by Lumination Staff | Jan 30, 2020 | BREAKING NEWS, News Slider
Siran Stacy, former NFL running back turned evangelist, delivered a Gathering message on Tuesday that left several students upset. Stacy was hired by Lipscomb Academy athletics in November to be the spiritual formation coach. Stacy said that he felt God had sent him to address students who were “struggling.” “If you’re struggling right now, I don’t care where you are, if you’re struggling at living another day, stand to your feet, stand up right now, unashamed,” he said. “You’re in this place; you’re wayward. You know you’re not living the way God called you to live.” In a prayer, he said, “There is forgiveness, there is grace for the homosexual. There is forgiveness through the blood of Jesus; there is nothing you can’t change.” Konnor Davis, a sophomore musical theatre major from Selmer, picked up on Stacy’s comment that “there is grace for everyone.” “Thank you, but I don’t need it because I’m gay,” Davis said. “And hearing things like that, it really re-introduces a lot of the trauma I went through and that I’m still relentlessly trying to work through because I was trying to change myself and people were trying to change me.” Many students on both sides of the issue declined to comment to Lumination, some mentioning that they did not want to have a target on their back. Some students followed the chapel talk by painting a rainbow on the bison in Bison Square. Overnight, it was painted over with a tribute to the late Kobe Bryant on one side and “I Cor. 6:9” on the other. That one was then painted over with another...
by Emily Snell | Oct 13, 2011 | News Slider
Katie Davis faced a dramatic life transformation nearly five years ago, and now at age 22, as the mother of 13 Ugandan children, she is changing the world one life at a time. Davis spoke at The Gathering on Thursday Oct. 13 to tell her story and the stories of people she has met and to encourage students to walk in obedience to God’s call. During her senior year of high school, Davis went on a Christmas break mission trip to Uganda. Her heart was so deeply touched by the people she encountered that she had to go back to the East African nation and care for them. “I wanted to do something, even if it was small,” Davis said. Davis established Amazima Ministries in 2008, in order to help more children by partnering them with sponsors around the world. The organization “feeds, educates, and encourages orphaned and vulnerable children and the poor in the country of Uganda.” A $300/year sponsorship provides some medical care, school supplies, three meals a day and spiritual encouragement. When Davis began Amazima, which means “truth” in Lugandan, she said she expected to have a couple dozen children involved. In January 2008, there were already 150, and now the ministry has more than 450 sponsored kids. Davis has adopted 13 AIDS orphans, some of whom have special needs. “God created this family out of brokenness,” she said. Davis said most people hear her story and either think she is crazy or extraordinary. But she says she simply obeys the commands Jesus gave. “I’m just a normal person,” Davis said, “and in these little ordinary...
