ABIGAIL CIRELLI | staff writer
courtesy | RON HIGGINS
Higgins with students supported by ELI in Kenya.


Professor Higgins' efforts to inspire his students to raise aid money sent $24,000 to build schools in East Africa.

What can you do with $24,000? How do you even get $24,000? As APU students, that is almost the amount of money spent on year in tuition. To Ron Higgins’ real estate class, the number has radical significance. It is the culmination of their semester, the answer to their challenge this semester.

$24,000 to be transferred from those who have to those who have not.

For the past three years, Higgins has challenged the students in his Principles of Real Estate class to make a sacrifice in their lives in order to raise money for Empowering Lives International (ELI), a non-profit organization that works to empower the poor in East Africa.

Whatever amount the class raises, Higgins agrees to match, and his business partner does as well—so the money the students raise benefits ELI threefold. This year, Higgins’ students were not the only ones contributing to ELI.

Last year, sophomore intercultural Christian ministry major Josiah Crum, sophomore philosophy major Tyler Prieb, and sophomore global studies major Ryan Secrest had heard associate director of Chapel Programs Brian Taylor speak in chapel during Economic Justice Week about the difference it would make if every person gave up $20. They calculated that if everyone in Trinity gave $20, the sum would be $7,000.

“It was amazing. That night was crazy, it was totally the Holy Spirit telling us we had to do something about it,” Crum said.

The students phoned ELI asking what could
courtesy | RON HIGGINS
Students do school work in the dirt for lack of school supplies in Sudan.
be done with $7,000. Higgin’s daughter, Kierra Higgins who is a representative for ELI, answered the phone and told them there was a school ready to be started in Sudan that was $7,000 short in funds. That being the exact amount raised by the “Trinity Challenge,” the money was sent, and the school was opened.

Upon hearing about this, Higgins asked the three students to come speak in his class. This semester, Secrest and two of his friends, Jason Richardson and Josh Parker enrolled in the class. When Higgins rolled out the “Seven Week Challenge,” for the third year, it was to a class that would raise more money than any preceding semester.

“[Secrest, Parker, and Richardson] really took this seriously,” Higgins said. “It was contagious.”

Meanwhile, others outside the class wanted to continue supporting the school in Sudan. While it was successfully started the year before, it only has a roof, teacher, and medical supplies. The children do their homework in the dirt.

“It was just super-heavy on my heart to follow up,” Crum said. “Growing up as a missionary kid, I’ve seen so many things start and then there’s no follow up and then it’s just gone.”

The students were encouraged to raise as much as possible because Higgins had promised to match the amount raised.

“It was a unique opportunity to multiply money and we wanted to take advantage of that,” Secrest said.

By asking people to sponsor him for a dollar a mile for a 150-mile bike ride from Tijuana, Mexico to APU, Secrest was able to raise over $2,000 for ELI.
Crum also reserved a spot during Global Vision week to do a fundraiser.

The booth was up throughout Global Vision week, manned by volunteers who helped to make hundreds of hemp bracelets to sell. Hospitality Service donated 200 cookies every day of Global Vision week for them to sell. Chipotle donated 60 burritos which they sold during lunch one day.

The team was able to raise approximately $3,000.

But it wasn’t the amount of money that impressed Higgins. It was the heart and the passion of those involved.

Higgins, who has a masters of architecture from Harvard, flies from his home and flourishing real estate business in Sacramento to APU every Wednesday to teach one class—Principles of Real Estate.
courtesy | RON HIGGINS
School in Sudan receiving the funds raised by Ron Higgins' class and other involved students.
“People in America need a little different perspective on what life is,” Higgins said. “Things students think are not a big deal actually are huge luxuries.”

His class teaches not only business principles, but spiritual principles as well. He teaches that the function of a business is to generate profit, but the purpose of a business is to glorify God.

“He lives it, he lives what he says. And that’s the powerful thing about it,” senior business major Phil Brazell said. “Someone could get up there and say all these amazing things, but he lives it and you can tell. So that, to me, gives much more credibility to what he says.”

Higgins’ lives what he teaches by matching the money raised and by serving as a board member for ELI.

“I think it’s hypocritical to ask students to sacrifice if you’re not willing to sacrifice yourself,” Higgins said.

With the money from Secrest’s bike ride, the Global Vision week fundraising, and the money raised by the rest of the class, the semester total came to $7,770. Once Higgins and his business partner both matched the amount, the total presented to ELI came to approximately $24,000.

The first $3,000 went to fund an AIDS campaign put on by ELI in Kenya. The remaining money went to the school in Sudan and to a school in the Democratic Republic of Congo. ELI was able to continue providing medicine, food, and education for the students, and improve the facilities and purchase school supplies.

Senior business administration major Whitney Patterson learned from Higgins’ class about the problem of poverty and what kind of response to have.

“Coming into APU I wasn’t aware of what a big problem [poverty] is and after taking this class I started to build a bigger heart for it,” Patterson said. “I mean, where was Jesus back in Bible days? He was with the poor, he was with the lame, he was with the sick. He loved everyone no matter what class they were what race they were. As Christians we’re called to be Christ like.”

Higgins identifies a major problem with American Christian culture as an individualistic focus and idea that if we just write a check and put it into the offering, things will be solved.

“It’s all about me; the heart of God has been lost. The poor, the widows, the orphans, that’s who His heart beats for,” Higgins said. “I’m just trying to plant the seed. It’s not about waiting until later on, it’s about what is He calling you to do today.”