Students Dish Out Soup in Brooklyn
Students who took part in spring break trip to Brooklyn
An eclectic group of first-year, upper-class, and graduate students at Grand Valley State University (GVSU) in West Michigan spent their recent spring break in Brooklyn, New York.
As part of an effort spearheaded the Christian Reformed Home Missions-sponsored campus ministry at GVSU, students spent mornings serving at soup kitchens, painting, and coordinating a giant rummage sale.
Home Missions supports several campus ministry programs at public and private colleges and universities all over North America.
In the afternoons, GVSU students in Brooklyn explored the sights of Manhattan and finished the day with devotions and fellowship.
The students who volunteered in Brooklyn were among 216 who blanketed North and Central America in 15 different locations to serve others this spring break.
Since these trips began 20 years ago, they have expanded from a single location in Sarasota, Florida, to now include Costa Rica, Puerto Rico, Brooklyn, Miami, Atlanta, and many more.
“Spring break frequently catalyzes the impulse in students to be leaders in God’s church and the kingdom,” says Scott Stark, who heads the campus ministry at GVSU.
Stark says these trips have served as a way to help students express or to discover “their sense and calling in life.”
They also help reorient students who have been drifting and don’t know where they belong.
Not all students who attend these trips are Christians, but this experience often serves as an entryway into the faith, he says.
Besides working in Brooklyn, some students worked at another location with Habitat for Humanity to build homes for low-income families.
Others volunteered with children’s ministries, cleaned up neighborhoods, distributed clothing, erected buildings for Christian schools, or helped with basic education needs for native tribes.
Stacey Miller, who served as the student leader for the Brooklyn trip, says one of her favorite parts was witnessing the strength of relationships that were built.
“As a team, we have been home for three days now, and we are still in constant communication through group texting, Facebook messaging, and intentionally meeting up on campus. It blows my mind that two weeks ago we were all complete strangers, yet now we don't want to stop talking to each other.”
