Profile
by Andrea Laurita
"I told God that I really wanted to get out of debt," Ms. Wantz said, "but I really did want to work here."
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Cindy Wantz juggles life from inside of window B
Cindy Wantz, Anita Johnson and Bonnie Kopp celebrate after
finishing cancer treatment during the same year. -Cindy Wantz, photo
Ms. Wantz sits at her desk, facing a window looking onto Glisan Street, and sifts through organized stacks of bills. "There's never a time when there isn't a pile here," she said.
Pictures of nephews and nieces decorate Ms. Wantz's bulletin board. Colorful sticky note reminders line her computer monitor, and billfold-size cards of Philippians 4:13 and Psalm 29:11 are tacked nearby.
Behind her, shelves sag with three-ringed binders and an "Office '97 For Dummies" guide.
Ms. Wantz landed her job at Multnomah in 1994. PacifiCorp in Portland, where she had worked for 10 years as a senior loan administrator, had just laid her off.
Because of a friend's prompting, Ms. Wantz applied for a financial position at MBC. "Through tears and prayer I just waited," she said.
Working at Multnomah meant a significant pay cut. "I told God that I really wanted to get out of debt," she said, referring to her student loans and credit card problems, "but I did really want to work here."
After she picked up a temporary job at a local bank and spent four months on unemployment, Multnomah hired her to handle student accounts. "It's not a glorious job," Ms. Wantz said, "but I love it here."
In the summer of 1999, she was diagnosed with breast cancer. She continued working as she underwent six months of chemotherapy and six-and-a-half weeks of radiation. Several members of Multnomah's faculty and staff took turns driving her to and from Emmanuel Hospital where she received her radiation treatment five days per week.
Two other women employed at MBC also battled cancer that summer. When all three of them finished treatment, they went to brunch together at Newport Bay. "We made a celebration of it," Ms. Wantz said. "It was a good reminder of the Lord's care for each of us." She presented to the women a potted African Violet, her favorite houseplant, and a framed picture of the three of them together. "I wanted them to have something to take home from our experience," she said.
"When a person goes through such a difficult time, you draw so close to the Lord. When it's over, you long for another trial because you miss that intimacy with him," Ms. Wantz said. Through this trial, she learned to thank God for each day he gives.
Although she no longer has long-term goals because of the cancer, she said she has always dreamed of finishing school.
As the oldest of six children, her parents could not finance her education. She worked for two years after high school to pay her way through college. Then she attended Multnomah where she remembers sitting in Dr. Friesen's Pentateuch class and practicing the "walk-thru." She graduated from MBC with an associate's degree in 1984 and went to Portland Community College for additional general education courses.
After a friend decided to return to school and get her master's degree, Ms. Wantz began to consider finishing her bachelor's degree. The Lord called her, she said, "like a little voice in my head saying, 'You need to go back to school and finish.'" She applied for financial aid and learned that she had only 18 credits remaining to earn her degree.
"I was thrilled because I knew I could do it," she said. Eagerly, she registered and bought her books, pausing only briefly to ask herself again, "What am I doing?
"It's so weird!" she said about her transition into studenthood again.
Her first impressions returning to the classroom were not favorable. During her first day of biology class, she was amazed that students would talk to one another while the professor was talking and that they ate in class. "We just didn't do that before," she said.
Ms. Wantz is taking six class credits and expects to finish her bachelor of science degree in December of this year. She has adapted to classroom life again. "I'm just so encouraged by the students' excitement for learning," she said. She tries to leave financial business in the office when she goes to class because she enjoys interacting with fellow students as a student.
Ms. Wantz admits that being a student again isn't easy. Her hobbies and ministry have suffered slightly. On Tuesday nights, she directs Pioneer Kids Club at Cedar Mill Bible Church where she has attended since childhood. "It's a mix between AWANA and the scouts," she said about the program. The 21 leaders working under her have supported Ms. Wantz in the ministry while she is at school.
As an avid reader, she has all but abandoned her novels. On the table next to her bed at home, she has four or five books started, each tagged with bookmarks and awaiting her return. But these days, she sits at her disheveled desk in Sutcliffe and sighs as she thumbs the pages of her thick Psychology 202 textbook.
After a full day at work, Ms. Wantz closes herself in her office and turns her attention to ecology homework. "I try to be out of here by 9 o'clock most nights. And Friday night is my night to go to the Bagdad theater and watch movies," she added with a smile.
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