Spring Break is a time for relaxation, fun and a break from the daily pressures encountered during the school day, but it can also be a time for serving and helping others. Many of the religious organizations on campus have trips planned during Spring Break to serve others. The Catholic Student Association is taking students to Saltillo, Mexico, to distribute food, medicine, clothes and toys for children, and to share with the people of Saltillo. Everyday, the group of students will spend their time on a different ranch or in a different community. To raise money for this trip, the students of the CSA will host a fish fry on March 1.
“This is such a great opportunity to share faith with a different culture-one so rich in spirituality even though they have so little monetarily,” Fran Lavelle, campus minister, said.
The University Christian Student Center has two trips planned for Spring Break: one to Rome, Italy, and another to Glasgow, Scotland. Both trips will help local churches by distributing literature and helping others learn English and doing maintenance.
“This work of service is a great encouragement to those who go and (those who) receive. We take blessings for granted,” director Perry Jinkerson said. “The cultural experience of being the minority gives you a whole new world outlook, culturally as well as spiritually.”
Campus Crusade for Christ is traveling to New York City to work, tour and share. The trip will “take three days for outreach with Campus Crusade’s inner-city ministry located in New York, and two days for touring,” Paul Mayer, Campus Crusade director, said in an e-mail.
While working with the inner-city ministry, the students will distribute food and literature in soup kitchens and homeless shelters. The group’s tour will consist of the Empire State Building, a cruise around lower Manhattan, ice-skating in Central Park and individual tours.
The Baptist Student Union is taking 15 to 20 students to Boston. They will stay at a Haitian church while participating in campus ministry, evangelism, a homeless feeding program and tutoring.
“Our goal is to go, serve and share the love of Christ,” BSU director Michael Ball said.
Reformed University Fellowship is taking their Spring Break mission trip to a low-income, high-crime area in Chattanooga, Tenn. The students will serve by doing construction and working with children in a Bible club. The trip is organized through New City Fellowship Church, where the students will be staying.
“Our trip to Chattanooga is an incarnational ministry because we will be living with and serving them,” RUF intern Dominique Eudaly said.
While most people think of Spring Break as a time for self, many students will be serving others across the world. For these students, helping others is the way to make a beneficial Spring Break.