So you think you can dance? Anaheim California

So you think you can dance? Calvary Chapel of Anaheim put on its first dance competition outing. The venue was set up real nice. It took place at Cal State Fullerton College and the dancing was great! From Hula dancing to Breakdancing, the diversity was fantastic. About 200 seats were filled and about 50 people stood in the back to watch, it was packed. There were judges,MC's, and there was also a live video feed of the dancing up on a big projection screen. The whole set up was done real well. As far as the bboyn goes, Tim (Veritaz), Landon (L), Josh (Beebop), Mike (Bishop) were particiapting for the purpose of having fun and sharing the gospel. Bishop's friends, who bboy, came and the battle was fierce! Bishop threw down his freeze's, Veritaz cleaned the floor with his smooth style, L came hard, while beebop got the crowd going. Of couse, the crowd favorite was Bishop, he had home court advantage. Most importantly, Mike was able to share the Truth of the Gospel with everyone. He spoke on the passage of scripture with blind Bartemaeus and how he wanted to be healed of his blindness. He correlated that to spiritual blindness and that those who dont know Christ personally are spiritually blind and lost. Jesus is the cure to man's disease (sin). The room was silent as the gospel was preached and seeds were planted! Good witnessing conversations came about with some of Mike's bboy friends who came to help dance. God moved mightily and the night was very memorable. Hopefully the next "So you think you can dance?" competition will be held in Phoenix in the near future.

REDEEMED SINNER

I grew up going to church, my mom was a Christian and as time went onmy siblings became Christians too. I believed in God and believedbecoming a Christian was the right thing to do, but I first wanted tohave my 'fun', sin for a season. So I did my own thing, the whole partyscene. I stole for fun, to make money, for pleasure. I was prettypopular in school being one of the better skateboarders, I wasrespected by the guys, I was confident in attracting the girls so I hadmy share of girlfriends too. I hated my life, I often wrote "lifesucks" as I day dreamed in class. I ditched a lot and barely graduated highschool. The only reason I did graduate was because of my new life in Christ. At the age of 15 one of my friends died, totally healthykid, completely out of the blue he died from a brain aneurism. That puta whole lot of fear into me, I thought if he could die at such a young age so could I. So I decided I needed to get my life right with God, Idont want to go to Hell, I knew that my sins seperated me from God andthat my sins would be paid by death. When I heard the news of my friendpassing away I was at a beach with a friend at a bon fire, where wewere about to drink alcohol he managed to get his hands onto. We bothwere convicted about our eternal destinations and both wanted to getright with God, so we started by throwing the alcohol away. I figuredas soon as I stop all my sin God will accept me and I'll be saved, so Ibegan to try and stop sinning....I tried very very hard. I couldntstop, I was addicted, the sin that really had a hold of me was lust. Itwas the one thing keeping me from perfection, so I thought. I tried andtried, I couldnt stop, sin had its chains of bondage around me. I began listening to sermons at church, reading my bible, and attendingChristian retreats. After probably a couple of years I finally began tounderstand that, its not about me saving myself and then going toChrist, it was about me going to Christ and Him saving me. I wanted tobe healed before I visited the doctor, I had it all wrong, I needed togo to the Doctor so that I can be healed. I finally understood it wasby grace alone that I am saved, not of works lest any man should boast.Up untill that point I was living a lukewarm life, I had enough of sin,and I wanted my WHOLE life in His hands, I gave my life up to Him,recognizing that Im saved by His finish work at the cross. Now I livein devotion to Him, seeking His will in my life daily, do I struggle?Oh yes I do, that's why I need to be continually seeking Him for graceand strength. Do I have a new heart? Praise the Lord Jesus Christ, yesI do, I hate sin and I desire to do whats right only because of thework He's done in me. I thank God for saving me from my foolish life ofdestruction, and for blessing me with treasures in Heaven. We have aGod of second chances and I thank Him for it. We will all see God oneday, either as a Savior and friend or as a Just Judge. You choose.



Landon aka L

Open Air Breakdancing with Ray Comfort, Hungtington Beach

I, Josh, have been planning this event for months. God gave me an idea to do this over a year ago, in which I thought about getting a group together to breakdance to draw a crowd while Ray Comfort open air preaches to them. Ray Comfort, for those of you who dont know, is part of Way of the Master TV show with Kirk Cameron, which is based entirely on helping equip believeres to share the Gospel. Ray has been a tremendous influence in my life and has really helped me to be more on fire for evangelism.Also, God provided two other bboys, Mike and Sam, who have a passion for the lost and who love to breakdance. So on Saturday, Oct. 2o all of us met up at huntington Beach pier to evangelize and it was AWESOME! The breakdance crew consisted Peter (swift child), Josh (beebop), Tim (Veritaz), Landon (L), Mike and Sam. We bboyed for about 4 hours total. Thank God the idea worked, we drew about 40 + people and then Ray and his crew, preached the Word! Ray and his team speak with strong conviction because of their love for lost sinners. I was able to witness to a bboy and I got in contact with many cool Christians. Tim and I met a couple from St. Petersburg Russia who invited us to come and do our ministry down there, which would be incredible if God permits. It was awesome to see how God brought all of this about! As Paul says, "Christ was preached and because of this I rejoice."

On a less important note, we had a breakdance battle. The crews were split: Landon, Josh, and Sam VS. Mike, Peter, and Tim. We had these young hispanic kids judge the battle... oh, who won? Mike was smooth with his top rock, while Tim threw down his Master swipes, Josh busted out his mills, L gave donkey kong a run for his money, Sam's crazy freezes and L-kicks, Peter's flips and creativity were all part of the show. The judges said my crew won but it could have gone either way.

New York, Breakn with Youth for Christ

I, Josh Sazdanoff, was able to spend an entire week in Albany, New York to work with Youth for Christ in reaching out to the urban community. First of all, the way this trip came about was an act of God. I lived in Wheaton, IL for about 4 months and the house that I lived in housed many different people. A young missionary couple, Jeff and Rebecca, lived down in the apartment part of the same house near the basement where I would practice breakdancing. So, they heard the crossmovemnt music I was bboyn to, and they came out and started talking to me. They told me of a friend, Ray, who lived in New York who did urban hip hop ministry. So time went by and I came back to live in Phoenix and was wishing I had Ray's email to get in contact with him. It wasn't even a week later, Ray emailed me about a ministry opportunity to breakdance and reach out to young people. Thank God for his divine hand orchestrating this awesome opportunity:
I came into New York on Aug. 19th and Ray picked me up from the air port. I had talked to him on the phone and had a mental image of what he looked like, but when I saw him, he's a pretty cool dude. As white as I am, for me to say this is kinda funny but he is pretty fly. Anyways, I met up with Andy, who is probably the wittiest person I have met. We connected really good because we both came from similar up brining and we connected really well with sports. Battle who's name is Richard, is from Canada and he was the talented graffiti artist who is going to be a future bboy to look out for. Then Mike was the supa cool DJ who keep things rollin. While Dino was our young worker who did well learning how to bboy. That was the crew.
Everyday, I would get up around 6:30 and go to the Boys and Girls Club where I would meet with the crew and we would have devotionals and breakfast. Tons of doughnuts, bagels, and OJ. Carbs galore. Then from 9-12 would be the teaching time. I was able to teach breakn for about 2-3 hours in the mourning and then we would have lunch. My class was fun. They learned how to top rock, 6 step, silly step, and freeze. They really enjoyed it, and then at the end of class, I would teach on a different Biblical story every day. Then from 4-7ish we would hit up the local park and invite the community to come join us. We had basketball games, surprisingly which,myself and Ry, took on all the young black street balllers. We beat them pretty good. Their was a white family that came and I was able to connect with them and share the good news of Jesus Christ. I thought of Paul when he said in Thessalonians " We did not only share the gospel with you, but also our very lives." The sense of showing Christ enables me to tell them about Christ. I meet many differern't people and kids and I praise God for a week of hard work and awesome opportunities.

Andy's Story

My Name is Andy Maurer and was born and raised in Phoenix, Arizona. I am 20 years old and am going to school for exercise and wellness to get my degree for personal training and from there seeing which doors God will open up for how he wants to use me in that field. I started break dancing about 2 ½ years ago and my friend Josh helped me develop the breaker name “Mr. Freeze,” mainly because of a signature move I do, called the planche.

My life growing up was for the most part pretty “normal” and easy going. I grew up in a Christian family with dedicated parents to helping me to understand and experience the love of God through the way they raised me and cared for me. The seeds that my parents planted were watered and God made them grow into a relationship with him when I was around 5 years old. I have 3 older brothers and no sisters which also carried along with it some crazy times at home with a house full of boys. I believe one of the most relieving things you can say to someone when they talk to you about problems is, “I understand…” I struggled in my life growing up with a condition called Hyperhydrosis. Basically my hands would sweat all the time and to the point where I was socially deprived from relationships and couldn’t even do my homework without getting my papers wet. This was something that was really hard for me because I always wanted people to be able to say to me, “I understand.” But nobody I knew could. It was those times in my life I had to rely on God for my identity and trust Him that he had a purpose and a plan for allowing Hyperhydrosis to be a part of my life. Thankfully God was able to keep me pure with relationships with girls for the younger part of my life because of the condition. The Lord opened up a door for me to have a surgery when I was about 17 where they could stop the sweating on my hand. I had it done and by God’s goodness it stopped.

Later down on in the road of my life I went to bible school in Germany at a school called Bodenseehof for 6 months. I then traveled for a month through Italy, Sweden, France, Switzerland, London, and Scotland. After my traveling I attended another bible school in England that was 2 months long. I was able to come home for Christmas during my time in Europe and was amazed to hear people’s responses when they found out that it was at bible school that I experienced my biggest doubts in my faith. There was a span of about 2 months during last year where I couldn’t feel God, see God, or hear God. I became angry and rebellious towards His love for me and because I felt He didn’t care about me I was going to stop caring about Him. During this time for the first time in my Christian life I began to despise God and if somebody would have asked me, “are you a Christian” I would have said, “don’t worry about it God means nothing to me.” It was in my darkest times that Gods goodness and grace shined through the brightest. (example: Christ on the cross) As I was reading one night in psalm 51 about God washing us from our sin I decided I would believe it no matter how I felt. It was then that God was trying to plainly tell me, “if you faith is based on what you see, hear of feel it will be shaken. He reminded me that He is who He says He is and I am to Him what He says I am no matter how I feel. I am still learning to this day of how to read through God’s word and believe it is truth and in believing see how God works in my life.

I have been through much of my life seeking pleasures and passions of this world and some of the biggest things that have changed my life are seeing how precious Jesus Christ is. He is, “my everything!” I know and am still trying to learn and believe that nothing on this world compares to knowing Christ. I love psalm 63:3 when it says “your love is better than life therefore my lips will praise you.” Nothing we can find here on earth can compare to God’s love and we need to be living our lives in a testimony of that love to others. I also experienced the meaning of “needing God” because you only want God as much as you need him. It is about need for a “person,” not a “thing.” I want my life to be centered on and around the person of Christ. It is all about Christ!

I share my weaknesses in this testimony to show that I am weak and in need of Jesus Christ who became everything for me which I could not be for Him. Christ doesn’t want perfect people He desires a heart that is completely His and a heart that is daily in need of his grace and transforming Holy Spirit. I hope my testimony was somewhat an encouragement to those who are run down to the end in life and don’t know where to turn. Remember to always seek Christ because: “though my heart and my flesh may fail the Lord is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.” Psalm 73:26

-Andy Maurer

Reachn out Locally

Locally, breakfree ministry has been reaching out to the younger crowds around the Phoenix area. Breakfree has been able to minister to Scottsdale Bible Church, Highlands Bible Church, Mcdowell Mountain Community Church, and a church in Mesa. Preachn da word one move at a time. The message consists of sharing the gospel and to reach out to your friends using the gifts God has given them. In 1 Corinthians 9, Paul talks about "to the Jews he became a Jew... to the weak he became weak... I have become all things to all men so that I might win some." That is what we do at breakfree ministry. We try to reach out to people and the hip hop culture with breakdancing. So if you enjoy surfing or painting, that you would use those gifts you have to reach out to the surfers and painters. If you were trying to reach out to skaters and you came to the skate park in a suit and tie, the skaters there will probably look at you funny. But if you came there dressed as a skater and could skateboard, this is the connecting point which enables you to share the gospel with them. To the bboys I became a bboy so that I might win them to Christ!

BBOY'N Chicago style

Through the months of January-Early May, Beebop lived in a small town called Wheaton outside of Chicago. I was doing my internship (out of state) for my degree in exercsie and wellness for ASU. I worked at Lifetime Fitness of Burr Ridge and had, by Gods grace, a slew of witnessing opportunities. I was able to witness to most of most clients and co workers. It was an awesome experience!

A great opportunity was during one weekend in April, Tim (veritaz) and his brother Dan came out to visit me. So we planned a day when we would go into down town Chicago and of course, evanglize and breakdance. The day was beautiful and sunny, where a group of us did surveys with people at Millenium park with the sole purpose of sharing the gospel. There were many great witnessing conversations and seeds were planted in the hearts of the lost. After that, Tim and I noticed a couple people bboyn by the famous "bean" art structure located at the top of Millenium Park but they didn't have a boom box. So I came prepared with boombox in hand and slammed it down, put in some Fatboy slim and went at it! A crowd of about 100+ circled us as we threw it down on the floor. From mills to swipes, we bboyed for about 2 hours!Even Dan threw a back flip and joined in. We met some cool people and were also able to briefly share with some of the breakdancers. God really blessed our time out in downtown Chicago and to top it off, we ate Giorodanos Pizza courtesy of Jen Nenadov(thanx Jen