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Craig Kozminski

kozminski-craig.jpg“The CCO brought my faith into my everyday life,” says Craig Kozminski. “Participating in daily devotionals and prayer groups was something that the CCO brought into my life. I eventually moved in and lived with other believers, all because of our tie to a CCO ministry. It was a life-changing experience which most definitely prepared me for life in the ‘real world.’”

Craig was volunteering with Habitat for Humanity when he first met CCO staff worker Jonny Cagwin. Craig was just starting his senior year at the University of Pittsburgh, and Jonny had just arrived on campus.

“We were talking after the first meeting and he asked me if I wanted to meet for coffee,” remembers Craig. “We began to meet every week, and from those experiences, God worked in both of our lives. At the time, I was just feeling God’s call to get married, so Jonny and I began to work through a pre-marital counseling book and from that, Jonny was able to relay his own experiences as a newlywed. He truly mentored me through the entire process.”

Craig is grateful for the Christian community that the CCO provided during his college years, when he was in between church homes. “Both the Cornerstone Ministry at Bellefield Church in Oakland and my one-on-one experience and friendship with Jonny helped me make the transition from being a young man to being a man in the Church,” says Craig. “Jonny and I often spoke of what it means to be ‘a Man in the Church.’ From our discussions, coupled with our time in the Word, I was able to grow and flourish in my relationship with Christ.”

Craig and his wife, Mindy, live in Pittsburgh and have recently become members of City Reformed Presbyterian Church, where, in addition to worship services, they participate in a weekly discipleship group.

“I have very much adapted a relational way of sharing my faith with others, much like Jonny,” Craig says. “It shows through intentional bonds with other men in the workplace and the community in general.”

Craig graduated from Pitt in 2007 with a degree in chemistry, and he is currently pursuing a graduate degree, and he also works as a government contractor. Mindy works as a pharmacist in a local Rite Aid Pharmacy. “As a member of the National Guard, I would certainly look forward to any sort of humanitarian mission that comes my way,” Craig says.

“Without the CCO’s ministry, I think my faith would have become stagnant and even more polluted by the many temptations which are encountered daily by a college student at most universities,” says Craig.  “The love and community provided by these ministries was overwhelming in the best of ways. The CCO has provided me with life-long friends, all whom proclaim Christ as their savior. The CCO taught me a great deal about what it means to be a man and husband within the Church.”