A LEGACY FOR MATTHEW

Ray and Penny Young met on the first day of freshman orientation at California Baptist College (CBC became CBU in 1998). As soon as the two arrived on campus in 1962, Penny felt at home, and Ray says the college had a "personal warmth" that he still feels when he's on campus today. They began dating in their senior year, married two years after graduation, and recently celebrated 57 years of marriage in 2025. While at CBC, the couple made lifelong friends among the faculty and students and are still in contact with many. Once married, Ray became a worship pastor and then a teaching/preaching pastor while Penny taught high school and middle school students-primarily 7th and 8th graders. After a short-term mission trip to Kenya, Ray and Penny felt God's call to international missions. Two years later, they were appointed missionaries by the International Mission Board and spent the next six years in Spain and Portugal. They now serve as volunteers in their church and community working to give back and bless others as they have been blessed.

Ray and Penny's only son, Matthew, tragically died in a single-vehicular accident when he was 19. That night, Ray and Penny claimed Romans 8:28 and began working through their grief and looking for the good they knew God would bring. God gave them a ministry of helping those who were grieving, especially those who were now childless. Penny's grief work included writing her book: I'll See You in the Sunrise, A Mother's Odyssey in Grief.

Believing firmly in the work of CBU, they felt a named endowment would be an excellent opportunity to honor the memory of Matthew, God's great gift to them. Subsequently, they established the CBU Matthew Ragan Young Memorial Endowed Scholarship fund and pointed out that the current double matching funds offered at CBU for qualifying endowments can enhance even a modest gift.

Recently Ray and Penny became members of the Palm Drive Legacy Society by establishing a generous estate gift that will support scholarships in perpetuity after they have graduated to heaven. Ray believes CBU alumni will affect the country and culture for years to come, and Penny believes supporting CBU is an investment in Kingdom-building. The Youngs say that creating an estate gift doesn't take super affluence or great wealth-just a desire to faithfully steward what God has entrusted to each of us by investing in eternity.