Three student-organized and led teams made Spring Break memorable. The groups raised over $25,000 to meet expenses so they could serve in three different regions of the world during their time away from classes, March 20-27.

For several months student leaders have been busy preparing for a group of 85 students to serve on missions trips to Mexico, L.A., and Italy. The list of "to-do's" was long and included training, praying and planning, arranging transportation, buying supplies. Additionally, students prepared Bible lessons, skits, and mime presentations for a street ministry.

The newest mission venue for WB was Udine, in northeastern Italy where six students served March 19-29. After meeting with mission representatives from Saints Equipped to Evangelize (SEE) the students became more aware of the need for outreach. Lucas Knapp says God obviously brought this group of students together for this purpose.

"There's lots of spiritual warfare there as the Catholic church reigns," Lucas said after returning. "Our reception each day was not all that good as Italians would watch, laugh, leave or just walk through our street mime and tract outreach areas. It's an area with hardened hearts towards Christians which is discouraging, yet our hosts said we planted many seeds that will bear fruit later."

Traveling to Venice was a pleasant side-trip. Luke said Italians in general were kind and many were bilingual. The overall trip was a catalyst to bring this group even closer together.

"We prayed together everyday as we knew it'd be a tough day, but we were doing God's work," Lucas added. "We just didn't fully realize how much the Catholic influence dominated that society. We learned alot from this trip."

Two other WB teams headed south on March 19.

"We sent 61 students to Mexico in vans to help build small dwellings and provide a children's ministry," said Doug West, Student Missions Advisor. "Another 19 were n L.A. witnessing and ministering to street people and the homeless. They also put on a soccer clinic and hosted an open gym for young people."

Paul Meyers returned for his fourth Spring Break in Mexico. He said WB missions teams have been very visible in recent months with fund raisers and basic organization. The Mexico team was more organized than past years and Paul credits Doug West for his guidance and leadership.

"He's Mr. Missions around here," Paul smiled. "Doug's has kept on track. We've got about one-third of the Mexico team returning from the past two years and that says something about our students willingness to travel some distance to serve."

One result of last year's L.A. Mission trip is the growth of a new and growing local student ministry. Doug calls it one of the most successful outreach ministries students provide and said the students are very committed to being on the streets each week.

"Every Friday night we have a group of 15-20 students go downtown near the bus stop to hang out and reach out to homeless young people and street kids. They're developing long term relationships and are having an amazing impact down there."