March 8, 2011
For Immediate Release

By Christina Miller, office assistant

CAMPBELLSVILLE, Ky.— Campbellsville University students will be spending their spring break in Panama City, Fla., Costa Rica, Dearborn, Mich., and Central Florida prisons serving others through mission trips.
Spring break for Campbellsville University is March 14 through March 18.

In Panama City, Fla., students from across the country will meet to minister to the 100,000 spring breakers with a program called Beach Reach.

Anna Stepp, a freshman from Grayson, Ky. going on the trip, said, “We'll be having pancake breakfasts every morning and at night give rides to people who aren't safe to drive. I'm really excited about Beach Reach because it's all about sharing my faith in real situations. We'll be talking to college students just like us, which will hopefully make us bolder about sharing our faith here in Campbellsville.”

A group of seven people will travel to Costa Rica, the last mission trip in the ongoing partnership before missionaries Bill and Linda Egbert, both Campbellsville alumni, are transferred to the country of Colombia.

Ed Pavy, director of campus ministries at CU has travelled to Costa Rica several times for mission trips and is going again for this final trip in the partnership. He said the team will teach in local schools, visit homes in the villages and lead worship services.

“Teaching in the schools is like English as a Second Language but we use Bible stories to teach them English,” Pavy said.

On the trip to Dearborn, Mich., students will be ministering to the largest Muslim community in the United States.

Two groups of student athletes, one from the football team and another from basketball, will travel to Central Florida to minister in the prisons through Sports Reach.

The football team will play softball with men in prison; Jim Hardy, assistant football coach, is leading the group. The basketball group will be playing basketball with the prison inmates; this trip is led by Brandon Lakes, a senior from Louisville, Ky. who plays on the junior varsity basketball team at CU. Lakes went on the same trip over Christmas break and his experience led him to get another trip together.

Hardy said the trip gives young men a chance “to reach out and care about individuals that in many cases society has forgotten or wants nothing to do with. Most importantly, it gives us all a chance to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ with many who are lost and without hope.”

Campbellsville University is a widely acclaimed Kentucky-based Christian university with over 3,000 students offering 63 undergraduate programs, 17 master's degrees and five postgraduate areas. The website for complete information is campbellsville.edu.