He was able to talk the radio-station caller down and met with the troubled man to discuss "a better way." Even though the experience is now decades old, it stuck with Freeman, he said, serving as a reminder of how much people can hurt.
All these years later, the 53-year-old longtime public-affairs specialist at Hill Air Force Base is the brains behind a new nationwide venture aimed at helping those he believes struggle most: college students.
They "may think they have it all together," Freeman said, sitting in his Layton home office. "But after the party, after the drugs, after everything else, people still wonder in their time alone what more there is to life. . . . They're grappling with the big questions - where they're going in life, what they're supposed to do, what the meaning is beyond the degrees."
Introducing God . . . uncomplicated, a Christian outreach ministry that hopes to help students with these questions. The organization uses subtle illustrations, placed in college newspapers, as a means to spark interest in God and direct young readers to what Freeman hopes will be a state-of-the-art Web site. One illustration, for example, shows a student seeming to drown beside a pile of books. The tagline reads: "Overwhelmed? God can help."
A revised Web site - "leaps and bounds" above the current one, Freeman said - should launch next spring, though the organization will start buying advertisement space this fall. Video clips of student testimonies, discussion forums, Christian concert listings, rehabilitation resources and questions and answers (provided by respected pastors) are just parts of the vision.
"Times are changing," said Freeman, who gave his life to Christ while serving with the U.S. Air Force in Okinawa, Japan. "We as Christians need to keep up with the tools to reach young people."
The group will begin by targeting Utah school newspapers and will then branch out nationally with intentions to focus, at least in part, on traditionally black colleges and universities, Freeman said. These schools are often overlooked by other organizations, he said, and because he's black himself, he feels called to fill that void.
God . . . uncomplicated, which received nonprofit status earlier this year, secured its first donation of $2,000 about two weeks ago. Within three years, Freeman hopes the organization will run on a $50,000 budget, which will cover illustrations, newspaper placement costs, Web design and eventually high-profile speaker offerings. Think Tony Dungy, coach of the Indianapolis Colts and a "committed Christian," Freeman said. "There are a lot of people God can use in this ministry to talk to students."
Independent for the first time in their lives, dealing with relationships, financial problems and lures such as alcohol and pornography, college students need not find their way on their own, he said. Armed with the Gospel of Jesus, Freeman said the path can be less arduous. And while organizations such as Campus Crusade for Christ and InterVarsity Christian Fellowship/USA have similar lessons to teach, God . . . uncomplicated offers a new approach and can work in partnership with others to fulfill the bigger mission.
"We don't want to duplicate what they're doing," he said. "But as big as they are, they don't have all the bases covered."
Directing students to the Web allows them to explore God and their spiritual questions in privacy and not feel the pressure of peers or professors who may sneer at religion. They can build community and find resources online, a method that's become more normal than not these days.
Completely volunteer-driven, the God . . . uncomplicated board includes, among others, a graphic artist, a youth pastor, a University of Utah student, an accountant and the Rev. France Davis of Salt Lake City's Calvary Baptist Church.
"We ought to be trying every method we can to reach people with the good news," Davis said by phone. "This is one way to do it that's unique."
Though Freeman thought of the idea three years ago, earning nonprofit status for God . . . uncomplicated took about half of that time. Jan Welsh, a South Ogden attorney, helped Freeman through the process and, in doing so, got involved as a board member. She had a daughter heading off to college last fall, and the ministry resonated with her.
"We all have our kids and try to raise them with a moral compass to go to church on Sunday, to have their devotions with God each day, and then they go off to college," she said. "Will my child find a church? Find good Christian friends? . . . What [God . . . uncomplicated] is doing is tickling your soul. Now you're in college, you're on your own, are you tending to your relationship with God?"
JESSICA RAVITZ can be reached at jravitz@sltrib.com or 801-257-8776. Send comments to the religion editor at religioneditor@sltrib.com.
