Cell phones have revolutionized the way we connect with those around the world. The introduction of cell phones opened the doors to instant communication. We can make a video call to Mom and Dad from miles away or text someone who is on a different continent.  Cell phones have made us a digital society, and we do almost everything with our phones. With the passage of time, however, we have come to realize that by connecting digitally new challenges were created regarding how we understand one another.  Before the existence of phones, we connected with people face-to-face. We met up with friends, family, co-workers or significant others to catch up with them. When we connect face-to-face, we can analyze facial expressions, tone of voice and posture. These things are essential to know if the person we are talking to is paying attention and is interested in what we are saying.  Connecting digitally took away the visual aspect of seeing how the person we spoke to reacted —unless we made a video call, but it still isn’t the same. Liberty University, one of the largest private universities in the US, states that “Online interactions as convenient, advanced, and as helpful as they have been during this time, have also sometimes left us feeling more drained than energized.”  If we go back to 2020 when we were in quarantine, we can remember the Zoom calls we made. Whether it was to attend school, work or see family members we all agreed that a video call wasn’t the same as being in that specific place in person. There were moments when we weren’t mentally present in that Zoom call. It was easy to open other tabs on the computer and play games, read an article, or do other work on the side.  When I came to Union College, I remember how excited I was to be on campus and that I would be attending in-person classes. I was tired of Zoom calls and being home all day. I realized how important it was to me to be outside and see other people. Attending gatherings began to look exciting after being told that I could only stay home.  I appreciate that we live in a world where technology has advanced to help us connect from wherever we are, but I can say that an online class isn’t the same as an in-person class. When I am in a classroom I get to interact with my classmates and do group projects. We can laugh and argue about topics that are talked about in class. Attending school in person allows us to create memories that we can look back on years down the road.  Mental health has also been impacted now that we connect digitally more often. Psychiatrist Alan Teo observes that “[People] who regularly met in person with family and friends were less likely to report symptoms of depression.” When we stop connecting with people face-to-face, we become more attached to a digital connection. We could be afraid to meet new people and may wonder how to talk to them.  Some of us may question how important social connections are to us. Dr. Stephen Braren, a researcher in developmental psychology, states that “Loneliness is a vital warning signal that tells us that our basic need for social connection is not met.” We may feel lonely when we move away from our family, or we travel to a new area to go to school or work. This leads us to attend events that happen around us such as small groups or gatherings. If we haven’t made connections yet we search for places that will create those connections for us. Maybe we don’t want to physically participate in an event, so we turn to digital communities. Facebook offers communities that are about a well-known individual, hobbies such as art or photography, or a variety of careers. We can join these groups and relate to others because of a common interest.  Being part of a virtual society isn’t a bad thing. Through cell phones we have many different avenues to connect with people in some way. I am not saying we should get rid of our cell phones and forget about phone and video calls or text messaging. Yet we must take time to reflect on how much time we spend on our cell phones and the way we connect with those online.  We should always remember the importance of having face-to-face connections as well. Through whatever channels, we are meant to connect with others and to have meaningful relationships.    How to have a great in-person conversation  Starting a meaningful conversation with someone you don’t know well can feel daunting, but with a few simple tips, you can foster genuine connections and meaningful interactions. Begin with a friendly greeting and a warm smile to create a welcoming atmosphere. Introduce yourself and repeat your name and their name.  Give a compliment about what they’re wearing or an achievement they had if there are any you know about.  Listen attentively and show interest in the conversation you are having.  Ask open-ended questions about their family, work, hobbies or other things.    Katie Tahay-Martinez is a senior at Union Adventist University in Lincoln, Nebraska. She is majoring in Language Arts Secondary Education to teach high school students.  

Suzanne Ócsai: Assistant Professor of Art and Design Suzanne Ócsai was three years old when she told her mother she wanted to be an artist. Since her father was a mechanical engineer, the house was always stocked with pencils and paper.  Ócsai had just finished teaching a computer design class when I walked into her office. She’s been a professor of Art and Design at Union Adventist University since 2022.  Ócsai offered two comments on what she believes makes art spiritual. “The entire process of creating art is spiritual. From the ideation process to even the practice.” She believes that in order to create something that will really have a profound effect on the viewer, the artist has to put themself into the piece. “That requires opening up their soul, which makes it a spiritual experience.”  Her second response was, “I think that honesty is the spiritual journey. You must be honest to even have a spiritual journey. Art, in its true sense, makes us question things. It makes us feel and confront what makes us uncomfortable.” She identified this as impacting people in either drawing them toward their journey or pushing them away. Dealing with things honestly can be uncomfortable. “Artists choose to live in that uncomfortable space of grappling with difficult topics and being vulnerable. They’re judged a lot. It means to show parts of yourself that, oftentimes, people try to hide.”  When I asked what art means to her, Ócsai laughed, telling me no artist wants to sound cliché. For her, art is about connecting with her heritage and meeting parts of herself that she’s never known. It connects her to God, as she stated, “I’m continuing to learn new things about myself every day, and it’s the same in my relationship with God. For me, art is how I process what I’m learning, whether that’s about myself or God.” In some ways, she’s found the closest connection to God has been through art. “Living as an artist is to look at the world differently.” It gives her the opportunity to be a part of a community that takes an idea and makes it into something tangible. She expressed how it’s something extremely special and validating to see a thought materialize.  Ócsai rose from where she was sitting at her desk and pointed to two art pieces depicting Jesus. They were pieces acquired from former art professors she regards dearly. Both contained dark imagery. One was of Christ on the cross, with dark clouds looming above. The other, a somber portrait. She studied them, stating that they were images of suffering, and she identified suffering as being a driving force behind why many artists create. She began explaining that “when you are an artist tapping into those parts of yourself that are dark and suffering, you can feel very alone and isolated. But when you’ve created something from that, there’s somebody who can relate.” Looking at the two paintings, Ócsai understands that on the cross, Jesus felt that suffering, and art is a way for her to connect to Him.  Alan Orrison: Art and Design Program Director When Alan Orrison was seven years old, he began taking photos on a little Mickey Mouse camera. However, it wasn’t until he was in undergraduate school that he created something he would consider art. For Orrison, his creativity is ignited by the process of solving and exploring solutions to problems, from the personal and small-scale things to the societal and bigger-level issues.  “God has given us art as one of the best tools to process this world and its challenges,” Orrison responded when I asked what art means to him. “God does amazing work through His church and other community organizations, but art has an often-overlooked ability to cut right to the heart of hard issues, raising awareness and lifting each other up. Sometimes as an individual artist you’re more free to speak truth into situations around you. If you see something, you can say something, and that is witnessing.” The spiritual nature of art has been a complex conversation for years. Orrison related how the history of art has evolved over time. “Looking back at art history, art was primarily a religious practice. Art was done for the church; it was religious and had to be done with a certain formula, which made it religious art. But I think it’s limiting God, in what we can and cannot talk about, when we have to abide by those set rules. Art is here to help us process all the things around us, the things we care about. There are other things that Christian artists can and should be portraying, talking about, and introducing to people that may be difficult and peculiar.” I was curious to know if Orrison has done any particular art that was especially impactful to him. He said there is an abstract series he created, highlighting the various and sometimes weird feelings a person gets at the ocean. He recalls feeling successful about this piece when a viewer told him that looking at that abstract art made them feel scared. Orrison felt content with this response because his goal in creating art is to give people the space to feel, question or think about something, especially in regard to nature. He stated that most of his work “is an attempt to help people think about their relationship to the natural world or the environment.” Orrison passionately spoke of how God uses artists to highlight the beauty of His creation in places unexpected or in the small and mundane aspects of life—those facets that aren’t the beautiful sunsets and peaks of mountains commonly associated with God’s creation. His views about art having a place within spirituality are very inclusive. “Good art gives space  for everybody to experience it, regardless of background. You can come to a work of art with all your baggage and enter into a dialogue.” This is the beauty that art has. As he Connecting Through The Arts Is art spiritual? Thoughts from two university professors “>Read more…

Prayer looks different for each person and in each setting. We have prayer around the dinner table, at church kneeling, during personal early-morning devotions, or in a group gathering with a popcorn prayer, going around in a circle speaking to God about worries and requests. Prayer is so many things—but what does it really mean? A few Union Adventist University students recently answered questions about what prayer means to them. Mayah Evans, a senior nursing student, said, “Prayer is a way for us to connect with God. A way we can go to Him with any burdens that lay on our hearts and a way that He can be more present in our lives every day.” Even Jesus went to God with His burdens. He knelt in the Garden of Gethsemane and gave His heavenly Father His worries and let Him take the wheel. We too can rely on God for our worries and doubts. He provided us, His children, a way to communicate with Him any time we feel the need. Ellen G. White says on page 85 of Thoughts From the Mount of Blessing: “By maintaining a connection with God, we shall be enabled to diffuse to others, through our association with them, the light, the peace, the serenity, that rule in our hearts. The strength acquired in prayer to God, united with persevering effort in training the mind in thoughtfulness and care-taking, prepares one for daily duties and keeps the spirit in peace under all circumstances.” Prayer is our link to heaven and our way to talk and communicate with the One we read about in the texts. Chala Gemeda, a senior theology major, related to this, stating, “In Revelation, it tells us the angels take our prayers to heaven, directly to the Father. For He listens to each of our prayers. Prayer is a special request to the Father. We know that He listens, and it’s important to connect with God and build your relationship with Him.” We talk to Him for many reasons—for requests, to ease our troubles, and to maintain a relationship with our Father in heaven. Building a relationship with God can be a difficult task. Many students like Chala mentioned that prayer is one of the most important disciplines in maintaining a relationship with God. But we should not rely solely on it. We must both pray and read Scripture to keep that connection strong. Elizabeth Campbell, a freshman at Union, said, “Prayer is the foundation of my relationship with God. It provides me with a way to always speak with Him. It is a peaceful time that I can spend one-on-one with Him.” Just as Jesus spent countless hours praying to God by Himself, we too should spend time talking to Him, using Jesus as our daily example of how to continue our relationship with God. A person at Union who not only prays every day but surrounds himself in prayer is theology professor Pierre Steenberg. He told me in an interview, “I pray when I’m driving and when I’m exercising. I am constantly praying.” He also started a routine of prayer for his students in the fall semester of 2023 that involves having his students write down their requests to God. Then he takes time outside of class and office hours to individually pray for them and their special requests. “All together, I have a stack of index cards with prayer requests just from one semester,” Steenberg shared. His testimony brought a drastically different perspective to my eyes. Jesus too surrounded Himself with prayer (Mark 1:35), and we are to surround ourselves with prayer and be forever connected to God through prayer, Scripture and worship. Prayer is many things. It’s a way to communicate, a form of invocation, and for some a lifestyle. Jesus went to prayer for many things, including thanks (Matthew 11:25; Luke 10:21), protection (John 17:11), and His believers (John 17:20). We go to God in prayer for many things, including comfort, thanks, safety and His Love. I grew up thinking there was a right and wrong way to pray, but no one but God can dictate that.     Prayer at Work When Pierre Steenberg finished his degree through Andrews University, he and his wife decided it was time to start a family. It wasn’t an easy start because the baby came sooner than expected. Their son, Elmer, was only 31 weeks old at birth, three weeks earlier than his due date. According to Utah University of Health, if a baby is around 32 weeks old, there is a 95 percent chance of survival. Unfortunately, Elmer was completely septic when he entered this world. Steenberg recalls, “With only machines keeping him with us, through surgery after surgery, he fought to stay alive. Throughout all of this, I was praying. I wanted my son to stay alive, and I had prayer to be with me.” With the mortality rate at 21 percent, Elmer truly beat the odds and is now a P.E. and history teacher at Armona Union Academy in the San Joaquin Valley of California. How would Steenberg have handled a different outcome? “I would have handled it roughly the same,” he shares. “Just as Daniel and his friends stood in that furnace, they didn’t know what God was going to do, but they had trust that He would take care of them. I think I would have to trust God and know that in the end I will get to see Elmer in heaven one day. No matter the outcome, my trust in God will never waver.”   For more about Pierre Steenberg’s prayer ministry, check out this video: https://bit.ly/3VtiRqx Source: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2891980/ https://healthcare.utah.edu/womens-health/pregnancy-birth/preterm-birth/when-is-it-safe-to-deliver#:~:text=Health%20Problems%20%26%20Outcomes%20for%2024,usually%20less%20than%2050%20percent.   Gabriel Sanders is a senior English major at Union Adventist University. He is from Eagle Point, Oregon, and enjoys creative writing, hiking and skiing in his spare time.

“Culture shock shoved the loneliness into me,” Dureti Olana expressed with a distant look in her eyes. Her winter-blitzed lips annunciated vague sadness as she uttered those words to me. Loneliness plagued her, and she wasn’t the only one who felt this way. Several others did. Those called “international students.” No one really talks about loneliness, especially among Union Adventist University students. It’s already hard enough to be individuals from different walks of life trying to navigate the four walls of a university. But what more do students feel who traveled thousands of miles across oceans to a country where they had to start afresh? That itself is terrifying.  International students studying abroad in the United States is nothing new. In fact, exchange students have been around since the origin of the word “school,” but recent years have seen a significant influx of students from all over the globe into the United States for study.  According to research conducted last year by Statista for Higher Education, international students make up 5.6 percent of the total U.S. student population. At Union, they make up 5.87 percent. Once in the host country, these students face a new way of life, different ideologies, and oftentimes no community to fall back on. One might ask what makes loneliness for an international student different from the average college student. I’ll answer that: the sudden transfiguration of a once controlled life to a fast-paced society with no foundation in the culture. For students like Dureti, the culture shock that comes with arriving in a liberal country such as America is enough to make one feel singled out and backed into a corner. Used to a communal life in her faraway home of Ethiopia, where neighbors were secondary caretakers of her property and welfare, she was surprised to discover the “individualistic” mentality of her new host country. In her words, “In America, it is out of sight out of mind.” She explained that people don’t think about you when they don’t see you.  Culture shock isn’t the only harbinger of loneliness for international students. Tracy, an aspiring occupational therapy assistant from Kenya, has been a student at Union for two years. In that duration of time she suffered recurring mental breakdowns. Her stumbling blocks were the severity of her workload and homesickness with no one to run to. Over time she has gotten past that loneliness or has learned how to hide it better. Most international students rarely speak of loneliness and the boring routine of their lives for a single reason: the fear of sounding ungrateful.  In a perfect world with no injustice, hunger or marginalization, most international students would rarely step off the shores of their country save for personal interests and curiosity. But the quest for greener pastures and a chance to earn a place at the table has propelled these students into the bigger unknown with their fates and the fates of their loved ones back home in their palms. To complain would be a travesty of providence. A quote from the Igbo people of Nigeria says, Those whose palm kernels were cracked for them by a benevolent spirit should not forget to be humble. This was the mantra of many international students like Tracy, and as a result of self-silence, they back themselves into the cold arms of loneliness.  Not every international student, however, experiences loneliness to the same magnitude. For Elvin, a Union computer science major from Rwanda, loneliness visited only when he was away from the gym, video games and arcade games. “You just have to find your tribe, especially people who will motivate you to keep pushing,” he stated over a game of checkers. Finding like-minded individuals and a warm community might sound easy, but it is a daunting task, especially to students who are more reserved in nature. This is where the already existing community can take the reins to spread warmth and welcome international students into the fold of belonging foremost as humans and essentially as Christia ns. Many times I have received help, guidance and assistance from wonderful individuals who made sure I settled in quite well the first few months after I arrived in the United States. So on days when loneliness would rock my boat, I remained steadfast from the single assurance of a community, no matter how small.   There are various ways to spread warmth to international students. Care packages addressed to them, Thanksgiving dinner invites, and even a single note of reassurance and kindness would be a monumental display of connectedness. This will encourage togetherness and the type of fellowship spoken of in Romans 12:5: So we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually members of one another” (NKJV). Through connectedness and community, loneliness is vanquished. A true act of goodwill sparks another. Fortune Ogulere is a sophomore English major from Imo State, Nigeria. With a pen dipped increativity, he weaves prose, poetry, and thought-provoking pieces. He enjoys painting, singing, and eating ice cream. His debut novel is currently in the works.