Catie Martin Memorial Scholarship
YOUNG LOVE PAYS IT FORWARD
Tim (’92) and Jennie (’91) Martin met during their freshman year…of high school. They attended the same small Christian school.
During one of the first weeks of fall sports practices during their freshman year, Jennie remembers first seeing Tim as a transfer student, “He was not wearing a T-shirt, which was taboo at our small Christian school! I knew his big brother and hid in the bushes to get a good look at him.” She remembers, “I had my eyes on him…he didn’t have a chance!” They began dating sophomore year in high school.
“If we ever get to a place, financially, to have more than we need, let’s bless someone else with it”
When it was time to choose a college, Jennie picked the University of Evansville because of a scholarship opportunity. When Tim approached her about attending Indiana Wesleyan University, where he planned to play basketball and soccer, she weighed the pros and cons with her parents. They decided she would attend IWU for the fiscal advantages and so that Jennie could “follow her heart.” Her parents also valued Christian education and it seemed like a good fit to grow spiritually alongside Tim.
During the fall semester of their freshman year, Tim proposed to Jennie. When he asked Jennie’s father if he had his blessing to propose, Jennie’s father said, “As long as you both commit to Jennie finishing college—yes.” So, they married in June and made their way back to campus early in August so Tim could begin soccer practices and moved to a small upstairs apartment just off campus. At that time, there was no married housing, and their apartment was small, hot, and felt a little dangerous. But the Martins didn’t mind.
They plugged into the teams they already connected with, and coaches became mentors who allowed Jennie, a pre-med major, to travel with them to complete hours for her athletic training program. In the fall, she traveled with the soccer team, the winter with the basketball team, and in the spring, she traveled with other sports. They were consumed with community and studies and experienced a “sweet and insulated season” with a focus on education and each other.
Tim and Jennie worked diligently toward their degrees and Jennie finished a semester early thanks to taking full credit loads and utilizing summer school and May Term courses. “We have zero regrets,” says Jennie of their decision to marry as college students. School came a little more naturally for Jennie, and Tim would take advantage of their early arrival to campus by purchasing his textbooks early, highlighting and taking notes before class even began. Jennie graduated with a Bachelor of Science in pre-med and Tim with a business and accounting degree and marketing minor.
While school was easier for Jennie—and Tim would say “She is smarter!”—Jennie admits she always wanted a family. So, when she became pregnant during her last semester of school, she was ready to embrace motherhood. She graduated in December of ’91 and Tim in April of ’92 and their first daughter, Catie, entered the world in June 1992.
They were new parents, poor recent grads, and Tim was looking for work in a tough accounting job market while Jennie stayed home with Catie, who was diagnosed with Downs Syndrome. Tim could not find an accounting job, so he worked however he could to pay the bills-—mowing or painting. They were strapped for money and remember making a pact, “If we ever get to a place, financially, to have more than we need, let’s bless someone else with it,” they agreed.
“Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.”
Galatians 5:9
After one year of life, Catie tragically passed away from a complication of Downs Syndrome. During the next handful of years, Tim and Jennie experienced three more pregnancies, adding three more babies to the Martin family. A few years later, they acted upon the call to adopt, so they traveled to Ukraine and brought home two sisters. Eighteen months later, when the sisters’ cousin needed a home, they adopted her too. She became the oldest in the family, with a string of siblings behind her. The Martins grew their family to seven kids-—from Catie to Elona (the youngest)—in just five years between ’92-’96.
With Catie in heaven and the rest of the children grown, Tim and Jennie find themselves in a place where their “cup overflows.” They remembered their pact from those early days of marriage and when the opportunity arose, they chose to give generously to IWU. Remembering their own determination and hard work as college students who chose to marry in the process, they want to be a blessing to a young couple who chose to do the same and help to alleviate the stress of debt. They said, “If we could ease somebody’s thought of ‘How much debt are we incurring?’ we want to give them a little bit of a deep breath.”
Tim and Jennie have certainly experienced blessings from both God and IWU and are choosing to give back to IWU for the benefit of young married couples. Jennie says she wishes she could take young married couples who benefit from the scholarship to dinner in Marion to encourage them and say, “Our cup is overflowing with joy and here’s the overflow!” They would also share their life verse, Galatians 6:9, “Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.”