Best-selling author Dannah Gresh, a 1989 graduate of Cedarville University, was surprised when she was notified that she was selected as this year’s Alumna of the Year. In fact, she thought it might be a mistake. 

But Dannah has come to learn from years of personal experience and ministry that has touched thousands upon thousands of girls, moms, boys, and dads, that the ways of God are always profoundly amazing. And His healing and redeeming hand was on her in a special way in this unexpected honor. 

God has blessed Dannah in many, many ways. From her mom coming to faith while her baby brother was critically ill in the hospital, transforming her family overnight, to bringing a beautiful teenage daughter from China into her own family in State College, Pennsylvania. To helping her and husband, Bob, who is co-founder and CEO of Pure Freedom, shift from an event-based ministry to one that included virtual and digital content and programming, just prior to the onset of the COVID pandemic. The Lord’s goodness 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. His love and His Word provide the rock-solid basis from which anyone can discover hope, meaning, and purpose. 

Receiving the 2021 Alumna of the Year award was another way Jesus ministered to Dannah’s heart.

“In many ways, I haven’t lived a perfect life; I haven’t lived a sinless life,” she shares during the podcast. “So, 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.’ 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. It was just a sweet moment of healing and encouragement for me.”

Dannah spoke in chapel September 30, 2021, on the topic “The Secret to Being Fruitful,” just prior to being honored as Alumna of the Year on homecoming weekend.