---

GIVE NEY FIVE MINUTES: SHE'LL GIVE YOU HER HEART by Kris Carraway Not many women spend 50% of their time flying around the country with the sole purpose of meeting the needs of God's people. That's one reason why Ney BaileyÕs story is so special.       I had at least 30 things crowding my mind that day, but when I finally turned into Ney Bailey's steep, mountain-top driveway, I couldn't help feeling expectant. A remote seat in a meeting-room-full of other Campus Crusade for Christ staff women was the closest I'd ever come to enjoying her quiet wisdom. But the principles she shared as a speaker on those occasions go with me everywhere, written inside the front cover of my Bible.       I also knew that Ney's simple joy and enthusiasm have become her trademark after 13 years on the staff of Campus Crusade. The joy shows in her brown, piercing eyes that crinkle with good humor even when she's not laughing. And the enthusiasm is evident whenever she asks about you ... because she's interested, really interested. It's an interest borne out of her conviction that each person has tremendous worth, that the way you feel and think is important. And that conviction is translated into action with this prayer: "Father, I pray that as I go into this situation, I would be to each person what he or she needs in You -- and only You know what that is."       I wasn't disappointed, then, when Ney greeted me at the door (in a lace-trimmed work shirt, Adidas tennis shoes and striped athletic socks) with, "Come on, let me show you around the house before we get started. I want this to be a fun day for you!" And by the time we got down to our actual interview, it felt perfectly natural to keep the tape recorder off long enough to talk about the 30 things that were crowding my mind and commit them to God together.       In her five years as a national women's traveling representative, Ney Bailey has committed hundreds of people and situations to God each year. She's one of three women who assist Campus Crusade's field directors by ministering to the staff women in different regional areas. She finds herself on the road -- away from her home-base at Lake Arrowhead, California -- at least 50% of each year. "But even when she's home," says Mary Graham, an area staff woman for Minnesota and North Dakota, "she's totally accessible and will make you feel like you're the only person who's ever called her 'just to talk.'"       Mary's first encounter with Ney was brief, but it left her with the same feeling that's infected hundreds of staff women (including me) -- the longing to spend more time with her. "I can remember walking along with Ney at staff training," Mary recalls. "In the space of 30 minutes as many as 30 people came up to say, 'Ney, I'd really like to get together with youl'" Many regard Ney as a "close friend" after spending only five minutes with her at a conference two years ago. And many more would echo Mary when she says that "Ney walked into my life, and I've never been the same since."       Ney's "genius" lies in the fact that she's not only accessible, but has something wonderful to give when you're with her. "This is what love feels like," you may think. "This is total acceptance.'' "That's because the qualities she embodies so reflect those of her Lord," says Linda Goebel, a staff member with the drama ministry. "Until I met Ney, I'd never been so aggressively reached out to and cared about. It wouldn't have mattered if I had had 10 horns and six feet -- I still would have been renewed by God's love coming through her. A lot of people are hurting for that kind love."       Ney seemed to sense that need for love years ago as a high schooler when she wanted to help people "even if I didn't get paid for it." After four years at Centenary College in her home town of Shreveport, Louisiana, and one year at LSU's graduate school in social work, the then-23-year-old was helping people as an adoption case worker. Beginning in 1959, for two years she traveled throughout Louisiana inter-viewing prospective adoptive couples and placing babies.       Ney's concern for people deepened on Valentine's Day in 1960 when she renewed a commitment to Christ that she'd made when she was 15. "The conversion of a friend made me realize that my Christianity had been coming from my head and not my heart," Ney recalls. Not knowing what to do next, she sent this plea to another friend who was on staff with Campus Crusade for Christ: "I've just given my life over to the Lord. What do I do next?"       In response, Ney received an excited, long distance phone call, a copy of the Four Spiritual Laws (written in long-hand) and the Ten Basic Steps Toward Christian Maturity. She began growing in the Lord and matured even more when she attended Campus Crusade's Leadership Training Institute in Minnesota that summer.       What Ney remembers most about that summer is the personal challenge that Elmer Lappen, long-time campus director at Arizona State University, posed to her. "He simply asked, 'Ney, how are you going to invest your life?'" she recalls. "That question really haunted me."       Other questions were to haunt Ney in the years that followed -- challenges that God used to cause her to invest her life in ways she might not otherwise have chosen. She joined staff the following year and, after a summer of training, reported to the University of Arizona where she was one of the two staff members for the next two years. Then the Lord sent one of His special challenges along.       "When I joined staff," Ney recalls with a hint of a chuckle, "all you had to do was sort of show up and say, 'I want to join staff,' and they'd say, 'Send your own references.' I decided that, with Campus Crusade's high standards, the application procedure should be more thorough. Two years later I told Bill Bright about my desire to help in that area." His reaction? Now she laughs outright: "He pounded his fist on the arm of the chair and exclaimed, 'I've been praying for someone to help! Can you fly over on weekends?'"       As it turned out, Ney finished the 1963 school year at Arizona and took-charge of the personnel department that summer. Six years of her life were poured into developing the application procedures and filing system that are used by the ministry today. "I loved it," Ney admits. "But after six years I just felt like the Lord wrote, 'It is finished' and it was time for me to do something else."       God's next challenge for Ney came from various people who encouraged her to travel as a representative for the ministry. But with six years having elapsed since her last experience in the Campus Ministry, she was hesitant. "In fact, it took a talk by Dr. Manford Gutzke on the will of God to change my mind," Ney recalls. "When he asked 'What brings you the greatest joy in life?' I thought to myself, 'I really love to work with people," Then Dr. Gutzke concluded: 'If someone puts before you a call, don't discount it--because it may be from God.'"       That was 1969, and it was only a matter of months before Ney was on the road with teammate Jean Pietsch as one of six traveling women's representatives. The two women were responsible for helping the south central regional director meet the needs of his campus staff women in an area which included eight states. As they spent time on each campus, their primary goal involved helping the women develop their ministry skills in evangelism and discipleship.       But as they worked side-by-side with the staff, personal problems and spiritual questions inevitably surfaced. "Often Jean and I would be working with a campus staff team, and our spirits would discern the same problem or need," Ney recalls. "God taught us from the start that such discernment is for the purpose of prayer, and not for the purpose of fault-finding. We devoted time each day, then, to real prayer and intercession -- and often God would answer every single prayer within a few days."       Personal, one-on-one counseling also gave Ney endless opportunities to exercise her God-given ability to counsel and encourage. The principles she shared as solutions were not only biblical but also grounded in personal experience. My first year at the University of Arizona, I was scared to death by the prospect of 'reaching my campus for Christ' because I was thinking of the human dimension and not the dimension of the Holy Spirit," Ney recalls. "Before long I experienced real failure in my heart and was tempted to go off staff." What Ney learned through this experience -- and what she often shares with other staff women -- is the need to give one's will over to God in whatever area is causing frustration and to allow the Holy Spirit to control your life. IN TOUCH WITH FEELINGS       Tied in with this principle is another truth that she's found invaluable in her own life: "Whatever we're feeling, whatever we're going through, we as Christians need to believe that heaven and earth will pass away before God's Word passes away." Ney is the first person to admit that "our feelings can scream 180 degrees in the opposite direction of God's Word." And some of her favorite Scripture verses are those that confirm that Jesus felt everything we feel today. "I think that the Lord wants us to be in touch with our feelings and to be aware of what's going on in our lives," Ney says. "But we aren't to be ruled by feelings. So it's helpful to me -- rather than deny that I feel a certain way -- to go ahead and honestly answer the Lord's question when He says, 'Ney, where are you?' Then I find a portion of Scripture that will speak to my need."       After three years of traveling with Jean, Ney spent a year working with Christian Family Life in Dallas, Texas, helping to research the biblical principles of marriage. "When I went back on Campus Crusade staff in the summer of 1973," Ney says, "I felt like I had a lot more to offer the ministry than I did when I left -- especially in the area of the home and family."       Today, as a member of the national traveling team, Ney sees herself primarily as a helper to Paul Eshleman, the ministry's U. S. field director, with similar responsibilities to those when she traveled before. Still, Ney's deeper commitment in life is to giving, and she sees this desire stemming in part from the close family relationships she enjoys. Others would add that it flows from Ney's own enjoyment and understanding of God's love for her. "That's because when Ney gives," says one staff girl, "she goes beyond her job description.''       Hundreds of women have had life-changing encounters with Ney as a conference speaker, personal counselor and friend. Just as many know her as a "prayer warrior." Since 1970 she has entered in to what she calls "prayer covenants" with many women as a way of helping them see specific results in areas of personal need.       This kind of personal involvement helps explain why so many Campus Crusade staff women (and men) look forward to a visit from this traveling Louisianan. One girl to whom Ney ministers summed up her feelings when she blurted out, "I know why you aren't married -- you can't possibly mean to one man what you mean to all of us!" And Ney, a single at age 40, is as grateful for responses like that as she is for the "gift of 40 years" that God has given her. She readily admits: "I would love to be married to someone who is godly and have four to six children. And I think that being a wife and mother would be a great privilege."       But for Ney, each day is so rich that her uppermost desire is to experience the reality of Psalms 90:12: "So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom."       Ney actually figured out how many thousands of days she might have left to enjoy here on earth. And she's not complaining about how God is having her spend these days. "After all," she explains with a characteristic twinkle in her eye, "I actually am getting paid to do what I enjoy most: travel around the country, get together with old friends and new ones, and be to them what they need in the Lord -- and only He knows what that is!"