 Hi everybody, I'm Don Sweeting, president of Colorado Christian University. What an extraordinary two weeks of disruption we've all just experienced. It's been disruptive of every aspect of our lives but an unprecedented disruption of higher education in the United States and unprecedented disruption of Colorado Christian University. We've never experienced anything quite like this. Extraordinary times call for extraordinary decisions and measures. And as we've responded to the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic, we've had to make a lot of hard decisions. My cabinet and I have prayed asking the Lord for wisdom. We've listened carefully to the instructions coming from the government to practice social distancing, to reduce density, to help flatten the curve so that this thing doesn't keep spreading. In so doing, we've made decisions like postponing trips, cancelling trips, suspending our athletic season. We've ended on campus classes, so for the rest of the semester, our College of Undergraduate Studies will do classes online from home. We've sent everybody home. In all of this, our goals have been to keep our students and community safe, to also ensure the continuity of our educational mission in providing Christ-centered higher education. And we've tried to be accurate and practice care in our communication so you know what's going on. Thankfully, no one on our Lakewood campus has experienced the virus. There have been no suspected or confirmed cases on our Lakewood campus and for that, we're thankful. Most of our on-campus staff are now working at home. I am too. That's where I am today. We are complying with mandates to practice social distancing, which means at home we'll be doing our work. That includes for me making calls, lots of meetings on Zoom, reading, planning, just from a different environment than I usually work in. You'll be experiencing the same thing. The government has taken some very strong actions to respond to the virus and our hope is that everyone would comply with these mandates, whether they're federal or state mandates. We know they're for our own good. We also ask you to look out for the most vulnerable members of our community, especially older citizens and those who are just more susceptible to the virus. Colorado Christian University is one university with two schools. We have the school called the College of Undergraduate Studies, which is our traditional residential college. We also have the College of Adult and Graduate Studies, which is our non-traditional college. It's mostly online. We were an early adapter of online education and so in this crisis, I think we were more prepared than most schools and institutions because we have an infrastructure that's already built. We have experts in online education. So the biggest adjustment really is for the College of Undergraduate Studies, but we've been preparing for days like this and crises like this and for all of that we thank the Lord for those early innovations that got us ramped up. We also have a faculty that are more than willing to be flexible with our students and help as we all make these adjustments together. I want to say to our students, your calling remains, even though you'll be working from home, you are still a student and you'll be doing the semester as a student just in a different location. We hope that you can do this to the best of your ability and will be prepared to help you all the way. To our CUS students and parents, I also want to say that I'm very sad that your semester had to end this way differently than we'd imagined. I feel especially sad for student athletes and seniors and those who have recitals at the end of this semester. There have been cancellations, but I know that you are resilient. I know that our students will make the best of this and will figure out a way to make it good. Over the past week, I've had some extraordinary conversations with students. Just this week, I was talking with one student as we walked to the Anschutz Center and I said, how are you doing? And she said, well, I'm sad. But she paused and then said, you know what? The fact that I'm sad means I made the right decision in coming to Colorado Christian University because this has been an amazing year and I have community and friends and I love the education that I'm getting. So it's confirmed the fact that I'm in the right place that made this president very happy. I was also talking to other students and I said, how are you doing? And they also expressed their lament that the semester is ending this way. But they said, perhaps God is just going to apply the things we learned and send us out a little bit early. This year has been the year of evangelism at Colorado Christian University and our students have been learning, among many other things, how to share their faith, how to know their faith, basic apologetics. And so at least four students said, we think that the Lord is going to use all that we've learned and is now helping us to apply it quickly in a way we never imagined in a time when people are more receptive than ever before as they experience fear and a lack of hope. I'd like to speak to that lack of hope and fear right now because as you look around us, some people are freaking out. They don't know how to handle the disruption and the change and they're caught up and paralyzed by fear. I don't think that's the way our students are responding. This week I happened to read again an old favorite Psalm, Psalm 23. I've read it many times, but reading it in the midst of this crisis has been, well, refreshing. Let me read it for you. For you are with me. Your rod and your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil. My cup overflows. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever. What a great Psalm of comfort and hope. It reminds us that we have a leader, a shepherd, the Lord God himself. Of course in the New Testament we know we have a good shepherd, Jesus Christ and that gospel hope will sustain us through anything. I love how the Psalm reminds us that even in the midst of hard times his presence sustains us. He gives us a place of rest and refreshment. He leads us in the right paths. Even in dark times he promises to be with us and to protect us. And at the end of our days he gives the promise of eternal hope and speaks about a house that he's prepared for us forever. See passages like this and the gospel itself bring hope to God's people in a way that sustains them and gives them resilience through any crisis. And that resilience is ours. Lean into it. Read the Word. Take it in. Trust the Lord through this time. Expect him to work in new ways. As we go through this crisis don't forget to pray for those who are on the front lines. Pray for healthcare workers, doctors, nurses. CCU trains many doctors and nurses. So pray for those who are going out from our university that they would be safe and effective as they care for others. Pray for scientists and pharmacists and pharmaceutical companies as they try to come up with a vaccine for the coronavirus. Let's pray for President Trump and Vice President Pence and their task force as they try to respond to this disease to slow its spread, to deal with all the complications that come with the coronavirus. I'm so grateful for their strong leadership but they need our prayers. Don't forget to pray for Governor Polis, the Governor of Colorado. I'm grateful for his leadership as he responds to needs in our own state. Then pray for pastors and those in ministries that serve the poor. This is a particularly difficult time but pray they would provide effective spiritual leadership as they shepherd flocks and care for the vulnerable. Pray also for the board of Colorado Christian University and for the leadership team that I have that we would be wise as we respond and as we make plans for the future. In all this it's a wonderful privilege that we can go to the Lord in prayer and our good shepherd hears us and invites us to pray. Friends, I suspect that things are going to get a little bit worse before they get better but I know they're going to get better. In fact, I can't wait to be on the other end of this crisis at a point where we look back and we see all that happened and we can see the things that God taught us and lessons that we've learned and we can all be reminded of God's faithfulness through a crisis like this. I look forward to that. I look forward to a new semester in the fall when CUS is back in seat in class. Meanwhile, we pray God's blessing upon our students in all our colleges. We pray God's blessing upon you. We pray God's blessing upon Colorado Christian University. Thank you so much for your encouragement, for your prayers and keep them coming. Take care.