Students have the opportunity to stay in Hillsdale and serve the local community during spring break, March 13-19. 

Equip Ministries and InterVarsity will partner with Associate Dean of Men Jeffery Rogers for the annual mission trip. 

“We want to make a difference here locally in Hillsdale County,” Rogers said. “We want to reach out to the youth here. There’s a lot of kids here, and we want to love them and let them know that there’s someone who loves them eternally, and they can have a relationship with Christ.” 

Rogers said the goal of the mission trip is to train Hillsdale students for evangelism and then to help them practice. According to Rogers, the trip will focus on the youth, the elderly, students at nearby colleges, and prisoners in the local jail. 

“Faith is so central to the college in its founding,” Rogers said. “It talks about, in the articles of association, that the Christian faith will be expressly taught, and we just want to live that out and not just talk about it, but walk it out.”

Before the students head out into the community, they will receive evangelism training, according to sophomore Anna Kate Mureen, a student leader for the trip.

“The first part will be biblical teaching,” Mureen said. “All the students will be put into different squads. We’ll have team bonding and prayer and fellowship and biblical teaching. And then, throughout the week, we’ll do service projects.”

The students’ home base will be Somerset Beach, a campground and retreat center about 17 miles northeast of campus, which offered to host the students for free, according to Rogers. 

The trip’s leaders are hoping around 40 students will participate, according to senior Jihye Kim, a student leader who has served on the trip since her freshman year. 

“When I started as a freshman, it really changed the trajectory of my four years at Hillsdale,” Kim said. “Initially, it’s very easy to come to college and do what you want. College has an opportunity to be the most selfish time in your life, because it’s all about your classes, your professors, your grades, your future.” 

Kim said the trip helped her realize that her faith should be integrated with her entire life.

“Through the trip, I realized that it’s not like church and ministry life are separate, and then personal life is over here. They’re actually together,” Kim said. “They’re one and the same. And so it really encouraged me to focus on intentional ministry, not just institutionally, but also relationally in every aspect of life.” 

To support the trip, local churches will provide meals for the students, and local pastors will train students, according to Kim. 

Freshman Evan Myers said she appreciates an opportunity to serve the local community and bond with other Hillsdale students.

“As a student who does not have the option to go home over spring break, I was very excited to learn that there was not only an opportunity to stay that was affordable, but also an opportunity that involves serving the Hillsdale community,” Myers said. “And I’m very excited to have more experience sharing my faith.”

Rogers said this year’s trip has a theme hymn, “My Faith Has Found a Resting Place,” and a theme Bible verse, Acts 4:12.

“‘Neither is there salvation in any other name.’ It’s not in Aristotle, it’s not in Socrates, it’s not in Plato,” Rogers said. “‘Neither is there salvation in any other name. For there is no other name under heaven given among men and women whereby we must be saved.’ That’s the message that we are going to tell each other. We’re going to tell it to the world. We’re going to start right here in Hillsdale.”

Students can sign up through a link in the Student Activities Office newsletter or by visiting SBMT.info. 

“We know God’s hand is in this work, and we’ve been bathing it with prayer,” Rogers said. “For those of you who are maybe on the fence, we ask that you continue to pray. But then get off your knees and then do something. We want to challenge you. We want to go out and tell people about Christ.”