Bill Slease, a former CCO student and CCO staff alum, answers this question in a recent article featured in Gamesauce. The article, called Conflict and Call, is about being a Christian in the video game industry and the purpose and value of video games in God’s created order.

“Working in an extremely secular industry provides no end of opportunities to start conversations about meaning, faith and God,” says Bill. “I continue to wrestle (internally and externally) with what it means for God to be Lord of the industry I’m in, the job I have, and the people he puts in my life.”

Bill works for FireSky in Arizona. Before moving out west, Bill’s life was transformed by a CCO ministry at Carnegie Mellon University as an engineering major. He went on to work for the CCO after college.

“One of the best ways to learn anything is to try to teach it to others,” comments Bill. “My time with the CCO deepened and solidified my faith and gave me a basis to try to work out what a normative view of video games might be.”

To read more about Bill’s story, click here.

To view his article in Gamesauce, click here.

After one of the wrestlers from Edinboro University expressed interest in a Bible study, Sandie began meeting with him and his roommates every Tuesday night for a home-cooked meal and discussion.

“This wrestler’s parents are strong believers, but he told me that he just needed to hear it from somebody else,” explains Sandie. “He said, ‘I’d be interested in hearing what you have to say about Christianity.’ His roommate also had stepped away from his faith but has come back now. It’s great to hear that their parents are at home praying for these students.”

Sandie works primarily with many of Edinboro’s wrestlers and football players. “I do every thing I can to get to every one of their meets or games,” says Sandie. “If I can’t see it in person, I try to see it online. I text them and encourage them and congratulate them.”

Trevor, the quarterback for the Fighting Scots who is also training to be drafted into the NFL, keeps in touch with Sandie frequently through texting and attending a Thursday-morning Bible study she established specifically for football players. “I reach out to Trevor a lot and encourage him in his faith. He’s the team leader and the emotional backbone for the team. He has the power to influence the whole team,” says Sandie. “Three of the most important leaders on the football field come to the Bible study.”

This past season, Trevor was hurt in a football game and, after much persuasion, finally agreed to let Sandie stay by his side at the hospital to make sure everything would be okay. “I drove him to the hospital and stayed with him through the doctor’s questions and all of the x-rays,” explains Sandie. “It really helped to develop our relationship.”

By reaching out to many of the athletes, Sandie inadvertently reaches out to their coaches as well. Many times coaches have called on her to lead chapels prior to home games. And when a coach’s son was diagnosed for diabetes, he called Sandie and her husband, Nathan, several times for prayer and guidance.

Sandie and Nathan live in Edinboro, mainly a college town on the outskirts of Erie. “Just living here, I have so many conversations in the grocery store with college students,” remarks Sandie. “I just see students all the time, pretty much whatever I do.”

After more than two decades of loving on college students, Sandie continues to be passionate about seeing them realize their full potential as positive leaders. In Sandie’s words, “It’s awesome!”

Paul Smeltzer (University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown, 1998-2003)

Click here to read his obituary. Our prayers are with Kenn’s wife, Linda, his children, his grandchildren, and his extended family and friends.

Miriam (Ippel) Barnes (Messiah College, 2000-03)

Dayton Castleman (Philadelphia Art Schools, 2002-06)

Jill (Hedden) Terpstra (Wheeling Jesuit University & Messiah College, 2000-04)

Alan Hager
Grove City College, Class of 1980
CCO staff at Baldwin-Wallace College and CCO Regional Director, 1981-90