Paul & Justin's Story

When I was in college at Texas A&M, I attended Breakaway for four years, and it literally changed my life.  Breakaway is a nondenominational, weekly Bible study on Texas A&M's campus.  It started in the '80s with just a few students in an apartment, and now it is held in Reed Arena (Texas A&M's basketball stadium!) where as many as 8,000 students gather every Tuesday to "break away" from college life to worship and meet with the Lord.  Breakaway has incubated a few worship stars - Chris Tomlin himself used to lead worship, and my freshman year we sang along with Shane & Shane.  Crazy!  The founding director of Breakaway, Gregg Matte, is such a faithful man of God who had a clear vision for just what God could do on A&M's campus. 

Breakaway has a huge team of volunteers that work through the campus and community on different projects.  As a student, I worked in the Breakaway office and volunteered on several teams.  Breakaway is one of the biggest things I miss about college, and I try to live vicariously through the newsletters and email updates I still get about the ministry.  Whenever I'm in College Station on a Tuesday night for recruiting or some other random reason, I always to to Breakaway, and I'm always overwhelmed with gratitude and excitement and praise for God's glory and the way he has moved so mightily on that campus to the degree that you can FEEL his presence when you arrive there. 

I finally live in a college town again, and I'm so excited to be here in a place where I have the opportunity to interact with college students and feel a bit of that old spark.  Last week, I got an email update about Breakaway, and it contained a link to this video:  Paul & Justin's Story.  I don't know if I was especially missing College Station or just needing some encouragement about how the Lord uses small acts for big purposes, but this video spoke directly to my heart.  I felt inspired and so grateful for the Lord's faithfulness in answering us when we desire to be used for his glory.  It's not a sad video, don't worry!  I was smiling and had tears rolling down my face at the same time.  But that's typical of me.

If you have 3 minutes and 54 seconds to spare, it's worth a watch.  It will do you good.  ...and if you're an Aggie and have a sudden urge to hop in the car and drive as fast as you can to Texas A&M, well - you can't blame me!!