Equipped for a Lifetime of Service

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Photo by Neil Gates

A delightful surprise in this empty nest stage of my life is the frequent opportunity as a trustee to interact with Wheaton students. I often hear them describe their love for this community even while yearning for what lies beyond. This tension is exactly as it should be and resonates with my own experience.

I came to Wheaton in the fall of 1987 from a hometown and public school experience which was, other than my nuclear family and small (but mighty) neighborhood church, thoroughly secular. I was enticed by the opportunity to live in an exclusively Christian community for four years.

Suddenly, my friends, teachers, peers, and mentors not only shared my faith in the God of the Bible but also lived and learned to integrate his truth with the value of modern academic pursuits. At Wheaton, I learned that while critical thinking is worthy, Christian critical thinking skills light up divine pathways to seeing and serving that can be uncovered by no other method.

For me, these tools were honed through a wide range of Wheaton opportunities. Dr. Norm Ewert’s class discussions shaped my understanding of a wealthy Christian’s cross-cultural responsibility in a post-colonial world. Tutoring with Christian Service Council in Cabrini Green compelled me to consider deeper questions about why this disadvantaged neighborhood looked strangely like another that I knew close to home. A summer with Student Missionary Partners helped me examine my faith more closely, especially when the career missionaries I visited asked me to share my testimony in a useful and relevant way in small Indonesian villages.

Even 35 years after graduation, I am grateful for these experiences, along with many others, which spurred me to see and learn better as a college student. Ultimately, I am thankful for the way I was equipped to worship God and serve his creation throughout my personal and vocational life, no matter what circumstances, challenges, questions, or blessings the path revealed.

Regular interactions with current students, faculty, and recent graduates—three of whom are my own children—reinforce my confidence in Wheaton’s mission. I am inspired by their depth of thought and care for the world, as well as the courage and faith they bring to their future plans. Even in turbulent times, the College continues to foster Christian critical thinking skills that equip them to uniquely see and serve God’s purposes throughout a lifetime of service for Christ and his kingdom. I witness students graduating not as products of an “education factory,” but as fully formed human beings who have been empowered to live well.

There is so much more waiting for Wheaton students beyond what they can imagine. Therefore, I am thankful that they are being equipped with truth, compassion, skills, and experiences to engage all the good works God, in his providence, has prepared for them to do.

I am proud to have the opportunity to invest both as a trustee and a donor during this vital season, and I am grateful for a front-row seat as Wheaton continues to move Faithfully Forward.

Each student at Wheaton carries a story, a calling, and a purpose that can reach beyond the campus and into eternity. This campaign will help ignite those callings— fueling transformation, deepening faith, and sending equipped leaders into every corner of the world for Christ.

CAMPAIGN STEERING COMMITTEE

Campaign Chair
Lisa Brosious Beamer ’91
Social Work
Cranbury, NJ

Esther Lawrence Baird ’96
Ministry
Boxford, MA

Nate Frank ’95
Executive Search
Glen Ellyn, IL

Doug Goebel ’90
Financial Services
West Linn, OR

Jim Goetz ’79
Nonprofit Leader
Wheaton, IL

Chris Jahns ’82
Small Business Owner
Elmhurst, IL

Kim Shirley Jahns ’82
Budget Counselor
Elmhurst, IL

Jeff Meyer ’82
Business Leader
Hamburg, NY

Marcel Pontón ’83
Neuropsychology
Altadena, CA

Kathy Hess Vaselkiv ’83
Nonprofit Leader
Baltimore, MD

Mark Vaselkiv ’80
Financial Services
Baltimore, MD

Jerard Woods ’12
Financial Services
Bolingbrook, IL