Category: News

Last Saturday, October 25th, Houghton College, along with Alfred State and Alfred University, participated in Celebrate Service Celebrate Alleghany, a day for students to volunteer their time to give back to the community.

This was the third year of joint participation for the three schools, all located in Allegany County. The day is also set to run parallel to Make A Difference Day, the country’s largest national day of service.

The day started at 8:30 a.m., with projects that ranged from raking leaves, working at the Houghton Retirement home, trail maintenance in the county parks, cleanup on Fillmore’s little league field, cleaning and landscaping a cemetery, and more.

“I think Make A Difference Day is an opportunity to open the door for future relationships that Students can build with the community,” said Katharine Labrecque, Student Government Association (SGA) President and senior. Labrecque worked along side Phyllis Gaerte, Marshall Green, and Jason Stephens to organize student involvement and to plan the student level events.

The SGA worked as a form of public relations for the event, bringing awareness to students and faculty about the event and how to sign up. The organization also helped to fund part of transportation costs to and from the work sites.

“In order to round up interested students, I sent emails to athletic team captains, coaches, and campus clubs to see if on any level they wanted to get involved,” said Labrecque. It paid off because she estimated that about 150-175 students attended the service day, including the full involvement of Houghton’s baseball and softball teams.

The various locations and service events give each student their own experience. Patrick Parson, junior and member of the baseball team, was a participant of Make A Difference Day. Parson viewed the day, not only as a way to help the community, but also as a way to work alongside his teammates. He said his greatest experience from participating in the service day was “the relationship I had with my team.” He went on to say, “There is undoubtedly something inherently special about serving along side others, and my teammates really taught me a lot about life that day.”

Apart from student relationships, the true reason for Make A Difference Day is reaching out to the community. The Make a Different Day website states that the day is meant for the nation to unite under one mission: “to improve the lives of others.”

Kevin Cassar, a senior, was a third year participant of Make A Difference Day. “Every year it gets better,” said Cassar. He then commented on the people he served saying, “the community members of Allegany really appreciate everything that we did. They always have responded in a positive, very grateful way.”

Overall, Make A Difference Day was full of giving and gratitude. “It exposes them [students] to the various service opportunities that they can pursue long-term. It also allows residents throughout the county to meet students and learn about the college,” said Labrecque. “Even more importantly, it’s an opportunity to be a light, and to actively live out our faith through service.”

Killing and kidnapping by terrorist group continues in Nigeria, despite alleged ceasefire. The ceasefire, between the Nigerian Government and terrorist group Boko Haram, was officially reported October 17, but the group has not confirmed the ceasefire and continue violent actions.

The Boko Haram is an Islamic group that was founded in 2002. Their full name, Jama’atu Ahlis Sunna Lidda’awati Wal-Jihad, translates to “people committed to the propagation of the Prophet’s teachings and jihad” according to the Council for Foreign Relations (CFR). However, their more common name, Boko Haram, translates to “Western education is a sin.” The group rejects Western concepts such as the big bang and evolution theory.

Boko Haram gunmen have been accused of abducting at least 30 boys and girls from the village of Mafa, northeast Nigerian state of Borno, last Friday and Saturday. A CNN article said heavily armed gunmen entered the village and abducted the children, as young as 11. It is speculated the children will be used as foot soldiers. Local leaders complained the government military has done nothing to stop the raids.

CNN also reported several other raids. Sixty women and girls were taken from two Christian villages in the neighboring Adamawa state last week. Additionally, the group also raided the nearby village of Ndongo, killing 17 people, looting and burning the location.

Between 2002 and 2009 Boko Haram was not involved in trying to violently overthrow the government. However, in 2009 unrest broke out when group members refused to obey a motorbike helmet law. The government responded with strong police tactics and which involved brutality according to the CFR.

During the 2009 unrest, revolts broke out in the state of Bauchi and spread to the neighboring states of Borno, Yobe, and Kano. The conflicts left eight hundred dead. As a result of the conflict, Boko Haram’s leader, Mohammed Yusuf, was publicly executed. Since then, the unrest has spiraled out of control and the group has launched military operations to create an Islamic state.

In May 2013, the Nigerian Government assembled a joint task force and declared a state of emergency in three northern states of Borno, Yobe, and Adamawa. The force pushed Boko Haram out of the city, but violence continued in rural areas.

In 2013 experts began seeing influences from al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, a Northern Africa terrorist group, in Boko Haram’s operations, according to the CFR. They were officially declared a foreign terrorists organization by the U.S. State Department. Attacks have been targeted towards civilians, including beheading truck drivers with chainsaws, killing travelers along northern roads, and then in September 2013, the killing of 65 students while they slept at an agricultural college in Yobe state. In April, the group bombed a bus stop in Abuja, the capital of Nigeria, killing nearly one hundred people.

In April, 219 girls were kidnapped by the group, sparking international protest and provoking the hashtag on social media “bringbackourgirls.” The fate of the kidnapped girls is still unknown. While the Nigerian government was negotiating and hoping for their release, recent violent events in spite of the ceasefire have rendered future of the abducted girls more uncertain.

With the commencement of flu season upon us, the student health services staff has partnered with the Allegany Health Department to open a flu clinic for Houghton students and anyone in the community ages six months and older. The clinic will offer flu shots in the lower level of the Campus Center on October 27th, from 10am-2pm. The shots will be administered by nurses from the Allegany Health Department.

According to Laurie Hennessy, Director of Patient Services for Allegany County, no appointment is necessary. Just walk in, and “bring short sleeves (or ones that easily roll up) and your insurance card.” Flu shots are covered in full by most insurance plans, and any co-pay will be determined on a need-based scale, which should make them affordable to everyone.

The flu clinic is an annual event at Houghton College. The hope is that students will be encouraged to be proactive about fighting the flu virus—which is why steps are taken to make the process as convenient and (figuratively) painless as possible. Gail Smith, nursing supervisor at the health center, was responsible for coordinating and organizing the flu clinic. She stated, “I hope more students will get the shot this year. The campus is an especially good environment for the spread of respiratory borne illnesses such as influenza.”

Who should get a flu shot? “Everyone!” said Hennessy. “Flu kills and I don’t think people understand that.” Smith agrees, stating all students should seriously consider getting the vaccine, “especially anyone with a medical condition that might lower their resistance to respiratory infections, such as those with asthma, diabetes, cardiac problems and other chronic conditions.”

This year’s flu shot covers four strains of the flu, as opposed to last year’s 3 strains. The vaccination immunizes against strains of respiratory flu, instead of gastrointestinal flu. Hennessy stated that in her opinion the respiratory strains are more dangerous.

Dr. David Brubaker, director of health services, said, “For most college students, influenza (the “flu”) usually causes a miserable but self-limited viral illness characterized by fever, body aches, headaches and upper respiratory symptoms including sore throat, runny nose, and a cough that can be quite bothersome.”

He said, “It typically resolves on its own over the courses of a week to ten days without complications, but can leave you feeling wiped out following the illness for a while longer. Because of this, students should take care to avoid getting the flu, as it can result in missing classes, practices, falling behind in homework, etc.” However, students with other health issues are at higher risk of complications from the flu virus, which could lead to hospitalization and, rarely, death.

To prevent the flu, students can exercise, rest, hydrate, wash their hands frequently, and generally maintain good health practices. Since illness spreads rampantly on residential college campuses, the most effective prevention is to just get a flu shot. Many health experts say prevention of the flu is preferable to treatment after a person has contracted it.

According to Sue Montoro, the health center medical receptionist, a student who cannot get to the flu clinic could possibly receive the flu shot at the Fillmore pharmacy. However, the disadvantages to this are that they can only be administered when a pharmacist is in, and there is no need based scale to cover co-pays. Sue advised that students try their best to get to the flu clinic if they want to be sure that they can get a shot at the best possible price or completely free of charge.

Anyone interested in getting a flu shot should go to the basement of the Campus Center on Monday, October 27th any time between 10am and 2pm. Remember to wear short sleeves and “please bring your insurance cards!” urged Smith.

Each year the Global Christian Fellowship prepares New Visions Week, a week devoted to offering mission related information and opportunities for the Houghton student body as a whole. It will be held from October 26 through November 2, and has various events tied together by this year’s theme: unreached people groups.

An unreached people group is a group without enough Christians of their own ethnicity to have evangelical influence. These can be groups who are either hostile to the gospel or have not heard it. They are mainly located in what is known as the “10/40 window,” a rectangle on the map between 10 and 40 degrees north latitude, which includes North Africa, the Middle East, and Asia. Although the window is not completely accurate, meaning not all groups inside it are unreached, and some unreached groups exist outside of it, it works well as a general rule.

“The Joshua Project,” a website dealing specifically with information related to unreached people, explains this in greater detail and offers maps as visual aids. The unreached people of both the “10/40 window” and areas outside of it require what GCF president, Whitney Elder, described as cross-cultural input. These are the missions New Visions Week is all about, but the ultimate goal, as the theme notes, is to plant seeds of indigenous faith in these unreached people groups so it may become their own.

The week will open with David Sitton speaking chapel and the Monday night culture fair. Sitton, who spent time working in Papua New Guinea and now is helping to operate a school in Texas that trains people to worked with unreached groups, will speak an additional five times in chapel during the remainder of the week. The culture fair is meant to “expose the average student to how God’s at work in the rest of the world,” Elder said. There they can learn about “the global church, how it’s doing.” Through this, a greater sense of connection with fellow Christians around the world can be created and students can gain a better understanding of other cultures.

Six workshops and two special interest luncheons, in addition to the post chapel lunches, will also be offered. Michael Ahland, assistant professor of linguistics and teaching english to speakers of other languages (TESOL), will speak on Linguistics, TESOL, and translation on Tuesday. His perspective will be based on his work in Ethiopia, where he, along with a Houghton student, was able to bring a local Ethiopian language into writing.

On Thursday, the lunch will look at Islam. The workshop topics range from explorations of missions (roles and settings), to TESOL, to human trafficking. There is also a workshop on how music can be used in ministry internationally.

Houghton students will not only have an opportunity to gain a better understanding of missions and the unreached people of the world, but a chance to become involved. Multiple mission organizations will be represented, from which interested students can get information. Opportunities for internships and study abroad options will also be available.

The theme verse for the 2014 New Visions Week is Romans 10:15. “And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, ‘How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!’”