The Koinonia Spring Break missions trips are full of new experiences, fun times, and service. I have gone on this trip for four years and each year is a new adventure with new and old friends. My first year I was going, like it or not, no matter what. Once on the trip, and every trip afterwards, I slowly came out of my shell and interacted more with the others with the confidence to be myself around them. Every time I come home from these trips I feel closer to the people around me, but more importantly, I feel closer to God and Christ. I believe these trips change lives, and my own life is no exception.


Written by Stacia Freis a Senior studying Industrial Engineering who has been on Spring Break trips with Koinonia four times as of this year.   

Every day we’re given two choices: walk in the Spirit or, walk in our flesh. If we choose to walk in our flesh, we deny Christ. If we choose to walk in the Spirit we walk by faith. The difference between walking in the Spirit and the flesh is summed up into two things, why we do things and what are we doing. Walking in the flesh is to walk alongside the world in doing what it does, saying the things it says, and living the way it lives. Walking in the Spirit requires us to deny our flesh daily and take up our crosses daily. The test is simply this, do we love God or do we love this world? If we love God, our actions will result from the word that has been planted into us and it will result in us loving our neighbor as ourselves. If we love the world, we will have no regard for our neighbor and we will live for whatever displeases God. This week we talked about putting our faith into action through what we do, what we say, and what we pray. This will speak volumes to the unbelieving and the weaker brethren among us.

Written by Brandon Guerin a second year Freshman majoring in Information Technology. This is Brandon's first time on Spring Break with Koinonia.

This camp is awesome; we have a lake with paddleboats, kayaks, and canoes. We have a different activity every day, always different and also when we have free time we are allowed to use the equipment on the lake at any time day or night, just make sure we play it safe and let people know where we are. You may have to work a bit to better the camp so it can look good in the summer for the kids, so they can work to further the kingdom of God.

This being my first year, I have had very little experience with some activities here; today’s activity that I had never heard of was human foosball. Human foosball is a game where you are in a cage, with several poles sticking through, these poles have PC pipes on them with rope on them, and it is exactly set up like regular foosball. It is played exactly like foosball with a soccer ball (with the PC pipe loose enough to move).

This game was awesome and violent, several people taking hits to the face (due to the closeness of the poles), almost breaking their glasses. I was goalie and not in the middle where all this was taking place, but I decided to take mine off as a precaution. It was awesome! 


Written by Ashley Cochran, a Senior seeking her degree in Health Science EMS. This is Ashley's first time on Spring Break with Koinonia.

Today may have been one of my favorite days so far.  After having breakfast and lunch and working for a few hours (not necessarily in that order), we all rushed to get out the door so we could head out.  First, after a brief stop at the visitor’s center in St. Augustine, we wandered around the shopping center for about an hour.  I liked it because it reminded me of Branson Landing—shops open to the street and set up in a street format—and the streets and some of the buildings were part of the original town in the 16th century.  I’m a bit of a history nerd, so it intrigued me when I found that out.  I bought some stuff for my family and friends, as well as snacks and a souvenir penny for myself.

After we left St. Augustine, we went to the beach at Anastasia State Park.  This was my favorite part of the day, maybe even my favorite part of the trip, because I love the beach and it kind of made me feel like a kid again.  The water was really cold, and I felt like I was going to freeze when I went in the first time, but I got used to it after a while.  The waves were huge, and I enjoyed jumping in them even though I got soaking wet and lost my hat several times.  When I wasn’t in the water, I built a sand man (kind of like a snowman) and helped some of the guys and girls with a wall with a trench around it they were making.

Next, we had supper at Bono’s, which is a barbecue place.  They made garlic bread, chicken, ribs, macaroni and cheese, fries, green beans, and corn on the cob for us, and it was all delicious.  After that, we came back to the camp.  Just from what I’ve seen so far, I know I want to come next year, not just because of what I did today, but because of the fun and fellowship I’ve had so far.  I know it will only get better from here.

Written by Cary Crocker a Junior seeking her degree in English with a  Professional/Technical Writing emphasis. This is Cary's first time to come on Spring Break with us.

The Koinonia Spring Break Trip is the bomb diggity. Seriously, it’s the bomb.com. Don’t go to that website; I don’t think it’s real...

Anyway, the Spring Break Trip is Bomb Sauce. I’m honestly very elated being here. The activities the interactions with those who came and the experiences that I’ve already made have made it an amazing three days. That’s right I said three days. It’s only Monday people. I believe as the week progresses not only will we grow as a group, but we will become stronger in Christ. I believe that God called me to this trip for a reason and that reason is not for myself it’s not even for the people I am with, it’s really for His glory, His kindness, His love and grace. We’ve been doing service projects and from what we’ve done I already feel a spirit of service coming upon me. Not only has God called me, He’s called me out, He’s convicted me, and He’s challenged me, not to be better but to be like Him. It’s amazing that I feel this way and it’s only been three days. I’m very excited to see what God has planned, not just for Koinonia but for my life as I begin to truly live it for Him.


Written by Synistr Carter a Freshman pursuing a degree in Music Industry

One thing I have learned about Kenan Klein, the associate minister here at Koinonia, is that he loves to come up with new and creative activities! All of us here on the Florida trip had a very relaxing, stress free Sunday, until Kenan had a crazy idea. He wanted to play a human version of Hungry Hungry Hippos! It’s just as crazy as it sounds. In the original kids game, everyone has control of a plastic hippo and must stretch out the hippo's neck to grab little 
balls in the middle of the game. This is exactly what we did with the big size human version, here is an account of everything that was involved: 4 moving rolling carts with ropes tied to them, 4 baskets, a couple hundred plastic balls, and 4 players on each team! We all took turns climbing stomach first on the carts and being rolled back forth to the middle grabbing as many balls as we could with our baskets. In the end there was a winning team, but all that mattered was we all had fun and had a great bonding experience! This is one of many happy students on this amazing Spring Break Trip signing off, and I hope you have a wonderful evening! 

Written by Gabe, a Super Senior studying for his degree in Occupational Therapy. This is Gabe's second year on Spring Break with Koinonia.
 

Late nights playing games with friends and early mornings alone.  After spending half the night playing card games, pool, and other games with friends I made it to bed a little earlier than some of the others...1 A.M.  The first night in a group dormitory is the adaptation night.  Everyone has to get used to the new noises.  They will quickly get accustomed to the change.

          The best part for me was waking up for our first full day.  Watching the sun rise in Florida is beautiful.  I took a pause in my morning workout just to enjoy it.  Then going for a nice quick row across the lake and back ended a good time exercising.  Still a little early for everyone else, I had the entire Florida morning to myself for some devotion time in the light, cool breeze.  You can really learn to appreciate God’s creation when the fish, birds, animals, and breeze keep getting your attention.  Even the bees were out working on the flowers that smelled too awesome to ignore.  Over all you might just learn to relax and even breathe better. 

          Once everyone else got up we had a great sermon from Kenan.  Maybe it was a great message or it was just quick, but I surely enjoyed both aspects.  I am looking forward to many more days of everything above and adding some help to get this place prepared for others to come enjoy it over the next couple seasons.  The more the merrier, so come join Koinonia for future trips to this beautiful and God filled place.