2007 – 2008 Messiah College President's Report - (Page 17)

Energized impact I rst heard the phrase “biblical worldview” as a rst-year student — and relatively new Christian — at Messiah. Over the next four years that little phrase expanded to mean at least two things that have been critically important in my vocation: namely, that ideas matter and that the Gospel is comprehensive. Ideas Have Consequences is the title of a signi cant book (which I read after college), but the import of that phrase came home to me most powerfully not while reading, but while ying over a mountainside in rural northern Guatemala in 1992. Looking down from the six-seater plane, I saw two adjacent villages, each surrounded by acres of corn and beans. One community’s elds were planted straight up and down the hillsides, some of the cornstalks leaning precariously, as though they were hanging on for life. The other’s elds were neatly terraced in giant “stair steps” cut into the mountains. On just about every measure — household income, percentage of children in school, quality of housing —residents of the second village enjoyed a much better standard of living than residents of the rst one. The reason is that their terracing reduced soil erosion, which meant improved soil quality, better water retention, and far greater crop yields. So why didn’t the peasants in the rst village terrace their elds, as their neighbors had? The answer is not completely simple, but an unquestionable part of the reason was because they held to a different worldview. The residents of the second village had converted from an animist worldview to a biblical worldview and were open to agricultural innovation. In the rst village, many residents believed in the earth god, who would punish them for “cutting into his face.” The Christian relief and development agency that had talked about the potential of terracing with both communities a few years earlier had found that their new ideas were accepted in the second village but not the rst. Based on this and other experiences in Guatemala, I wrote my own book about ideas having consequences — dramatic consequences for the poor. For a couple years I also edited a Christian relief and development magazine that was grounded in that conviction. What Messiah taught me about the Gospel has also energized my work. As a student, I learned that the Gospel was not limited to the “four spiritual laws”; rather, it was Kingdom-sized Good News that meant Jesus had come not just to save me but to transform the world. The work I’ve been privileged to do with the International Justice Mission (IJM) emerged from that conviction. Jesus says in Luke 4 that part of His mission is to free the oppressed, and that’s just what IJM does: frees real people from real slavery. His Gospel also combines physical and spiritual healing. Understanding this, I’ve been motivated to build capacity among frontline Christian community development ministries in their efforts to preach this big Gospel in word and deed. That’s my main work now at the Center on Faith in Communities, and it’s work I’m not sure I’d be doing if it hadn’t been for my Messiah education. — Amy L. Sherman ’87, directs the Sagamore Institute’s Center on Faith in Communities. She is the author of ve books, most recently The Relentless Pursuit: Stories of God’s Hope, Love, and Grace in the Neighborhood (Dawson Media, 2007). (Pictured left) Messiah students and alumni nd their way to all corners of the globe as they apply their academic knowledge and heartfelt compassion to respond to the needs of people. Here, as part of her senior honors project, Elizabeth Ball ’07 trains villagers in Zambia in the skills needed to make handmade paper. 17

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of 2007 – 2008 Messiah College President's Report

2007 – 2008 Messiah College President's Report Contents The Fusion of Intellect and Faith Centered on Scholarship Fueled by Faith Energized for Impact Stewards of our Mission Financial Reports / Volunteer Leader Appreciation Donor Recognition From Our Core Messiah College at a Glance A Year in Photos

2007 – 2008 Messiah College President's Report

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