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Friday, February 03, 2012 7:23 PM

Photo by Matt Bristow/The Ottawa Herald


Pamela DeFries, a 1975 Ottawa University graduate, speaks Thursday during an Adventures in Faith event at Fredrikson Chapel, 1011 S. Cedar St. Ottawa. DeFries teaches seventh grade language arts in the Topeka school district.

Faith abounds at OU event

By BOBBY BURCH, Herald Staff Writer

The vaulted ceilings and stained glass of Fredrikson’s Chapel echoed with hymns of praise Friday afternoon during Ottawa University’s Adventures in Faith program.

The events, which began Wednesday, featured several OU alumni who discussed with students their lives, careers and journeys in faith.

John Holzhuter, coordinator of the Fredrikson Center for Faith and Church Vitality, said this year’s event turnout surpassed that of years past.

“It was great,” Holzhuter said. “This year was the first year ever that we really moved into sort of getting more community involvement.”

Speakers, which included Mitch Barnhart, athletic director of the University of Kentucky, and Wayne Koons, a National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) retiree, met with students in open discussion sessions throughout the week.

Tyler Hazen, an OU junior and Ottawa High School graduate, said he learned more about his faith after participating in the program.  

“It’s been a blessing to be able to hang out with these people here. They have incredible gifts, incredible talents,” Hazen said. “It’s just inspiring — it’s just that little spark that gets that fire going. I think students have reacted in a really positive way toward this.”

The Rev. Roger Fredrikson led a service Friday afternoon and imparted several blessings to those who were involved during the event. He said the diversity of speakers led to the program’s success.

“We’re very grateful for the mixture of teams, their gifts and the way the students responded to them,” Fredrikson said. “It’s gone very well.”

Among the speakers was Jakoma Machok, a 2011 OU graduate. At five-years-old, Machok, along with about 27,000 other southern Sudanese boys, was separated from his family during Sudan’s violent second civil war. The group of boys, commonly referred to as “The Lost Boys of Sudan,” fled their homes to escape genocide.

“People were suffering left and right,” Machok said. “Day in and day out, people were dying every day, and all because of a religion — because we were Christian.”

During the exodus, Machok said, he lost contact with his siblings. Many others in his family were killed. Between 1987 and 2000, Machok lived in several refugee camps in Kenya and Ethiopia before being relocated to Kansas City, Kan. Now, more than 25 years later, he has yet to revisit his village.

“It has affected my faith,” Machok said. “We suffered because of our faith in Christ.”

Carlos Martinez, a 2005 OU grad, was the cantor and pianist during the program’s services. Martinez, who’s a music teacher in Bowling Green, Ky., began playing piano when he was 5 and joined the National Conservatory of Music at 7.

“I believe that ... is a God-given talent, what I do now with piano,” Martinez said.

Martinez now is a minister of music at Grace Community Church in Bowling Green.

He said he enjoyed his conversations with OU students this week.

“I love talking to the kids,” Martinez said, “especially because of any opportunity that I have to share the gospel and share God’s word — that’s something that we should take upon us.”

Mitch Barnhart, a 1981 OU graduate and the University of Kentucky’s athletic director, also attended Friday’s service.

Barnhart said he attempted to relay a simple message to those who attended his discussion.  

“I think a lot of times we try to get out and look at all the challenges in the world and all the things that are going on and we think that we can’t accomplish any of that. It’s too big — world hunger is too big, the AIDS virus is too big,” Barnhart said. “My message to the kids was simply ‘do for one.’ Go do for someone and hopefully that matriculates, or multiplies, and gets to the spot where we have done a greater good.”

Barnhart said his faith has helped a great deal with his position at the University of Kentucky.

“What I’ve realized over the 30 years in the industry of sports is that to do this job without Christ, for me, would not be possible,” he said. “There’s a peace that comes with knowing him that allows me to navigate through the wins and the losses, through the media, it makes it possible to find some calm.”

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