While many college students headed for the beaches of Florida or Cancun during this year’s spring break, several Miami Hamilton and Middletown students opted to travel to Pass Christian, Mississippi with the Campus Crusade for Christ organization.

Cody Buriff, president of the Miami Hamilton chapter, shares his thoughts about this life-altering trip. “Taking 19 students to Pass Christian was an amazing experience,” says Buriff. “God really used us in the lives of people down there as well as within the group. He really changed our lives. I still remember the stories of individuals as they talked about surviving Hurricane Katrina. I feel like we really represented Jesus as well as Miami University while in Pass Christian.”

Campus Crusade for Christ members in Pass Christain, Mississippi, encountered first-hand the
enormous damage caused by 2005's Hurricane Katrina.

Besides helping the victims of Hurricane Katrina, Buriff feels he’s grown as a person as well. “Personally, the trip proved to be a stretching and growing experience. I had never led a mission trip before. I’m a sophomore and leading a group of students, many who were older upperclassmen, meant some tense situations and some crazy leadership growth. Looking back, I wouldn’t trade it for the beaches of Florida. That trip was a life giving, character building, people loving experience.”

While membership in Miami’s chapter of Campus Crusade for Christ tends to vary, Buriff says this year is a little different. “The (membership) number is constantly changing because we lose members as they graduate or re-locate to Oxford. This year we started out with three and now there are around 12-15 participants. It seems that we have someone new every week—this year is different that way,” he says.

The members of Campus Crusade are very active in the community and around the country. “We do a lot with Campus Crusade for Christ International,” Buriff explains. “There is a fall retreat every year, a Christmas Conference in Indianapolis, which is a rewarding, life changing event, and a spring break (mission) trip every year. We also have sent students around the United States as well as other countries in concert with the Summer Project opportunities offered by Campus Crusade. On campus, we have at least one Bible study and are in the process of starting another. Our goal is to offer students an opportunity for the truth and real life that is only available in knowing and having a relationship with Jesus Christ.”

Buriff became a member of Campus Crusade his first day at Miami Hamilton. “The first day of class I ran across a guy who mentioned something about a religious organization that he belonged to. I tracked him down after class and was involved and helping out within 15 minutes,” he recalls.

Buriff also met his fiancée, Allison, through Campus Crusade for Christ where she was working an information table. The couple will be wed in May of 2007. In the meantime, both continue to be very active in Campus Crusade and are already gearing up for the spring semester.

However, you don’t have to wait until spring to become involved. “We’d like to invite everyone to see Andre Kole, a world-renown illusionist with an interesting spiritual message. He will be at Millet Hall in Oxford on Thursday, November 16 at 8pm. Tickets are only $5 for students. It should be an awesome show!”

For more information about Campus Crusade for Christ, contact Cody Buriff at codeman61185@aol.com.

Campus Crusade for Christ is an international, interdenominational organization for taking the message of who Jesus Christ is, and what that means to you and me, around the world. Our love is Christ; our methods are prayer, discipleship and evangelism. Our hope is to find lost students and offer them an opportunity to enter into a relationship with Jesus Christ. It is a pattern for life, for fulfilling the Great Commission (Matthew 28).