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"What the world needs now is love, true love. No it's not
just for some, but for everyone."
Every year ORU sends out hundreds of students prepared and equipped
to change the world. This year ORU is sending out a special bonus
- LOVE.
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Jan Love. You may remember Dr. Hamilton's secretary from
such things as "Hi. This is Jan from Dr. Hamilton's office..."
at which point you probably delete the message.
You may not know this, since you don't listen to the messages,
but they routinely give away full ride scholarships and new
cars to those who listen to the entire message. When I found
this out (I don't listen to the whole message either), I quickly
decided to start listening to all of the messages from Jan.
And that is when I found out that Jan is leaving ORU.
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Yes, you heard me right. The most famous, and sweetest voice on
campus (not to mention the nicest and most fun loving faculty member
- and that's not just because she reads all of my stories) is leaving
ORU. When I learned of this I ran upstairs, and then waited ten
minutes for the elevator on the fifth floor, and then ran to Jan's
office and asked her if this was correct.
Sadly, she informed me, it was correct. And that is when I learned
the rest of the story...
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Jan Love, missionary, mother, Dr. Hamilton's boss (secretary),
is now a graduating graduate student. Jan has worked at ORU
for the past 15 years (the past five for the Provost). Over
the past few years she has been taking graduate courses for
a MA in English Education. I asked her when she had time,
and she reminded me that there were 168 hours in a week and
she only needed 20 for sleep. Being the hard nosed journalist
that I am, that answer was good enough for me.
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With her degree, cap and gown, and a Staff Recognition Award for
Outstanding Performance (with the accompanying gift certificate)
in hand, Jan is going from secretary to a secretary's boss. "I
want to get paid to think," she told me. "I've got a lot
of good ideas."
While she hasn't decided upon a job offer yet (this is good news
to any school that needs a principal, administrator or president),
she is excited about the future. "Too excited about the next
step to be too sad about leaving," she said.
When I started to tear up, she belayed my fears by saying "The
time at ORU has been great because of the students and faculty...
We're family, it's an unstated understanding." I began to feel
better.
She then told me that she may even work for Disney World where
work would be "a lot more fun, with a lot less characters."
While being called a character hurt, the idea of visiting Jan in
Disney World made up for it. She also told me that if I wanted to
keep up with her I could reach her through e-mail at janlove1@juno.com
. I stopped weeping.
Before I left I asked her about romance and the future. "I
want to marry a millionaire," she replied. At which point she
paused and concluded tongue in cheek "no a billionaire."
I guess it would've ruined the jovial mood to remind her that
if her goal was to be a millionaire she was never going to get there
the way she was going. I mean, giving her life to ministries both
in the U.S. and overseas (where she buried two sons), her children
and grandchildren, the students and staff of ORU, and maintaining
the servant's heart that she has always had won't make her a millionaire.
At least not in this life. But, in retrospect, I know that she knows
this. That's what makes Jan so lovely and lovable. Her love.
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