On a brisk November Sabbath, students at Broadview Academy embarked on an adventure in outreach. It was also the beginning of the “Steps to Christ” spiritual emphasis week with four off-campus volunteers. Little did the faculty and students know what God had in store.

Much to the surprise of Fred Warfield, Broadview Church pastor, 20–25 students clamored aboard the buses and headed out to the nearby community. Their mission for the day was to distribute paper bags to the people in the community, leaving each bag for one week to be filled with food items for the needy. The students were divided into four teams with each team covering a designated area. Not knowing what kind of response they would be met with, some students were a little hesitant at first, but in spite of the cold, students were soon warmed by the kindness of the people they approached. Donna Coon, a junior at Broadview, said, “This is a great way to minister—to just get out there on the front lines and not worry about how people will respond. God can work through any situation … this really has gotten me excited to do more things for Christ.”

The following Sabbath, another group of students and faculty returned to pick up the paper sacks full of food. Once again the pastor was amazed when even more students showed up than the week before. He had hoped to pass out Steps to Christ to the people as the sacks were picked up, but realized he didn’t have any. The Lord had already solved the problem. An ample supply of the needed books was left over from the “Steps to Christ” presentation at the academy the previous week.

As the students returned to campus, they sang songs and shared their experiences of how they prayed with the people and gave them Steps to Christ in appreciation for their donations. There was not one negative experience. “This is just the boost needed to encourage the students to be more involved in outreach,” said the pastor. “Outreach is definitely one way I know of to keep my spiritual life alive—sharing Christ with others. This has given us all an appetite to do more for the Lord.”

We received nearly 30 bags of food to be delivered to the Northern Illinois Food Bank. We were able to bless those less fortunate and shared with our own community that Broadview Academy is here to serve our fellowman and to be a reflection of Jesus' love to this dark world. We look forward to future opportunities to serve the Lord in any way we can as we "Touch Everyone 1 for Jesus."

Mary Beth Morrow is the marketing and recruiting coordinator at Broadview Academy.