by Clem Boyd, Communication Content Manager
When best-selling author Dannah Gresh, a 1989 graduate of Cedarville University, learned she was the 2021 Alumna of the Year, she was a little more than shocked. Actually, she thought it might be a mistake.
Receiving this award from her alma mater, even with all of the ministry and career success God has granted, was still a little much for her to process. But Dannah has learned over the years, from her personal life to her work with Pure Freedom Ministries, which she co-founded with husband, Bob, a 1988 graduate, that the ways of God will amaze you. And heal you.
God has blessed Dannah in many, many ways throughout her life. Her mom came to faith while her baby brother was critically ill in the hospital, transforming her family overnight. And her baby brother survived and now serves with Pure Freedom.
She and Bob brought home a wonderful teenage daughter from China when their biological children were in their teens. And the Lord helped Pure Freedom make a timely pivot from all in-person event-based ministry to digital and virtual programming just before the COVID-19 pandemic hit.
The goodness of the Lord has been abundantly clear.
But more than that, Jesus met her in a very personal way to heal her from sexual pain in her teenage years to be a voice for truth in an age when truth, as she says in the podcast, is being crucified. This recognition from Cedarville was another way Jesus ministered to and mended Dannah’s heart.
“I haven’t lived a perfect life; I haven’t lived a sinless life. There’s an unworthiness that we carry with us, I think, until the day that we are with Jesus when we look into His eyes face to face,” she shares during the podcast. “I think when you get honored, the Lord somehow does some redemption even in those deep places that you think, ‘These things were fixed and healed.’ It was just a sweet moment of healing and encouragement for me.”
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More to the Story
On September 30, 2021, just prior to homecoming weekend, Dannah spoke in chapel on the topic “The Secret to Being Fruitful.”
Located in southwest Ohio, Cedarville University is an accredited, Christ-centered, Baptist institution with an enrollment of 4,715 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, including the Bachelor of Arts in Communication program, 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.