After five years of great changes, Campus Outreach (CO) in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, revived the Summer Beach Project. In December, students and staff packed onto a bus and drove for ten hours to spend five days together. Two of the student leaders sat on the bus, nearly unrecognizable from the freshmen Campus Outreach staff member, Vitor, had met just two years prior.
Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais (UFMG) is a large university and CO staff have chosen areas of focus.
Vitor was focusing on the Physical Education building, where he met Steve and Gabriel. As their friendship grew and trust was built, these young men, who had no interest in spiritual things, began to soften. They enjoyed the Campus Outreach community and eventually listened to Vitor share about Christianity, but it wasn’t until the Cross-Cultural Project arrived that things really changed. The genuine love and care of strangers who claimed to follow Jesus were stunning.
After the students left, both Steve and Gabriel joined Vitor in reading More Than A Carpenter, by Josh McDowell. Then they began reading the Bible together; John 6 was another watershed moment. They read verse 29, “Jesus told them, ‘This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent’.” Both men were struck by the truth that God didn’t have a list of works for their salvation; He asked them to believe in Jesus. This September, both men were baptized, joined the church, and took communion with their new church family.
God changed Steve’s and Gabriel’s lives.
There were great changes in their lives, and now they were sitting on a bus headed to a beach project, where most of the students attending were non-believers. The project was evangelistic in scope; Steve and Gabriel would lead discussion groups and small group Bible studies. Vitor had taken time to cast a vision for their involvement: Engage! Relate! Build relationships with intention! In summary, he was teaching them 2 Timothy 2:2, “the things you have seen me do, do also.” And they did.
When asked what was most special about the summer project, Vitor could barely answer through his smile. “It was so special to see Steve sharing his testimony with another student. He recognized some of Luiz’s questions as ones he himself had recently asked. Consequently, he wanted to share how God had answered them and changed him. As the project ended, Gabriel wanted to ask one of the guys to meet and read the Bible when he returned to campus. He asked for my thoughts. I told him that the worst thing that could happen is that he says no. Well, he did not say no! Actually, he reached out to make sure they are still planning to read together.”
Vitor became a Christian through Campus Outreach’s ministry in 2018. Since then, no other men have come to faith until Steve and Gabriel. There is such joy to see that God is already using them for His kingdom’s sake. Vitor continues to grin and say, “The beach project was an investment in their development, and now we will go to campus and trust God for true multiplication to take place.”
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