Most people who’ve been impacted by a Campus Outreach conference will never know his name. Mike Meisenheimer serves as Resource Director for the East Coast Network. His job is to coach and train resource staff throughout the East Coast and lead network-wide event planning. In January, Mike’s role expanded, and he oversaw 60 resource staff from across the nation in planning the Campus Outreach National Conference (NatCon) in Chattanooga.
Just last week, Mike got an email from his uncle in Owensboro, Kentucky. He had gone to church that morning and seen a girl baptized. As she shared her testimony, she mentioned that she came to Christ at the National Conference. He wrote to Mike, “I saw a young woman baptized at my church this morning. To make a long story short, she said she attended the CO NatCon and accepted Christ there … Thought you would like to know!”
The Student Who Shouldn’t Have Been There
The student’s name is Gracie Klinock. For all intents and purposes, she should not have been at the National Conference in January. Gracie was a student at Southern Indiana University. She went with her parents to tour Western Kentucky University on the day Campus Outreach was holding its meeting. Her stepmom encouraged Gracie to attend; she had been involved in the ministry as a student long ago. During the gathering, Campus Outreach leaders announced the National Conference, and once again, her stepmom urged her to go.
She registered and planned to go with the Western Kentucky students. The National Conference overwhelmed her, especially seeing so many students who gave up their winter break to be there. In one of the talks, she heard a staff member say, “Jesus is either Lord of all or not Lord at all.” This truth penetrated Gracie’s heart, and her response was, “I have to surrender this all to the Lord.”
A New Direction
Gracie had planned to attend Western Kentucky in the fall of 2026. She quickly changed her plans and transferred right after the National Conference. This semester, she attended the bi-weekly Campus Outreach meetings and learned as much as she could. Now she is in Myrtle Beach attending the Summer Project. She hopes to learn skills that will help her read and study her Bible more effectively. She wants a relationship with the Lord to grow, and she’s excited about enjoying fellowship with other believers.
Making Room for Life Change
What does this have to do with Mike Meisenheimer? Every conference needs a plan, and every plan needs someone like Mike: someone who understands that faithfulness in the unseen details is its own form of ministry. The front lines of the gospel aren’t only found at the podium. Sometimes, they’re found at a desk, in a spreadsheet, in a carefully coordinated schedule that makes room for lives, like Gracie’s, to be eternally changed.
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