Over Easter break, more than 1000 students volunteered and participated in a mission called “Break Away” on the Peoples Church campus, April 6-9. The event was designed to encourage service and worship among Christian students.

The students involved in Break Away arrived at the Peoples’ Church campus at 5 p.m., prepared to serve through their Easter break. The group included youth from as far as Sacramento, as well as from local churches.

FC alumna Kim Bimat, ’06, helped plan the event, sacrificing time in order to make the camp a success.

“We started out planning for 300 people back in November, and then we found out there was going to be 1,000 people attending,” Bimat said. “We only had three weeks to plan; it was a God thing [that we pulled it off].”

Throughout the week, the participants helped out at local elementary schools by painting, cleaning and sharing about their love for God with the students. In addition, the Fresno Fire Department installed smoke detectors at the Sierra Mobil Park, working together with the volunteers to update the safety of the environment.

High school student Cherie Nixon came with her youth group from Sacramento, and says she enjoyed becoming a positive influence on the kids. Nixon’s jobs for the week included participating in arts and crafts with elementary students and sharing about God.

“My favorite part was interacting with the kids and telling them about Jesus,” Nixon said. “It’s good to see their faces brighten up when we play with them. I would love to do it again next year, it’s been a really good experience.”

Jeremy Ramos, ’07, Fresno Christian alumnus, also spent three weeks helping to create Break Away. He says the experience was life-changing for himself as well as the students who participated.

“The highlight has been seeing my students work hard and serve people they have never met before,” Ramos said. “It feels good to know that all the hours we?ve spent investing in them has paid off.”

After serving local communities all day, the students came back to campus and had dinner and worshiped in the FC gym. At night the volunteers slept in massive military tents set up by the Fresno Fire Department on the north field.

“There was a huge thunderstorm which was very scary,” volunteer Sara Cardinale said. “We were doing worship in the gym and we couldn?t go outside for 30 minutes. The bottom of the tents were wet and we had to pack up all of our stuff in garbage bags just in case we had to leave in the middle of the night.”

Tyler Revis, ’10, decided to devote his easter break in order to help out the community with Break Away.

“I chose to do the mission because I thought it would be a good experience,” Revis said. “I haven’t gone on a mission trip since I was in eighth grade and we went to Mexico. I liked Break Away better because we came back at night and we all got to hang out so there was more to do.”

For more articles on Easter break service, read the April 20 article, Inner-city trip surges growth or the April 24 article, Easter break outreach develops service passion.