The sun is beginning to rise as Bob Caddel pulls his 1983 Toyota Cressida into the parking lot at Rialto High School in San Bernardino, Calif. A few cars, hoods still warm, sit beneath lampposts, but the 3,500-student campus appears vacant and quiet.

Wearing a navy blazer, pink, button-down shirt and slightly bell-bottomed, plaid slacks, Bob looks like faculty, with thick, white hair adding a touch of seniority. As he grabs his weathered Bible and a box of papers out of his untidy trunk, he shuts it and says with a smile, "I know—I look like a substitute teacher."

Bob strides across the school's quad, talking in long, excited spurts about his ministry with Campus Crusade for Christ. Suddenly he stops, sobered, and points to a concrete bench where a student recently shot and killed himself.

"He didn't hurt anybody else," Bob says, silver eyebrows furrowed. "He just didn't want to live anymore."

Bob is all too familiar with the series of shootings sweeping the country. As the Southern California director of Campus Crusade's MarketPlace Educator CrossTalk, Bob stays keenly aware of the trends and tragedies around him.

The 35-year Campus Crusade for Christ veteran capitalizes on those trends to reach his target audience—the local leadership of San Bernardino and Riverside counties, and eventually, he hopes, America at large.

CrossTalk organizes Bible discussions for teachers and other professionals, helping them think through how the Scriptures apply to problems they are facing in their work settings.

	Talking to Teens | Josh spoke at Immanuel Baptist Church in Highland, Calif. His focus: fathers. "You will never find a shooter with a loving attachment and an intimate bond with his father," he said. Many listening teens saw Josh as a father figure.

Recently Bob helped organize a banquet for 600 leaders in law enforcement, government, education and business. Two guest speakers offered solutions for the problems currently facing society: Josh McDowell, a Campus Crusade staff member and speaker, and Peter Henderson, a Columbine High School student who survived the shootings in Littleton, Colo., on April 20, 1999.

Bob's desire to influence leaders stems back to 1980, when he heard Josh McDowell speak to a group of community leaders. It was then that Bob realized the strategic role such leaders play in society.

"Our leadership makes the policy decisions for the rest of us," Bob says. "Many of the problems in society are being caused by a lack of involvement on our part. It's all because of apathy."

As a result of his changing views, Bob began giving presentations to school boards in San Bernardino and other nearby cities about establishing abstinence-based sex-education policies.

This concern for local leaders, coupled with a hard-work ethic, is what goads this native of southern Texas.

He believes that unless we first reach the four groups of leaders driving our nation—government, law enforcement, education and business professionals—they will eventually impose their values and laws on us.

"Besides that, without Christ, they face eternal punishment just like everyone else," he says frankly.

So in 1998 Bob launched Educator CrossTalk sessions, where Christian professionals meet on-site for mutual encouragement and Bible study. The groups have branched out of Southern California and into San Francisco, Minneapolis, and parts of Ohio and Tennessee. Bob merely initiates the gatherings and then delegates responsibilities.

At a recent Educator CrossTalk meeting at Rialto High School, where an average teacher sees 150-180 students a day, the discussion topic was passion. Eight instructors, most of them math teachers, sat around in a circle of student desks before class began and read from their CrossTalk study materials.

"What do you think passion means?" asked math department head Don Castle, who was leading the discussion that morning.

"It's a fire that can't be quenched," said Karen Hahs, guidance counselor and former dean of students.

Tim Smith, an algebra teacher and football coach, eventually turned the discussion to a fellow teacher he'd witnessed to recently. She was frustrated about some undisciplined students, and Tim shared with her how God helps him through rough days.

"I think that's the benefit of being here," Don said. "To be encouraged about pressing on, whether it's in our jobs or in telling others about Christ."

Bob, who has been married since 1968 and has five children, certainly understands what it means to press on. The former third-grade teacher tries to organize a large outreach, like the function with Josh McDowell, every year or two. The events are designed to tell people about God and be a springboard for new CrossTalk groups. This year's program was co-sponsored by Campus Crusade and BRASS, the San Bernardino-Riverside Area Sunday School Association.

An event designed to reach non-Christians, Bob says, must tap into a felt need. That's especially true for those in leadership. In this case, the event offered a suggestion as to why so many youth are killing and being killed.

Listening Leaders | Peter Henderson, a Columbine High School shooting survivor, described the experience to community leaders in California.

Josh McDowell, a noted youth authority considered one of the most culturally relevant speakers of today, addressed the spiritual roots of violence at the banquet. He also gave audience members an opportunity to invite Christ into their lives, 20 of whom accepted. An additional 74 wanted information on CrossTalk and 175 wanted a copy of Josh's book More Than a Carpenter.

Peter, a senior at Columbine High, told how he and 35 other students had been trapped in a storage room for 3 1/2 hours, only to catch a glimpse of their friends' dead bodies on their way out. All eyes and ears focused intently on Peter as he shared how God got him through it.

"They were moved," says Josh of the leaders in the audience. "I saw a lot of cops in front with their heads down, crying."

Josh, whose busy schedule prevents him from taking many requests to speak, couldn't help but accept Bob's entreaty. "Bob really helped me catch the vision for this thing," he says. "He's a real plugger."

But like a horse donning blinders, Bob often gets tunnel vision.

"Being so focused on the ministry can sometimes make me insensitive," he says. "I pray a lot about being more conscious of other people's agendas."

The weekend after the banquet, Bob focused his attention on visiting those who were interested in what had been said at the banquet. At the home of Gayle Cloud, a newly elected Riverside school-board member and mother of six, Bob chatted about the importance of Christians being involved in their communities.

"I'm a very ordinary person," says Gayle. "I'm probably more comfortable sitting at home, quilting and cleaning house. But I think we have an obligation as Christians to be salt and light in the public sector."

"I think the social issues of our day are a result of people not knowing Christ personally," Bob says. "We have an opportunity to enter the community because people care about those issues, and they just might listen to the gospel we share as part of the package."

Bob recommends voting ("Only 20-25 percent of those registered actually voted in the last election," he purports), getting involved in civic organizations like the Rotary Club, attending city-council meetings or taking up a new hobby you think non-Christians enjoy. But the thing to remember, Bob and Gayle say, is being culturally relevant in the process.

"Many times Christians never say anything until they want to criticize and find fault—and that's not the way to make friends and influence people," Bob says. "Earn the right to be heard. Learn how to share your faith, and then ask God to help you be sensitive.

"We [Christians] are no longer the dominant culture—we are just a voice," Gayle says. "Paul said he represented the one true God. So do we. But you've got to present the message in such a way that people will listen."

And that's what Bob is doing, using every means possible to present the gospel to community leaders.

For more information about MarketPlace Educator CrossTalk, call (909) 379-7798 or go online to www.wwcmagazine.org/2000/crosstalk.html.