Baylor Proud

Born without her left hip and leg, it would have been easy for Michele Perry, BA ‘99, to spend her lifetime focused on her own needs. Instead, caught up in the love of God, she has spent the last decade taking His love to the slums of India, orphanages in Central Asia, and now wartorn Sudan. She shares her story in the video below.

Doing something most said was crazy, she opened a home for orphaned children in the middle of guerrilla warfare territory and now serves as a mother to over 100 kids. “Most of our children have been orphaned, but we don’t call them orphans,” she says. “In the Kingdom of God and the Kingdom reality that we live in, there are no orphans. We all have a heavenly Father.”

To further share her story and what God is doing in such far-flung places, Perry has created not only a blog but also a book (Love Has a Face: Mascara, a Machete and One Woman’s Miraculous Journey with Jesus in Sudan) and released a documentary film (see the trailer here).

Sic ’em for your service, Michele!

Since a massive earthquake struck Haiti earlier this week, killing thousands and leaving millions without access to food and shelter, we’ve heard from a few members of the Baylor family who were in Haiti when the quake struck. Even after seeing news footage all week, their words are eye-opening.

“I can’t believe the damage. Unbelievable. Houses gone. Schools gone,” said a 2007 alum who was in the country as a United Nations intern. “I talked with kids and tried to calm people down. I don’t even know what I was doing. I just ran around talking to the kids and telling them to stay away from the power lines that are all over the streets.”

Another 2007 graduate had just started teaching at a Christian school in Haiti last month; the school miraculously survived the quake intact, but many of the students and employees lost their homes. She and her husband are helping the kids at their school as well as others from a nearby orphanage that nearly collapsed until more help can arrive.

Since the earthquake, over and over again I’ve heard one question: “How can I help?”

Interim President Dr. David Garland e-mailed Baylor faculty, staff and students on Thursday, urging people first and foremost to pray. A website has been launched (www.baylor.edu/haiti) to further detail Baylor’s efforts as they develop. It includes links to organizations which are collecting donations for relief efforts, as well as contacts for faculty, staff and students in need of pastoral care and student organizations wishing to support relief efforts. The University will do its best to coordinate charitable drives and other service opportunities in order to avoid duplicating efforts and so best serve those who need the help, as quickly and efficiently as possible.

No sic ‘em here — just our urges to continue demonstrating the “worldwide service” so often mentioned in Baylor’s mission, and to keep praying for all those affected by this tragedy.

Welcome back, Baylor students and faculty! (They return to classes today for the start of the spring semester after a nice three-week break.) Like many of them, I traveled over the holidays to visit family and spent plenty of time in airports waiting on my flights. Like most airports these days, the ones I traveled through had TVs at each gate tuned into CNN’s Headline News. And while I was waiting for my flight, who should I see as anchor? Why, Baylor graduate Richelle Carey, of course!

Carey is a weekday anchor for Headline News and also serves as a correspondent for the network’s nightly Prime News. After graduating from Baylor in 1995, she spent time at news stations in Waco, Houston, Tyler, Las Vegas and St. Louis. During that last stop, she earned an Emmy for consumer features reporting. She joined CNN in 2006.

Sic ’em, Richelle!