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Lynda Hultman

hultman_lynda.jpg“We understood from our CCO involvement that, during a critical time, we were making life decisions for Christ,” says Lynda Hultman. “That foundation has never crumbled. We sent our daughter to Jubilee last year, knowing that it would be a positive influence in her life. We were not disappointed.”

Lynda and her husband, Randy, pre-date the first Jubilee conference. They were in their second year at Indiana University of Pennsylvania when the first CCO staff members showed up on campus in 1971.

“I was among the first to benefit from CCO ministry, as IUP was one of the first three campuses where CCO was established,” says Lynda. “David Diehl, Terry Thomas, and Ted Schumacher were on staff there beginning in my sophomore year. They went out of their way to approach students and integrate them into fellowship and service. I was a Bible study leader in my dorm and in my sorority.

“Christian fellowship took off at IUP when CCO arrived. It was a vibrant and exciting time. CCO came alongside student leaders already on campus and helped them to work together toward one purpose. Everywhere I looked there were deep-thinking Christians, working out their salvation in some of the most unusual places.  It was not hard or lonely to be a Christian on campus in those days. I grew exponentially in my faith then. As a matter of fact, my mother became my “sister”—a Christian, in her own words, largely due to the witness of my college life at that time.”

Today, Lynda and Randy live in Dover, Delaware, where they are active members of Wyoming United Methodist Church, Lynda also serves as a Family Emergency Relief Ministry Caseworker. As a caseworker, Lynda takes referrals from social workers, church members and walk-ins and tries to provide food, furniture or funds to meet emergency needs in the Dover area.

“In my emergency benevolence ministry I have come to deeply feel the need to preserve the dignity of my clients,” Lynda says. “It isn’t easy to live in need. I was afraid to try this work, because I have seen so many social workers burn out at their job. I deal with those in true need as well those who feel entitled to lie and to manipulate me. Yet I have been graced with a love for this ministry that carries me along in its wake. No one is more surprised than me!”

Lynda has also done youth work and she plays keyboard in the church’s praise band. She and Randy have both served in many ways in every church where they have been members. They have raised two grown children, and they continue to live out their Christian faith in all areas of their lives.

“I am set in my faith,” Lynda says. “There is an ease in living out my daily life because so many decisions, I realize, are already made. The CCO helped me to reach those decisions early. CCO staffers affirmed what I already knew to be true about God, that He is full of grace and power, available, and intensely interested in my affairs.

“I learned that it is good to diligently seek, question, and be intellectually honest in my faith. It made me stay in deep relationship with God, and I gained a greater understanding of that relationship with the help of CCO.”