The architect, the lawyer and the nurse will never be the same. Thirty years ago, they each made one decision in college that changed their lives forever.

Theirs was the decade of disillusionment. Despite the red, white and blue of the bicentennial celebration, America in the 1970s was painted in drab shades of despairing grays by Watergate scandals, a disrespect for Vietnam veterans returning home, and hours-long lines at gas pumps. While some reacted with angry protests, college students involved in Campus Crusade for Christ raised a banner of hope.

At the dawn of the '70s, Campus Crusade formed at the University of Michigan. Under the banner of "Reach the Campus Today, Reach the World Tomorrow," this countercultural group attracted hundreds of U of M students. Some dedicated to follow Jesus more closely; others gave their lives to Christ for the first time.

For three of those students—Peter Slavovsky, Joe Holland and Laura Lewellen—that was only the beginning.

Depression Lifted Darrel Heide, who still serves with Campus Crusade, introduced Peter Slavovsky to Christ 30 years ago. Peter (above), now an architect, designed his church. Peter Slavovsky was depressed. During his sophomore year in 1972, he went home for the holidays. He noticed his parents' fighting had escalated since the last time he'd gone back to New Jersey. That tension was funny with Archie Bunker in the hit show All in the Family, but not in real life. Though his siblings didn't seem too bothered, Peter was. In fact, their fighting rocked his foundations. When school resumed, it was all he could do to attend classes. Then he slept the rest of the day. "At that point I realized I needed to do something," he says. Peter saw a psychologist a few times a week. Yet he remained depressed, and soon it spiraled to a place where he even lost his will to live. His girlfriend's best friend, who had recently decided to follow Jesus through Campus Crusade, invited the couple to the weekly meeting. Peter reluctantly visited the less-than-a-year-old group. "I remember stepping into a meeting of 30 to 40 students singing and praising the Lord," he says. "The people looked happy. They were motivated by something I hadn't experienced." Then Peter heard staff member Darrel Heide give a message about the power of the Holy Spirit. "I had never heard anything like that before," says Peter. Afterward, he approached Darrel. During their conversation, Darrel invited the defeated sophomore to lunch the next day. The two met in a snack shop in the student union. There, Darrel explained the Four Spiritual Laws, an evangelistic booklet, to Peter. Darrel also challenged him to read the Gospel of John, suggesting that he ask the Lord to reveal Himself. Peter surrendered his life to Jesus. Then he agreed to read John. Within the week, his depression lifted. Peter understood that his life had a new foundation, one that could not be rocked. "From that point on," says Peter, "I decided if the book of John is this good, the rest of Scripture must be good as well." He loved God's Word so much that he started leading a Bible study with Campus Crusade as a junior, the same year The Godfather won the Oscar for Best Picture. Peter eventually graduated with a degree in architecture and became an architect. He also married his girlfriend, Judy. "We are so thankful for the [spiritual] grounding we received," Judy says. "When kids go to college, they're at a vulnerable age. They're trying to understand what they believe. This is a key time to reach young people." The couple puts their money where their mouth is, investing financially in the movement 30 years later. But they also have continued to personally apply the evangelism training they received. Their family of five accepted an exchange student from China five years ago. The Slavovskys helped lead Ting Ting Yang to faith in Christ, and when her mother visited the United States, they introduced her to Jesus as well. "The University of Michigan, Campus Crusade and Darrel were so instrumental in our lives," says Judy. "Both of us were so motivated to grow and to learn." Peter's depression has never returned.

For the Love of the Game A football player turned lawyer, Joe Holland works for justice in Harlem. Prestigious colleges were courting the high-school All-America Joe Holland to play football for them. Since law was his other passion, Joe picked a school that offered both options: the University of Michigan. That year, a bunch of athletes went on a spiritual retreat right before school started. During the summer of Richard Nixon's impeachment trial and resignation, Joe received a letter from an upperclassman football player inviting all the incoming freshmen to attend the retreat. Joe wasn't into religion and all that "God stuff," so he tossed aside the note about the camp, sponsored by Campus Crusade and other Christian groups. "I was not interested in spiritual things at all," Joe remembers. "The note wasn't something I was inclined to act on." But his mom had seen his mail. She thought he could go to make some friends. She reminded him that he didn't know anybody, plus he'd be in Michigan that weekend anyway. The non-Christian decided to attend. On the first evening of the camp, a Detroit Lions football player, Mel Farr, spoke. Joe felt a kindred spirit with the African American and related to his experiences of racial discrimination. When Mel expressed how his faith in Jesus sustained him, Joe decided he wanted Jesus too. So later that night, he went to his room and asked Christ to come into his life. Back at school, Joe began meeting weekly with Darrel Heide from Campus Crusade. During those appointments, Darrel mentored him in the basics of the faith. The new Christian soon transferred to Cornell and eventually graduated from Harvard Law School. Several law firms made Joe lucrative offers. He turned them all down—and moved to Harlem. "I wanted to make a difference in the movement of racial and social justice," he says. The Harvard lawyer still followed the God he met at the U of M. First, Joe started a Christian fellowship group in his apartment. Then he began a street ministry with the homeless and drug addicts. Soon he founded a drug-rehabilitation and homeless shelter. It became so effective that in 1995, the governor of New York asked Joe to serve as the state housing commissioner. Joe also opened a Ben and Jerry's ice-cream store and another business to employ the people he's trying to help. Then, through a partnership with Here's Life Inner City, Campus Crusade's outreach to the urban community, Joe helped to develop a life- and job-skills program called Holistic Hardware (www.holistichardware.com). He now lives in Yonkers with his wife, Alisa, and three children, but still works in Harlem as a real-estate lawyer.

More Than A Nurse Laura Lewellen works alongside her husband, Tom, at their church, applying some of the principles she learned in the '70s. Just before the U.S. Supreme Court passed Roe v. Wade and made abortion legal in the United States, Laura Lewellen enrolled at the U of M to become a nurse who helps deliver babies. Though she grew up in Ann Arbor, the city where the univer-sity is located, her parents allowed her to live in a residence hall her freshman year. Less than two weeks into her first semester she overheard three young women who lived down the hall talking about a Campus Crusade Bible study. "I'd love to be in a Bible study," she interjected. So they invited the nursing student to join them. "All through high school I had a sense in my heart that there had to be more," she says. "I really wondered what would happen to me after I died." The next day she noticed that one of them had left a copy of the Four Spiritual Laws, an explanation of the gospel, on her bed. "It all made sense," she says. "I knew I had not trusted in Jesus Christ that way before." She read the booklet and asked Christ to be her Savior. Laura also began attending the weekly meetings of Campus Crusade. She explained her new relationship with Jesus to her high-school sweetheart, Tom. He eventually chose to follow Christ and also got involved in Campus Crusade at U of M's cross-state rival, Michigan State. After graduating, both Laura and Tom joined the staff of Campus Crusade as a married couple. They served at Virginia Tech from 1976-1978. Then Tom went to Dallas Theological Seminary. In 1984 they planted Grace Countryside Church, in Milford, Mich., where they carry on the Campus Crusade legacy of introducing others to Christ, training them in the faith and sending them to tell others. Once while on a mission trip to Athens, Greece, Tom introduced an Albanian man named Gregor to Jesus. Gregor developed a passion for his people to know about Christ, and he eventually started a church in Albania. Grace Countryside formed an ongoing partnership with the Albanian church, whom Laura and Tom have visited several times. Since 1996, their church has sent 16 teams to the mountainous Balkan country. The mother of four still works as a nurse one day a week, helping deliver babies. One co-worker in obstetrics saw how Laura delighted in the miracle of birth, and noticed that she was different. She asked to visit Laura and Tom's church, where she heard the message of Christ. Later, she accepted Him. "I always think back to hearing the gospel message for the first time through the Four Spiritual Laws," says Laura, "and am thankful that I trusted in Christ at that time at U of M."

The Future Is Now A branch of Campus Crusade is still at University of Michigan today, as well as on half the college campuses in America and on campuses around the world. Staff members like Darrel Heide continue to invest in the lives of people, unaware of how God might choose to use them in the future. But alumni of Campus Crusade—regardless of their professions and their beginnings—continue to influence people all over the globe with the good news of Christ. How will God use today's students in 30 years?