liberty champion sept 30 2014

Campus transforms into state-of-the-art university in “Then and Now.”

News

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Men’s soccer bounces back from loss and shuts out Howard.

Sports

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Bus driver shows com-passion to all who step on board.

Feature

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INSIDE THE CHAMPIONWEATHER

Tomorrow: Sunny

SUNNYHIGH: 81 LOW: 59

Volume 32 | Issue 5 Lynchburg, VirginiaTuesday, sepTember 30, 2014

SportsFeature

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NewsOpinion

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Homecoming welcomes alumniFormer students to see changed campus during weekend of reminiscing

Courtney russo | Liberty Champion

APPRECIATION — Military families enjoy a day at the Liberty Mountain Snowflex Centre.

®

Families hit slopesLiberty’s Snowflex hosts Military Family Day

s e r v i n g t h o s e w h o s e r v e

Quinn [email protected]

Military personnel are on the frontlines every day in order to pro-tect the United States and the free-dom of those who live there. Many times, family members of those serving must make sacrifices as well. The Office of Military Affairs

celebrated these families by hosting its semiannual Military Family Fun Day at Liberty Mountain Snowflex Center (LMSC) Saturday, Sept. 27.

Kathi Edinger, Liberty Univer-sity’s military outreach coordinator, highlighted the goal of the semian-nual event.

“The purpose of this event is to show appreciation to our military

members and families who have served or who are serving in the United States Armed Forces,” Ed-inger said.

The event allowed military mem-bers and their families to enjoy the-day by tubing and skiing at LMSC.

See FAMILY, A2


CONVO — Kirk Cameron reveals movie.

Actor visitsCameron talks Christmas conflictEmily [email protected]

Kirk Cameron, a familiar face and sup-porter of Liberty University, visited Friday, Sept. 26 to encourage students during Con-vocation and to give advice to cinematic arts students.

“I kind of feel like your Uncle Kirk,” Cam-eron said as he took the stage in the Vines Center. “… I’m not just an invited speaker. I feel like I’m part of the family.”

Cameron spoke to students about one of his newest projects, a movie titled “Sav-ing Christmas.” Cameron is the mastermind behind the movie, coming up with the idea after considering all the negativity that sur-rounds the Christmas season.

“I love the Christmas trees. I love the char-acters. I love the songs. I love the food. I love the season,” Cameron said. “… But if you notice, there are some people that really want to put a big, wet blanket on this. They want to snuff out a lot of what I love and I know you love. … I decided that it was time for someone to speak up and settle these things once and for all and save Christmas from the pagan Scrooges and religious nitpickers.”

Cameron is the executive producer and one of two main actors in the film, which is set to release in 400 theaters Nov. 14. According to Cameron, the movie features friends and family of Cameron and is aimed at enlighten-ing people about the meanings behind major Christmas traditions while maintaining the aspect of entertainment.

See CHRISTMAS, A2

HOMECOMING

OCT. 4

OCT. 3

OCTOBER 3-4

7 p.m.: Hockey Game: Flames vs. U of Arizona - $59 p.m.: Bonfire | Fields next to Dorm 28

6-9 p.m.: Carnival | Behind LaHaye Ice Center

8 a.m.: Deep Hallow Marathon and 5K12-6 p.m.: Carnival | Behind LaHaye Ice Center 4 p.m.: Parade | University Boulevard 7 p.m.: Football Game: Flames vs. Richmond Spiders

| Williams Stadium

Felicia [email protected]

Liberty University will welcome alumni from across the nation to the ever-changing campus landscape at this year’s Homecoming Friday and Saturday, Oct. 3-4.

The weekend will be packed full of events for alumni and current students to enjoy. Homecoming is one of Liberty’s largest an-nual events, according to the Homecoming website. This year, Liberty’s Alumni Relations Office anticipates 6,000 registered guests for Homecoming weekend.

“I think that there’s a

level of excitement for the alumni to come back and see what’s happening here,” Tyler Falwell, alumni director, said. “They were here some time ago, and they have a very clear pic-ture of what Dr. Falwell’s vision was, and I’m excited to have them come back to see the vision that Presi-dent Falwell has. It’s excit-ing because it follows the same core principles, but it’s obviously bigger.”

Falwell expressed excite-ment for hosting alumni on campus, allowing them an opportunity to appreciate where current leadership is taking the university.

“There’s no doubt that

those who were here un-der Dr. Falwell are going to look today and just be proud of our current lead-ership, be proud of where we are,” Falwell said.

Falwell said it has been exciting to see the amount of guests at Homecom-ing continue to grow ev-ery year. He said he ex-pects this number to grow even more as the number of alumni increases. This year, Alumni Relations has partnered with Liberty University Online to invite current online students to attend Homecoming.

See ALUMNI, A3

REGISTRATION DEADLINE OCT.8WILL YOU BE THE DIFFERENCE?

VOTE

Presidential Profile B10

FAMILY continued from A1

There were games and activities for younger children as well.

Edinger explained how impor-tant it is to celebrate the families of those in the military, because they also have a difficult job.

“Often when the military member deploys or works longer hours, the military spouse be-comes dad and mom and keeps the homefront together while their spouse serves our country,” Edinger said. “This special day al-lows our family members to feel appreciated and know that they are not forgotten.”

Edinger said the Of-fice of Military Affairs has been hosting this event since fall 2011.

“It’s a special honor for us to serve our military and their fami-lies at this event,” Edinger said. “We appreciate each of them for the sacrifices they have made on behalf of our freedom.”

Not only did this event allow military members and their fami-lies to enjoy LMSC, but it also

gave them an opportunity to meet other military families, have con-versations with each other and encourage one another.

“It’s such a joy to meet in per-son so many of the military and their families who attend Liberty University,” Edinger said. “It’s also wonderful to see military families interacting with one an-other and making new friends.”

According to Edinger, the Office of Military Affairs has held the event twice a year

because of the large turnout.“We are very happy to be able

to provide this day twice a year to show our appreciation to those who have and are serving,” Ed-inger said.

For more information about the Office of Military Affairs and its events around campus, visit liberty.edu/administration/mili-taryaffairs.

FOLEY is a news reporter.

Sarah [email protected]

Monique Maloney, an assistant professor of graphic design in Liberty University’s department of Studio and Digital Arts, created a logo that was featured as one of 2,000 other designs in the best-selling logo book, “Logo Lounge.”

Growing up enam-ored by Massachusetts’ trees and the bright yel-low sun, Maloney said she quickly found her outlet through art. Influenced by several artists in her family, Maloney was en-couraged to pursue this passion, whether through doodling as a toddler or designing for companies after college.

Her logo, which she calls the “Paisley Nest,” was created through a long process of imagin-ing, sketching, calculating, inking and printing. Ma-loney said the inspiration for the logo came out of

a desire to combine pat-terns and nature while still telling a story.

“Logo Lounge” host-ed its annual logo-entry contest in which 30,000 logos were submitted. Out of these, 2,000 were chosen to be published, one of them being the “Paisley Nest.”

Although having proj-ects published is part of being a professional de-signer, Maloney said she feels particularly hon-ored this time around, since the logo holds personal meaning.

“Being published af-firms I’m doing what I’m supposed to be do-ing,” Maloney said. “We are called to create, not just because, but for a purpose.”

Maloney is motivated by artists such as Jessica Hische and Anna Bond, two young, professional, women artists who have taken their passions to higher levels of work. Maloney describes her art

as “soul-searching” and “church-like,” since she feels that art gives life.

According to Maloney, she has several projects in store in the near future, and she hopes to receive more licensing to be able to publish other designs, finish up her master’s of fine arts and work in product design. In the

meantime, Maloney plans to continue teaching and encouraging her students at Liberty.

WILLIAMS is a feature reporter.

newsA2 | September 30, 2014 | Liberty Champion

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10/3 - Homecoming Bonfire 9 p.m. | Field by Dorm 28 - Communications Homecoming Alumni Panel 4 p.m. | DH 339710/4 - Homecoming Carnival 12 p.m.-6 p.m. | Behind LaHaye Ice Center - Homecoming Parade 4 p.m. | University Boulevard - Homecoming Football game: Flames vs. Richmond Spiders 7 p.m. | Williams Stadium10/6 - CSER Add/Drop Deadline10/7 - All Sons and Daughters Concert 7 p.m. | LaHaye Event Space10/9 - Scaremare begins 7:30 p.m. | 2300 Carroll Ave., Lynchburg, VA 2450110/14 - Indelible Grace Concert 8 p.m. | LaHaye Event Space 10/17 - A Man for All Seasons Premiere 7:30 p.m. | Tower Theatre

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STUDENT ACTIVITIES

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CAMPUS EVENTSCONCERTS

Professor’s design selectedMonique Maloney honored in recent logo contest of 30,000 submissions

Kari Moye | Liberty ChaMpion

PICKED — Monique Maloney’s drawing included in anthology.

Courtney russo| Liberty ChaMpion

RELAXATION — Families were able to relax and enjoy the view.

CHRISTMAS continued from A1

“It educates people and teaches, but it’s also meant to be fun and funny and inspir-ing,” Cameron said.

According to Cameron, the film focuses on the myths and traditions of Santa Clause and the Christmas tree and ad-dresses the nativity as well.

“I know that if people will watch, it will result in them being able to embrace all of Christmas, all of our tradi-tions, and just be able to lean into all the joy it should be,” Cameron said in an interview. “It’s so easy to get stressed out, … and I want to show them that all of our traditions, even the fairy tales, even the things that the pagans have perverted … all point to he-roes of the faith and point to God’s creation and point to the glory of Christmas. And so we can embrace all of it, by knowing what it’s really all about.”

During his Convocation ad-dress, Cameron encouraged students to “make the most of Christmas” without get-ting caught up in all the com-plaints.

“(D)on’t miss one oppor-tunity to share the joy of the season this year,” Cameron said. “And don’t buy into the complaint about commercial-ism this Christmas. …. Re-member, this is a celebration of the eternal God taking on a material body, so it’s right that our holiday is marked with

material things. … Our rich Christmas traditions are so full … of truth, if only we had the eyes to see them. … We need to infuse old symbols with new meaning. Forget what the pagans want us to see. You tell them what they need to see.”

In addition to his Convo-cation appearance, Cameron shared practical advice for entering the film industry as a Christian with approximately 100 cinematic arts students. During the session, Cameron fielded questions from Assis-tant Professor of Cinematic Arts Scotty Curlee as well as students in attendance.

For more information about “Saving Christmas,” including a list of theaters showing the Nov. 14 premiere, visit saving-christmas.com.

BROWN is the editor-in-chief.

photo provided

CREATIVE JUICES — Logo selected for publishing.

Courtney russo| Liberty ChaMpion

EXHILARATION — Tubes provided plenty of fun for guests.

FYI “Saving

Christmas” will premiere in 400 select theaters across the na-

tion Friday, Nov. 14. For theater

information, visit savingchristmas.

com.

Haley [email protected]

Every academic year, thousands of students on Liberty’s campus invest in the community of Lynch-burg, providing thousands of hours of service to a host of volunteer organiza-tions.

Christian/Community Service (CSER) is a gradu-ation requirement for all residential Liberty students. All four-year students must complete 20 hours of com-munity service for six se-mesters, and transfers must complete 20 hours for ev-ery semester they attend Liberty.

“CSER provides op-portunities for students to participate in helping the community and getting in-

volved in ways that will ben-efit not only oth-ers, but also the students t h e m -selves in the fu-

ture,” Darren Wu, Chris-tian/Community Service coordinator and assistant professor in the school of religion, said.

CSER provides various opportunities for students to complete their service requirements, ranging from work in churches, the com-munity, athletics and spe-cial projects approved by the CSER office.

“CSER allows students to get involved with com-munity service that applies to their major or future job choices so that they can ex-perience what that job may be one day,” Wu said. “(For example), I encourage edu-cation majors to volunteer at a local school and see firsthand the responsibili-ties that go along with be-ing a teacher.”

CSER’s mission state-ment is based on the idea that faith without works is dead, as found in James 2:17. The statement says that “in fulfillment of the Great Commission of world evangelization found in Matt. 28:18-20, the Christian/Community Service component of the

curriculum serves to affirm the Christian worldview and provide a practical expression of God's love for mankind.”

CSER provides an op-portunity for students to branch out and improve the overall well-being of the local community and its citizens. Wu emphasized the fact that many outgo-ing students realized the importance of CSER and what it did for them.

“We have had alumni give feedback that, al-though they may have seen this requirement as some-thing of a burden, looking back, they have realized that CSER brought valu-able experience to their lives, and by giving to oth-ers, they actually received a blessing themselves,” Wu said.

One recent CSER op-portunity involved stu-dents serving at a memorial in downtown Lynchburg Sept. 13 in remembrance of 9/11.

Fifty students participat-ed in the first annual 9/11 Memorial Stair Climb at the Bank of the James building

on Main Street. The event honored the 343 New York City firefighters who lost their lives in the terror at-tacks Sept. 11, 2001.

“I was proud to be a par-ticipant of an event like this that could honor heroes of our country,” senior Libby Campbell, one of the stu-dents who participated in

this effort, said. “Martin Misjuns definitely had a vision when he organized this effort that benefits the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation and the Cen-tral Virginia Burn Camp.”

For more information about how to get involved with CSER or to learn more about its benefits

for students and the com-munity, visit the CSER page on Liberty’s website, email them at [email protected], or visit Green Hall 1880.

JONES is a news reporter.

Liberty Champion | September 30, 2014 | A3news

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

Reber-Thomas Dining Hall • 1971 University Blvd. • (434) 582-2262 • www.LibertyDining.com

Sodexo Spotlight: DUKE DAVIS, B.A.Position/Years with Sodexo: General Manager, 5 years Favorite Meal on Campus: Homestyle Barbeque or Stone FireLoves: Watching one of his three daughters play volleyballCan be found: Talking to students at The Food Court

OCTOBER 6, 5:00-7:00 P.M.AT WHOLLY HABANEROS

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Wu emphasizes CSER choicesChristian/Community Service offers opportunities to help local community

Rj Goodwin | LibeRty Champion

SERVICE — Students reach out to kids at the Yoder Neighborhood Center.

ALUMNI con-tinued from A1

“It’s exciting to get the online students en-gaged with us as well, because they’re impor-tant to what we do,” Falwell said. “They’re important to alumni. They’re important to the university.”

Some of the events and activities planned for Homecoming weekend include a car-nival, bonfire, parade and football game. For

this year’s Homecom-ing game, the Flames will play the Richmond Spiders, coached by Danny Rocco, former-ly Liberty’s head coach.

Guests will also be able to attend a perfor-mance by Guy Penrod, a Liberty graduate, Oct. 3. They also have the opportunity over the weekend to see the Al-luvion stage company’s production of “The Little Mermaid” in the Tower Theater.

According to Allu-vion’s website, ticket

prices range from $5 to $20, with a $3 dis-count available to Lib-erty students, seniors 60 and over, those with a military ID and chil-dren 12 and under.

“It’s definitely a jam-packed weekend, but it’s always exciting,” Falwell said. “People live so far away. They can only make it back one time a year, and so … we try to make sure that they are able to put as much in there as they can.”

For more infor-

mation on activities during homecoming weekend, visit liberty.edu/homecoming.

HUDSON is a news reporter.

Ruth bibby | LibeRty Champion

FESTIVITIES — Homecoming 2013 welcomed Liberty alumni.

FYI Alumni tickets

purchased via the Home-coming reg-istration Web page can be picked up at

check-in.

FYI The CSER add/drop deadline is Monday,

Oct. 6.

Tré [email protected]

As I think about the thousands of people who file into worship centers every week, lifting their hands in worship to songs like “How Great is our God,” I cannot help but imagine what it would be like to hear or read those very words, much less sing them, as an Arab Christian right now.

Then my thought progressed a bit fur-ther. You see, as a Christian, I hear “How Great is Our God,” and I immediately think of the greatness of God’s grace. However, when a non-Christian hears those same words, maybe he or she wonders if God really is great. Or maybe he or she consid-ers God’s greatness to be his wrath. For the Christian, God’s grace has totally eclipsed that wrath. For the non-Christian, God’s wrath has wholly eclipsed that grace.

Naturally, after thinking through all of these things, I felt a sense of urgency to share the gospel with those non-Christians. But, I have to wonder, would I feel that same sense of urgency to share the gospel with those non-Christians who are behead-ing journalists, the Islamic State radicals who are orphaning Iraqi and Syrian Chris-tians and threatening genocide? If I am honest, often, my only wish is for them to experience the greatness of God’s wrath. After all, they are terrorizing Christians and other minorities in horrendous and un-speakable ways.

“I used to believe that I ought to do everything I could to oppose the fol-lowers of Jesus. I caused many of the

believers in Jerusalem to be sent to prison.”These are the words the Apostle Paul

wrote in Acts 26:9-11 (NLT). Paul, whom many Christians revere as the greatest Jesus follower to ever live, once hated Christians. His testimony challenged my thinking.

“I cast my vote against (Christians) when they were condemned to death,” Paul wrote. “Many times I had them whipped in the synagogues to try to get them to curse Christ. I was so violently opposed to them that I even hounded them in distant cities of foreign lands.”

Even at the onset of Paul’s journey to Damascus — where his heart was

changed — his greatest desire was to see Christians persecuted, much like members of the Islamic State today.

Paul’s story of conversion answered my questions as to why such despicable evil should be met with inexplicable love.

In his conversion to Christianity, the gospel spread like wildfire. Enemies of Je-sus hated him. Paul was hunted down and chained for his faith. But it was when he was in chains that he wrote the letters to Philemon and the churches at Colossae, Ephesus and Philippi.

“Everything that has happened to me here has helped spread the Good News,”

Paul wrote in Philippians 1:12, 14 (NLT). “Because of my imprisonment, most of the believers here have gained confi-dence and boldly speak God’s message without fear.”

God’s greatness is best showcased when the worst of all come to faith in Jesus. This is why Paul’s message resonates so deeply with Christians. The Bible calls believers to pray for their enemies — those who drive the marginalized into the mountains, execute them in the name of religion and displace Arab minorities. It may have been those very prayers for the enemies of Jesus that set the trajectory for Paul’s conversion.

Western Christians often forget the power prayer has over their enemies. What if one of the current terrorists was a fu-ture Paul? The reaction to the gospel in the Arab world is vastly different from its reception in the West.

“Satan reacts to the growing presence of God,” Nik Ripken, a missionary to the Middle East, said in a talk on foreign mis-sions. “This whole culture says when the persecution comes, you do two things: stop the persecution and punish the perse-cutor. But what if the number one cause of persecution on the planet is people coming to Jesus?”

In the midst of the persecution, in the midst of the suffering, we must hold fast to the truths of the gospel. After all, what if a modern-day jihadist were to have a biblical conversion like Paul on the road to Damascus?

GOINS-PHILLIPS is the opinion editor.


Grace, by human standards, is a tricky concept.

“If you want to make people mad, preach law,” Dr. Doug Kelly, professor of theology at Reformed Theological Seminary, said. “If you want to make them really, really mad, preach grace.”

Pope Francis was faced with this dilemma when he married 20 couples earlier this month in St. Peter’s Basilica. Historically, the Church — both Catholic and Protestant — has been known to the secular world as a society of rule followers and naysayers.

Naturally, as Francis led the marriage ceremony that betrothed cohabiting couples — one of which already has a grown daugh-ter — the media sounded off in headlines everywhere that the Church was making a statement, transitioning away from its “tradi-tional” and “outdated” theology.

While I disagree with that conclusion, the media’s shocked coverage of this signals a greater problem within the Church: an absence of grace.

The wedding ceremony, the first of its kind since Pope John Paul II presided over a wedding 14 years ago, was not a statement endorsing premarital cohabitation or premarital sex. Rather, it was an extension of grace to people that have made mistakes.

“This is what marriage is all about: man and woman walking together, wherein the husband helps his wife to become ever more a woman and wherein the woman has the task of helping her husband become ever more a man,” the pope said at the cere-mony. “Here we see the reciproc-ity of differences.”

Following the media storm that has been brewing over Seattle pastor Mark Driscoll’s barrage of mishaps, this is the kind of news that needs to be shared. This is the kind of grace that should be commonplace within the Christian community.

When Jesus encountered an im-moral woman, his reaction was not one of exclusion. Instead, it was celebratory inclusion.

Pharisees, angry with Jesus for his inclusion of sinners and his extension of grace, were con-

fused by his willingness and desire to love. In Luke 7:41-43 (NLT), it is recorded that one such Pharisee was disgusted by the grace Jesus extended to an immoral woman. Jesus answered with a parable.

“A man loaned money to two people — 500 pieces of sil-ver to one and 50 pieces to the other,” Jesus said to the Phari-see. “But neither of them could repay him, so he kindly forgave them both, canceling their debts. Who do you suppose loved him more after that?”

“I suppose the one for whom he canceled the larger debt,” the Pharisee said.

I commend the pope for his decision to perform the wedding ceremony. The ceremony showed not a judgmental unwillingness to accept the mistakes of oth-ers — no matter the size of the debt — but, instead, a willing-ness to allow love and grace to eclipse those mistakes.

“The love of Christ, which has blessed and sanctified the union of husband and wife, is able to sustain their love and to renew it when, humanly speak-ing, it becomes lost, wounded

or worn out,” Francis said. Rather than establish unreach-

able regulations, this wedding sought to establish a reconciliation of unreachable perfection and the human condition. The extension of grace reminds us of our need for redemption, and this effort of forgiveness propels people toward righteousness, instead of distanc-ing them through judgment.

Grace only becomes a tricky subject when we ascribe infallible merit to our fallible thinking. The Church should not be known as an elite club of naysayers, but a motley crew of grace givers.


Three weeks ago, Prince William and his wife Kate Middleton, the duke and duchess of Cambridge, grabbed the world’s attention with their latest news. Prince George is going to be an older brother.

Almost immediate-ly, news outlets from Europe and America latched on to the in-formation, disseminat-ing it to audiences en-thralled with all things royal. Within minutes, #royalbaby was trending worldwide.

It is no surprise people responded so

quickly to the latest news, especially given the fact that more than 20 million people in the U.S. alone viewed the royal wed-ding on television — an ocean away from where the ceremony took place. When news about Middleton’s first pregnancy came out, fans were just as enamored.

But it is not merely the news of the pregnancy that is interesting to me. It is the word attributed to the situation that is intriguing to me.

Four letters. B-A-B-Y. Not royal fetus. Not royal blob of tis-

sue. Not royal product of conception. Baby. All of a sudden, and once again, that

thing inside the belly of the duchess is a baby. Nothing less.

Search-engine-generated results for news articles surrounding the couple’s pregnancy announcement all had at least those two words — “royal baby” — in common. Not a single search returned anything but “royal baby” when referring

to the fourth member of this family. Can you imagine a headline on the

topic that reads, “Middleton pregnant with second royal blob of tissue?” No le-gitimate news outlet would actually refer to the duke and duchess’ smallest fam-ily member as anything other than “royal baby.” That would be insulting, embar-rassing, rude and simply wrong.

And yet, so often when someone is pregnant, the word “baby” is not even used. It is a fetus. It is just tissue. It is not a person. Therefore, it is OK to get rid of it if it is unwanted, unplanned or too difficult.

Why does the whole world agree that Middleton is carrying a baby, and yet thinks every other person is car-rying a non-person, non-baby thing in the womb? Why such a blatant double standard?

I would argue that there is no differ-ence. A claim to the throne does not determine personhood.

While some may say that the use of one particular word is insignificant, it carries with it the whole idea of person-hood and the resulting abortion argu-ments. The words we use matter. They can mean the difference between life and death in this case.

No one would ever dream of telling Middleton to abort her “clump of cells,” but for those who have no claim to roy-alty, it is more than OK to get rid of their “blob of tissue,” because it is not a baby at all.

Author Eric Metaxas summed up the issue well in his response to Middleton’s first pregnancy.

“The Brits are clearly — and rightly — treating the royal baby not as a clump of cells to be disposed of for any rea-son but as fully human, as a person,” Metaxas said. “Yes, friends, the language we use matters. Is the life in the womb a ‘product of conception’ or a person, maybe even a prince in waiting?”

OPINIONA4 September 30, 2014

by Emily Brown

Offering love amidst evil

Pope Francis displays grace

Why despicable acts of terrorism should be met with abounding prayer

Catholic leader shifts from church tradition, marrying cohabiting couples

GooGle ImaGes

RADICAL — Islamic State rebels have forced Arab minorities to flee their homelands.

GooGle ImaGes

ICON — Pope Francis presided over first papal wedding since 2000.

opinion Liberty Champion | September 30, 2014 | A5

C O N V O C O N N E C T I O N

Kimberly [email protected]

Tensions between different re-ligious groups continue to rise at events in Washington, D.C., and around the world.

According to the Washing-ton Post, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz was booed off the stage at the In Defense of Christians (IDC) Gala Solidarity Dinner Program at the Omni Shoreham Hotel in Washington, D.C., Sept. 10. Cruz made many strong com-ments during the event that an-gered numerous attendees.

“Tonight, we are all united in defense of Christians,” Cruz said. “Tonight, we are all united in de-fense of Jews. … If you will not stand with Israel and the Jews, then I will not stand with you,” he said before walking off the stage.

After Cruz made comments supporting Israel, many uniden-tified audience members began booing and heckling. Accord-ing to Newsweek, most of the world leaders and representa-tives in attendance are con-cerned with aiding in stopping Christian persecution.

In a statement released refer-encing a “disruption” at the event, but not naming Cruz, IDC Presi-dent Toufic Baaklini shared his perspective of what happened.

“In this case, a few politically motivated opportunists chose to divide a room that for more than 48 hours sought unity in oppos-ing the shared threat of genocide, faced not only by our Christian brothers and sisters, but our Jew-ish brothers and sisters and peo-ple of all other faiths and all peo-ple of good will,” Baaklini said.

Actions of the hecklers were

inappropriate and unwarranted.This event comes during a time

when tensions in the Middle East are running high. This is made clear nearly every day with anoth-

er story of bombings or murders making headlines, often in retalia-tion to religious differences. With such atrocities as beheadings and mass murders occurring in the Middle East, it is almost as if Americans have become numb to the violence that plagues the area, especially in Israel.

Measures need to be taken to assist our ally. If we do not stand for Israel, who will? According to the National Archives, President Truman was the first to recognize Israel as an independent state in 1948. As stated by CNN, the rela-tionships between U.S. and Israeli leaders have seen brighter days.

“It’s probably the worst rela-tionship between a leader of the United States and a leader of Is-rael since all the way back to the Eisenhower days,” David Gergen, a senior political analyst for CNN who was an advisor to multiple U.S. presidents, said. “The rela-tionship has gotten rockier over this period during the war.”

Support for Israel is now wa-vering in a time when it should be stronger than ever. In a time when Israel, God’s chosen na-tion, is being threatened, it is es-sential for Christians, in particu-lar, to unite and stand with Israel.

Psalm 122:6 illustrates this.“Pray for the peace of Jeru-

salem: may those who love you be secure.”

War has plagued Israel this

past summer. According to the Washington Post, a waterfall of events led to the 50-day war in Gaza. This war quickly devel-oped into one of the bloodi-est conflicts between Israel and the Palestinians.

More Christians are needed to minister to groups in the Middle East so violence like this can be prevented. To many Christians, religious freedom is not an op-tion, but rather an ideal they may never know. Some even give their lives for their faith.

World Watch Monitor reported that more people were “killed for faith” in Syria in 2013 than in the whole world during 2012. This statistic is unnerving and fright-ening. Christians have an obliga-tion to protect the marginalized and work toward giving people of faith a safe place to practice where they can be free from persecu-tion. In the Arab region, Israel is that safe place.

Speaking to the United Nations Human Rights Council Sept. 23, Father Gabriel Nadaf, a Greek Orthodox priest from Nazareth in northern Israel, described Is-rael as a safe haven in the Middle East, according to The Blaze.

“In the Middle East today, there

is one country where Christianity is not only not persecuted, but af-fectionately granted freedom of expression, freedom of worship and security,” Nadaf said. “Israel is the only place where Christians in the Middle East are safe.”

Nadaf went on to estimate that 120,000 Christians have been killed in the Middle East over the previous decade.

“That means that every five minutes, a Christian is killed be-cause of his faith,” Nadaf said.

Western Christians need to protect this safe haven and help forge the same freedoms they enjoy for the rest of the Middle East, for the Christians who fight for their faith, as well as their lives, every day. Peace should be known to these people.

The petty political fights within

our ranks need to end. When it comes down to it, Christians be-lieve in a loving God and that Je-sus died for their sins. We should unite over these facts.

Differences between Christian groups will always exist. Howev-er, instead of heckling a speaker from the stage, Christians should present a united front against such great persecution.

No more senators should be silenced, and more importantly, no more Christians should die for their faith. We are one body, united by God, saved from sin, searching for a future when ev-eryone can know the love we feel on a daily basis from our Savior.

STEFANICK is an opinion writer.

B Y: E R I N K E L LY [email protected]

Christian theologian Dr. Darrell Bock brought a powerful, culture-confronting message to Liberty students to start this week’s Convocation. Bock focused on how passages in both the biblical books of Romans and Acts profiled the Apostle Paul engaging and confronting the dys-functional culture of his day. He challenged us to be aware of the conflicts and tensions in sharing the gospel and explained how we can boldly yet graciously represent Christ as we participate in the battle for truth.

There are obvious gaps in our culture’s knowledge of God. Bock encouraged us to understand who we are and who Jesus is so we can fill in the gaps. As I pondered this, I realized that I had been content to sit on the sidelines of the faith-and-

culture war. I suppose I had just assumed that someone else was more spiritually equipped to take up the sword of the Spirit and go to battle. The truth is, I am called, and so are you. We have the one who is the “gap” filler in us, and it is not by our might or power, but by the Holy Spirit. Therefore, we have everything we need to leave the sideline comfort zone and get into the battle. Besides, we already know who wins.

Convocation took an interesting yet thought-provoking turn Wednesday when comedian and Pastor Mark Gungor can-didly discussed relationships. With the on-stage help of campus worship Pastor Justin Kintzel and his wife Ashley, Gun-gor discussed the many differences in the way men and women think, feel and act. While there are certainly exceptions, men are generally compartmentalizers able to focus on one particular thing at a time. In stark contrast, women are driven by emo-tions and tend to chain link or connect

everything together. It was obvious by the crowd’s response that most of what Pastor Gungor shared resonated on some level. And then, with conviction, Gun-gor said; “Every man’s basic interest in a woman is ultimately sex.”

I must admit I was tracking with Gun-gor until that last line. Maybe he was re-ferring to ungodly men, but he did not say that, so I do not think that was the case. Why does his statement bother me? Well, because I believe a man saved by grace, living to glorify God, would not fit the stereotype or norm, but would be the exception. Therefore, his basic inter-est would be to honor Christ and love the woman God has given him. Not only that, the gift of sex in the context of a godly marriage is shared with mutual longing and appreciation rather than in a one-sid-ed pursuit. Certainly, I have a lot to learn. My hope is that someday I would not only find the right person but that I would be the right person.

The week ended with an address by acclaimed actor and producer, Kirk Cam-eron. His new movie, “Saving Christmas,” is set to open in theaters Nov. 14. Cam-eron gave us a sneak preview of the film while explaining its overarching meaning. Many Christians look down on Christmas as a pagan holiday. The legalism and con-troversy have caused many believers to lose sight of the real reason we celebrate Christmas. It is the never-ending battle be-tween the sacred and secular. So how do we respond to the war on Christmas? We simply rejoice and share the joy we have in Jesus. Ultimately, nothing else mat-ters apart from this. It is all about Jesus. He is Christmas.

The world is desperate. We need people ready and willing to challenge the status quo. People unafraid and unashamed to proclaim his name, live what they believe, and pay any price to do so. This world needs what you and I are being trained to become — champions for Christ.

KELLY

Political infighting distractsAs war continues in the Middle East, Jewish Christians need safe haven

GooGle ImaGes

EMBATTLED — Members of the Israeli Defense Forces train for battle as mounting attacks from surrounding nations continue to threaten the Jewish state from every direction.

Photo ProvIded

DISRUPTED— Ted Cruz was heckled for pro-Jewish comments.

“Every five minutes, a Christian is killed because of his faith.

— FATHER GABRIEL NADAF

opinionA6 | September 30, 2014 | Liberty Champion

Russia bullies UkraineVladimir Putin seeks to establish an empire with Eastern Europe annexation

LETTERS TO THE EDITORPOLICIES & INFO

Emily Browneditor-in-chief

Gabriella Fullergraduate assistant Tom Footegraduate assistant

CONTENT

Dave Van Dyknews editor

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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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or drop off in DeMoss Hall 1035.

© Copyright 2014 Liberty University, Inc.All Rights Reserved

GooGle ImaGes

TRAVESTY — Pro-Russian protestors tear down Ukrainian flag and replace it with a Russian flag in front of the Donetsk Oblast Regional State Administration building.

Ash [email protected]

Near the middle of the 20th century, a disgraced nation rising to power attempted to annex land from a weaker nation. The world powers of the time consented with little fuss. Unfortunately for them, this ap-peasement played a heavy hand in hasten-ing one of the worst wars in human history.

Now, almost 70 years after World War II ended, history is beginning to repeat itself. The world failed to make a stand then, and I fear we may be about to make the same mistake once again.

Seventy-six years ago today, Sept. 30, 1938, the Munich Agreement was signed between Germany, France, Italy and the United Kingdom. According to the his-torical records, the agreement gave Nazi Germany the Sudetenland, a region of Czechoslovakia predominantly populated by ethnic Germans. The agreement also gave Germany full control over the rest of Czechoslovakia on the condition that they did not press further into Europe.

British Prime Minister Neville Cham-berlain left the meeting believing the issue was truly settled.

“My good friends, for the second time in our history, a British Prime Minister has re-turned from Germany bringing peace with honor,” Chamberlain said in his speech at Heston Aerodome, announcing the out-come of the deal. “I believe it is peace for our time.”

Eleven months later, Sept. 1, 1939, the day now recognized as the start of World War II, Germany shocked the world by in-vading Poland. The annexation of the Su-detenland had not stopped the Nazis thirst for power as the world had hoped. Instead, it had only served to whet their appetite.

Today, a similar situation is unfolding again in Europe. The role of Germany has been recast for Russia, with Ukraine now playing Czechoslovakia. The Ukrai-nian region of Crimea now stands in for the disputed Sudetenland, its future waiting to be decided.

In March of this year, Russia annexed the region of Crimea. According to a USA Today article, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov claimed that Russian troops

seized the area to support citizens wishing to “take destiny into their own hands” by retaining ties with Russia. Fighting between Ukrainian troops and Russian-backed separatists began in April, and since then, there have been more than 3,200 casualties, according to the BBC.

Russia has repeatedly denied they have any military personnel on Ukrainian soil. However, NATO said it has uncovered evi-dence of Russia moving artillery units and soldiers across the border to fire on Ukrai-nian soldiers. President Barack Obama told

the United Nations General Assembly that there is also evidence of Russia sending weapons to separatist fighters in Ukraine.

Having lived in the former Soviet Union, I was not at all surprised to learn that Russia was actively trying to undermine Ukraine. The peoples of Eastern Europe have long known that Russia never fully let go of the power the Soviet Union held dur-ing the Cold War. Much like Germany at the end of World War I, Russia mourns the loss of its empire and is forever scheming to reclaim it.

Crimea has long been on Russia’s radar as a territory to be reclaimed. In 1994, shortly after the collapse of the Soviet Union, Rus-sian President Vladimir Putin, then deputy mayor of St. Petersburg, said the USSR had given up territories which had histori-cally been Russian and that Russia could not simply abandon its citizens, according to a New York Times article. One of the areas he specifically mentioned was Crimea. He stated that the world had to respect the interests of the Russian state and the “great nation” of the Russian people. Now, Putin is not hiding his goal to restore the former Russian empire.

“If I wanted to, Russian troops could, in

two days, be not only in Kiev (Ukraine), but also in Riga (Latvia), Vilnius (Lithuania), Tallinn (Estonia), Warsaw (Poland) and Bu-charest (Romania),” Putin told Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, according to the EU Observer.

While Putin’s words were meant to show that Russia had made no serious move to use its substantial military power against Eastern Europe, they sound to me like an unveiled threat. The world failed to take Hitler seriously, and the result was a war that devastated Europe and cost millions

of lives. We cannot afford to make the same mistake with Russia.

To be fair, the world has handled Rus-sia’s annexation of Crimea somewhat bet-ter than it did Germany’s annexation of the Sudetenland. Economic and military sanctions have been leveled against Russia by the United Nations, the U.S. and Japan, according to a New York Times article. However, Obama told the UN General As-sembly that sanctions against Russia would be lifted if Russia supported the ceasefire that came into effect Sept. 5.

On the surface, this might seem fair. However, Russia has since found another way of hurting Ukraine without violating the ceasefire — the economy. Much of Ukraine’s gas comes from Russian pipe-lines. With a harsh winter fast approaching in Ukraine, Russia is threatening to cut off the gas and leave Ukraine without the en-ergy it needs to heat its homes, according to the Wall Street Journal. The Business In-sider said Russia has also raised claims that Ukraine owes billions of dollars to Russia — a claim Ukraine insists is false. While the ceasefire may have put a stop to the fighting, it has by no means discouraged Russia’s attempt to retake Ukraine.

“Ukraine makes or breaks Russia’s image as a great power, which has fared poorly since the fall of the Berlin Wall,” jour-nalist Max Fisher wrote in an article for the Washington Post.

Dan Drezner, political scientist at Tufts University, agreed with that assessment.

“For all of Putin’s Middle East diplo-macy, Ukraine is far more important to his great power ambitions,” Drezner said. “One of the very first sentences you’re taught to say in ‘Foreign Policy Commu-nity College’ is, ‘Russia without Ukraine is a country. Russia with Ukraine is an empire.’”

It is for this reason that we cannot af-ford to lift the sanctions against Russia. They already possess a long enough leash to choke Ukraine into submission. To give them more rope would be not only non-sensical, but also potentially dangerous. Russia has made it clear that they possess the will and the military power to retake what they lost in the collapse of the Soviet Union. If they are allowed to do so, they would emerge even stronger, just as Ger-many did. Once Russia has tasted that in-toxicating power again, who is to say that they will stop there?

After the signing of the Munich Agree-ment, F. L. Lucas, a King’s College fellow, wrote a letter to the Manchester Guardian, calling the British celebration of the deal “the funeral of British honor.” He decried the sacrifice of weaker Czechoslovakia and called the British government to action.

“… Unless we propose to barricade our-selves behind pieces of paper signed by Herr Hitler, we shall look a little better to our defenses,” Lucas wrote.

The world now finds itself in precisely the same position it was in 76 years ago. Perhaps the outcome will be different. Per-haps history is not in fact doomed to repeat itself. Perhaps, as the world dared to hope with Germany, the annexation of Crimea would be enough to appease the Rus-sian bear. But do we dare to take the risk? I believe the answer is a resounding no.

BROWND is a copy editor and lived in Eastern Europe for six years.

“Russia without Ukraine is a country. Russia with Ukraine is an empire.

— DAN DREZNER


THEN NOWA look around the campus of the past and the campus of the present

DeMoss Hall in the 80s

Hancock Athletic Center

DeMoss Hall current day

Hancock Welcome Center

Photo Provided Leah SeaverS | Liberty ChamPion

Building the stadium tower Completed Williams Stadium

ruth bibby | Liberty ChamPion Courtney ruSSo | Liberty ChamPion

ruth bibby | Liberty ChamPion Leah SeaverS | Liberty ChamPion

Construction on new library Finished Jerry Falwell Library

ruth bibby | Liberty ChamPion Leah SeaverS | Liberty ChamPion


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Register to vote in the upcomingmidterm election

Register by getting a form at the Student Conduct Office, where someone will be able to answer questions and help with the process.

What you will need...

The deadline for students to hand in registration tothe Dean of Students Office for this year’s generalelection is Oct. 8.

You will need to know your social security number as well as your MSC box number. You should also know your previous registration address when switching to Liberty’s address.

After that date, students will need to bring theirforms to the city registrar office or by registeringonline at vote.virginia.gov by Oct. 14.

Election 2014

Campus makeover

Leah SeaverS | Liberty Champion

NEW IMAGE — Liberty’s campus has been transformed by various construction projects.

David Van [email protected]

As the year transitions into a cooler season, construction crews on Liberty University’s campus will be gearing up to reach construction goals be-fore winter hits the hills of Lynchburg. With several proj-ects underway and a number of them just beginning, the campus is rapidly taking on a new form.

Two construction projects across from Reber-Thomas Dining Hall are currently tak-ing shape. The new Science Hall, being built directly across from the Reber-Thomas Din-ing Hall, will relieve the Circle dorms of their current use as classrooms. The second proj-ect is the new School of Music building.

Nearest to the Jerry Falwell Library is a recently started project that will expand the Center for Music and the Per-forming Arts and the Center for Music and Worship. Ac-cording to Charles Spence, senior vice president for con-struction planning, the new fa-cility will be split up into two sections, one mainly to house a large performance hall and the other strictly for academics.

“The Concert Hall will be used for some academic function, but it’s a 1,600-seat room,” Spence said. “It’s re-ally more about performances and venues. The main portion of the (School of Music) will be lab after lab after lab after classrooms after teaching stu-dios and practice studios. All of those things will reside in the newly named Center for Music and the Worship Arts building. It’s really the academ-ic hub of the entire School of Music.”

Spence noted that the School of Music will be fully operational in approximate-ly one year. Until then, the classrooms that are currently housed in the Circle dorms will remain there until the end of the academic year.

Dr. Vernon Whaley, dean of the school of music, empha-sized his enthusiasm for the new facility.

“At the heart of the new Center for Music and the Wor-ship Arts is a new, world-class, state-of-the-art concert hall that will prove to be the epi-center for arts presentation in South Central Virginia,” Whal-ey said. “The building of this concert hall makes a powerful statement to the entire arts community that Liberty Uni-versity is serious about prepar-ing students for arts careers.”

The second construction project across from the Reber-Thomas Dining Hall is the

new Science Hall. The build-ing is currently undergoing a big push for the “C-wing,” the section closest to DeMoss Hall, to be completed by Janu-ary. According to Spence, the rest of the building will reach completion in March, provid-ing students new opportunities to explore and expand their careers in the field of science.

Directly behind DeMoss Hall is something that has tak-en students by surprise. Where there used to be a courtyard filled with bushes, trees and a flowing water fountain, the area is now home to ripped up trees, large swaths of dirt and a new view of the Jerry Falwell Library. In the future, a large student center will occupy the area.

The Student Center, which is planned to take residence directly behind DeMoss Hall, will be a place of enjoyment and interaction for students looking to take a break from studies. The Student Center will house a large retail food court on the first floor with the possible appearance of Chick-Fil-A and four to five other food options.

According to Spence, the basement of the Student Cen-ter will accommodate an eight-lane bowling alley, as well as meeting rooms for Liberty clubs and organizations. Spen-ce noted the need for a large venue to serve as an event area for Liberty.

“On the second floor will be a ballroom for those larg-er events that will seat up to something over 600 people,” Spence said. “We have been trying to get the (ballroom) at Liberty for a long, long time. We’ve been needing one of those.”

According to Spence, once the School of Music is com-pleted, the Circle dorms will be taken down. The number two Commons dorm has already broken ground, and the third Commons dorm should be-gin to take form around June, according to the most recent plans.

As fall moves into Hill City, the push for projects to be completed has taken firm hold around campus grounds. Once the winter arrives, the la-bors will slow down to a crawl, and then ramp back up again in the spring.

To view live construction around campus and for more information about campus im-provements, visit liberty.edu/aboutliberty.

VAN DYK is the news editor.

Construction alters the look of Liberty’s landscape

Tazjhi [email protected]

In addition to the task of feed-ing thousands of Liberty Univer-sity students, Sodexo, the univer-sity’s dining provider, is extending its services to feed the homeless of Lynchburg and the surround-ing area.

Liberty and Sodexo are ful-filling the task by partnering with one of Lynchburg’s soup kitchens, the Lynchburg Daily Bread organization. The partner-ship began August 2014.

“The idea started from Lee Beaumont, senior vice president for Liberty,” Anthony Delligatti, the resident director of Sodexo said. “He saw this partnership as a way to reach out to the community as one of the many ways Liberty does. When Sodexo has leftover food, we properly cool and store the food, and every Wednesday, Lynchburg Daily Bread collects what we have saved for them.”

The Daily Bread is an organiza-tion that provides free and unlim-ited hot meals to the needy seven days a week, including holidays, with the help of its volunteers.

“Here at the Daily Bread, we are dedicated to helping others, but we couldn’t do it without the help of our outside contribu-tors,” Daily Bread Executive Di-rector Tracey Dixon said. “In 2013, we were able to give out 51,369 meals.”

According to lynchburgdaily-bread.com, Daily Bread opens at 10:50 a.m. and stays open until 12:20 p.m. Recipients are served by volunteers and can receive as many servings as they wish.

Dixon said the Daily Bread goes to Liberty at 7:30 a.m. every Wednesday to get food not used by Sodexo. The organization also

gets food on Mondays follow-ing large catering events. Daily Bread takes their own containers and serve the food throughout the week.

“It’s been such a tremendous help and blessing to our guests that Liberty pays Sodexo for its excess food used to feed students and shares its services to us,” Dixon said.

According to Dixon, local re-cipients who partake with the Dai-ly Bread have expressed that they enjoy the new food. They also mention their appreciation for the kind gestures. Since Sodexo has

offered its services, guests have noticed positive changes.

“(The recipients) like the good quality of the food and can’t get enough,” Dixon said. “They are always hugely appreciative. Here at the Daily Bread, (our volun-teers) are overwhelmed with joy for what Liberty has done not only for us, but (for) the people we are committed to serving.”

LEWIS is a news reporter.


For ticket information, call (434) 582-SEAT or purchase online at www.Liberty.edu/SA. For more information, email [email protected] or call (434) 592-3061

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Sodexo serves the communityLiberty partners with Daily Bread to feed homeless and hungry citizens

AlAnnA Mitchell | liberty chAMpion

WASTE NOT — Sodexo donates extra food from Liberty dining locations to the Lynchburg Daily Bread soup kitchen.

AlAnnA Mitchell | liberty chAMpion

CHARITY— Daily Bread feeds the needy of the community.

Football W. Soccer W. Soccer M. Soccer D2 Hockey

W. Soccer vs. Presby. Oct. 4 @ 12 p.m.

Field Hockeyvs. App. St. Oct. 5 @2 p.m.

WE’LL SEEYOU ATTHEGAME

Liberty Campbell

0 0Liberty W. Ches.

7 1ISU Liberty

38 19

Football vs. Richmond Oct. 4 @ 7 p.m.

Field Hockey vs. Longwood Sept. 30 @4 p.m.

Winthrop Liberty

2 0 Liberty CSU

4 1

W. Soccervs. UNC-Ash. Oct. 1 @ 3 p.m.

SPORTSSeptember 30, 2014 B1

c o m i n g b a c k

Nate [email protected]

The Liberty Flames men’s soccer team (5-2-1, 0-1 Big South) shut out the Howard University Bi-son (0-10-1) 4-0, Sept. 23 at Osborne Stadium.

The Flames began the game with aggressive at-tacks. They amassed two early corner kicks and multiple shot attempts, none of which were suc-cessful. However, the Bi-son defense was caught out of position when redshirt junior Jamie Fox-well sent a spot-on pass to midfielder Jovanni Chavez, who snuck the ball under the extended arm of Howard goalie Eric Hamilton, giving

Liberty the one-goal lead. This was Chavez’s second goal of the season.

Liberty had one more opportunity to increase the lead in the first half when forward Tyler Bull-ock crossed it to forward Sachem Wilson, but Wil-son’s shot just missed the inside of the crossbar, leaving Chavez’s goal as the only score of the first half.

While Liberty went into halftime with the lead, Head Coach Jeff Adler was not too pleased with his team’s performance.

“(In) the first half, there was still some residue from us losing to David-son the other day because

See BURN, B2

Follow @LUChampSports for Flames athletics coverage

Ruth BiBBy| LiBeRty Champion

REDEMPTION — The Flames will be looking to avenge a road defeat at Richmond last season, where they lost 30-21.

Ready for RoccoFlames prepare for former head coach’s first game backJoel [email protected]

This Saturday, Liberty Football Head Coach Turner Gill and the Flames will face off in a much-anticipated Home-coming matchup against the record-setting former Liberty Coach Danny Rocco and his Richmond Spiders.

Rocco was the head coach for the Lib-erty Flames football program from 2006 to 2011. He came in after a 1-10 season and quickly turned things around for the football program.

“They were coming off such a bad season, 1-10 in 2005, so to be able to be

that spark that helped generate and cre-ate more enthusiasm for football and ul-timately success for football was great,” Rocco said. “I think I left that program in much better shape than it was (in) when I got there. I can remember Dr. Falwell saying (there were) more fans at the high school game than at the Liberty game during the interview process.”

While many people would call this game special, the players do not seem to think so, at least not for the same reasons.

“He wasn’t really my coach that long, so it doesn’t really mean anything to me,” Josh Woodrum, starting quarter-

back for the Flames, said. “Everyone on the team now was only with him for a max of a year and a half. I think people try to make a bigger deal about it than it actually is.”

While they may not be too excited about Rocco’s return, coaches and players alike are excited to show off the campus and the facilities to the players who came before them.

“I’m pretty excited for the alumni to be able to see the university and how God has definitely worked here and changed the program,” Flames starting

See RETURNS, B3

Flames burn BisonSachem Wilson’s two goals lead the way to a dominant home win

Leah SeaveRS| LiBeRty Champion

ASSISTED— Junior Connor Flemming prepares to set up his teammate for a goal.

Liberty 4, Howard 0

Extraoffense

Dalton [email protected]

There will be some changes this year in college baseball, starting with the ball itself.

In an attempt to boost offense in Division I baseball, the NCAA voted unanimously to switch from the raised-seam baseball to the flat-seam ball used in the minor leagues.

According to the NCAA, this switch was a result of several stud-ies showing that the flat-seamed ball travels on average 20 feet further than the raised-seam ball. By lowering the seam height from .048 inches to .031 inches, the ball has a tighter spin, which results in the ball traveling faster and farther.

“The ball definitely gets on you a lot faster and jumps off the bat more,” junior outfielder Austin Bream said. “It seems like it’s go-ing farther than the old ball, and you need to make sure you’re ready to react faster.”

The flat-seamed ball has also resulted in changes on the pitch-ing mound. Breaking pitches like curveballs and sliders may be a little harder to throw, but the spin and speed of the ball has increased.

“Overall it feels better,” senior pitcher Ashton Perritt said. “I feel like it comes out of my hand bet-ter with all of my pitches.”

Some summer leagues across the country used the new ball in preparation for the upcoming change. The Cape Cod League, in which Perritt played, was one of them.

“I didn’t like it at first, but af-ter a summer of playing with it, I’m glad there was a change,” Perritt said.

To help the Liberty baseball team in the transition to the new balls, coaches have been stressing that the new balls be used exten-sively this offseason.

“To help the players get used to the baseballs, we have ordered sev-eral dozens of the new baseballs to allow the pitchers and hitters to practice with them this fall,” As-sistant Coach Jason Murray said. “I can feel a difference in the ball just throwing batting practice to the guys.”

In 2011, the NCAA changed the bat used in college baseball to be more similar to the wood bats used in the MLB. The change re-sulted in bats having to be the saf-er Bat-Ball Coefficient of Restitu-tion-certified rather than Bat Exit Speed Ratio (BESR)-certified.

In 2010 at the College World Series, there were 32 home runs hit. In the past four tournaments, there have only been 25 home runs hit total. The move to the new ball should promote offensive production similar to the days of BESR-certified bats without any of the safety concerns.

BRITT is a sports reporter.

Changes to ball should produce more runs

sports B2 | September 30, 2014 | Liberty Champion

BURN continued from B1we fought so hard and unfortunately, we didn’t close that game out,” Adler said.

The Flames played a close game and fell to the No. 25 team in the nation, Davidson College, earlier that week. Winning that game could have po-tentially placed Liberty in the top 25, according to Wilson.

“I knew … that (this game) may be ugly for a while,” Adler said. “We started off and scored a great goal right away, and we got on top of the game, which is what we wanted, but then we just didn’t take care of the ball (for) the rest of the first half. … In the second, we got the guys refocused. I thought we came out with great energy.”

Within two minutes of the second half, the Flames put another past Hamilton, increasing the lead to 2-0. This time, it was Wilson.

“It’s definitely a weight off the shoul-ders,” Wilson said. “As a goal scorer, you always want to score. I definitely credit (scoring) to the teammates. Every goal that’s scored is credited to everyone.”

The offensive resurgence for the Flames did not end there. Three minutes later, midfielder Khalil Karl sent a corner kick into the box. Foxwell maintained in-side position on a defender, then elevated to head the ball into the back of the net. His second goal of the season gave Lib-erty the 3-0 lead.

Later in the half, a Howard defense-

man fouled one of the Flames in the box, giving Liberty a penalty kick. Wilson lined up to take the shot. Without hesitation, he struck it past the goaltender for a fourth goal on the night for the Flames. With that goal, Wilson took his total to four goals in Liberty’s first seven games and became the current goal-scoring leader for the Flames this season. He has also amassed a conference-leading 29 shots for the season.

“Sachem had a big night tonight,” Adler said. “… I’m very proud of him.

He created a real good chance on his own for his first goal. And his second goal, he stepped up with poise and took a great free kick.”

The Flames will travel to Radford, Vir-ginia, for their next contest as they take on conference opponent, Radford Uni-versity, Oct. 4 at 6 p.m.

HAYWOOD is the asst. sports editor.

Ready for tipoffLayer’s annual training camp helps squad build conditioning

Ryley [email protected]

“You have to go through something to be something.”

Those words, spoken by Head Coach Dale Layer, are the heart of Liberty men’s basketball’s annual “boot camp” week.

It is a tradition that marks the start of preseason each year: seven days of 5:55 — not to be confused with 6 — a.m. strength and conditioning sessions de-signed to toughen the players mentally as much as physically.

“It’s a lot of running,” senior forward and boot camp veteran Tomasz Gielo said. “But what gets you tired is all the stuff that we do before the running part.”

“All the stuff ” includes individual ses-sions designed to strengthen players’ par-ticular weaknesses, increase overall fitness and improve mental toughness.

There are conditioning stations for tra-ditional workout moves like jumps, lung-es and weight work. Much of the work comes in the form of basketball drills that do not involve the ball itself, such as lane slides, rim touches and defensive moves. Teamwork-related elements are included throughout to build unity. After each morning session, players go about their day and regroup in the evening for standard practice.

According to Layer, the mastermind behind the Flames boot camp, the con-cept is hardly a new one in the college basketball world. It originated with and

was made popular by Bill Self at the Uni-versity of Kansas and was passed down and around coaching staffs from there. Buzz Williams, head coach at Virginia Tech University, introduced Layer to the idea during their time together at Mar-quette University.

“It certainly was new to Liberty when I came as a head coach,” Layer said. “It combines a lot of different things — strategy, teamwork, communication, a lot of running — and things they’ve got to bind together to accomplish. These guys have embraced it, and it’s kind of part of our culture now.”

Gielo agreed, not denying the difficulty of the institution, but buying into its many benefits.

“It’s been four years, and each year it’s been different with little tweaks here and there,” Gielo said. “And it’s a lot of work and a lot of chaos, but that’s the time when the team is forged.”

That forgery has perhaps never been more crucial to a Flames basketball club than it is to this 2014-15 squad. Of the 14-man roster, a remarkable 10 are first-year players.

“There are a lot of new guys this year — guys who are learning new roles,” Gie-lo said. “Even since the first day of boot camp, you can tell a lot of things have improved. I think it’s a good way for (the new players) to get to know what we’re about here at Liberty, what our team cul-ture is about, and I just hope they keep working hard like they have been.”

Redshirt senior James Johnson, a trans-fer forward out of San Diego, California, is one of the 10 learning the team, its culture and his role within it in his first season with the Flames.

“My first (session), I was a little bit ner-vous coming in, because I’d heard some horror stories from guys in the past,” Johnson said. “But we have a really good group of guys here — real strong-willed — so combined, I knew that we could do anything as long as we work together. I’ve found the more you encourage your teammates, the easier it goes. ... We lean on each other when we’re tired and stick together when we’re struggling.”

In other words, precisely Layer’s goal. “They’ve had to learn to talk,” Lay-

er said. “They’ve had to learn to listen. They’ve had to learn to strategize on the fly and they’ve had to learn to do all that together while they’re tired or sleep-de-prived. Those are things I think will trans-late to what they may experience during the season.”

And the season will be here before the Flames know it, with their Nov. 14 sea-son opener versus Randolph College just weeks away. With that in mind, they fo-cus on building physical fitness and team identity in boot camp 2014 and beyond, willing to go through the struggle to be-come something greater in the process.

RUSH is a sports reporter.


GIVER — Freshman Bay Kurtz chipped in against Howard with an assist.

Alex [email protected]

I do not have kids. I have no wife, full-time job or house. I am not ready to raise a child.

But I already know what sport he or she will be playing.

So what, I like to plan ahead a little bit. It is not a bad thing for me to be looking out for my future children, right? Almost every child who grows up playing a sport dreams of playing that sport profession-

ally at some point dur-ing his or her naïve childhood. Very few of those kids end up play-ing that sport in college, let alone going pro.

For most, making the professional ranks is an impossibility, but for some, it may

have been the wrong choice of sport. If a six-foot-seven dude with a 42-inch vertical leap chose to be a hockey player, he probably picked the wrong sport.

My athleticism genetics trend more to-ward Jack Black than LeBron James. I am a notch over six feet on a bad hair day. Hibernating bears have better agility than me. Unless I marry Elena Della Donne — which I am very open to — my children will never sniff playing basketball past high school.

What about football? Considering I would like my child to remember my name when he comes home from school, I would say football is out of the question. With every new horror that concussion studies bring to light, the more I want to keep any child away from football. I re-member getting knocked out in practice when I was 9 years old after a helmet-to-helmet hit and it was treated like it was no big deal. Sports that do not involve losing consciousness are ideal.

Baseball is a possibility — it was always my best sport — but there are so many things that could go wrong. Unless the hatchling Tichenor has world-class hand-eye coordination and vision, he will never be able to hit elite pitching. And just about every kid who pitches blows his elbow or shoulder out without the precisely correct care.

The big three American sports are out. So which other sport has minimal in-jury risk? Which sport can people excel at despite being limited athletically? The answer: golf.

Many people find golf boring, but most of those people have never golfed. There is nothing quite like standing up on the tee box on hole one, surveying the expanse of the course and smelling the freshly groomed grass. Even the most seasoned golf curmudgeon could fall in love with the course itself.

One small problem — golf is not a sport for children. No matter what, young kids are probably not hitting the ball more than 100 yards. But there are many dif-ferent aspects of golf children could work on before hitting their drives like Bubba Watson.

Tiger Woods’ dad taught him how to putt before he learned anything else. So while it was impossible for little Tiger to make the ball fly very far, he was already on his way toward mastering putting be-fore he ever touched a driver. Just like young baseball players begin their careers hitting off a tee, young golfers must begin with the very basics.

Not to mention, if a golfer wins a single pro tournament, he becomes an instant millionaire. Pops probably could use a new car by then.

Yes, I have put a lot of thought into this. But to be clear, I will not force my chil-dren to play golf while they are clutching a basketball or baseball, screaming to play those sports. I have been around kids who are forced to play a certain sport and it not only ruins their passion for the sport, but their relationship with their parents. That is the last thing I want.

But if my kids ever have dreams of becoming a professional athlete, they should adhere to the old adage of “father knows best.”

TICHENOR is the sports editor.

TICHENOR

Tich’s Take

‘14-’15 MBB nonconference schedule

Nov. 14, 2014

Nov. 17, 2014

Nov. 19, 2014

Nov. 22, 2014

Nov. 25, 2014

Nov. 26, 2014

Dec. 1, 2014

Dec. 6, 2014

Dec. 13, 2014

Dec. 17, 2014

Randolph CollegeDelawareVirginia TechMiami (Ohio)

North FloridaMorgan State/ElonFurmanSaint Francis (N.Y.)

BluefieldUNCW

Dec 19, 2014 Central PennDec 22, 2014 PrincetonDec 28, 2014 Cincinnati Christian

Lynchburg, Va.

Lynchburg, Va.

Blacksburg, Va.

Oxford, Ohio

Cancun, Mexico

Cancun, Mexico

Lynchburg, Va.

Lynchburg, Va.

Lynchburg, Va.

Wilmington, N.C.

Lynchburg, Va.

Princeton, N.J.

Lynchburg, Va.

Liberty Champion | September 30, 2014 | B3sports

Cierra [email protected]

Lady Flames field hockey (6-4) continued an impressive homestand with a 5-0 defeat over the Ohio University Bob-cats (2-6) Friday, Sept. 26 and a 2-1 upset of the No. 11 Univer-sity of Louisville Cardinals (8-2), Saturday, Sept. 28.

Liberty got off to a bit of a slow start in the first period against Ohio before exploding in the second period with 17 shot attempts and four goals. Sunday’s game saw a stark con-trast, with all of the game’s goals being scored within the first 20 minutes.

Four games into their current six-game homestand, the Lady Flames are undefeated and have showed stability on both sides of the ball. The Lady Flames have been impressive on offense, outscoring their opponents 16-3 during that stretch.

Lady Flames junior forward Sarah Gipe is continuing to have quite a season, scoring in five of the last six games, including one against the Bobcats. Gipe currently leads the team with six goals and 14 points, but she was quick to credit the work of her teammates.

“I like the fact that I contrib-ute to the team in this way,” Gipe said. “The other team definitely had my number right away. I scored a goal, but we had four others that scored, too.”

Despite Gipes’s contributions, the offensive success of the team is not all coming from one place. Liberty has had 12 different goal scorers this season.

“We have a lot of girls that are playing good hockey right now, and we’re sharing the ball well,” Murphy said. “We’re pass-ing the ball, moving the ball around. We’re not relying on just one player.”

Liberty midfielder Rachel Suter was able to contribute to Friday’s win as well, scoring the third goal of the game in the sec-ond period. It was the freshman’s second goal of the season, but her first on home turf. Hannah Goldsborough, Serena and Beth-

any Barr also knocked in goals during Friday’s shutout perfor-mance, while Goldsborough and Ashlee Krulock did the scoring against the Cardinals.

The Lady Flames defensive presence has been a key factor to their success as of late, giv-ing up only three goals in the last four games. The Cardinals sent a flurry of shots at Flames junior goalkeeper Mallory Cuccio, but she responded by saving eight of the nine shots put on goal.

“It’s been neat to see the de-

fensive structure has been main-tained and our defense is really not allowing a lot of attacking opportunities with only two shots on goal against us (Fri-day),” Murphy said.

The Lady Flames leave the weekend with momentum, ahead of a torrid mid-October stretch in which they face three of the nation’s top 10 teams in the Uni-versity of Virginia, Duke and UNC. But after defeating 12th-ranked Wake Forest Sept. 19, the Lady Flames are confident that

they can compete with the best. “I think having won the Wake

Forest game last weekend re-ally did help us,” Murphy said. “Knowing that we can play at this level and win at this level is really encouraging.”

Longwood and Appala-chian State will journey to Liberty today and Oct. 5 as the Lady Flames conclude their homestand.

CARTER is a sports reporter.

RETURNS continued from B1

running back D.J. Abnar said.Along with the facilities, the

Flames wish to show how far the program has progressed as well.

“As far as where (the football program is) going, I don’t think it has ever had a brighter future,” Woodrum said. “We are doing ev-erything we can right now to make sure it just keeps climbing and getting better.”

Despite most of the staff having changed since Rocco’s days, two still remain, Marshall Roberts, the defensive backs coach, and Char-lie Skalaski, III, director of player personnel/recruiting.

“It was great working for Rocco,” Roberts said. “I learned how to run an organization

properly, how to expect great effort each and every day, and how to really identify every as-pect of making sure your kid is prepared.”

Roberts had high praise for Rocco, but seeing him again is not what he is most excited about.

“What I really look forward to is not specifically Coach Rocco coming back,” Roberts said. “I look forward to seeing all the play-ers come back. I look forward to seeing them really enjoy the fruits of the hard labor they previously did. There’s a lot of blood, sweat and tears left on those fields from a lot of guys who weren’t fortu-nate enough to play in front of crowds like this.”

Not only is this a highly an-ticipated game for the reasons given above, but it is also a game

between two very good football teams in the state of Virginia.

“I think it’s going to be criti-cal for both teams,” Rocco said. “As for a nonconference game, I think this game is as critical as a game could be. Both teams are floating on the back end of the top 25, and we are try-ing to create resume builders for the postseason.”

Along with simply want-ing to defeat Rocco, the Flames do not want to fall short on Homecoming.

“Richmond is a big game,” Woodrum said. “Everyone knows what that game sort of has around it. You never want to lose your Homecoming game.

Ironically, Gill was not the one who scheduled this matchup. It was Rocco himself. Not only was

he responsible for the Liberty-Richmond matchup, he was also responsible for recruiting his opponent’s quarterback.

“I recruited Josh (Woodrum),” Rocco said. “We loved him. He was a huge get for us when we were putting that recruiting class together. I liked everything about him.”

Rocco said that coaching for a long time provided him with the opportunity to experience many unique situations. But he also iter-ated the importance of separating things that are meaningful from preparing his team. He said none of these things have to do with his feelings or emotions toward the game.

“It’s going to be a very special night, and I think the reality for us coaches is you always have to be

able to separate those things that are personal from those things that are specific to your team play-ing to win the game,” Rocco said. “And there’s no correlation be-tween the two events. Our prepa-ration will be as it always is.”

Abnar spoke for the entire team with his message to Richmond’s head coach.

“Welcome home Coach Roc-co,” Abnar said. “… I can’t wait to see you head to head.”

The Flames will kick off Saturday, Oct. 4 at 7 p.m. at Williams Stadium.

SCHMIEG is a sports reporter.

Not cooling offField hockey continues winning ways, extends streak to five

Leah SeaverS| Liberty Champion

PRECISION— Sophomore Bethany Barr scored her second goal of the season against Ohio.

Liberty 5, Ohio 0Liberty 2, Louisville 1

By the Numbers

Liberty vs. Indiana St.

10Turnovers by the Flames

in their two losses this year — four against Indiana State and six against North

Carolina.

0Turnovers by the Flames

in their three wins this season.

340 Passing yards Indiana

State quarterback Mike Perish piled up against

the Flames secondary on Saturday.

195Passings yards allowed

by the Flames in their previous three contests.

1,375

Receiving yards Darrin Peterson is on pace to fin-ish the season with, which

would shatter the previous school record of 1,081 set

by Chris Summers in 2010.

1-7Liberty’s record in noncon-ference road games since

Turner Gill took over as head coach in 2012.

sportsB4 | September 30, 2014 | Liberty Champion

all photos by Courtney russo unless otherwise noted | liberty Champion

WINNERS — All Flames and Lady Flames fall sports teams have enjoyed successful seasons thus far, with every team posting winning records heading into conference play.



Liberty Champion | September 30, 2014 | B5

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sports

Sarah [email protected]

In the first match of Big South Confer-ence play, the Lady Flames volleyball team (13-5, 1-0 Big South) defeated the defend-ing conference champions, the Radford Highlanders (10-5, 0-1 Big South), in four sets (25-21, 23-25, 26-24, 25-13) Sept. 26.

“It is always great to come out and start conference play really strong,” redshirt ju-nior outside hitter Caroline Douglas said. “We have a very strong conference this year, and a lot of teams can do a lot of things. So every single win counts.”

The Lady Flames victory over the Highlanders was Head Coach Shane Pin-der’s 198th victory, putting him in a tie for the most wins in program history. He now shares the spot with Chris Phillips (1992-97, ’99-’03).

The last matchup between the Lady Flames and the Highlanders was in the Big South Conference semifinal and re-sulted in a Lady Flames loss. Junior setter Caila Stapleton said last year’s loss pro-vided plenty of motivation for the Lady Flames this season.

“We definitely had a little chip on our shoulder from last year,” Stapleton said. “It was the toughest loss I’ve ever been in, in the semifinals.”

Friday night, the Lady Flames began strong, winning the first set, 25-21. The Lady Flames never gave up the lead after starting off the set with a 5-1 advantage. The Highlanders were held to a hitting percentage of .050.

The Highlanders responded to the ear-ly deficit as Pinder predicted, winning the second set, 25-23. But the Lady Flames made defensive changes to combat the Highlanders offensive attack and took the third set, 26-24.

“In the second set, I knew (the High-landers) were going to pick it up,” Pin-der said. “We went in the locker room and made some defensive adjustments in terms of positioning and served a lit-tle bit tougher and gave us some more

opportunities to win the third set.”With a victory in sight, the Lady

Flames began the fourth set strong. Fu-eled by three early aces, the Lady Flames took the early 15-4 advantage. The Lady Flames offense proved to be too much for the Highlanders, as Liberty won the final set, 25-13.

Stapleton led all players with 48 assists, and senior libero Gabrielle Shipe totaled 24 digs. Doulgas led the Lady Flames with 21 kills.

Pinder pointed to Douglas’ leader-ship and offensive production as keys for Friday’s game and the season thus far.

“She is anchoring our toughness,” Pin-der said. “She is making good decisions. She is scoring the balls when we need them to get the pressure off us.”

Entering Friday’s match, the Lady Flames had won three straight games, in-cluding a thrilling five-set victory over the University of Virginia (UVA) Cavaliers on Tuesday, Sept. 23 at the Vines Center. It was the first victory for the Lady Flames over UVA since 1979. Douglas led the way for the Lady Flames, totaling 27 kills, 13 digs and five blocks.

Riding a four-game winning streak and with the first Big South Conference

victory under their belt, the Lady Flames believe their best play is yet to come.

“I think there is a lot more out there for us,” Stapleton, who recorded a career-high 25 digs Friday, said. “They didn’t even see the best we have. I’m excited to just stay focused on the next match.”

The Lady Flames will return to Big South action when they take on Gardner-Webb Oct. 3 at 7 p.m. in Boiling Springs, North Carolina.

RODRIGUEZ is a sports reporter.

Turnaround continuesLady Flames pass last year’s win total with victories over Virginia, Radford

Courtney russo| Liberty Champion

SWAT — Freshman Sirena Vorster (21) had her best game of the season against Radford, tallying a season-high 13 kills in four sets.

Liberty 3, Radford 1

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featureB6 | September 30, 2014 | Liberty Champion

Josh Janney [email protected]

Liberty University’s Spirit of the Mountain Marching Band has come a long way since its incep-tion in 1977. Dr. Stephen Kerr, director of bands at Liberty, has been a part of the program from the very beginning and has watched it evolve over the past few decades.

“(Before 1977) there was a group that did play on the field that was very limited from any-thing you would consider to be marching band,” Kerr said. “But ’77 was really the year it started, and that is meaningful to me be-cause that was my first year as a student. I did my undergraduate here, and I was in the band for that initiatory year.”

Band membership has grown substantially since the ’70s. Ac-cording to Kerr, the band is in the first year of a three-year campaign to recruit 300 players in three years.

“We were significantly under (one) hundred when I first started,” Kerr said. “We are at 230 this year. Last year, we had 203 or something like that. So by the fall of 2016, our goal is to have 300 in the band.”

Kerr has been on the march-ing band staff for 25 years and has served as the director for 15 years. He took over as director of the band in 2000 from director Ray Locy. Before that, he spent 10 years as a brass instructor and director.

“It’s gone from a staff (of) one, me, to bringing other faculty mem-bers and staff members and stu-dent members on board to help lead the band,” Kerr said.

According to Kerr, the five staff members include himself as direc-tor of bands, Associate Band Di-rector Kathryn Voelker, Assistant Marching Band Director Christo-pher Coker, Assistant Director of Athletic Bands and Percussion Ty-ler Loftin and Colorguard Instruc-tor Bryanna Tester.

The staff has expanded to in-clude six technicians who have graduated and serve as instruc-tors, nine cabinet officers made up of current students with full-time responsibilities who organize the other students and 11 people who each lead particular sections of the band.

In addition to the increase in staff, the nature of the program has become more complex over the years.

“Like most college bands, (our) intent is to entertain the audiences at football games,” Kerr said. “And while our focus is to do that, … we also have our feet in a Corps style marching, which is a highly ac-claimed style for marching bands now. The Corps style is to develop a really highly complex show, and to continue to add to that in its length and complexity throughout the fall season until about halfway through … when you’ve got your show in place. So we do music that entertains the crowd, things like Justin Timberlake in ‘Mirrors’ and other pop tunes that college students know and appreciate and enjoy.”

Kerr said he hopes to see the band perform at special events in the future, including NFL events and the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.

JANNEY is the asst. news editor.

Kerr sees growth

Lauren Glossner [email protected]

Walking into Williams Stadium the day of a Liberty football game is marked by the sea of red, the indistinguishable roar of thou-sands of Liberty fans, the smell of conces-sion-stand food and the surge of energy and excitement that transforms people into foot-ball fanatics. There are several components working together to create this ambiance, each element adding fuel to the fire — the focused football team, the enthusiastic fans and shouting cheerleaders, along with the motivating marching band, The Spirit of the Mountain.

The band plays an integral part of each Liberty football game. It not only performs at halftime and before the game, when it ex-cites the audience for what is to come and welcomes the team to the field with “Fan the Flames,” it also performs throughout the game in the stands. The job of the band during the game is to intimidate and dis-tract the opposing team, as well as pump up Liberty fans.

“There is a combining of goals we have through the marching band — both to sup-port the students’ desire to participate in the marching arts as well as supporting the ath-letic events here,” Dr. Stephen Kerr, director of the Spirit of the Mountain, said.

Each year, the band attends all home foot-ball games and one away game. According to Kerr, they have traveled to the Coastal Carolina (CCU) away football game for sev-eral years, but will instead be traveling to the Appalachian State University (ASU) football game in Boone, North Carolina, this year.

“I am really excited that we get to go cheer on the football team at the Appala-chian State game,” senior band member An-thony Giannini said. “Away games are always so much fun.”

According to Kerr, attending the ASU game instead of the CCU game stems from

the latter contest conflicting with the first weekend of Thanksgiving break, as well as the personal request from Athletic Director Jeff Barber’s office for the band to accom-pany the team to the North Carolina game.

“Having the band go to the Appalachian State game is a great thing for the football team,” Head Coach Turner Gill said. “Ap-palachian has the home-team advantage, so anything we can do to help change that is great. Having the Liberty songs being played and having the band to spark enthusiasm in the fans is great for our student athletes.”

The ASU game will be Saturday, Oct. 11, which is the weekend of fall break. Kerr said he is planning many exciting events for the band students so they can have a memorable trip.

The band will head to Boone Thursday, Oct. 9 to perform at other locations in the area. Kerr hopes to perform an exhibition for a nearby high school marching band

competition if the game’s schedule permits. “I know we will make memories on the

road and also in performance,” sophomore band member Elizabeth Rupert said. “I have a few friends that go to Appalachian, so it will be nice to show them what Liberty is all about, not only in football and marching band, but also as a student body.”

Kerr instills in the band members the need to constantly strive for excellence. He reminds them they are representatives for Liberty University and also for Christ. Kerr desires for the band members to use their talents to minister to those they come into contact with, not only at Williams Stadium, but anywhere they have the privilege to per-form.

For more information on Liberty’s march-ing band, visit The Spirit of the Mountain’s Web page at liberty.edu.

GLOSSNER is a news reporter.

Firing up the fansMarching band encourages crowds to cheer on the Flames


MOTIVATE — The Spirit of the Mountain marching band pumps up onlooking fans and intimidates opposing teams.


EXCITE — Band members bring energy to games through their performances.

Lauren GLossner | Liberty Champion

Les s

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ew

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MUSIC — Kerr reflects.

Liberty Champion | September 30, 2014 | B7feature

Emma Jane [email protected]

It is often said how impor-tant it is to form connections with people in college and on the job, because they may prove useful later.

Such is true for Chris Nelson, an assistant professor of theatre arts at Liberty University, who starred in the film “As It Is in

Heaven,” which was f i l m e d in July.

Nelson b e c a m e i nvo l ve d with the film be-cause he

worked with the director, Joshua Overbay, in graduate school at Regent University.

“I worked with him on a cou-ple short films,” Nelson said. “He called me and said, ‘I’m do-ing this project out here in Ken-tucky (at Asbury University),’ gave me the dates and asked me what I thought.”

Several factors contributed to Nelson’s decision to star in the film.

“It was perfect timing, be-cause the filming dates were the only dates that fit in my sched-ule because of running the summer (theatre) camps here (at Liberty),” Nelson said. “I also knew the director in terms of his work. It was also an op-portunity for me to continue to refine my skills, which is im-portant as a professor, because we’re out there continually do-ing as much as we can, while teaching at the same time. It gets tough to reconcile both sched-ules, but this was one time it

worked out really well.”Nelson said it was the person-

al connection that helped him land the job.

“Even though it had been five years since I last talked to him, I was reminded of how impor-tant it is to create strong, work-ing relationships with people, because smaller projects in the past may lead to bigger ones in the future,” Nelson said. “A lot of times in the arts and en-tertainment world, that is usu-ally how things work out. I try to remind my students to keep that in mind. The relation-ships you made in the past can still come back and be a part of your future.”

In the film, Nelson portrays David, a recent convert to a religious sect. After the sect’s leader unexpectedly dies, David becomes the leader, all in the course of a year.

The leader, Edward, names David his successor, even though his son Eamon is ca-pable of doing the job.

“It’s a Cain and Abel type of thing,” Nelson said.

Nelson said one of the chal-lenges of filming “As It Is In Heaven” rested in how he por-trayed his character.

“I couldn’t make him the stereotypical, evil cult leader like most people think of, but to find the humanity in him,” Nelson said. “It was definitely a challenge to bring a level of true humility, faith and devotion to what David really believes he is hearing from the Lord. As an actor, you are trying to find the positive, the negative and the human in characters because you want to be relatable in some respects. Otherwise, there’s a distance between the audience

that never gets crossed.” Nelson said one of the re-

wards of filming “As It Is In Heaven” was playing a char-acter who had the chance to develop.

“My experience in film has mostly been supporting play-ers and not so much playing a character that a lot of the story rests on,” Nelson said. “One of the most rewarding things for an actor is to have the op-portunity to create a character with an arc and to hopefully maintain the audience’s at-tention throughout. That and working with people you trust and (who) understand the craft really well is what’s most rewarding for me.”

According to Nelson, there were some differences between acting on stage and in film.

“The principles behind the craft of acting do not change from stage to film,” Nelson said. “What changes is more of the proportions. It’s more simplistic on film.”

To illustrate his point, Nelson compared film to making a cup-cake and the stage to making a three-tiered cake.

“(And) when it comes to vocal projection, I have to make sure I reach the last of the balcony on stage,” Nelson said. “On film, the screen is maybe two inches to a foot away from your face. It’s like talking to a friend. It’s a cool challenge. I love seeing stu-dents deal with that in my film acting classes.”

To learn more about Nelson’s film and its up-coming releases, visit asitisinheaventhemovie.com.

MAURER is a feature reporter.

Theatre Professor Chris Nelson starred in a feature film over summer break

Acting off the stage

UVA Asthma and Allergic Diseases Center

[email protected] | 434.982.3510

Clinical Trial | Bipolar Depression

Clinical Trial | Asthma Study

Do You Have Asthma?

Asthma Study Participants from

Liberty University Needed

Volunteers are needed for a study about asthma

and the common cold.

You must have asthma, not smoke and be 18-40 years old.

Screening at UVA is in progress now and involves 2 visits

($40 for the 1st visit; $60 for the 2nd). $30 reimbursement

for gas mileage for Liberty University participants will also

be provided. Those who qualify can participate with payment

of up to $1,870 for completing the study.

For more information, please contact the

UVA Asthma and Allergic Diseases Center via

email at [email protected] or 434.982.3510.

(HSR#12656 and 14427)

Photo Provided ROLE — Chris Nelson played a main character in “As It Is In Heaven.”

Will you be the difference?

You can make a difference in this year's election, but you

have to register first!

In hall meetings on Tuesday, September 30,

You will have an opportunity to register to vote.

Your RA will be able to help you with basic questions about the

form.

Plus, the voter registration drive will continue on Wednesday, October 1 at

convocation.

The on campus deadline to register is October 8.

For more information see [email protected]

NELSON

Joe

l C

ole

ma

n

featureB8 | September 30, 2014 | Liberty Champion

Carly [email protected]

The cooler weather has arrived, and with it comes many outdoor activities and seasonal dishes, along with a staple of the fall sea-son — the apple.

Central Virginia is home to a number of apple orchards, in-cluding Seaman’s Orchard in Nel-son County and Gross’ Orchard in Bedford County.

Seaman’s Orchard, located at 415 Dark Hollow Road in Rose-land, Virginia, offers a variety of produce, including apples. Cus-tomers can choose from many different types of apples, such as pink lady, honey crisp and gala. The orchard also offers pump-kins, blueberries, cherries and strawberries.

Additionally, customers are invited to pick their own pump-kins from the Seaman’s patch Oct. 4-31.

Seaman’s also hosts an Apple Butter Makin’ Festival Oct. 4 and 18 at its packing facility in Tyro, Virginia. Festival attendees will be able to visit food ven-dors, crafters and a corn maze and experience games, pumpkin patches and apple butter making.

Gross’ Orchard in Bed-ford County, which is a family-owned-and-operated business that sits at the foot of the Peaks of Otter, also offers the fall fruit. There are 24 varieties of apples grown on the land, in-cluding red delicious, golden

delicious, fuji and black twig.Gross’ Orchard is located

at 6817 Wheats Valley Road in Bedford, Virginia.

Ronnie Gross, co-owner of Gross’ Orchards, explained that October is the busiest month of the year for the business due

to the increase in the number of products sold, which include country ham and bacon, apple cider and different types of jams and jellies.

The orchard offers a “U-Pick” program, allowing cus-tomers to pick their own

apples from bushel baskets.Gross’ Orchard will host its

24th Annual Apple Harvest Fes-tival Oct. 18. The festival con-sists of food vendors, wagon rides and apple butter made in copper kettles.

Gross said one of his favorite parts of the job is taking visitors on tours around the orchard and letting them experience the beau-ty of the orchard.

“I enjoy giving tours and meet-ing new people, especially people who haven’t been out in the coun-try before,” Gross said. “I love being out here in the country and looking at the mountains and coming to work here every day. There really isn’t a part of the job that I dislike.”

For more information on fes-tivals and other activities held at Gross’ Orchard, visit grossor-chards.com or call 540-586-2436. To find out more about Seaman’s Orchard, visit seamansorchard.com or call 434-277-8130.

KOENIG is a feature reporter.


AUTUMN — Students can enjoy nearby apple orchards such as Seaman’s and Gross’ Orchard.

How ’bout them applesAs the fall season begins, many nearby orchards offer a host of fall activities

Rachael [email protected]

Richard Edwards is no ordinary bus driv-er. He is a counselor, teacher, encourager and friend — all from behind the wheel of a white Liberty University bus.

He also happens to be a husband, fa-ther of four children and grandfather of three grandchildren.

Edwards, who prefers to be called “Rick” or “Bus Driver Rick,” did not start out as a bus driver, though it is something he said he always dreamed of doing.

“I love driving big things,” Edwards said. “It’s one of my earthly passions.”

Originally from New Orleans, Louisi-ana, Edwards left his hometown at age 17 to pursue ministry, something he believed God was calling him to do.

Passionate about both youth and mu-sic ministry, Edwards worked with Life Action Ministries (LAM) for 10 years as both a music director and camp direc-tor. LAM is also where Edwards met and married the love of his life. The two are preparing to celebrate their 35th anniversary Oct. 12.

After 21 years of ministry, Edwards, his wife and his two youngest daughters moved to Romania as missionaries with Friendship International. There, Edwards helped a group of Romanian pastors develop Light House Camp in Buteni, Romania. He also worked with a group of Hungarian and Romanian students traveling, singing and sharing the gospel.

Three years later, the Edwards family moved back to the United States, and Ed-wards assumed a pastorate in Wyoming for four years.

It was then time for yet another move, this time to North Carolina, where Ed-wards was a pastor and chaplain for the Williamston fire department for three years. He and his wife, who is a floral designer currently working with bloom by Doyle’s in Lynchburg, also owned a floral and antique shop in Williamston.

Even with years of ministry under his belt, Edwards said he did not really con-sider himself a pastor.

“I never really felt like a pastor,” Ed-wards said. “I am an encourager. … I love building lives, and I love doing anything I can to bring a smile.”

Following the short time spent in North Carolina, Edwards moved to Colorado Springs, Colorado, after Friendship In-ternational asked him to take over their program, which operates in Romania, Hungary, Scotland and Chile — all places Edwards has visited.

However, the Lord had a different plan in mind.

At the time, Edwards and his wife were reading “Abba’s Child,” by Brennan Manning.

The book changed Edwards’ life.

“Brennan was a man who … never got over the fact that he was loved by Christ,” Edwards said. “It just seemed to perme-ate everything about him. That grabbed my heart like nothing (else) had in 37 years of ministry.”

The Edwards family realized there was no difference between full-time ministry and not being on staff at a church.

“I wanted to be working where people needed Jesus,” Edwards said. “I just wanted to be a light.”

For Edwards, being a light involved driv-ing buses. Lots of them.

Edwards, who had always wanted to drive a motor coach, started driving for Grayline Tours of Colorado Springs and began a new kind of mission work.

“My desire was to be different,” Edwards said. “That’s what Jesus calls us to be.”

After a short time as a driver in Colo-rado, Edwards relocated to Virginia to be with family. Within two days of the move, God opened the door for

Edwards to drive for Liberty University.Edwards began working second shift

Monday through Friday from 2:45 p.m. to 5:45 p.m. for the Cornerstone apart-ments route, and 6:30 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. for Main Campus, something he struggled with at first.

“When I got here, I was so angry at the Lord (because) I had to give up mo-tor coach,” Edwards said. “That’s how much I loved it.”

Slowly but surely, God began to change his heart.

“The spirit of God just hit my heart with, ‘Rick, you don’t know who’s coming through the door, because one day, one of these kids could be a follow-up to Billy Gra-ham, a follow-up to Bill Gates, a wealthy businessman (or) a nurse,’” Edwards said.

That was Edwards’ turning point.And, after one semester on the job, Ed-

wards had the opportunity to live his dream again — driving a motor coach.

“Any day in a motor coach seat

is a great day,” Edwards said.The best part of bus driving for Edwards

is the passengers. Bruno Yupanqui, a graduate student at

Liberty, said Edwards radiates positivity. “I always ride around campus with head-

phones on. … Even with them on, you can still feel his presence emanate a posi-tive environment within his bus,” Yupanqui said. “While I choose to be antisocial at the wrong times, this guy is pretty cool.”

Edwards said he loves talking with his passengers about anything and everything.

“I love it when they ask questions,” Ed-wards said. “I love knowing where they are. You can’t meet somebody until you know where they are.”

Topics range from marriage to missions to majors. If someone wants to talk, Ed-wards will listen — sometimes for two or three rounds.

Edwards’ encouraging efforts are not just limited to bus rides, however. He also has a Twitter page (@busdriverrick) and encour-ages students to follow him for words of encouragement throughout the day. He currently has 875 followers.

“Rick has gone the extra mile in creating a Twitter account,” Timothy Spencer, assis-tant director of Charter Services at Liberty, said. “He has exemplified the kind of per-son we want working at Liberty. His love for Christ first, his family, the students. … I would say Rick doesn’t come to work, he comes to his mission field.”

Edwards knows that life, like bus driving, is not without its challenges.

“The kids may look at me and think that I’m always happy,” Edwards said. “But that’s not life. Life has its challenges. But we always have the privilege to experience joy.”

Life is exciting for Edwards because he said he is living for an audience of one, “driving the king’s chariots around.”

Edwards said he is honored to be a part of the Liberty transit staff, a group he described as both diverse and fun, and a group that has taught him so much.

“Mr. Edwards is a very hard worker, very passionate for what he does,” Ted Sweet, transportation and transit manager for Liberty, said. “His passion is (for) the students, and he’s very helpful with the transit department.”

Having been a driver for a total of 35 years, Edwards knows that on the road trip of life, God drives the bus. He is just along for the ride.

Bus driving is not a job for Edwards, but a ministry. It is a passion. A calling. A privilege. And he simply wants to let peo-ple know how much God loves them right where they are.

“I don’t care what color, shape, height or width (the passengers) are,” Edwards said. “I try to love them when they come through the door, and just be a bright spot in their life.”

GRAF is a feature reporter.

Serving on the roadLiberty bus driver Rick Edwards shows the love of Christ during his daily route

Kari moye | Liberty Champion

MINISTER — Rick Edwards leaves a lasting impression on the students he drives.

Liberty Champion | September 30, 2014 | B9feature

Ashley [email protected]

Recently rolling into Lynch-burg, Datz “A” Bagel & Coffee is one of the newest food trailers in the local area offering a wide va-riety of coffee drinks and break-fast foods.

According to Datz “A” Ba-gel & Coffee’s Facebook page, Sept. 1 marked the first week of operation.

According to co-owner Di-ane Williams, the food trailer is a partnership between three par-ties, one of those partners being June Smith, the owner of Sweet Frog on Wards Road.

“We decided that it was a good idea,” Williams said. “These trail-ers seem to be quite profitable.”

Williams said she thinks the bagel and coffee trailer has been growing since the opening.

“We’ve been slowly building,” Williams said. “It keeps getting better and better every day and every week.”

Located at 3405 Candlers Mountain Road in the parking lot of River Ridge Mall, Datz “A” Bagel & Coffee is not in the busi-est area of town, but people are becoming more familiar with it.

“A lot of people don’t know we’re there,” Williams said. “We’re kind of on the back side of the mall, and so people are slowly finding us.”

According to Williams, there are a variety of people that come to the food trailer, but she has noticed that a signifi-cant amount of the customers are employees at Liberty Uni-

versity Online, which is located in the River Ridge Mall.

Datz “A” Bagel & Coffee of-fers authentic bagels from New York, as well as 100 percent or-ganic coffee that comes in bold, mild and day selections.

Williams said Datz “A” Bagel & Coffee is unique in the fact that it is the only food trailer in the area that offers more than just desserts and coffee drinks.

The menu has more than 70 items to choose from, including bagel sandwiches, a variety of spreads, such as cream cheese and homemade pesto, waffles with fresh fruit, lunch sandwich-es and hot or iced specialty cof-fee drinks and smoothies.

“Mr. Goodies is ice cream, and the Monkey Joe’s on Forest Road is ice cream and coffee, and the one (trailer) on Timberlake is smoothies and coffee, so this is the only one that actually spe-cializes in breakfast and lunch,” Williams said.

According to Managing Part-ner June Smith, Datz “A” Bagel & Coffee offers catering and de-livery to office meetings with 24-hour notice.

While there are several other coffee trailers in the area, Wil-liams said she believes Datz “A” Bagel & Coffee will stand out be-cause it has a double drive-thru and walk-up window and also ac-cepts Flames Cash.

Datz “A” Bagel & Coffee’s of-ficial app allows users to view the menu on the go, unlock coupon rewards for frequent visits, re-ceive exclusive mobile coupons, and win prizes by using the food camera to email photos.

Datz “A” Bagel & Coffee’s hours of operation are Monday through Friday 7 a.m.-7p.m., and Saturday 9 a.m.-7 p.m. The shop is closed on Sundays.

For more information about Datz “A” Bagel & Coffee Com-pany, visit facebook.com/DatzABagelandCoffee.

BUNNER is a feature reporter.

Sam [email protected]

Liberty University alumnus Alan Powell, who graduated in 2007, is used to performing on-stage. He is used to the lights and screaming fans. As a member of the Christian pop band Anthem Lights, he is used to touring the country and singing his heart out.

But this past year, Powell took on a new challenge, something he had never tried before. Powell was recently cast in his very first fea-ture film, “The Song.”

This new adventure began with a single email.

“I have an agent in Nashville, and I just got an email (from him) one day about this film,” Powell said. “They were looking for a character named Jed. I read the character description, and I felt like I really understood this guy.”

Powell decided to audition. Af-ter his initial performance, he re-ceived a callback and was cast as the lead character shortly there-after. Powell said he earned the role the “regular, old-fashioned film way.”

Powell was never hesitant to join the cast. He said he was excit-ed about the film, which is loosely based off the biblical story of Solomon, and strongly believed in its message.

“I believed in what they were doing, the story they were trying to tell,” Powell said. “I’ve always had a passion for film, so the op-portunity to be a part of this one was something very exciting.”

According to Powell, getting into character was a day-to-day challenge. Some days were heavier scenes, others were lighter, but he said he just had to wake up and “get into that head space.”

Powell said he and Jed share certain similarities, which helped him relate to his character.

“Jed goes through a lot of dif-ferent emotions and a lot of dif-ferent situations,” Powell said. “But he’s a musician, and I am as well, so I understood that aspect

— being gone a lot, traveling a lot and being an entertainer. He’s a father and a husband, as am I, so there’s a lot of connection be-tween Jed and me.”

Out of the entire filming ex-perience, there was one day that stood out for Powell — the day his wife came on the set.

“We doubled my wife in for the kissing scene and did 18 or 19

takes, so that was a really fun day,” Powell said.

While he enjoys both perform-ing onstage and performing for the camera, Powell said there is a definite difference between the two.

“When you’re performing for the camera, there are a lot of peo-ple around, but you’re supposed to pretend that they’re not there,”

Powell said. “When performing on stage, you’re really playing up to the fact that the audience is indeed there.”

Powell said he hopes those who watch the film will realize the importance of friends and family. His desire is for audiences to reach out to their loved ones and show them how much they are appreciated, even if it is only

through a simple text message.“The Song” opened in theaters

Sept. 26. For more information about the film and where it is playing, visit thesongmovie.com.

CAMPBELL is the feature editor.

Singer stars in filmAnthem Lights’ Alan Powell steps off the stage in order to act in Christian movie

Lauren adriance | Liberty champion

MENU — Datz “A” Bagel & Coffee offers coffee, smoothies and a variety of quick meals.

Eating on the goNew food trailer offers big selection of breakfast and lunch items

PROFILE continued from B10

married,” Falwell said. “It would just be boring, I think.”

Liberty’s growth in recent years has given Falwell the opportunity to exercise his eye for architecture. Falwell shared that he is most look-ing forward to the construction of Liberty’s Landmark Tower and the new student center behind DeMoss Hall, describing campus construc-tion planning as “almost like play-ing ‘SimCity.’”

“All those years, I remember walking around campus and saying, ‘It would be nice if we had a differ-ent type of building here,’” Falwell said about his time as a student at Liberty. “To see those changes ac-tually taking place is something I’ve dreamed about for years.”

In this season of dreams becom-ing realities for Falwell, Liberty is gaining traction, becoming a model campus for other religious institu-tions around the nation.

“I was talking to the president of another large Catholic university and they were saying that they have watched Liberty’s growth and they want their university to become for Catholics what Liberty is for evan-gelicals,” Falwell said. “We always said the same thing about Notre Dame, and I thought it was funny that another school was using us as what they want to become.”

Passionate about creating and sustaining a world-class univer-sity, Falwell has dedicated his ef-forts to advancing Liberty’s role in Christian education.

“That’s what I wake up every morning trying to do — to move Liberty toward that ultimate vision and dream. I’m just humbled to be part of it actually taking place now.”


photos provided PERFORM — Anthem Lights member and Liberty alumnus Alan Powell added “actor” to his résumé.

FEATUREB10 September 30, 2014

Shae [email protected]

With her buzzer in hand, Liberty University alumna Catherine Hardee took on the opportunity to win big bucks Sept. 23 as she played her first round on the television game show, “Jeopardy!”

After exhausting all of the questions her first day, Hard-ee’s winnings came to $12,401 — a result of being the only contestant to answer the final jeopardy question correctly.

After stringing together a series of wins, Hardee tied for co-champion at the end of Friday’s episode Sept. 26, allowing her to return for the Monday-night showing Sept. 29.

Hardee finally gave up the title of “Jeopardy!” cham-pion Monday after winning four out of five shows. Her winnings from the show totaled $95,201.

According to Hardee, she plans on spending some of that money on a trip to New Zealand.

Hardee studied history dur-ing both her undergraduate and graduate years at Liberty, receiving her bachelor’s degree in 2012 and her master’s in May 2014.

According to Hardee, her time at Liberty helped to pre-pare her for her appearance in the nationally televised trivia contest. Hardee was also a member of the debate team during her freshman year and the Quiz Bowl team during her junior and senior years of un-dergraduate study. She partici-pated in the Quiz Bowl team during her two years of gradu-ate school as well.

“I know Liberty played a huge role in preparing me,” Hardee said. “Of course, all my professors in the history department also played a mas-sive role, and I can’t thank them enough.”

Hardee described her ex-perience taping the show, not forgetting to mention even the smallest details.

“‘Jeopardy!’ records five shows per day, two days ev-ery other week,” Hardee said. “I got to the studio at 8 a.m., in time to fill out some forms, get my makeup done and re-hearse on the set. Then, the taping began. I ended up be-ing on the second show of the day, which was great since I had the chance to watch one show being taped before I was on the spot.”

According to Hardee, she also prepared for the show by seeking advice from previous champions and studying past games in order to gain insight into the types of questions that would be asked and common topics that come up frequently.

Hardee said she was pleased with her success on the show.

“I was thinking, ‘Oh my word, I’m a “Jeopardy!” cham-pion,’” Hardee said. “No matter what happens, I’m a ‘Jeopardy!’ champion.”

WEYANT is a feature reporter.


“Okay, Tré, you can come on back now,” his secretary said. For a moment, I felt as if I was back in the eighth grade.

I walked through the door and rounded the corner.

“Hi, Tré,” President Jerry Fal-well said. All of a sudden, memo-ries of my days in grade school left my mind and I felt as if I was see-ing an old friend again. We sat at the end of a long conference table in his office, surrounded by maps and campus mockups, a tangible example of Falwell’s passion for campus updates.

I never felt as if I was inter-viewing an executive, separated by rank. Describing his summer pastimes, our conversation proved to be both down-to-earth and en-gaging. As he began to describe his newfound hobbies, wakeboard-ing and wake-surfing, I quickly realized that behind the title “president” is a man to whom we

can all probably relate.“(My kids) taught me how to

wakeboard this year,” Falwell said. “So, at 52 … I mean, I’ve water-skied my whole life … (but) I’m learning how to wakeboard, wake-surf. I’m learning some new tricks in my old age.”

Watersports and all, the Falwells spend much of their time on their family farm in Bedford County, Virginia. With a lake on the prop-erty, the home serves as the per-fect place for wakeboarding and water-skiing.

Falwell said the farm serves as both a house and a vacation home. From summer to winter, the fam-ily keeps busy.

“Every Christmas on the farm, we shoot mistletoe out of the trees,” Falwell said. “The last few years, I’ve been bringing it to Con-vo and making an exception to the kissing rule for that one day. When we hand it out at Christmas, it dis-appears in a few minutes, even if we bring a big bag. But the only easy way to get it out of the tree is

to shoot it down with a shotgun.”Through the years, many differ-

ent traditions have defined what it is like to grow up as a Falwell. When his kids were younger, they would often venture out on motor home camping trips.

“We had some neighbors that also had motor homes,” Falwell said, leaning back in his chair, legs propped up on the seat next to him. “One summer, we all went out West for three weeks, drove 5,000 miles and saw a lot of the national parks.”

With busy schedules and a big farm, the Falwells do not travel quite as much these days, but they do enjoy spending their down time in the area. Some of their favorite weekend getaways include taking a hike up Peaks of Otter or enjoying dinner at Jimmy’s on the James, the Millstone Tea Room or Main Street Eatery.

Spending more time at home was not always something that came naturally to Falwell. For years, Liberty was fighting fi-

nancial struggles and in need of constant attention.

“I was so busy for so many years,” Falwell said of lessons he has learned. “I was probably spending more time than I should have working. In the last two or three years, I’ve tried to change that. … I finally learned just to turn the computer off when I take off work. I’ve found a whole lot better balance in recent years.”

Falwell and his wife, Becki, have been married for 27 years. As he shared stories of his time dating Becki, I wondered what lessons he may have learned after nearly 30 years of marriage.

Falwell spoke very highly of Becki, telling me “she sees things that I would never see or notice, and I see things she would never see or notice.” He said their dif-ferences have complemented each other in their marriage.

“I can’t imagine how two people just alike could enjoy being

See PROFILE, B9

Presidential profileA conversation with the university’s most sought-after leader

Ty HesTer | LiberTy News service

VISION — President Jerry Falwell reflected on all of the changes and special moments that have taken place during his seven years as president.

Finish strongCatherine Hardee enjoys success

k i s s t h e g i r l

LeaH seavers | LiberTy cHampioN

SPLASH — Performances of “The Little Mermaid” will continue in the Tower Theater through Oct. 5. For ticket information, visit alluvionstage.com.

liberty champion sept 30 2014

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