SPLASH FOR CASH: When approached by the Associated Student Body of Union College, in Lincoln, Nebraska, to help raise money for an organization that works to prevent human trafficking on three continents, John Wagner, Union’s president, jumped—that is, dove—at the opportunity. He and four other faculty members challenged the student body to raise money. The faculty member who raised the most promised to do something, uh, memorable. Wagner raised the most money, and fulfilled his pledge by diving off the high dive in a suit. The money not only went to a great cause, but Wagner saved $12 on dry cleaning.

Let's Pray

For some years in the 1940s the Iowa Conference camp meetings were held in a church camp near Cedar Falls, Iowa. Since it was quite a distance from the town, we stocked a small store with some basic foodstuffs. Being the youngest “worker,” I was given the responsibility of operating the store. I soon found that, with getting the food from the town and keeping the store open at certain hours for the convenience of the campers, I was not getting much from the camp meeting. I went home that year feeling rather empty.

When time for the next camp meeting approached, I began to pray that I would receive some spiritual benefit along with the other campers. God answered my prayer the first night. The speaker’s theme was from the story of blind Bartimaeus. When Bartimaeus reached Jesus, Jesus asked him, “What do you want me to do for you?” (Mark 10:51).

The message to everyone was “What are you expecting, what are you here for?” When I answered the question in accordance with my prayers, that camp meeting experience was spiritually fulfilling—store and all.

—Hampton White, Reed City, Michigan

Adventist Life

When our son Jonathan was small, my husband, Dick, was taking him for a walk in the park. Jonathan saw two teens up in a large tree and knew just what to say: “Zacchaeus, you come down!”

—Carolyn Millard, Lolo, Montana

When Harvey Byram, then principal at Dallas Junior Academy in Texas in 1976, poked his head into the seventh and eighth-grade classroom one morning, we all interrupted our activities to hear what he had to say. “I have good news and bad news for you. The good news is that we will have only a half day of school this morning!” 

Our soaring spirits were quickly dashed as he continued, “The bad news is the other half of the day will be after lunch!”

—Ed Fry, Pinehurst, Texas