said it was even “hard to cross campus” during his late-morning classes.

Despite the excessive snow, Carter said he didn’t get his hopes up, but still used the strategy employed by countless other IWU students.

“With as heavy as things were coming down, I didn’t necessarily expect the university to cancel things, but I did expect to have professors call off,” Carter said. “Basically I went to bed checking my email and woke up checking my email.”

Dr. David Green, CEO of craft store chain Hobby Lobby, accepted an honor from Indiana Wesleyan University Wednesday, April 3, and tried to dispel rumors surrounding his company in the process.

The ceremony, held on IWU’s campus in Marion, Ind., inducted Green into the university’s Society of World Changers. The award is given annually to individuals the school deems “role models who have exemplified the concept of world changers and whose lives can serve as an inspiration to future generations.”

Green’s daughter Darsee Lett introduced the CEO to an audience of IWU students, staff, faculty and dozens of Hobby Lobby executives and managers.

An exuberant Lett showered Green in shiny confetti for her introduction, joking to the audience that they could find it in the card aisle at Hobby Lobby.

“It’s really sparkly,” Lett added.

But the day was not all shiny confetti for Green, as he faced questions regarding the future of his company. Hobby Lobby is engaged in a months-long battle with the government over a new health care law requiring companies to cover emergency contraceptives for employees through its health plan. Hobby Lobby faced daily fines of $1.3 million beginning in January for its failure to comply based on the ownership’s feelings on the morality of the contraceptives, but the company shifted its plan year for employee health insurance. This action delayed the deadline by “several months.”

Green reaffirmed his stance on the matter in front of the ceremony’s hundreds of attendees.

“There’s one thing we will not do, and that’s paying for aborting unborn fetuses,” Green said.

The statement received a round of applause from the crowd.

In a pre-ceremony meeting with media, Green responded to rumors that Hobby Lobby will close all 500 of its stores across 43 states.

“That is not going to happen. That is on the Internet with my name supposedly signed to it, but we’re not planning on shutting any stores down,” Green said. “We’ve got a battle to fight, and it may take years, but we feel like in the end we will win.”

On the contrary, Green said Hobby Lobby intends to keep expanding while opposing the regulations.

“We continue to grow, we’re adding 35, 40 stores a year. And so for us, as we grow and we earn more profits, we see that as just more ministry,” Green added. “So as long as there’s more ministries needed, then there’s more growth needed, so we continue to plan to grow.”

Dr. Henry Smith, IWU’s soon-to-be-retired president, presented Green with a presidential citation for “model Christian values and the highest morals in business.”

Indiana Wesleyan University’s 2013 World Changer is David Green, owner of the Hobby Lobby franchise. In addition to the normal World Changer festivities, Green is bringing a collection of historical documents.

According to IWU Executive Vice President Keith Newman, 40 Bible-related pieces from the Green family’s 40,000-piece antiquities collection will be on display April 2-4 in the Jackson Library. It will cost the university nothing, Newman said.

“The Greens are passionate about people reading the Bible,” said Newman. “They’re passionate about people finding Christ as their Savior. And this is one of the many venues or avenues, if you will, that they have created to be able to share their faith.”

As the 84th richest person in the United States, at Forbes’ estimated worth of $4.5 billion, Green is involved in several projects designed to bring the Bible to life. One way is through two exhibits that both travel across the country. Of the vast collection the Green family owns, Newman said 500 pieces go on one tour called the Passages exhibit. The 40 coming here are part of another tour — the Sacra Pagina exhibit.

The pieces from this second tour will be displayed in room 160 past the Jackson Library Rotunda. The exhibit will include late second and third century A.D. Greek papyri (ancient paper); a page from one of the oldest New Testament manuscripts in Jesus’ own language, Palestinian Aramaic; 13th- and 15th-century medieval Bible manuscripts; a page from the first Gutenberg Bible; volumes from two copies of the first King James Bible; a copy of the first Bible printed in America by Robert Aitken; and replicas of some of the Dead Sea Scrolls, including the Great Isaiah Scroll.

Assistant professor of Biblical studies Elaine Bernius, who’s had a chance to examine some Dead Sea Scroll fragments from the Green collection, said temperature is important to consider when putting ancient manuscripts like the Scrolls on display. Specifically, she said the temperature needs to be kept at a level where moisture doesn’t impact the manuscripts.

According to Trevor Persaud, communication specialist, the temperature must be below 70 degrees Fahrenheit. Because of the papers’ fragile nature, they have to be kept preserved in glass cases and photography is prohibited.

The display will make its way here from Regent University in Virginia Beach, Va., in time for the World Changers Convocation, according to Director of Church Relations Gale Richmond.

Richmond said many places on campus weren’t available to house the exhibit due to other events in the week. Director of Conference Services Keith Brakel said room 160 was the best option to house the manuscripts. He said the room could fit all 40 pieces, and temperature and security needs can be met.

“We’re going to do whatever is necessary to ensure crowd control and ensure the security of the exhibit itself,” he said.

Campus Police will be in charge of security during hours when the exhibit isn’t open, according to Brakel. But depending on crowd size, he said Campus Police might provide more security in addition to what the Greens will bring with the exhibit.

Richmond said the exhibit will be open to the public from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. April 2 and April 3, and 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. April 4. The exhibit will close each day from 2-3 p.m. for workers to have lunch.

In addition, Newman said David Green’s son, Steve Green, will speak at 1 p.m. April 3 in the new Wesley Seminary building, which will be nearly finished by the time the Greens come.

“The Greens gave IWU $2.5 million for the building of Wesley Seminary,” Newman said. “So it’s a chance for them to see what we’ve done.”

Besides the exhibit they’re bringing, Newman said the Greens will also arrange to have three pieces delivered every six months to the new seminary building for display.

“This collection of documents might help you to come to a deeper understanding of just where not only our faith comes from, but where our modern world comes from,” said Persaud. “The Bible is probably the single most significant document to Western civilization, so if you’re going to understand where we are today as a society, I think it’s very important to understand the Bible and where it came from.”