I Physically Ran Into Mike Tyson - Q1 2023

Brothers and Sisters,

Hello! I pray my email finds you well and dwelling richly in the power of the resurrected Christ. It is my greatest joy to partner with you in the furtherance of the Good News through Christian higher education. Your support and encouragement means the world to me and I am proud to share with you what we have been doing in the first quarter of this year. If you don’t want to hear from me next quarter, go ahead and unsubscribe, but you might want to hear about my run in with Mike Tyson and President George Bush below.

Travels & Events - I’ve traveled from sea to shining sea this quarter.

• Austin, TX - Annual Board Meeting.

• Dallas, TX - Brunch with family of scholarship recipient who chose Harding over OSU in part because of the scholarship.

• Oklahoma City, OK - Met with Oklahoma Christian President, Ken Jones, encouraging him to increase his $500/semester church scholarship match.

• Henderson, TN - I set up a vendor booth at the Freed Hardeman University Lectureship and

made friendships that will last a life time.

• Gatlinburg, TN - I set up a vendor booth at Winterfest where thousands of students attended (and a great number were baptized!) We did a scholarship drawing of $5,500 to help jump start a church scholarship fund and as a result collected information at more than 100 churches!

• College Station, TX - Had a pinch of downtime and enjoyed brunch with our Fundraising Consultant, Sid Walker, with Walker Consulting Group. We had our best fundraising year ever in 2022 thanks to his direction and connections.

• Los Angeles, CA - I attended the annual Law School

Dinner at Pepperdine Caruso Law where President Bush was the guest speaker. He was surprisingly hilarious. At a neighboring hotel I accidentally ran into Mike Tyson as we both turned a corner. He looked as fit as ever and although he was pleasant and smiled, I couldn’t help but imagine how quickly he could absolutely destroy me with one of his light jabs!

• Manchester, CT - Then I flew across the country to set up my booth at the Inspire New England lectureship. There I met with friends from the Freed lectureship who will help me procure CoC contact info in the area as well as a leader in the Manchester church who will help us promote Christian higher education in the Northeast.

Church Matches - One of the ways we encourage the body to work together is by encouraging Christian colleges to implement scholarship matches on church-based awards. Here’s the latest update on those matches after presenting before Christian college presidents in November and following up via email…

• Current Matches - FHU, OC, HU, LU, and ACU (view amounts towards the bottom of our website)

• Affirmative Responses

  • OC - Increasing match for one church to see how it plays out.

  • ACU - Expressed desire to increase their match.

• Responses

  • HU - Will get back to me

  • Pepp - Will get back to me

  • York - Considering

  • Lipscomb - Will wait a year to consider

• No Response - Florida Christian, Rochester, Lubbock Christian, Southwestern, Crowley’s Ridge, Heritage, nor Nations.

Church Resources - Harmonize makes it easy for churches to promote and provide scholarships for Christian higher education. Here is what we have been developing…

• Our Website - Learn what Christian higher education offers and which Christian college meets your financial, academic, and spiritual needs. More to come… Thank you Caleb Stewart for helping us with our site and Brinson Davenport for producing our first Christian college promotional video.

• Our Scholarship Management Software - Our partner, LevlEd, makes it easy for church volunteer groups to find scholarship applicants, accept applications, select recipients, and track disbursements. Student profilesmakes it easy for students to tell their story, share why they want to go to a Christian college, take orders for our fundraising good, and accept donations for their Christian college education.

• Our Fundraising Good - Our partner, Easy Freezy Freezer Meals, helps families sell meal preparation packets whose proceeds guarantee scholarships from church partners and therefor matches from participating Christian colleges. The kits come with a QR code linked to the student’s LevlEd profile page and updates with their sales progress.

Publicity - Oklahoma Christian featured Harmonize on their Facebook alumni page.

Gratitude - I can’t do a blessed thing without you. Thank you.

• Hospitality - The Roberts, B. Glass, The Borbons, The Clarks, The Hartmans, The Gilhams, and R. Dean;

• Donors - $5,000 and $4,000 from OKC donors; $1,500 from Austin; $2,000 from the Walker Consulting Group

• Board members, family, and corporate sponsors.

• Our volunteers (past and present) especially our new adds - M.S. who will help direct an event in the Northeast, A&M B who will oversee the implementation of our programs in Southern CA, and J.H. with bookkeeping.

Keep us in your prayers and hope to hear from you soon!

In Hope,

J. Tyler Clark