Global Awareness Week 2011

This photo story follows eight Cornerstone University students as they educated a small-town high school about social injustice around the world. Global Awareness Week, or GAW as the team affectionately called it, took months of preparation and prayer on the part of the students involved. They sacrificed their Tuesday nights every week since October to meet together and educate themselves about the war in Africa, lack of clean water, orphans, poverty/homelessness, and human trafficking. As a Christian, I believe social injustice is an issue close to God’s heart. James 1:27 says “Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.” In order to reach the orphans and widows, we must know where to find them. The college students practiced their faith by educating the students, providing them with tangible ways to get involved in these issues, and by spreading the love of Christ through the halls of Reese High School in Reese, MI. The team built relationships with the students and encouraged conversation not only about justice, but about God’s love for the destitute.
This is a story of how God used eight college students to spread the message of his love and mercy to a small town in East Michigan.

Cornerstone University (CU) students Cody Flowers, Megan Tracy, Erik Rice, Alexiana Stump, Kaitlan Spencer,Shiloh Brace, Andy Perschbacher, and Chris Wilhelm pose with Reese High School principal Randy Middlin (center). Middlin was incredibly open and accommodating to the Global Awareness Week team during their time at RHS.

CU freshman Cody Flowers and sophomore Erik Rice put together their visual aids for “Water Day” in the Corum student union on Sat., March 5, the day before the team left for GAW.

The students of Reese High School watch a “What if?” introduction video to get them thinking about the different issues that will be discussed over the course of the week. The video script was written by the GAW team and was created by professional animator Valerie Tracy. Welcome to Global Awareness Week 2011.

CU freshman Alexiana Stump (center) talks to Reese freshmen Tiffany Gunlot, Dakota Frost, and Ambrosia Jackson during lunch on Tues., March 8. The GAW team manned a display at the front of the lunchroom and also interacted directly with students during lunch each day in order to build relationships and get them talking about the issues.

The cup reads “The average American uses 433 liters a day of water.” The GAW team wrote this and seven other “water facts” on 300 cups and distributed them to students and staff between classes on Tues., March 8.

Reese freshman Max Fritz falls during an exercise to illustrate the difficulty many people experience every day just to get clean water. His fellow freshmen Meghan Weber and Emily Karnes struggle to carry their five-gallon water jugs to the end of the hall. After the exercise, CU freshman Cody Flowers explained to the students that many people in the developing world walk miles to access water that often is not clean. He encouraged them to do a “40 Days of Water” and donate the money saved to an organization called Blood: Water Mission which digs wells for villages in Africa.

CU freshman Shiloh Brace talks to the student body on Wed., March 9 about sponsoring orphans through World Vision. Sponsorships allow children to go to school, buy food and clothing, and essentially live more successful lives so they can begin building a better community for future generations. After Brace’s presentation, three groups of Reese students signed up to sponsor children.

CU freshman Kaitlan Spencer talks during lunch about a paper chain that is hung around the room. Spencer explained that the paper chain contains 1,440 links, each representing 100,000 orphans worldwide.

Reese junior Cassie Wright listens before class as CU freshman Andy Perschbacher, CU sophomore Erik Rice, and CU freshman Cody Flowers play music in the halls. The boys dressed as homeless men for “homelessness and poverty” day on Thurs, March 10 and received a lot of looks from students and staff.

CU freshman Alexiana Stump asks for volunteers from the Reese freshman class to play “The Poverty Game of Life.” The game was designed by Stump and CU freshman Andy Perschbacher. The game was meant to be lost, and it helped show the students that poverty is not an effect of laziness but is a difficult cycle to escape.

Reese seniors Tyler Beckman, Phillip DuRussel, and Chris Smith decide what to pawn off in “The Poverty Game of Life.” Unfortunately, even with pawning off their luxuries they still did not make it to the yellow pay day square.

CU sophomore Erik Rice, freshman Andy Perschbacher, freshman Cody Flowers, and the rest of the GAW team enjoy breakfast with Brian Cress from International Justice Mission (right) on Fri., March 11. Cress flew in from Seattle, WA to lead an assembly at Reese about Human Trafficking.

Brian Cress of International Justice Mission talks to the Reese student body about Human Trafficking. Cress showed IJM’s documentary “At the End of Slavery” and then talked to the students about having courage to stand up for what’s right. After Brian’s talk, the students were encouraged to sign petition cards which he will deliver to Washington D.C. next time he visit’s IJM’s office there.

CU freshman Kaitlan Spencer prays with Reese junior Anne Baltes, an exchange student from Germany who attended the GAW team’s nightly Bible Study at Trinity Lutheran Church in Reese. The deepest relationships with students were formed during Bible study each night, where the GAW team could freely express the Gospel. "This is so weird!" Baltes exclaimed on Friday after explaining that her host family had recently given her a Bible.

Students at the GAW Bible study end Fri., March 11 by putting their hands together and looking into each other’s eyes—a tradition from Germany, says Reese junior Anne Baltes. The GAW team truly felt God’s spirit throughout their week in Reese and promised their new friends they would be praying for them and checking in on them.