A campus miracle
On Sunday, October 30th, a Trinity Western University student took action to help another student pay her tuition. Marc Vader Guibord spent all Sunday night petitioning students to give money to help Adrianne Baumunk, whom he had only met that same week, stay enrolled at TWU.
Photo credit: Tim Andries
Guibord met Baumunk on Friday, but when he met her again, she was in deep distress over her payment due date the following day. Baumunk had been in debt, but she felt that God had put it on her heart to stop borrowing money and to completely rely on Him instead. She had been working and using money given to her by her church to help pay for her tuition, but she was still $3,000 short. “My heart was just breaking, there were tears in my eyes,” said Guibord. “I felt like God [was] speaking to me, saying ‘This is my daughter whom I love.’ I prayed then that God would work in someone’s heart to provide money to help her out.”
Through his prayer, Guibord was compelled to give the little bit he had to Baumunk‘s cause. “I am still waiting on student loans, and I’m working at the gym, but I knew that this was God’s money: my sister needs it now.” Guibord withdrew $100 from his own account and gave it to Baumunk and ran off before she could protest. He prayed with his dorm and got the idea of getting more money from people on campus. “I thought: we all have $20 we all just throw away, but here our sister in Christ is in need. It was just like ‘Show me your faith without works, and I’ll show you faith by my works.’”
Together, Guibord’s dorm worked out that if 150 people gave $20 each, they could raise $3,000. “I thought, ‘This sounds ridiculous and crazy to run around asking for money,’ but my friend Chris said that God doesn’t work with the normal, he works with the crazy.” Guibord and his dorm set out to ask people for help. After his friend Levi told him about the dodgeball game in the gym, Guibord dashed to the gym to ask people for help. “The referees were just about to say ‘Go’ “ when Guibord ran up to the sound booth and asked the Resident Director’s in charge for help. They offered him the microphone, and as he descended the stairs Guibord continually prayed, “God give me the words.”
After talking at the gym, more people joined in to help the cause. “There were so many people, I told my friends to tell everyone to go to 6 Middle with their money.” After hearing his petition, many students were unable to return to their homework and instead came to the dorm to help.
When Guibord returned to Douglas North to see Baumunk, it was full of dedicated students wanting to help. “There were 30-something people all holding hands and praying. It was just amazing.” The group that had assembled continued praying and receiving money late into the night. “Finally, we stopped praying and counted the money. It was close to $5,000.”
The whole experience had a profound effect on Guibord and all those involved. “I could just see how the Holy Spirit worked through the body of Christ and I was just blown away. I was overwhelmed with God and His love and His provision.” The total amount received in one night was over $6,000, all from students on campus who felt called, like Guibord, to achieve something unbelievable.
Clayton Andres
Wow. Awesome!