—Dr. James D. Hall is a retired D.D.S.

Click here to read the full story in the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.

LDW shapes students to become leaders by challenging them in uniquely intense environments.

They just sent us some video from the first couple of weeks of their trip. Click here to take a look. To learn more about LDW, click here.

Erica works for the CCO at Penn State University Park where she partners with Calvary Baptist Church to connect PSU students to a local body of believers. Erica, in partnership with some members of Calvary, created Senior EXIT, a program designed to prepare seniors to successfully navigate the challenges of faith and life during their first year out of college.

Erica’s research explored how well the EXIT program prepared students once they left college and the essential elements that helped to concrete their faith during that process.

The CCO is a campus ministry organization which partners with churches, colleges and organizations to develop men and women who live out their Christian faith in every area of life. The CCO’s core purpose is “transforming college students to transform the world.”

To read more about Erica Reitz’s ministry, click here.

To learn more about the CCO, visit http://www.ccojubilee.org, email cco@ccojubilee.org or call 412.363.3303.

Contact: CCO (Coalition for Christian Outreach)
Alicia Vaughn, Communications Writer
avaughn@ccojubilee.org, (412) 363-3303 x121

Click here to read Jeff’s story.

I first became involved with the CCO at Penn State Altoona about 15 years ago. I feel strongly that the best way to impact our society for Christ’s kingdom is to impact young people, especially high school and college-aged, because this is the time in everyone’s life that they make the most decisions that affect the direction of their life. The CCO does an excellent job of helping college students understand the biblical Christian faith and of integrating that faith with both their vocational choices and their real-world experiences.

—Lori Stuckey is a homemaker.

Randon was invited to be the keynote speaker at NSCS’s induction ceremony last fall.

NSCS is an honor society comprised of high-achieving freshmen and sophomores. It provides scholarships to students as well as growth opportunities, leadership training grounds and functions as a resource for them.

The CCO is a campus ministry organization which partners with churches, colleges and organizations to develop men and women who live out their Christian faith in every area of life. The CCO’s core purpose is “transforming college students to transform the world.”

To read more about Randon Willard’s ministry with the CCO, click here.

To learn more about the CCO, visit http://www.ccojubilee.org, email cco@ccojubilee.org or call 412.363.3303.

Contact: CCO (Coalition for Christian Outreach)
Alicia Vaughn, Communications Writer
avaughn@ccojubilee.org, (412) 363-3303 x.121

Bob writes, “College can be an anxious time. You have finally escaped the box in which your high school has placed you, where you were labelled a certain type of person. Just about everybody asks you, ‘What’s your major?’ as if you know what you will do for the rest of your life. It’s a daunting task to choose a major because it identifies you. Yes, this is the time to ask yourself, ‘Who am I?’”

To browse the full preview of the coursepack, click here.
(“Who Am I?” pg. 112-117)

To learn more about Bob Robinson’s ministry with the CCO, click here.

When Anne decided as a high school student to attend Indiana University of Pennsylvania, she was encouraged by fellow church members and her pastor, John Guest, to get involved in the CCO’s ministry. When she arrived on campus, Anne didn’t know a single Christian. She connected to CCO staff member Bob Carvella early on, and she also participated in other fellowship opportunities on campus, from Campus Crusade for Christ to Chi Alpha.

“The different Christian groups on campus were really distinct, but they also had a cooperative spirit,” Anne remembers. “They would join together to bring big-name Christian speakers or to sponsor concerts, and there wasn’t any sense of competition between them, which was great.”

At the same time, Anne appreciated what she was learning from her CCO workers, and from the Jubilee conference. “The other campus ministries didn’t really focus on why we were in school and what it meant to be a Christian student,” Anne says. “The CCO focused on what we were studying and encouraged us to apply our faith in the midst of our vocations. I’ll never forget the art and graphic design seminars led by Bonnie LaVallee [now Liefer] at Jubilee. She helped me figure out that your vocation is a part of your Christianity, it’s not separate. I didn’t understand that as a freshman, but as a senior, I started to. Today, I continue to try to understand and develop that idea. It’s part of me, and my life is not compartmentalized.”

Anne’s first job out of college was designing T-shirts for a company in Myrtle Beach, and her first assignment—which she declined—was to design a T-shirt for a strip club. “I drew my boundaries early,” she says. Instead, she went on to develop an environmental line of T-shirts, which lined up with her Christian commitment to care for God’s creation.

Today, Anne and her husband, Ted, are raising their four children in the East End of Pittsburgh, and Anne describes herself as “a stay-at-home mom and part-time graphic designer.” She does freelance work and has opportunities to carefully choose her clients, which range from Christian schools and churches to a local dance studio and soccer league. The Melnyks are active members of Eastminster Presbyterian Church, where Ted serves as Director of Operations and Development, and where Anne teaches Sunday school, works with youth, and volunteers at the church-sponsored summer day-camp. She is particularly invested in figuring out ways to minister to the surrounding community.

When she was in college, Anne was committed to sharing her faith with her friends—and her freshman roommate, Betsy, made a commitment to Christ and eventually joined CCO staff. Today, Anne continues to live a transparent Christian witness in her neighborhood, but her biggest venue to share her faith comes in her work with kids. “I have kids, I work with children at church, and I’ve been offering art workshops at local schools,” she says. “It’s great to be able to use my art to connect with kids.”

“I was raised in a Christian home, and I was involved in great Christian fellowship throughout high school,” Anne says. “But college was really hard for me, and I don’t know that I would have continued to go to church without people like Bob—and later, Dean Weaver—being on campus to invite me. In fact, I’m not sure I would have stayed in college at all if I hadn’t gotten connected with other Christians. The CCO gave me life-long friends. We were in each other’s weddings, we vacation together, and our kids play together. Because of Jubilee and being encouraged to read books like All of Life Redeemed and At Work and Play, I lost my fear of entering into ‘the secular world.’ I was equipped to live fully and unapologetically as a follower of Jesus Christ.”

Kathy attended Edinboro University of Pennsylvania on a tennis scholarship, and although she was a Christian when she arrived on campus, she was initially reluctant to attend the CCO-sponsored fellowship meeting, The ROCK (Reaching Out for Christ’s Kingdom).

“I chose to write a paper about a club on campus for an English class, and I began to get connected as a result of that paper,” remembers Kathy. “I was a believer, so I had a natural attraction to the Christian group, but I was really nervous about going on my own. Being able to pick that group as my paper topic in a sense forced me to go. I’m really glad I did. That’s when I met [CCO staff workers] RC and Gretchen.”

From that first meeting, Kathy was hooked, and ended up living in the CCO-sponsored discipleship house on campus, run by Gretchen Cooper, and leading Bible studies for her fellow students. And she attended the Jubilee conference.

“Jubilee changed my life,” Kathy says. “My first year, I was completely overwhelmed by the number of young people who were there and who were committed to Christ. Even though I grew up going to church, I hadn’t grown up going to youth group, so I didn’t know young people were really committed to God. When I saw 2,000 people worshipping, that shook my world. It was life-changing.”

When Kathy returned to Jubilee as a sophomore, she participated in Jubilee Africana, and she heard Lakita Garth speak eloquently about the impact young people could have in the world. “That was the first time I heard God speak to me, and I received my calling,” says Kathy. “As I left Lakita’s session, God said to me, ‘That’s you in the future.’ Then my boyfriend said the same thing to me a few moments later. I just needed to figure out what that meant.”

Ultimately, it meant that Kathy has put her gifts of motivational speaking into action by joining CCO staff herself. Since 2006, after graduating from Regent University with a master’s degree in communications, Kathy has been ministering to college students through the CCO, currently at Duquesne University in partnership with Laurel Mountain Christian Camp.

“My life was changed because the CCO helped me to understand that my faith needs to play a part in every aspect of my life,” says Kathy. “I was introduced to the fullness of God’s story, and I came to understand that everything I do is to give glory to God—playing tennis, friendships, my academics, and my work. The CCO gave me a foundation on which I could build my life.

“I find that my way of thinking is just different from other people. My framework is based on a holistic Christian worldview. It doesn’t come and go for different areas of my life—it’s all of my life.

“I know that the way I think and make decisions is a result of what’s been instilled in me and what I learned as a student involved in CCO ministry. I’m excited to share that same vision with the students I work with now.”