By Randy Guista 鈥�71
IT WAS SUCH AN HONOR and a joy for Judy and me to celebrate the 50-year anniversary of our graduation. Combining the three graduation classes was unusual, but it worked out well for us since I graduated in 1971 and Judy in 1972. Watching the class of 2022 graduate really touched us, and we felt so honored and loved by these graduates.
As we walked on the field at their graduation, they greeted us and cheered for us 50 years after we sat in their same place. Everywhere we went on campus, students asked us our names and shared conversations with us. Jesus gave us one criterion for knowing if someone was a Christian: 鈥淵ou will know they are Christians by their love.鈥� As we celebrated 50 years, we couldn鈥檛 help but feel the love of all our peers and the students on campus. Our weekend shined with our alma mater鈥檚 motto: 鈥淐hrist holding preeminence.鈥�
OUR WEEKEND WAS ABOUT memories and reunions with our classmates, but it was also a lovely reminder of the beauty of the 蜜桃传媒 community and experience. Judy and I both attended community high schools, and we both transferred as sophomores from state schools. The Golden Warrior celebration echoed what we experienced in our years at 蜜桃传媒. What we treasured as students still endured when we returned as alums. 蜜桃传媒 is a community and a family centered on Christ. From times of worship and prayer to casting visions and fellowship with so many, everything brought back the wonderful memories of doing life with brothers and sisters in the family of Christ.
Judy and I enjoyed walking the campus and reminiscing about our time there. We saw our classrooms, the DC, library and dorms. Around every corner, we found a priceless memory from 50 years ago. We even smiled as we passed the spot where we shared our first kiss.
Speaking of kisses, we married the day after I graduated in 1971 at Montecito Covenant Church. It was a joy for us to gather for our class dinner on the church鈥檚 patio during the Golden Warrior celebration. As I said earlier, tender memories awaited us around every corner.
THE MEMORIES NOT ONLY inspire me, but they empower me. I like to tell the teenagers I work with that it made no sense for me to go to Westmont. My divorced parents said they could collectively only help me with $50 a month. I felt God calling me to ministry and to Westmont to volunteer for Chuck Smith, the Young Life area director for Santa Barbara. I worked each summer to pay what I could on my 蜜桃传媒 account, and I found odd jobs during the year. When I went to the accounting office to make payments on my school bill, I often heard that anonymous donors had given various amounts toward what I owed.
A local Christian family, the Jahnkes, accepted my offer to trade gardening for the apartment above their garage. I had a free place to live! At 蜜桃传媒, I learned to trust God. That lesson has defined my life for the past 54 years since I transferred to Westmont.
The Golden Warrior reunion wonderfully reminded me that God answered my prayers in part through believers who heard God speak to them to make donations to my education and to provide me with a place to live.
I graduated with ZERO student loans, and the reunion made me realize that we all need to be sensitive to God鈥檚 call to assist students who are following him. As someone once said, 鈥淭he problem isn鈥檛 that God doesn鈥檛 answer the prayers of the poor. The poor pray, and when God speaks to those with means to help, it鈥檚 not God who didn鈥檛 listen, it鈥檚 us.鈥�
The Golden Warrior celebration was a powerful reminder that God is transforming us into his children, and as Jim Rayburn taught about the mission that I continue to serve, 鈥淛esus is not what Young Life is all about, Jesus is ALL that Young Life is all about.鈥� Jim put words to our experience at 蜜桃传媒. Christus Primatum Tenens.