BUS CRASH PUT REPORTER ON COURSE TO MINISTRY

Lexington Herald Leader, Lexington, KY - January 17, 1994

           EDDYVILLE - Since the fall former Cincinnati broadcast journalist Gregg Anderson has been on a "new news assignment" as chaplain at the maximum-security Kentucky State Penitentiary.

           Anderson was known as Gregg Winston during several stints as a radio news anchor and reporter in the Cincinnati market, most recently at WIZF. His journey from the studio to a cellblock pulpit began when he was sent to Carrollton on May 14, 1988, he said.

           Anderson arrived only hours after a drunk driver, Larry Mahoney, drove down the wrong lanes of Interstate 71 and plowed into a church bus. Twenty-seven people died in the crash and ensuing fire.

           "Out of that terrible accident, my whole life has changed," he said.

           Anderson, 40, had covered tragedies before the Carrollton crash, but he said he felt a strange sensation as he covered the bus accident.

           "I've been around death and destruction, and I hated to see it, but I could keep it separate," he said. "I knew I had to be there because it was my job."

           However, the Carrollton crash was different.

           "It was like God took away that defensive mechanism that we use as reporters," Anderson said. "I felt the pain. I felt the heartache and suffering. Before I got to Carrollton, I was literally crying. It was just an overwhelming experience.

           "I basically felt the calling of God."

           A local pastor, Charlie Harmon, whom Anderson interviewed about the accident's effect on the community, predicted the future in a way that Anderson didn't immediately understand on a personal level.

           "He said 'Gregg, this was a tragic accident, but I can guarantee you lives are going to be changed and people's directions are going to be changed."

           A year later, Anderson launched an evangelical ministry. A friend labeled him the "good news reporter." He continued his broadcast career as he moonlighted as a minister, preaching at churches, revivals and crusades.

           The ministerial work also took him to jails and prisons in Ohio and Kentucky, and even in the former Soviet republic of Estonia.

           "My words were soaked in by the inmates," Anderson said. "I understand the burden of pain, and I was able to relate to the prison inmates."

           Even though he hadn't entertained the idea of becoming a prison chaplain, he was intrigued when he learned of the opening at the Kentucky State Penitentiary. Anderson is ordained by the Evangelical Church Alliance, a non-denominational organization that helped him fit into the multidimensional needs of the prison system.

           These days he's known as "Chaplain Gregg" by the inmates at Eddyville.

           "There's a fine core of Christian men who come down here," Anderson said. "As long as they stay true, as long s they don't get in and play a game with Christ · they are going to be happiest, the most content.

           "Those men are going to be reformed."

May God's BEST be yours...Gregg