The Wolfpack football team—undefeated to that point in the season—played Clemson on a Thursday evening. In place of the normal Campus Crusade meeting, students gathered to watch on a big-screen television. Halftime featured a videotape of football players active in Campus Crusade.

When Mike Mehaffie, who directs Campus Crusade for Christ at North Carolina State University in Raleigh, first started there about 20 years ago, 35 students came to the weekly meetings. This year attendance has hovered around 1,300.

"This is an engineering school," says Mike, "so you usually have to dynamite those guys out of the library." But in September, 1,700 students pried themselves away from the books long enough to come out and hear a local personality, Clayton King. So many students came that they had to meet in Reynolds Coliseum, the former basketball arena.

By coincidence, Clayton's wife had just delivered their first child that day and, of course, that was on his heart. So he gave a message about what it means to be born again.

In the audience sat a young student named Travis, there not because of any heartfelt need, but because the Campus Crusade students kept inviting him. Travis grew up in a religious family, and thought he knew what to expect, but Clayton's words found an untouched part of Travis' heart.

When Clayton asked the students to stand if they had made a decision to trust Christ, about 40—including Travis—stood, and his Campus Crusade friends later gave him hugs and high-fives.

"People ask me what is the secret [to the large attendance]," says Mike. "The Lord is moving; that is all I can say." —Howard Hardegree

About 30,000 Student Survival Kits have been distributed to some of the 440,000 high school students in Michigan.

Would I go to heaven?" Diana, a student at Cedar Springs High School in Michigan, wanted to know. She asked this of Sarah, a senior who had helped pass out some Christian-themed boxes—called Student Survival Kits—at their school.

Diana wanted to know much more. She came to Sarah after class, full of questions and holding the New Testament that came in the box. "She had it all highlighted and had written notes in the margins," Sarah told Mari Beth Walker, a volunteer with Student Venture, Campus Crusade for Christ's high school ministry.

Diana had obviously come prepared to get some answers. "And another girl, Katy, watched over Diana's shoulder and listened in," said Sarah.

Sarah read through the gospel presentation tract that came in the box along with the Bible; both girls listened intently. "Neither girl prayed to receive Christ," says Mari Beth, who met regularly with Sarah during her senior year. But both left with a new understanding of the truth of the gospel. "The Kits made it easy," Sarah told Mari Beth.

In the days preceding the encounter with Diana and Katy, Sarah and about 20 other Cedar Springs students had distributed 765 Student Survival Kits among the 900 students at the school. Mari Beth, along with her husband, Jeff, first heard about the Kits at a Student Venture conference in Colorado. Both volunteers thought the Kits would be a great asset to the Student Venture ministry at Cedar Springs High. Together they campaigned to get them for the school. A coalition of local churches funded the outreach.

Forty volunteers stuffed each box with a video of New York Yankees players talking about the lasting effects of September 11, a Bible, a music CD, an evangelistic booklet, Josh McDowell's book More Than a Carpenter, a note referring the student to a Web site called Beyond Extreme, and a postcard to request more information.

One young student later brought the card to Jeff, a counselor at the school, wanting more information about Christ. Jeff explained the gospel message using the evangelistic tract in the Kit, and the girl received Christ.

Christian kids benefited too. One youth pastor told Mari Beth and Jeff about a very shy student who took risks during the outreach. While playing basketball with a non-Christian friend, the young man asked, "So, what did you think of that video in the Survival Kit?" His pastor overheard their conversation, and when he later asked the student about it, he explained, "The Kit made it easy."

Mari Beth and Jeff—who came to know Christ through Campus Crusade's ministry at Michigan State University—work with high-school students through VITAL LINC, Student Venture's volunteer ministry. Every VITAL LINC volunteer receives ministry coaching from an experienced Student Venture staff member—Scott Livermore coaches the Walkers. During 15 years of high-school ministry, both Walkers have seen dramatic changes in the spiritual awareness of the students.

"I am amazed at how many students have no idea who Jesus is," says Mari Beth. When she and Jeff first began working with high schoolers, most of them had an exposure to church, and at least a rudimentary knowledge of Jesus and His life. But today many of the students they meet do not. "Unless there is a Christian student in their class who is willing to say that there is another way,'" says Mari Beth, "they may never hear." —Howard Hardegree

For information about Student Venture, VITAL LINC or Student Survival Kits, call 1-800-699-4678 or visit www.studentventure.com.

After several years in Fiji, Suzie and Wes moved to New Zealand. They have served as Campus Crusade staff members since 1966.

What's Fiji like?" Suzie Brenneman asked her husband in 1975.

"Sort of like Southern California," Wes replied, having just returned from the first Campus Crusade for Christ mission project to the island.

Many years later, Suzie laughs: "Wrong! I'm still looking for that part."

Suzie had never seen a Fijian before she and Wes agreed to start a Campus Crusade ministry in the South Pacific, moving to Fiji with their young children, Christy and Brad.

"My first 10 days were horrible," Suzie remembers. "It rained all 10 days." There were no Laundromats, so she washed clothes by hand, only to realize the clothesline was out in the rain. Mail came only once a week, and for two years the Brennemans lived without a telephone. Suzie thought, I'll never feel at home here.

But she started to adjust. Even with young children, Suzie made time to meet with students at the University of the South Pacific, sharing the gospel and helping them grow in their faith.

"My mom is a real campus woman," says Christy, now 33. "She just loves students, and even now in her 50s she's really relevant and able to relate to them."

Christy followed her parents' footsteps by joining Campus Crusade full time; she and her husband, Bryce, direct the college ministry in Auckland, New Zealand.

When Christy started high school, her mother wanted to help on campus, so she volunteered to help with the small Christian group at the school. There Suzie met an American named Matt Anderson, and tried to persuade him to join the Bible study. But Matt tried to avoid her.

"I made sure that I was on the opposite side of campus every time she came looking for me," he remembers. Some students from the United States came to visit for a Campus Crusade short-term mission, so Suzie sent one of them, a football player, to find Matt. The young man recommitted his life to Christ and now serves as the deputy chief of staff for Campus Crusade in the United States. "Suzie," Matt explains, "is my spiritual mom."

After living in Fiji a few years, Suzie decided to learn tennis. "I was in my mid-30s, and it was a big step for me," she remembers. Eventually, she and a friend invited her fellow tennis players over to have coffee. Suzie invited 16 players, and 14 came. Soon afterward, she started a Bible study, and helped introduce several of them to Christ.

"God is so faithful, and I've seen that if you're available, He will use you," Suzie says.

Her husband confirms it. "Suzie is a wonderful model of what can happen when a normal, average person is willing to trust the Lord and do whatever He leads them to do," Wes says. "Her walk with the Lord and simple obedience to Him has a great impact on those around her."

Suzie fell in love with Fiji. In fact, it was hard for her to leave when she and Wes moved to New Zealand to start the campus ministry there. It may not have been Southern California, but Fiji had become home. —Becky Hill

October 19, 2002, marked the first time a message—secular or religious—was heard around the world simultaneously. Campus Crusade for Christ founder Bill Bright proclaimed the gospel via an international webcast on his 81st birthday. In response, thousands of e-mails have poured in from places as far-flung as Antarctica.

The "worldcast" was sponsored by Global Pastors Network, a ministry co-founded by Bill Bright. John Corts, former president of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association and current chief operating officer of GPN, envisions the Internet as the optimal tool for reaching the world for Christ.

"GPN's vision," John says, "is to partner with churches and equip pastors to do what God has called them to do." Through the Internet, GPN provides pastors worldwide with access to resources. In particular, GPN leaders want to help pastors who have had no formal training.

It all comes back to helping fulfill the Great Commission. "Over the next 10 years, we will help plant at least 5 million churches around the world," says Bill Bright. —Bill DeWandeler

Learn more at www.globalpastorsnetwork.org.


India
The JESUS Film Project

Eight-year-old Rinki Praham's dad died, then her mother contracted tuberculosis and was near death. Rinki, the oldest child in the Hindu family, tried to sell her mother's gold bracelets to earn money to pay a village doctor to treat her mother.

However, a man stole the bracelets. She felt helpless, afraid she and her siblings might become orphans.

The following month a team from Campus Crusade for Christ visited Rinki's village in West Bengal and screened the JESUS film. The little girl watched the story about Christ based on the Gospel of Luke.

Rinki asked Jesus to be her Savior, then dashed home to tell her bedridden mother, "Jesus lives and Jesus can heal you."

Her mom invited Jesus into her life, and the two prayed all night for healing. The next morning Rinki's mother was healthy, reports Rabi Sankar Ghosh, an Indian Campus Crusade staff member.

Then the mother-daughter duo invited the JESUS film team to show JESUS in their home. Forty-four family members accepted Christ.

They also lead a Bible study of 160 people. Says Rabi, "Now they are very happy." —Jennifer Abegg


North Carolina
Campus Ministry

After Rachel Scott and 11 of her classmates were gunned down at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colo., in April 1999, her father, Darrell Scott, began traveling around the country speaking about his daughter's life—and eternal life.

Campus Crusade groups have invited Darrell to speak. He shows video clips of that tragic day, tells stories from those affected by Rachel's compassion, and reads from Rachel's journals—sometimes eerily prophetic—to show her relationship with Jesus. Then he invites the audience to accept Jesus and to live for Him.

About 1,600 students—10 percent of the school population—at Appalachian State University listened to him speak.

At the end of his presentation, 35 people indicated that they wanted to receive Jesus. However, "the presentation probably had more impact on Christians," explains Campus Crusade staff member Clyde Comer. "Several students told me that they realized that night that they need to live their lives for Christ moment by moment, letting their lights shine to the people around them."

Darrell has spoken to more than 13,000 students, 902 indicating decisions to receive Christ. —Becky Hill


West Virginia
Campus Ministry

Andrea Grell went to Marshall University in West Virginia to play soccer. But a career-ending injury meant the end of purpose for the staunch atheist.

Soon the art major began to wonder about God and decided to attend the weekly meeting. She had friends there, including a soccer teammate who had prayed for Andrea for three years.

During Andrea's second visit, she spoke with staff member Jen Lipp about a relationship with God and then surrendered her life to Jesus. Christ entered her artwork as well as her heart.

During the next two months, Andrea prepared for her senior art show. With a series of five works, she portrayed her life from when God grabbed her attention with her injury, until accepting Christ. Her focal piece was a sculpture that represented Jesus setting her free. "I was scared to put that on display. It was a risk," says Andrea, "but I know it was pleasing to God."

One professor attempted to ban her art, which explained the gospel, but the dean denied the request. "It made an impression on many nonbelievers," says Andrea. —April Klaassen