Live, Love, Repeat

Daniel Gillespie
Photo courtesy of Multnomah University

by Daniel Gillespie

Begin again. Resolve to solve your problems

Winter left its mark choose to embark

Today to Change the way Life is

Choose to Live, to face tomorrow with

Friends beside you

Choose to Love, to find someone new

Maybe one day say, “I Love You”

Make that first move outside, beyond yourself

Love someone or something else and Begin.

Journey past your heart to your core

Find yourself; push through Love’s open door

March in step and hand in hand

Enjoy someone’s company and make it last

Before it’s past.

Stop and smell every flower of Spring

Embrace the real thing not some screen

Sunscreen, grass of green, treasure the rain

Count the years and have a Birthday

Eat cake.

See bright colors of leaves and trees

When she leaves, pull yourself up again

Find comfort and depend on your Friends

Search and find new joy in Life

Even through strife.

Complete the school year, graduate from college

Learn and don’t Cease, never enough knowledge

Have fun in the sun as Summer

Has finally come, run and play, Celebrate!

Each day.

Halfway done. Independence Day, Family and fireworks

Look around for a job that works

Earn some spare change. Meet someone new

Begin summer romance on the random chance

It could last.

Attend the wedding of two dear friends

See people you miss, Laugh and Live

Enjoy every fleeting day of summer bliss

Get away today, go to the beach

Soak all in.

Watch the leaves Fall back in routine

Continue to Live and continue to Dream

Remember the past college days of classes

Do not loose touch with Friends in

The process.

Hold the ones that you Love close

Hold on to this moment, treasure it

Because with sudden torment it could End

Cry with your friends through broken hearts

And lost jobs.

Walk once again in the cold temperatures

Feel the sting, stuck in cold weather

Be thankful for whatever you have got

May not seem like much but it’s

A lot

Shop for Christmas, get your friends gifts

Family and the girl you are with

Then cry when she breaks your heart

Make a new Start! Admit no defeat

Live, Love, Repeat

Faith Heple and Elementary Ed

Photo courtesy of
Multnomah University

Name: Faith Heple

Major/Minor: Elementary Education

Year: Sophomore

Q: Why did you choose this major/minor?

A: “I actually didn’t want to be a teacher.  I wanted to go into the Psych program.  But when I went on Multnomah’s website the slideshow for the different majors/minors wouldn’t move past Elementary Ed!  And then nothing but the link for Elementary Education would work.  I fought with God about this, but in my heart I knew He wanted me to be a teacher.  After applying and going into my first education class I knew I wanted to be a teacher more than anything.  I could (and still can) feel that this career is the one I’m supposed to be in, the one there I will make the most difference, and the one in which God will show Himself to others through me.”

Q: What misconceptions do people in other majors have about yours?

A: “[They think] that its easier because we focus on elementary levels.  But it isn’t any easier.  It’s amazing how much you forget over the years.  Plus, now that you’ve done the hard stuff, your brain doesn’t even think 2+2=4 without some crazy formula!”

Q: How do you hope to use your degree?

A: “I’d like to use my degree to become an International Teacher.  I’d also like to use my degree to change the way children do school; there are so many different ways of learning and teaching… We’ve only begun to scrape the surface.”

Q: How have you been impacted by being in this program?

A: “I’ve been impacted by how much God works within the schooling system: even in public schools where religion and God are practically banned, you can still work God into the lives of your students.”

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The Journey: Mark Staples

by Laura Joy Griffith

            Mark Staples graduated from Multnomah with a degree in Bible and Youth Ministry in 1993.  Now he is the senior pastor at Emmanuel Bible Fellowship in Olympia, WA.  With twenty-one years of life and ministry experience since graduation, he reflects on his time at Multnomah and how it led him to where he is today.

            Rather than pinpointing one event or person at Multnomah that influenced him, Mark credits the overall experience with the life change he experienced.  Describing his passionate pursuit of intimacy with Christ, he says, “I embraced the spiritual side of life as much as the intellectual.”  This passion for spiritual maturity overflowed from the chapel and the classroom onto the basketball court.  Mark played Multnomah basketball for four years under Jim Skagen and credits Coach Skagen and the program for much of his spiritual growth at Multnomah.  “It wasn’t just an athletic endeavor,” he says of the basketball program.  “It was a ministry experience.”  He describes the closeness of the team and the cheerleaders, saying that their regular ministry involvement impacted him tremendously.  In addition to Coach Skagen, Mark names Prof. David Needham as a powerful influence during his time at Multnomah. 

            After graduating from Multnomah, Mark moved to Olympia to become a youth intern at Emmanuel (then called Emmanuel Baptist Church).  Although he only intended to stay there for a year or so, he ended up becoming the youth pastor and staying more than nine years before moving back to Portland—to the church at which he grew up—to work as a youth pastor there.  He then moved with his family to Arizona, where he served at another church and completed his Master’s Degree at Phoenix Seminary.  Finally, almost two years ago, he returned to Emmanuel as the senior pastor.

            During the past two decades, Mark’s main connection with Multnomah has been through the friends he made while there, like athletic director Lois Vos.  Though the “wrapping” has changed, he says, the principles on which Multnomah was built remain.  He encourages current Multnomah students to believe in those principles and the embrace the overall Multnomah experience.  Whether or not you are planning to enter full-time ministry, he says, soak up whatever you can from your education, but don’t let it become cold and impersonal.  “It can become an academic pursuit, instead of a real life pursuit,” he said. 

            Mark also advises students to ensure that they are involved in ministry: “It’s critical for a follower of Jesus to have an outlet in their life and not just always take in.”  Mark feels that there are too many consumers in the church and not enough givers, and it is important to form these habits as soon as possible.  Multnomah is an ideal opportunity to create habits and build a foundation for life.  If you learn to be a servant at Multnomah, you will be a servant for the rest of your life: “I think that’s what life is about: investing and giving.”

Multnomah University