Steve Ellis (MDiv ’97) knows the value of scholarships first-hand. At 45 years old, God called Steve out of the business world and into ministry. That posed a challenge because affording seminary on a $12,000-a-year student pastor salary wasn’t plausible. “I was barely able to survive,” Steve recalls.

Miraculously, he was offered a full scholarship to attend United in 1995. “I would not have made it through seminary had it not been for that scholarship,” Steve remembers. “It was a major deal for me.”

With the double blessing of the scholarship and his United education, Steve wanted to give back, so he started sowing seeds…literally.

On his farmland in Indiana, Steve planted 100 hardwood trees for United. One day, when they’re big enough, the trees can be harvested and sold for lumber, with the proceeds going to United’s Fresh Wind campaign for student scholarships, sowing spiritual seeds. That’s the legacy Steve wants to leave.

“I wish I could donate hundreds and thousands of dollars, but pastors don’t make that much money,” Steve explains. Planting trees was Steve’s creative alternative to do just that.

Then, Steve had a “wild and crazy idea,” as he describes it, to gather a group of friends who also own farmland and encourage them to plant walnut and oak trees with the pledge of future profits  going to United.

On July 15, 2023, in Greenfield, Indiana, Steve gathered 14 friends from his previous church to meet President Kent Millard and hear his testimony and idea for funding future scholarships. While some who came preferred to write a check instead (always welcome!), others are considering sowing seeds like Steve did.

“I hope it works out. I really do,” says Steve. “I probably won’t live long enough to see it, but maybe somebody else will.”