We’re Gene and Heather Muckleroy.

Last year, a professor who’d once told us “no way” burst into a nearly empty classroom mid-semester, unable to contain himself: a student had just asked him to talk about faith.

That’s the kind of moment we get to be part of, semester after semester, on college campuses across South Texas.

We’d love to sit down, hear what’s on your heart, and share more about this work.

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The moment that still gets us

Gene was leading a Bible study with three other professors in an otherwise empty classroom, halfway into the semester, when the door flew open. Juan* — running late because of what had just happened — burst in, unable to contain himself. “You guys aren’t going to believe what just happened!”

About a year earlier, we’d suggested that professors might consider mentioning their faith as part of their first-day introductions. Juan’s answer was immediate: no way. Two semesters later, he did it anyway.

“I just had a student approach me after class and tell me about some major problems going on in his life,” Juan said. “Then he told me, ‘I remember you saying you were a Christian on the first day of class. I think God might be able to help with these problems. Would you be willing to talk to me about that?'”

Juan and the student met together for the rest of the semester, and Juan got to show him what it means to trust God.

This past summer, Juan joined several other professors in a book club — reading and discussing what it looks like to live a life that invites others to Jesus.

*Name changed to protect privacy.

This is one story. It’s not rare. It’s what’s happening quietly, semester after semester, in classrooms, hallways, offices, and coffee shops across South Texas — and it’s why we do this.

Who we are

We decided to leave a great career in oil and gas exploration that we loved, because we sensed God leading us into missions. Gene spent his days in offices, legal archives, coffee shops, and at the kitchen tables of local landowners — paving the way toward the relational and legal permission to explore and extract minerals before a single dollar was spent on heavy machinery. It was the perfect blend of people, research, relationship, and hard fact.

At the time, we had three kids under five, and Heather’s primary hours were spent with them — just as they are today, with three still at home.

We joined staff with Cru as equal partners in the mission, spending our first year raising the support that would make it possible.

Our first assignment was with FamilyLife in Little Rock, AR, in 2011. Then after a short stint in Orlando, FL with our National Campus Office, we came home to Texas to serve on the Destino team (Cru’s ministry to Hispanic students), based in San Antonio, where Gene was the Team Leader, before transitioning to launch Faculty Commons in South Texas in 2025.

We’re both from Texas and graduated from Stephen F. Austin State University, though we didn’t know each other while we were students. How we met is a story for a different day, as is the story of our six kids, from both the delivery room and the courtroom.

We do this because we believe that everyone should have the opportunity to understand the gospel of Jesus Christ in a way that is clear and compelling — and honestly, over 15 years in, we still can’t imagine doing anything else.

Why we call it Base Camp

Our home sits within an hour of San Antonio’s campuses, two hours of both Texas A&M-Corpus Christi and Texas A&M-Kingsville, and within three hours of UT-Rio Grande Valley. It’s not a borrowed metaphor — it’s how we use this place. It’s where we rest, recover, dream, and plan. Every expedition starts and ends here. It’s our Base Camp — and hopefully, it’s where we will one day be able to open the door for others, too.

Why this generation needs it

Today’s college students are living through record rates of depression, loneliness, and spiritual disconnection. Seventy percent of students raised in a Christian home walk away from that faith by graduation.

But they’re not walking away from the questions. They’re still asking:

• Who is God — and does that even matter to me?
• Is it possible to love someone for a lifetime?
• What am I supposed to do with my one life?

And more than any generation in decades, they’re willing to talk about it out loud — if someone’s willing to sit down and listen first.

Why professors matter

It’s not just students. Christian faculty and grad students are looking for a way to be a credible, winsome presence in departments that range from indifferent to openly hostile toward faith. We come alongside them — through Faculty Commons, Cru’s ministry to professors and grad students — with encouragement, connections, and strategy specific to their world.

Last year, we sat across from a professor at Texas A&M-Kingsville who told us he’d never once considered how he might integrate his faith and vocation. That conversation is where a lot of these stories start.

Where the story goes from here

Imagine a hillside in summer, high on a mountain plateau. Campers have come for the beauty of it — the mountains, the clear streams, the pull of the forest. Twilight fades to night, and a few lonely campfires glow, fighting a losing battle against the darkness.

Then something happens.

New fires spring to life. Points of warm light ignite across the hillside, spreading as far as the eye can see. Around each one, a band of friends gather — eager to share a meal, eager for the warmth of real friendship.

Now picture South Texas’s campuses from God’s vantage point. That’s what we’re watching happen, one dorm room and one office hour at a time — new fires catching, one student, one professor, at a time.

“Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation.” — Mark 16:15

Starting here. Going everywhere.

Our mission, starting on South Texas university campuses: win, build, and send multiplying disciples who follow Jesus and build authentic, missional communities — communities that go on to shape families, cities, and eventually the whole world.

“How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent?” — Romans 10:14-15

Let’s talk

We see ourselves as a part of those sent. And when you partner with us, you will share in being sent, too.

If you’d like to hear more of our story — what God’s doing through our work with faculty, staff, and students, and how you might be part of it, prayerfully and financially — we’d genuinely love to sit down together.

Credit: Cru’s Expedition Team Training for the hillside/campfire illustration.

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