Steve Wilke, vice president for planning and new programs at Southwestern College, presented the 2011 Francis Asbury award to Aldersgate United Methodist Church (AUMC) in Wichita on Sunday, Oct. 2.

The criteria for this award are outstanding leadership in supporting, strengthening, and promoting the United Methodist Church’s ministry in higher education through its church colleges.
The congregation was nominated by the Southwestern College church relations committee for the following:

• AUMC consistently sends finals care packages to students who are at Southwestern and other colleges.

• AUMC hosted a team from Southwestern College who had a chapel service on an afternoon at their church and donated almost $1,500 to the chapel ministry at Southwestern.

• AUMC has a history of supporting students who come to Southwestern with scholarships that the college matches.

• A number of individuals within the church refer youth to our two conference colleges, Kansas Wesleyan University and Southwestern College as a potential college option.