Cleveland, TN–Lee University is preparing its campus for Homecoming festivities this weekend, a time for alumni to come together, celebrate and remember.

“Homecoming is an event we look forward to all year long because it allows everyone to reconnect and unite their individual experiences at Lee into a common history,” said Patti Cawood, director of Alumni Relations at Lee. “Alumni bring a lot of energy to campus, and we look forward to reminiscing with them, hearing about their lives after Lee, and showing them how Lee has changed and yet stayed the same.”

Homecoming begins this Friday, Nov. 7 at noon, with the Check-In Buffet and will conclude with the Dessert Mixer on Saturday, Nov. 8 at 8 p.m. Throughout the weekend, Lee will host various events to welcome alumni back to campus.

Check-In begins at noon Friday in the Science and Math Complex Great Room and concludes at 6 p.m. Free T-shirts will be provided while supplies last. A free lunch buffet will be offered from noon to 2 p.m., featuring food from campus restaurants.

The Legacy Reunion, a gathering of alumni from classes leading up to the year 1964, will begin at 6 p.m. Friday evening in the Communication Arts Building. The event provides an opportunity for those alumni to mingle during dinner, and there will be a screening of “Decision for Destiny,” a short film captured on Lee’s campus in the ‘60s. Those who wish to attend should RSVP at www.leehomecoming.com.

Lee Theatre will perform “All My Sons” by Arthur Miller Nov. 7-8 at 7:30 p.m. Tickets will be available at the box office located in the lobby of the Communication Arts Building or by phone at (423) 614-8360, Monday-Friday, 3-6 p.m. Tickets will also be available one hour before curtain time in the Dixon Center. Tickets will be $10 for adults and $7 for children, seniors, and students.

The Alumni Grand Reunion, a highlight of the Homecoming experience, will be held Friday, 8-10 p.m., in the Paul Conn Student Union. This celebratory party featuring music by a disc jockey, free festive food, and the company of alumni and friends promises an evening of fun for all.

Back for a second year, the department breakfasts will be held Saturday at 9 a.m. at various locations. It will be a networking opportunity for alumni to connect with professors and former classmates. Nine departments will participate, and each will provide a multitude of hot breakfast items and feature a guest speaker. The department chairs will provide updates about the department, and an award celebrating a distinguished alumnus will be presented at each event. The cost is $5 for alums, and one guest may attend at no additional cost. Those who wish to attend should RSVP at www.leehomecoming.com.

Another event returning for a second year is the Blessing of the Couples, which will be held on Saturday at 10:30 a.m. on the steps of the Lee Chapel. A word of encouragement and a prayer will be offered over the couples who choose to attend.

The Student Organization Booths will begin at 10 a.m. Saturday in the Walker Arena parking lot, providing a time for current club members and alumni to mingle. The Homecoming Tailgate Party will follow at noon with free food, including hamburgers, hot dogs, cookies, and sodas for all students and alumni.

The Homecoming basketball games will begin the season Saturday in the Walker Arena. The Lady Flames will play long-standing rival Bryan College at noon, and the men’s team will face Martin Methodist at 2 p.m.

Saturday afternoon at 4 p.m., current students and alum who have a family tradition at Lee are invited to attend Lee 2.0 in the lobby of the Education Building. The event is free and will feature a taco bar.

Lee’s School of Music will present the annual Music Festival Saturday evening at 7 p.m. in the Conn Center. The program will include familiar student ensembles Campus Choir, Chamber Strings, Evangelistic Singers, Jazz Band, Ladies of Lee, Lee Singers, Symphonic Band, and Voices of Lee. The festival will also feature a group new to the event, the Brass Choir, directed by Dr. Nathan Warner, assistant professor of music at Lee. Tickets for the Music Festival are $10 for adults and $5 for students. They can be ordered through the Alumni Relations Office at (423) 614-8316 or purchased in the Conn Center the night of the event.

Saturday night at 6:30, Lee will celebrate its commitment to worship together as a community of believers with a brand new event—a worship service held in the newly-dedicated Pangle Hall. The service will feature both traditional and contemporary music, and everyone is invited to attend. The event is free, but those who wish to attend are asked to RSVP at www.leehomecoming.com.

The weekend will conclude on Saturday with the Dessert Mixer, a relaxed reception full of sweet treats. The event will be held in the John Nichols Courtyard at 8 p.m. and will feature live music. Current students and alumni are invited to attend.

“We’ve tried to create an event that will appeal to everyone,” said Cawood. “Whether you’ve attended homecoming before or not, we hope to see all alumni around campus this year.”

For more information, to view a complete schedule of events, or to register for Homecoming, visit www.leehomecoming.com or contact (423) 614-8316. Hotel options and rates are available on the website as well, and childcare will be provided at Lee’s Early Learning Center.

(Source: Lee University)

Arthur Blessitt who just turned 74 years old is still walking on sharing Jesus. He has carried a 12-foot cross in every nation; 323 nations, major island groups and territories over 41,200 miles, 82 million steps with the cross and 18 billion pounds carried. Arrested 24 times for Christ, in 54 countries at war. He made the cross in 1968 in Hollywood, California and left for the world in 1969.

Imagine looking up the word “God” in the dictionary only to find it’s not there. This was the case in Albania, where before the fall of communism in the early 1990s, government leaders attempted to remove all spirituality from the culture—destroying churches, temples and mosques and even removing the word “God” from dictionaries.

Giants fans flocked to downtown San Francisco Friday. They converged to celebrate their team’s third Major League Baseball World Series title in five years, an unlikely championship run that was capped by a storybook 3-2 game-seven win over the Kansas City Royals on Wednesday. Adorned in orange and black (not for Halloween but because those are the Giants’ colors), the crowd cheered series MVP Madison Bumgarner, slugger Pablo Sandoval, Wednesday’s winning pitcher, Jeremy Affeldt, and the entire team.

Over the course of the past several months, Operation Compassion has been in discussion with many Church of God and governmental leaders in Mexico and Central America about launching a network involving multiple non-profit agencies, country presidents, city mayors, and approximately 6,000 churches. This network will serve more than one million orphaned and underserved children living in the region.

Cleveland, TN–Sixty pastors and church leaders from Tennessee, Georgia, South Carolina, Michigan, North Carolina, Virginia, and Kentucky were the first U.S. personnel to get training recently from two South African pastors to prepare them for participation in the African Firewall initiative. The meeting took place at the North Cleveland Church of God.

I desire to reach people of every persuasion…liberal and conservative, Democrat and Republican, churched and unchurched…with the message of God’s love extended to us through His Son, Jesus Christ. I avoid speaking out on political issues because God’s love extends to people of every political persuasion. But there are times when a political issue is also a moral and spiritual issue. And I am compelled to take a stand.

Kerry and Chris Shook, New York Times best-selling authors and pastors at Woodlands Church in Houston, Texas, are challenging church leaders across the United States to schedule a National Be the Message Sunday, during which they will shorten their services and sermons to pack meals for people in Ebola-stricken countries.

The pro-life amendment to the state constitution, called a “modest” proposal by some observers, would allow the Tennessee State Legislature to consider laws regulating abortion within the state—legislative action currently barred by a decision of the Tennessee Supreme Court.