Reply to comment

Panama City Beach, Fla. is one of the most popular spring break destinations in the country. Spring break parties sponsored by MTV, countless nightclubs and a world-class beach scene make Panama City Beach a haven for many spring breakers, but such a scene may not seem like the perfect environment for a bunch of Christian college students to travel to. Or is it? Campus Crusade for Christ thought it was, and the nearly 1,000 students that took part in Crusade's Big Break 2009, including 21 students from Michigan Tech, received a rewarding experience.

"God taught me a lot at Big Break.  I got a lot of practice with evangelism to strangers, and it has made me a lot more comfortable with sharing my faith in general," said Mike Mesenbring. "I know that God used me in powerful ways to reach dozens of people, bringing them each a little bit closer to Him.  I even got to lead one person to Christ while I was there.  It was really exciting and encouraging."

Evangelism was the primary focus of the trip, but morning and evening speaker sessions geared the students up for some of the trials they would face and taught them how to overcome them, grow in their faith, and feel comfortable about approaching others about their faith. Many people were brought to Christ through the witness of Crusade.

Erika Johnson said, "We spent the afternoons talking with spring breakers and other beach goers. We had opportunities to interact with club-goers in the evenings.  It was a great opportunity to have some really deep conversations (People were really friendly and open on the beach and outside of clubs.) and show them some love."

Many students returned with amazing testimonies about how God works by closing some doors and opening others. Robbie Beehler's experience is a great example: "One night on 'Commando Cru' I was walking along the strip on the beach side of the road with two others from our group. The side of the street that we were on was very deserted, but there was a Wendy's on the other side of the road with several people. We went to a cross walk that was under a stop light and we pushed the button to change the light.  We sat there for about five minutes and nothing happened, so we pushed it five more times.  Eventually, we decided it was broken and kept walking down the beach side of the road.  Then in a little while we met a guy named Ian, who had just come from a club and was fed up with the club scene.  He was headed back to his hotel which was a mile or so away.  We walked with him and shared the gospel with him, and he trusted Christ as his Savior.  If God had not prevented us from going our own way and crossing the road we would never have had that opportunity to see Ian come to Christ.  It was an amazing testimony of how God directs our paths to fulfill His will."

Students returning from the week-long mission trip were highly encouraged to bring the lessons learned back to Michigan Tech. "I'm really excited to be a communicator of God's word and truth and to apply boldness to spiritual conversations," said Melissa Willet.

Many students said that Crusade's Big Break 2009 was the best week of their life because of the warm weather, the opportunities to fellowship with other Christians and, most importantly, the many people that came to know Christ as their personal Savior.

Photo courtesy of campusphoto.net