Welcome back to our students that have just completed the spring canvassing program!  Groups went door-to-door in greater Chicago, Orlando, rural Maine, and Tuscaloosa.  The most recent report estimates that OHC students have, in the last 12 months, knocked on 386,978 doors and sold 31,366 magabooks, or 19 tons (not including the smaller book Happiness Digest, which adds another 28,359 to the tally). 

God is good!  His publications certainly are going into the communities near and far.  But even more special than the many books being sold are the divine appointments that the canvassers are privileged to experience.

One powerful experience is told as such by Xian Li, who canvassed in the Chicago area:

“I met a man and his wife in a very poor neighborhood.  The man sternly asked me why I was in his neighborhood.  ‘The guy next door got shot over an ounce of cocaine,’ he told me.  ‘You shouldn’t be here!’ 

“But I kept talking with them, and he started opening up to me about his life.  I found out he’d been in jail, through many problems, and was desperately struggling just to keep his home.

“Somehow, we began talking about the books, and I showed him The Desire of Ages.  Now, it’s interesting, because I usually never carry The Desire of Ages in my bag, but God had impressed my leader, Jensen, to persuade me to carry it that day.  Now, I showed it to the man, and he flipped it open to a random page, a picture of clouds with the caption,

‘Whether on sea or on land, if you have Christ in your heart you have nothing to fear.’

“The man started shaking, and said, ‘Ooh, I just got the heebie jeebies!  I have to go inside.’  But I asked him if I could pray for him first.  His wife was Catholic, and she kept whispering to me that he really needed God, and eventually he decided to stay for a prayer.  As I prayed, he started sobbing.  He couldn’t stop crying, and even though he’d just told me they had no money, he knew he needed the book and so he told his wife, ‘give the girl some money!  Just give her some money!’ And he took The Desire of Ages.”

If you were to have walked around campus on Sunday afternoon of February 28, you might have seen an interesting sight at each dorm: students rushing around shaking rugs, polishing windows, and feverishly wiping a school years’ worth of dust from unreachable places. That evening, after the Courtesy Banquet, would be the much-anticipated Open House.

This yearly tradition is not only a great opportunity for spring cleaning and visiting dorm rooms, but also a demonstration of how cleanliness in personal space is an aspect of true courtesy. Getting into the spirit of things, the academy and college students went all-out to present sparkling dorm rooms for the visiting opposite gender.

“It was really fun and interesting to see other people’s rooms,” was the main consensus among the college students. However, a few went beyond the aspects of fun and novelty to mention a spiritual lesson learned during the activity.

“It makes me think of how we prepare for Sabbath,” says David Daum, a media senior. “You know, we spend so much time to get our rooms ready for visitors, but what about on Fridays when we’re getting ready for God? Do we put the same amount of effort into our rooms then?”

Although we had fun, we hope to remember the lesson of cleanliness as a courtesy, not only to our friends but also to the Lord.

February 21 through 27—the most nerve-wracking, mind-boggling, sweaty-palmed week of the whole school year: Courtesy Week! How in the world will we remember if the knife or the fork goes on the right side of the plate? How will we recognize those subtle clues that tell us our host is ready for us to leave? How will we even know what to wear, do, or say at Uncle Buck’s funeral?

Ah, so many rules of courtesy and etiquette to learn; it can be tempting to throw up frustrated hands and flop back into an “anything goes” kind of mindset. But here at Ouachita Hills, we believe that God calls us, His people, to come up higher. The compilation Reflecting Christ says on page 30 “A kind, courteous Christian is the most powerful argument that can be produced in favor of Christianity.” That is what Courtesy Week at Ouachita Hills is all about: assisting students in becoming the best representation of a holy God that we can be.

Our mornings began with worship talks about the value of respecting; not simply respecting our peers, but also respecting God, parents, those in authority, property, and nature. In the evening, we had meetings that demonstrated the practical details: how and why to RSVP, how to be a proper guest, escorting a lady in a formal event, wedding and funeral etiquette, carrying on pleasant conversations, table manners, and how to give correct introductions.

Speaking about Courtesy Week, Daniel Lui, a college freshman, says it was “a good reminder to help us understand how in the American culture, we lose a lot of little courtesies and politeness that other cultures have; it’s just a good reminder of how we can get so busy or uncaring to think about the little things that are caring and really show the love that God has put in our hearts for others.”

May God grant that our entire student body will become the kind, courteous ambassadors to the world that show Christ’s love to others.