Thousands of lifeguards from 22 countries competed in the 2002 World Lifesaving Championships in Daytona Beach, Fla. At the 12-day competition, 20 world records were set—half of them by Australians.

Terry Legg is a 62-year-old Australian lifeguard. He works hard to keep up with the younger rescuers, and he works even harder to tell them about Jesus. Terry and his wife, Maureen, are staff members with Athletes in Action, Campus Crusade for Christ's sports ministry.

In Australia, lifeguards patrol the beaches as part of surf clubs. The clubs set the requirements and assign the schedules, but all the guards volunteer their time.

Terry serves as chaplain of his surf club, and must also pass regular physicals. He walks the beaches scanning for swimmers in distress, and talks with other lifeguards whose souls are in distress.

While Terry was on patrol with 16-year-old Samantha, she said, "How could an intelligent person like you believe in God?"

"What do you believe?" Terry replied.

"I believe in evolution," Samantha responded. "Survival of the fittest."

"Then why do you rescue people?" Terry asked. "How can you say you believe in survival of the fittest when you're a lifeguard? Do you honestly believe that because those people are drowning that they don't deserve to live?"

Samantha's expression changed as she realized the flaw in her thinking.

"I've got about 40 different conversations going," says Terry. Some have prayed and received Christ; some are just beginning to ask questions.

Terry spends his life rescuing—as a lifeguard and as a Christian. — Becky Hill

In India's westernmost state 40,000 "Love Buckets" of food were given to families in need after an earthquake. A year later a village had been rebuilt.

Last year an earthquake shook Gujarat, India, killing tens of thousands of people. Thousands more were injured and left homeless after the quake, which reached 7.9 on the Richter scale, devastated the region on India's western coast.

While Hindu priests prayed for the dead, Campus Crusade for Christ staff members responded differently to one of the worst earthquakes in this country's history. They were some of the first people on the scene to help the living.

Initially 10 relief workers with Campus Crusade surveyed the area in the Gujarat region, bounded by the Arabian Sea, and identified 1,000 families in need of assistance.

"It is a time for the body of Christ to rise up and show our Father's love to the victims of this disaster," said Campus Crusade staff member John Esteves.

The relief workers spotted a sparsely populated village called Lakhapar. The quake demolished every home in this area—all 108 of them. In the meantime, the victims had set up makeshift tents for shelter.

The staff members wanted to show the love of Christ to these people. So they sought permission from government officials to build new homes for them. They told the officials that they were followers of Christ, then asked them if they had any objections to receiving the help. One official replied candidly, "Because you are Christians, we want to accept your help."

"This speaks volumes on their response to us as Christians," said John.

So then they submitted their building plans to another agency to certify that the houses they wanted to build were earthquake- and cyclone-resistant.

"After minute scrutiny of the building plans through a government-appointed engineer," said John, "we were finally given the go-ahead to start the construction."

The staff members in West India then built 108 houses each 282 square feet, about the size of two bedrooms in the United States. On the national news, Sushama Swaraj, the government minister of broadcasting, proclaimed, "You are doing a very good job; please keep it up. God bless you!"

"[This region] had been one of the most difficult areas in India to reach out to with the gospel prior to the earthquake," said John. "Yet after the disaster, God opened doors for Campus Crusade staff members to meet village leaders, high-ranking officials and members of the Parliament."

Clearly the staff members built more than houses. "Our overall impression on the success of this entire relief effort was [the] building [of] credibility and relationships with the people in Gujarat," wrote John on behalf of the staff members in their building-project report. "As we demonstrated the love and compassion of Christ through our relief efforts, the victims were able to see Christianity and Christians in a new light."

It took about a year to finish the 108 houses. Perhaps the Indians will see Christianity differently and let Christ rebuild their lives. "One and all accepted us warmly and lovingly," one staff member says. "To us, this has been the greatest hallmark of our mission in Gujarat."—Jennifer Abegg

South Korea's economy ranks among the world's top 15, with more than 10 times the activity of North Korea's.

In 1995, a devastating flood consumed much of the precious farmland in North Korea. With an already weakened agricultural sector, North Korea faced a difficult year. Then an even more devastating drought settled over the country for the next seven years.

By 1997, CNN reported that people were surviving by eating twigs and dry leaves because the government ration of food amounted to about a bowl of rice a day. Many of the farmers' work animals died either in the flood, by starvation or by being eaten. Up to 3 million North Koreans may have starved to death since 1995.

It is reminiscent of the biblical story of Joseph, whose God-empowered plans led Egypt through its famine. But with one glaring difference: North Korea has no Joseph.

Perhaps a Joseph is emerging for the North Koreans. Kim Joon Gon, who leads Campus Crusade for Christ in South Korea, says, "As I approach the last period of my life, I have a great burden in my heart for North Korea. Like the apostle Paul and the governor Nehemiah had a great burden in their hearts and cried for their nation." And Dr. Kim has a plan.

The plan: milk goats. Dr. Kim plans to send 10,000 milk goats to North Korea. With an effective breeding program, those 10,000 goats could turn into one for every rural family—about 40 percent of the population. The North Korean government forbids private ownership of cows, and because of a missing enzyme the people there cannot digest cow's milk anyway. But they are allowed goats, and goat's milk is easily digested and provides nourishment especially helpful for young children and the elderly.

In collaboration with The Christian Sharing Movement in South Korea, 560 goats have already been procured from New Zealand and sent—along with 100 tons of hay—to farmers in North Korea. And the government there responded with great appreciation for the gift.

The problem now is money. One goat costs 300,000 Korean won, about 250 U.S. dollars. The North Koreans could never afford that; it totals over half their average yearly earnings. But when Dr. Kim presented the plan to the students of South Korea, 10,000 of them committed themselves to raise funds to purchase one goat each and send them to the north.

By selling snacks from covered wagons and coffee shops, or making extra money from part-time jobs, these students provide for their hungry compatriots one goat at a time.

Lee HaeKyung, a freshman at KyungHee University in Seoul, says, "The stories of starvation in North Korea were a shock." He included an extra 300,000 won in his educational loan to buy his goat. In another instance, Lee SangWan intended to enroll at the Great Commission Training Center in Seoul, but a car wreck derailed his plans. He bought a goat with the money from his insurance settlement.

And these college students aren't finished. About 100,000 of them are waiting for North Korea to open its borders to them, or for unification of the country, so they can go in as missionaries.

Dr. Kim says, "These youth are like the heart and the early-morning dew of this nation. They are ready to go into North Korea with love in one hand and the gospel in the other when their nation is unified. The dairy-goat project for North Korea will be the seed for unification in love prior to the national unification."

And who can doubt the words of a modern-day Joseph. —Howard Hardegree

CAMPUS | At George Mason University, Campus Crusade staff members invited a Palestinian Christian and a Messianic rabbi to publicly address the Israeli/Palestinian conflict. The two men proclaimed their peace with one another because they have peace with God through Jesus Christ.

IMPACT | African-American college students, high-school students and adults plan to assemble in Washington, D.C., for Impact 2002 in December. At the conference, sponsored by Campus Crusade's Ethnic Student Ministries, attendees will celebrate their spiritual heritage and learn about leadership. For more information or to register, visit www.ImpactMovement.com or call 1-888-672-2896.

PRAYERWORKS | The National Association of Chiefs of Police decorated Campus Crusade staff member Trish Pickard with their second-highest award in recognition of her work connecting Kansas law-enforcement personnel with intercessors who would pray daily for them.



New Zealand
Campus

"Are you connected?" The orange display attracted Joe, a Chinese international student at Massey University in New Zealand. He filled out a card about wanting to learn to study more effectively.

So Campus Crusade staff member Karl Udy met with Joe and gave him a free Are You Connected? magazine. They talked about grades, using one of the articles as a basis for the discussion. Then they talked about connecting with God.

Although Joe didn't know much about Christianity, he wanted to learn. The next week, Karl met with him to begin a Bible study about Jesus. After the session, Joe prayed with Karl and received Christ as his Savior.

"Joe could see that the Bible wasn't just made-up stories," says Karl. "It was true!"

Dozens of other students at Joe's campus accepted Christ because of the Are You Connected? magazine and a related Web site (www.areyouconnected.co.nz), despite there being only three part-time staff members at Massey University.

All over New Zealand, students are receiving Jesus Christ because of the "Connected" outreach, and many of them stay connected with their local Campus Crusade group. —Becky Hill


Texas
Here's Life Inner City

Velma Mitchell ducked out of a Mother's Day luncheon at the community center where she works to grab a camera from her car. Slowly, Mary approached her.

"I'm looking for Velma," she said, worried.

"That's me!" Velma exclaimed in her Texas twang. "What can I do for you?"

"Well, the college kids gave me your card, and I'm just now making it up here."

Two months ago Mary had received Christ with a group of young adults on a spring-break outreach with Here's Life Inner City. The University of North Texas students, working and sleeping at the community center, saturated the housing projects of south Dallas one afternoon to talk with people like Mary about Jesus.

Velma (at right, above) remembered the students telling about Mary, so she invited her into the luncheon.

"I was so lonely and so down and I really needed to be with somebody," Mary said, hugging Velma. "When the kids came, they told me I could come anytime to see you."

Today Mary takes high-school equivalency classes at the center, run by a ministry with a partnership with HLIC.

This partnership made the community center's arm long enough to reach out to Mary. —Elizabeth Bahe


Panorama
An Overview of Campus
Crusade for Christ

• Campus Crusade has 26,043 staff members around the world. Stood one atop another, these people would reach five times the height of Mount Everest, the tallest mountain in the world.
  
  
• In addition, more than 226,200 trained volunteers work with Campus Crusade—3.3 times the number of spectators who attended the 2002 World Cup final in Yokohama, Japan.
  
  
• Campus Crusade has a ministry presence in 190 countries, which represents 99.5 percent of the world's population. This is 69 more countries than McDonald's restaurants have reached.
  
  
• In 2001, 17.6 million people indicated receiving Christ through Campus Crusade and its partners—equal to more than twice New York City's population.
  
  
• Since the ministry began in 1951, more than 6.7 billion people have been exposed to the gospel worldwide through Campus Crusade and its partnership activities. In comparison, the world population in 2001 was 6.16 billion. —compiled by Emily Sellers