I support EMU and Eastern Mennonite Seminary because of my concern for the leadership needs of the Mennonite Church. I want our children and their children to benefit from the service of quality leaders that my wife and I have experienced. Those leaders have come out of Mennonite Church institutions of higher education.

Neither my wife, Nora, nor I are graduates of EMU. Nor are our two children. However, Nora and I and our children are "products" of parochial school education.

Nora was an EMU trustee for many years. We are both very active in the Mennonite church, especially our home church, Bay Shore Mennonite, in Sarasota, Fla., and in the Southeast Mennonite Conference.

I believe that EMU offers the best educational foundation for our young people as they build careers in a global society. Solid academics, coupled with anabaptist teaching that, I believe, best models the way of Jesus, makes EMU the school that I want to support.

I have a passion for seeing that students in Sarasota, my home for the past 25 years, have the financial means to attend EMU. The cost to attend EMU is out of reach to many Florida families when compared with the cost of attending college in Florida, be it a public or private college.

I can think of no better investment, with eternal implications, than "investing" in young persons who want to follow the call of Christ by developing their skills at a Mennonite university. The future of the Mennonite Church is very much dependent upon the leadership that is developed at our church schools.

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