Cedarville Stories Podcast: "I Shall Not Die, But Live"

Cedarville trustee Hayes Wicker has been a relentless and tireless servant of the Lord as a church pastor and now a seminary professor at Southern Evangelical Seminary in Matthews, North Carolina. Yet his legacy almost came to an earthly close as he battled COVID-19.

Hayes was near death. He was almost placed on a ventilator when the Lord used a stern and challenging nurse to motivate him to breathe on his own. He avoided the respirator, but his prognosis was still poor.

In the midst of his terrible sickness, the Lord provided a flicker of hope through a verse from the Psalms: “I shall not die, but live, and tell of the works of the Lord” (Psalm 118:17).

“I have seen God use this, particularly when I talk about COVID,” Hayes shares during the podcast. “On the golf course or the doctor’s office or wherever I get to talk, it is an amazing platform because people are amazed that I’m alive, that I’m doing what I’m doing, and I get to tell the greatness of the goodness of God.”

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Hayes served for 27 years as pastor of First Baptist Church in Naples, Florida, where Dr. Paul and Mrs. Pat Dixon are members.

Located in southwest Ohio, Cedarville University is an accredited, Christ-centered, Baptist institution with an enrollment of 4,550 undergraduate, graduate, and online students in more than 150 areas of study. Founded in 1887, Cedarville is one of the largest private universities in Ohio, recognized nationally for its authentic Christian community, rigorous academic programs, strong graduation, and retention rates, accredited professional and health science offerings, and high student engagement ranking. For more information about the University, visit cedarville.edu.