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Kristin Steffey

steffey-kristin.jpg“My husband, Mark, and I feel so strongly about the positive influence that the CCO had in our own lives and the work that it continues to do on college campuses today that we have been supporters of the ministry for over 10 years,” says Kristin Steffey. “Mark is now a CCO staff member himself, working with student athletes at the University of Pittsburgh.”

Kristin Griffin was a freshman at Ohio Wesleyan University when she first connected to the CCO’s ministry via the campus chapter of Fellowship of Christian Athletes. “As an athlete on the women’s soccer team, I thought it might be a good place to connect with other Christians and meet some new people,” remembers Kristin. That’s where she first met CCO staff member, Sandie Starr.

Kristin attended weekly FCA meetings sporadically during those first two years of college. “I was much more interested in pursuing the typical college experience than a relationship with God,” she admits. “I knew Jesus as my Savior, but not as my Lord, and I lived out my first two years on campus that way. Regardless of my interest—or lack thereof—in campus ministry, it did not stop Sandie from continually seeking me out. It seemed I ran into her everywhere. I knew she was around, and I knew that she was someone who cared.

“It wasn’t long into my junior year that God used some events in my life to really draw me back into a relationship with him. During that process, it was so good to know that Sandie was there for me. I became more involved in FCA, and Sandie encouraged me—or bugged me until I couldn’t say no!—to attend some retreats. She eventually talked me into going to Jubilee. I am so glad that she did.”

Jubilee 1996 was a turning point for Kristin. “Tony Campolo was the featured speaker and his words changed my life,” she says. “After the conference, I was ready to sell all of my possessions, live in a cardboard box and serve the underprivileged. After some prayer and contemplation, I realized that the box idea may not be the most practical, and I realized that regardless of what profession I chose to go into or what path my life might take, I could use it for sharing the love of Christ, in whatever way that worked itself out.”

Today, it is working itself out in a number of ways. Kristin and Mark live in Leetsdale, Pennsylvania with their three children, and they are active members of Northbridge Community Church. While Mark ministers to student athletes at Pitt through the CCO, Kristin reaches younger student athletes through her role as Owner and Director of Pittsburgh Premier Soccer Training. “I coached our local high school girls’ soccer team for seven years and have been running a local soccer camp for the last 11 years,” she says. “I have recently stepped away from the high school position to be able to spend time coaching my own kids in our community sports programs.”

“It was through the CCO’s ministry that I discovered how to make Jesus my Lord as well as my Savior, the king over all of my life,” says Kristin. “Everything—my relationships, my career, my family, my finances—all of it is under his control and all of my decisions in these and all other areas would fall under his authority.

“Mark and I know first-hand that God uses the presence of the CCO on college campuses to further his kingdom and to transform college students to transform the world. We ourselves have been transformed, and we can only pray that God will work through us, at home, in our community and on Pitt’s campus, to bring about the process of transformation in someone else.”