During a visit to the Jackson, Tenn., campus, Jerry Johnson, president of Criswell College, presented a check and a greeting card signed by Criswell students to Union President David Dockery.
Students and faculty at Criswell took an offering during a Feb. 7 chapel service that raised about $500. The college’s KCBI radio station continued the fundraising campaign Feb. 8 via a live broadcast.
“The gift from our wonderful friends at KCBI/Criswell College in Dallas is a marker of God's providential provision for Union University at this hour of need,” Dockery said. “We thank God for Jerry Johnson and for the generous support provided for Union by our KCBI friends.”
Union graduate Kristen Ulmer Cole spoke about Union during the first day of the live “share-a-thon” broadcast on KCBI.
“To be in the studio and hear people call in to give their money and hear their response was really touching,” Cole said.
The outpouring of financial contributions from a community so far removed from the Union campus in Tennessee surprised both Johnson and Cole.
“I was [surprised] but I should not have been, because God has limitless resources,” Johnson said. “That is what you all believe, that is what we believe, that is what we teach and that is what we pray.”
Criswell College joins a growing list of more than 600 donors who have given about $1.5 million in the past two weeks to Union’s rebuilding efforts from the devastating Feb. 5 tornado. LifeWay Christian Resources donated $350,000, First Bank gave $110,000 and the Southern Baptist Convention’s Executive Committee and Belmont University each provided $100,000.
By Alison Ball (’08)
