Hillsdale College students stayed in Hillsdale and served the local community over  spring break.

From March 7-13, InterVarsity and Equip Ministries partnered with Associate Dean of Men Jeffery Rogers to lead a missions trip in Hillsdale.

Senior Zach Adams said the students served at many different places, including Crossroads Farms, Hillsdale County Medical Care Facility, Drew’s Place, Camp Hope, and Share the Warmth, and the Hillsdale County Jail.

“There were two main goals,” junior Stephen Zhu said. “One of them was to serve the community and share God’s love and the Gospel with them.”

According to Zhu, the group’s goal for the mission of living out the gospel in the community is closely tied to students’ spiritual growth.

“The other goal is to grow the students going on the trip in their faith,” Zhu said.

Junior Jihye Kim said the trip provided students with the opportunity to exercise their beliefs outside of their comfort zone. 

“We want people to take this time to die to themselves and come on this trip and go out and love the people in their backyard,” Kim said. “Because Hillsdale County is one of the poorest counties in Michigan, and there are extremely high rates of drug abuse, alcoholism, incest, abuse, and all kinds of other bad things.”

Kim said all of these problems presented many opportunities for students to share the love of Christ.

“Instead of looking down on those people and kind of just being sequestered away on Hillsdale’s campus, we want Hillsdale to go out and think, ‘No, God condescended to be incarnated amongst men,’” Kim said. “He decided to make himself lowly to be among sinners.”

Kim said the group’s purpose in sharing the gospel was to help people find freedom of salvation in Jesus.

“We wanted people to really realize the power of the gospel, and that is the hope that we have, that our lives are hidden in Christ, that he died for us, he cleansed us, he saved us, and he is conforming us to his image,” Kim said. 

According to Adams, this outreach was primarily initiated by students.

“The adult leaders drove vans around for us and counseled us, but for the most part it was the students who took initiative in coordinating things and discerning how to best love the people we came across,” Adams said.

According to Kim, the adult leaders were part of four outreach groups that served in different places. 

“We split up into four squads, and each squad had one adult leader and two student leaders — one male, one female — and then we would all pair up and go out,” Kim said. 

According to Adams, forming relationships with people was a big part of what these outreach groups did.

“We went to Camp Hope several times throughout the week,” Adams said. “On Wednesday night we went to have a bonfire there, and some of us played basketball with two of the guys who live there. One said that they didn’t have anyone to play with anymore, and it was special seeing how much fun he had with us. As a group, we’re going to try to continue the relationships we formed there.”

According to Kim, the relationships formed were not the only thing they took away from the trip.

“We did a survey at the end of the trip, and pretty much everyone said they strongly agreed that the trip helped them grow in their faith a lot,” Kim said. 

All three students encouraged more students to come in the future.

“We want all students to come on this trip,” Kim said. “I would challenge people not to be afraid, not to be intimidated, but instead to seek to love God.”