In one day, 2,523 Washington, D.C., residents received invitations into God's kingdom as Impact students fanned out to share food and explain their faith. As a result, 344 people prayed and received Christ as their Savior.

Vincent Warsaw had shared his faith before, but no one had ever trusted Christ with him. This time, something different happened.

The graduate from California State University—Dominguez Hills was participating in the Impact conference, part of Campus Crusade for Christ's ministry to African-American college students.

On the third day of the five-day conference, attendees formed small groups to walk around impoverished neighborhoods of Washington, D.C., and deliver boxes of food that also contained Bibles. The 2,300 conferees were trained in how to initiate spiritual conversations.

When Vincent and his teammates knocked on the door of Michelle Bailey's apartment, she stepped outside to talk with them. That's when Vincent noticed the woman in her late 20s shivering. "I had on two jackets," says Vincent. So he gave her his leather one.

Vincent later told Impact staff member Bob Britton that he was reacting to the prompting of the Holy Spirit.

Michelle accepted the coat, then slipped back inside to tell her brother about it. He and her sister's boyfriend, Allen, wanted to meet the person who had sacrificed a valuable coat for someone he barely knew.

Vincent struck up a conversation with Allen. They talked about Allen's daughter and girlfriend, and then about church and spirituality.

"Allen said he wanted to know God better," recalls Vincent. Once again, Vincent knew how to help meet that need. That day, Allen prayed and received Jesus as his Savior.
—Jennifer Abegg

Bruce Hensal spends his days helping JESUS speak new languages.

Bruce Hensal's business card used to read, "My mornings are your afternoons."

In Los Angeles in 1977, the assistant sound engineer began his workday at 2 p.m. with the Eagles, the legendary rock band. After nine and a half months of greasy breakfasts, setting up instrument microphones in the basketball-courtÐsized recording studio, and splicing together as many as 40 takes of parts of songs, the Grammy AwardÐwinning album Hotel California was produced.

Today, 26 years later, Bruce Hensal is a senior mix engineer for The JESUS Film Project® in Orlando, Fla.

After working concert audio in the early 1970s, Bruce ended up in Los Angeles in an attempt to settle down. Unhappy with the recording-industry lifestyle there after a few years, Bruce tried Miami, living there for five years and working with acts like Julio Iglesias and Aerosmith.

When his father got ill in early 1982, Bruce moved back to his home state of Ohio. Within a few years, he met Carol, a recent college graduate and his future wife. Carol, a new Christian, introduced Bruce to Jesus Christ. At age 40, Bruce found peace.

"Having spent 20 years wandering around in the wilderness of the music industry," says Bruce, "I realized there was a lot more to life. I had lost a lot of friends to the casualties of the industry—drinking and drugs, among other things. Something had to give."

After they married three years later, the Hensals moved to Florida, where Bruce worked in Web design. When he ended up out of work in 1997, he heard about the JESUS film—a feature-length movie about Christ's life based on the gospel of Luke.

"There aren't a lot of people who can spend 40 years developing a talent and not knowing why God gave it to them, then have it become as clear as it has to me," Bruce explains, smiling. "When the opportunity came along for me, it was such a perfect fit, I took it right away."

With each new language recording of the powerful evangelism tool, Bruce applies the dialogue to the film, mixing it with music and sound effects. After completing 80 of the 750 translations, Bruce explains, "I had the same enthusiasm coming to work this morning as I did my first morning of work."

It's an answer to Carol's prayers. Though they were regular churchgoers, Carol longed to see Bruce really study the Bible. "He's been on fire for the Lord since he started working at Campus Crusade for Christ," she explains. "I prayed that the Lord would get him back in the Word, and now he's working with the book of Luke 40 hours a week!"

In his free time, Bruce works on two advisory committees at Valencia Community College. The 55-year-old loves to interact with college-age kids, and they respect his long and varied career. Bewildered, the students ask how he can stand to work on the same thing day after day. "I enjoy it," he tells them. "At night I think about ways to make it better, and to me, it's one of the most exciting things I've ever done. I'm working with the gospel, and we're affecting people's lives."

As of January, 182,425,113 people have indicated decisions to receive Christ as a result of viewing the film.

"This is the job I want to retire from, and I never felt that way [before]," says Bruce, who now starts his workday at 7 a.m. "In the recording industry, it's job to job, and you never find any security. To me this is the ultimate security."
—Elizabeth Bahe

"That white guy is ruining our chances with girls," grumbled a student at Ouagadougou University during a "Love-Sex-Marriage" outreach last spring. Tom Dorsch, "the white guy," works on this campus located in the center of this predominantly Muslim country in West Africa.

During his open-air presentation, the Campus Crusade staff member urged students to stay sexually pure until marriage. For the second year Tom boldly pushed through his speech on the quad—a challenging message to give outdoors in his native English, let alone in French.

Afterward, Freddie Ouedraogo—a first-year student—approached Tom and asked for his notes. The American asked if he could stop by the young man's dorm room later instead. Freddie agreed.

Later that week, Tom and Freddie met together. "Ever since I got to campus," he told Tom, "I put religion in my hip pocket." Sitting in Freddie's room, only a fraction of the size of an American dorm room, Tom presented a gospel tract to him. Within two weeks, Freddie prayed and received Christ. Tom continued to meet with him until the end of the school year, guiding him in his new Christian life.
—Elizabeth Bahe


Philadelphia
Here's Life Inner City

Mary Thompson frees inmates from prison—the prison of eternal life without God. She wants them to know how Jesus Christ enables them to overcome their habits and addictions.

The Campus Crusade staff member works in partnership with the Bill Glass Evangelistic Association. Mary (left, at right) and her husband, Harold—who became a Christian in prison—travel around the country for prison outreaches called "A Weekend of Champions."

Late last year, at a Philadelphia prison, Mary ventured into the cafeteria to spend time with the women, instead of just setting up follow-up Bible studies—her usual responsibility. Sitting across from two attractive, well-groomed women, Mary listened to Jane and Lisa explain their struggle with heroin.

"They said they were in their 40s, facing the fact they could end up dead with a needle in their arms," said Mary. "They told me they wanted to change."

Mary explained the gospel to the two women. After hearing how Jesus offers eternal forgiveness, they both accepted Christ. "God made a tangible way for them to have hope," explains Mary.
—Elizabeth Bahe


Michigan
Grad Resources

Eric Westervelt, a Ph.D. student at the University of Michigan, disagreed with the Michigan Christian Grads. MC Grads is a group co-sponsored by Grad Resources—a ministry of Campus Crusade—and The Navigators, another parachurch organization. Yet Eric attended their meetings for three years.

"I kept going because they were nice people," explains Eric, "but when they would give talks on spiritual topics, I thought they were all nuts."

Eric and Campus Crusade staff member Chuck Roeper (left, center, with his wife, Dianne, and Eric), met every six months, but Eric declined to talk about anything spiritual. Frustrated, Eric decided to defend his opposing position—so he read the Bible. Two-thirds of the way through, he began to accept what it said, and surrendered his life to Jesus.

Now, two years later, the electrical engineer studying biped locomotion (two-legged robots) looks for ways to introduce others to Christ. Eric's priorities have clearly changed. "The goal of my life now is not to become some famous professor, but to be a man who lives humbly for Christ," Eric says.
—Elizabeth Bahe


Italy
Campus Ministry

Forgiveness has stolen the heart of a thief. Elena, an employee at Netgate, an Internet café in Florence, Italy, discovered a credit card left by a customer. After fraudulently charging nearly $1,000, she was wracked with guilt and called the cardholder, asking her to come by the café.

Gina Erickson, an American missionary with Campus Crusade, was relieved by the call. Sobbing, Elena confessed to Gina that she had used the credit card, promising to pay the charges. Anticipating anger, Elena was dumbfounded by Gina's forgiveness.

Gina's fellow missionaries at the University of Florence encouraged their teammate to initiate with Elena further. Reluctantly, Gina stopped by Netgate and invited Elena to lunch. She accepted immediately.

"I feel like my heart is an iceberg," she told Gina. Recoiling from the recent loss of her father, Elena longed for relationships. Gina listened intently, but she didn't anticipate the question that followed: "Do you have anything you'd like to share with me?"

Gina explained how God desired a personal relationship with her. Elena received the gift of salvation, and God paid the charge.
—Bill DeWandeler