CALL TO SERVE
12 YEARS AGO, A RADIO REPORTER COVERED A FIERY BUS CRASH, THEN TOOK A NEW DIRECTION
Lexington Herald Leader, Lexington, KY - Saturday, May 13, 2000

           NEWPORT - It will be 12 years ago Monday when the Rev. Gregg Anderson had what he calls his own encounter with God.  Anderson, then a reporter for Cincinnati's WKRC radio, was driving to Carrollton to cover the aftermath of the fiery bus crash the day before that killed 24 children and three adults.

"Suddenly I said to myself this was one time I was not going to let myself put up a shield and just cover it as another story and not let my feelings be involved," he recalled.

"I was literally crying.  I could feel the pain.  I could sense the loss.  It was so hurtful, so sad.

"Then I felt God speak to me, telling me that I've got a new news assignment, to report the good news of Jesus Christ.  I looked over next to me, because it felt as if God was there with me."

In that moment, Anderson changed course.  Later that year, he founded his own one-man evangelical ministry.  This led to his ordination in 1990 and a ministry devoted to church, young people and prisoners.

...Anderson [has served] as youth minister at [several churches in this area], ...and as a counselor in the Youth Service Centers at Newport's high school and middle school.  In addition, he has significant experience in prison ministry, including almost three years as chaplain at the Kentucky State Penitentiary at Eddyville, and he is preparing for his ninth two-week missionary trip to prisons in the Baltic country of Latvia, formerly part of the Soviet Union.

Anderson' life exemplifies the advice he always gives to prisoners, to "experience forgiveness, let God empower you and change your life, let the power of God overwhelm you and transform you."

He recalled on of the most meaningful comments he got from an inmate at Eddyville.

"I had been working with him, and one day he said, 'If I would have met you and known about Jesus Christ years ago, I wouldn't be here.  Now I'm learning to love myself and love others.'"

Anderson spends Tuesdays at the Campbell County Detention Center teaching inmates to earn a General Educational Development certificate.

"He's a motivator," said Campbell County jailer Greg Buckler.  "He pushes people above what they thought they could do. He encourages them. He makes it enjoyable to go to class, and we've had people want to go to his classes who already had their high school diploma.  Some of them are looking at 30 days, and some are looking at 30 years, but Gregg encourages them and says here's what you can do with that time, here's what you can make it mean.

Guided by God
Driving to Carrollton, in 1988, Anderson was struggling with finding meaning in his own life.  He had been fired from a job two years earlier, faced financial problems and had broken up with a longtime girlfriend.

But then came his epiphany on the highway, and later came another convincing occurrence.  As he prepared to do a broadcast from a hotel lobby, a distraught woman entered and went to use the phone.

"I felt God say, 'Lay your hand on her.'  I just felt that's what God wanted me to do."

He put his hand on her shoulder, she was calmed and said to the woman on the other end of the phone line: "There's a reporter next to me, and he's a Christian, and he laid the hand of God on me."

To Anderson, that was another indication of his call to the ministry, which today has blossomed into the "70x7... [Evangelistic] Ministry."

The "70-times-7" refers to the exchange between Jesus and Peter in chapter 18 of the Gospel of Matthew.  The disciple asked how much he should forgive someone who sinned against him, suggesting that it should be seven times; Jesus replied that it should be "seventy times seven."

A new life
All of that has propelled Anderson into a life of ceaseless activity that has taken him to the other side of the world, behind prison bars and into the schools.

Anderson said he has been overwhelmed by the goodwill he experiences in Latvia.  He has developed friendships through shared religious beliefs that transcend different languages and cultures.

"They like for us to come over there because the U.S. has the most expertise in prisons," he said.  "Our prisons look like Holiday Inns compared to theirs."

The Translations make the Latvian prison visits last much longer, but Anderson said he's always impressed by the prisoners' eagerness to hear the Gospel.

"It's just an overwhelming experience," he said.

At home, Anderson said, he maintains a clear separation between his work as an evangelist and his work in the public schools as a counselor.

"It doesn't matter to me if the student is Christian, Muslim, Jewish or whatever.  If somebody's hurting, I'm going to help them and show them compassion."

At Newport High School, during a change of classes last week, Anderson stood in the hallway, calling out to students in a stream of greetings: "See you! ... Be good! ... Be good! ... You'd better hurry! ... How are you?"

"I love working with youth," he said.  "It feels good knowing that you're helping students.  A lot of them are operating in deficits -- mentally, emotionally, physically, financially.  If I have a regret, it's that I can't do more."

Bonnie Stacey, who teaches computer graphics and commercial art at Newport High School, said Anderson has been a valuable asset by helping students with various problems.

"He's a friend" to the students, she said.  "He can relate to students.  Sometimes I'll notice that a student has a serious problem, and I'll tell him he needs to talk to a student, and he always does.  He really helps the teachers as well as the students."

For now, Anderson is content with his ministry and said he has not experienced a new call.

But sometimes he thinks he'd like to be a full-time evangelist.

"I'd love to see a big revival touch this land," he said.  "People need to be Christ-like.  This country has done more to evangelize the world than any other country.  I believe God is going to remember what America has done."

Rev. Gregg Anderson

• Born: Cincinnati

• Age: 46

• Residence: Highland Heights (Campbell County)

• Education: Associate of arts degree, St. Catharine College, Washington County; bachelor of science degree (majored in psychology, communication and religion), Trevecca Nazarene University, Nashville; studied pastoral counseling, Assemblies of God Theological Seminary, Springfield, Mo.

• Career: Worked as newsman/sportscaster for radio stations in Nashville; Cincinnati; Toledo, Ohio; Fort Wayne, Ind.; Columbus, Ohio, 1976-1982; news director and anchor, Storer Cable, Covington, 1983-1986; news and sports reporter, WKRC, Cincinnati, 1986-1988; founder and director, 70x7 Evangelistic ministry, Highland Heights, 1988-present; ordained as an evangelist of the Evangelical Church Alliance, 1990; Chaplain, Kentucky State Penitentiary, Eddyville, 1993-1996; youth pastor, Riverside United Methodist Church, 1996-1999; youth pastor, First Baptist Church, Green Hills, Ohio, 2000-2001; counselor, Newport High School and Newport Middle School Youth Service Centers, 1999-present; has made prison-ministry trips to Latvia, 1993-present.

• Marital status: single

• Favorite saying: "May God's best be yours."

May God's BEST be yours...Gregg