Josiah Road

Spring Break Used For Ministry

posted by staff 17Apr

Though spring break is a much-anticipated event for students to escape from the stresses of class and responsibility, hundreds of Alabama students chose to use it as an opportunity to live out Acts 1:8: to be Christ’s witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and to the end of the earth. 



Some students served in Birmingham through a partnership with Birmingham Baptist Association (BBA) and the North American Mission Board’s World Changers to renovate eight houses in the Dolomite and Wylam areas March 17–20. 

Student groups from Oklahoma, Tennessee and Texas also joined in the efforts. 

“It is an opportunity for [students] to get into a new environment and give a little back to a community that is less fortunate than where they are,” said Butch Henderson, BBA associate executive director for church development, who noted the importance of students using their spring break to serve both domestically and abroad.

“It’s following the Great Commission but also helping them develop a lifelong lifestyle of service and being on mission,” Henderson added. “If they develop that as young teens, then they’re more likely to continue that on into adulthood.”



Serving in Birmingham with his student ministries group, Andrew Wash said he was glad to be able to “dedicate my spring break to God.”

“I just figure this is a lot more important than going to the beach or doing whatever. It’s more important to help out other people and love others more than yourself.”

Quoting Matthew 5:1, Wash added, “That’s the reason why I do this … so that we can show ourselves to be the people we say we are and show ourselves to be Christ followers.”



Editor’s Note — This story first appeared in the March 26 2009 issue of The Alabama Baptist (www.thealabamabaptist.com).

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