Break Free connects with LOT 3 18 ministy Placentia, CA

Break Free had done a demonstration at Yorba Linda Friends Church a while back and I got connected with a lady there named Letty. Letty is a fire ball for Christ. This woman has so much enthusiasm for Christ and a passion to help people. She told me the ministry that she has been heading up for years is called Lot 3 18. Funny thing was my wife’s old roommate Jamie was a friend of Letty and she told Letty about me a long time ago. Then divinely our paths crossed when Break Free did a demo at her church. Lot 3 18 meets in Placentia CA on Cypress St. Cypress St. is located in a lower class neighborhood where Letty heads up after school programs as well as Bible studies for all ages ( kids to adults). So Break Free goes down twice a month to Cypress and works with Lot 3 18 by teaching high schoolers break dancing and Gods awesome Word. Vicente from Break Free really connects well with this group as he himself is from Honduras Central America. So his Spanish speaking along with his cool personality really connects well with the group. He was able to teach out of God's Word about obeying your parents and the kids were listening really well! We spend about an hour and a half breakn and then finish up with a short message from the Bible. Its really amazing to see, once again, how break dancing has built a bridge with the community for us to share/show the Love of Christ. Praise be to Jesus that He allows us to be a part of His amazing work!

"Mini" So you think you can dance? Anaheim, CA

This was our first “mini” So you think you can dance competition and it took place near the down town Anaheim area. Our young adults group from Calvary Chapel East Anaheim really did an awesome job with setting up and praying up! A gracious couple allowed us to use their home, which was a hug historic house right in the middle of a lower class neighborhood. The Lord drew so many people (bout 200) to come watch the dancing and hear the gospel! There were many different dance styles and lots of the kids from the neighborhood participated as well. As for our Break Free battle we decided to do a two on two competition. It was Liz and myself (josh) vs. Vicente and up coming new bboy David Aldama. It was sweet ! Vicente cleaned up the floor with smooth floor work, Liz got the crowd going with her head freeze, David threw his gainer back flip, and Josh came out with his power moves! Overall the competition was a lot of fun and it was great to see the crowd so into it! Then I had the privilege of sharing the message, which was centered on Hope. I said that hope is not wishful thinking like “ I hope I win the lottery”. But rather hope is “Confident assurance or expectation that what the Bible says is going to happen.” Hope in Christ and his word is what strengthens us and gives us peace. “But those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. The will soar on wings like eagles… (Isaiah 40:30,31). If our hope is in our mighty God our problems become small and our strength increases. And then I shared the gospel of Jesus Christ and gave invitations to receive Him by faith. Praise God about 8 people received Christ from all different ages! Much prayer had been going into this night and God answered way more than we ever thought!

Third Annual "So you think you can Dance?" Competition. Fullerton ,CA

Months of planning and praying have gone into this competition. Thanks to our good friend, Sean Christiansen, helped get this event together along with the help from Campus Crusade for Christ. The was the third year the event was held at Cal state Fullerton College. The Lord really worked mightily that night! We had probably around three hundred + people show up to the competition with many different crews entering it. We had hip hop, ballet, modern,latino, and of course break dancing! We'll break free had the priviledge to battle a crew named 'Source of Style' who were really good. On our line up we had Tim (veritaz), Josh (beebop), Liz, shelli, Justin, and Vince. It was a great battle of epic of epic proportions:) Source of style really did an awesome job, that had great talent as well as variety in their dancing. I was very proud of how break free represented though as well. Veritaz (Tim) was coming hard with his skills, vince was bringing his fresh latino style, beebop (Josh) brought the power moves, and the ladies (Liz, shelli) brought the style. Then after the dancing an individual from Campus Crusade Ministry, Rico, spoke and shared his testimony/gospel of Jesus Christ. It was incredible to see people come to know Jesus and raise their hands to recieve Christ right at the competition that very night! The power of God unto salvation was at work in peoples lives in that place! God also opened up some doors for us to connect with some of the dancers and share with them Christ crucified! It was a great event, Praise Jesus!

Break Free Promo Video

Mike "Bishop" Swalley moves to the Lone Star State.Dallas, Texas

"As of August 17th, 2009 I am no longer living in California but have packed my bags (and there were a few!), and moved to Dallas, TX. Being led by God to go back to school, getting more equipped for the ministry I feel called too, the doors were opened to go to Dallas Theological Seminary. I will be getting a Masters of Theology (ThM) degree in Discipleship and Evangelism. This is a four year degree and I expect to use all four and maybe then some. The question I anticipate is, “What will happen to Break Free?” Good question.

The vision for Break Free that God is putting on both Josh’s and my heart is one of expansion and reaching all nations with the Gospel. This has been done by His providence in California by ministering to multiple international bboys. But with the start of bible studies and more intimate discipleship, we now want to see these bible studies in more places. My move to Dallas will be the start of this expansion. Josh will continue to head up Break Free Southern California. He will continue to do outreaches, street ministry, and discipleship through bible studies and one on one interactions.

While going to school, I will start Break Free in Dallas. The vision is similar to what God is already doing in CA, with the goal of Break Free Dallas up and running on its own when I is done with school. Either myself or someone in Dallas can expand it to another city. Much like planting churches, we have a desire to plant Break Free bible studies, outreach ministries and discipleship groups all over the world.

As I am writing this, I have just finished my second day of classes at DTS. One main thing impressed on me by Howard Hendricks, the professor of my Bible Study Methods class, is that he wants us to be able to teach others how to study the bible and ultimately make disciples. I can’t tell you how excited I am to be here. Break Free is not over. It is actually just taking a step toward the vision God has placed on our hearts."




Bishop

Break Free Camp- CCEA 7-13 year olds

Break Free just hosted its first breakdance camp at Calvary Chapel East Anaheim. The camp was held for kids from 7-13 and God blessed us with a tremendous turnout! There were about 80 kids that came and a good turn out of girls showed up. The theme of the camp was Galatians 5:1 " It is for freedom that Christ has set us free..." and we really emphasized the Freedom that Jesus Christ can/does bring into our lives. God really brought a great team together. Childrens ministry leader, Lori Eggenburg, and I (Josh) had a vision for this camp a few months ago. Then Tim (veritaz), Sean, Emily, Shelli, and Liz helped out with the dance instruction which was a huge blessing. ALso my beautiful wife Krista and friend Kelsey, helped make sandwhiches for the team. The camp went from 9am to 4pm and the teaching was broken up by learning the differnt aspects of breaking. Top rock, floor work, Power Moves, and freezes were what we focused on with the dancing. We also broke up into Bible study groups and had each leader go through some of the word about the freedom the Jesus Christ came to give us by His death on the cross and resurrection from the grave! The kids were really into it and seemed to love the entire day. At the end I was able to give a gospel message and a few kids responded to recieve Jesus Christ as personal Lord and savior! Praise God! Then afterward, we had the 7-10 year olds battle the 11-13year olds and they loved it. The day went great and by Gods grace the Lord was glorified!

Budapest, Hungary Part 2

This is the second time we have been able to go to Budapest, Hungary to serve the Lord and it was awesome! First of all, I want to thank everyone who supported us financially and prayerfully to be able to do this trip! Prayer played such a huge role in the mission trip! That’s enough with the exclamation points for now but basically what we did everyday was street evangelism. Our young adults team from Calvary Chapel east Anaheim (13 of us) went and used our variety of Gifts (1 peter 4:10) to fulfill the great commission. We connected with the Calvary Chapel Budapest again (like last year) and they are such a great team to work with. Everyday we did the same thing. We went to two different locations, one in the morning and one in the late after noon, and did breakdancing, dramas, and open air preaching/testimonies. There were usually about 15 Hungarians with us helping translate and witness. It was about 8 hours a day for 10 straight days of evangelism. It was exciting and exhausting. I personally could relate to the apostle Paul when he said “… I worked harder than all of them, yet not I but the grace of God with me.1 Cor.15:10”. There were days I was tired from dancing and sharing that my body felt like it couldn’t go on but every we prayed and asked for strength I was able to do far beyond what my body/mind was telling me.Sean Christensen, Jeremy Ruga, and Andrew Gartner are new bboys who helped my out and did a great job with the breakn. Praise God! Some of the praise reports are(more exclamation points) : We saw about 5-10 a day saved! My wife had really bad head aches and illness the first two days but we all prayed over her a few times and they never came back! Overall, there was good unity! And the Lord protected us from evil! Thanks for all your prayers. I can never stress enough about how important prayer is. We prayed in faith believing that God would save many souls and He did way more than we could have ever imagined! It was cool to see everyone using their God given talents to bring people to hear the good news of Jesus Christ. We would breakdance, then the crowd that came to watch would be standing there, and immediately we would have the drama team come up to perform a drama that shared the gospel. Then people would share their testimonies and I was able to open air preach a few times. It was 1 Cor.12 in action. There was the body of Christ with its many different members all working together to bring glory to Christ. I want to tell a person story that was really amazing. Late at night (about midnight) we were coming in after dinner and we all hopped on the tram to go back to our hotel. And there were a group of Hungarian teenagers that we didn’t know on the tram. So my friend Jake and I started doing pull ups and back flips on the bars in the tram you would hold on to keep your balance. The Hungarian teenagers started to copy us and do the same thing. We went back and forth trying to outdo each other, just having fun. So we all got off on our stop and then I started to share the Lord with them. After about 20 min of sharing the Gospel, these teens wanted to receive the Lord and be saved! We prayed with them to receive Christ and off they went. Little did they know that the Lord would appoint the salvation late that night! Praise the Lord. I really saw the power of the Holy Spirit at work and was blown away by what he did. The trip was such a blessing to do with my beautiful wife Krista and serve/pray along side with her! Once again, thanks for your prayers and I pray that you would spend some time in prayer today for an opportunity to witness to someone. Walk Worthy! By the way, watch the video, all of us dancing did an impression of Mike "bishop" swalley, hope you enjoy.

Break Free Prayer Requests

Break Free is going to be doing some missionary work over the next few weeks and would love the prayers. Mike Swalley (bishop) will be with some people from Calvary Chapel East Anaheim and will be sharing/living out the gospel in Guatemala to work at a local orphanage. Josh Sazdanoff will along with different missionary team from CCEA will be heading to Hungary Budapest and doing mainly street evangelism. Prayer Requests:

-Jesus Christ being glorified through our lives
-Souls to be saved
-Protection from the Enemy
-Unity within the believers

Thanks for all your prayers and support!! Jesus Christ is Alive, Lets live in such a way as to win the prize!

FCA Camp- UCLA Campus

Breakfree had the tremendous priviledge to be invited to an FCA (Fellowship of Christian Athletes)camp on the UCLA campus in Los Angeles, CA. The event took place at the Union on Campus in a huge ball room. Around a thousand people came to this event from junion high/high schoolers, FCA staff, and some olympic athletes. We were asked to do a breakdance demo up on the big stage. Bishop,Veritaz, and beebop (myself), choreographed a routine and came hitting hard! I threw veritaz backwards to do his backflip, bishop came sliding in on his head, and I rolled into continuous kip ups to get the crowd going. We then did a top rock dance in rythm and then did our individual sets. We finished strong with power moves: Veritaz thrown his master swipes, Bishop throwing his barrel mills, and I threw down my munch mills. After the routine was over, Bishop was able to be interviewed and He clearly shared that by God's grace our ministry is about Jesus Christ! Then I was able to have a fun opportunity to lead a dance competition with the guys vs girls. The guys ended up winning. Then following us were a couple good speakers that shared the importance of having a personal relationship with Jesus Christ and also the importance of reading the Bible. The night was fun to be partnering up with a ministry that we really love working with and be able glorify God through our dancing by His Grace alone!

Huntington Beach- Open Air Preaching Ray Comfort/Breakfree Part 2

It was Saturday, June 20th, a rainy morning driving down to Huntington Beach to partner up with Ray Comfort in reaching the lost. Ray comfort and his team partnered up with breakfree in its beginning’s in Oct. 2007 (to see more on that past event look back in our blog). It was a blessing on how this event came about. About a month prior to this event Tim (veritaz) and I (beebop) were doing an event with FCA (Fellowship Christian Athletes) at El Dorado high school. Right as we were walking onto the campus Mark Spence, Ray Comfort’s manager, sent me a text message, which read “ Praying for you brother. Be encouraged.” I was wondering how Mark was doing and was just thinking about them. Then sure enough, Mark text’s me at that school I went to with Tim. I thought that was real cool because a few days before Mark had sent me that text, my wife Krista and I we were on their website watching the event breakfree had done 2 years prior with Mark on Ray. It’s amazing how God works! Then I emailed Mark and told him that story and asked if they had any open dates for us to work with them again. June 20th was the date that was set. So after that long inftro. let me tell you how the event went. Like I said it was a rainy morning and as I was driving there I was praying that it would not rain. Right when it hit 1:30pm the rain pretty much ceased and the sun came out. Thank the Lord for great weather! Here is the breakfree line up that was there: For the guys it was Tim (Veritaz), Mike (Bishop), and Josh (Beebop). Then for the Ladies it was: Shelli (Shelbo), Liz (Figet), and Emily. Veritaz threw in his famous master swipes, Bishop blasted us with his barrel mills, beebop busted out his munch mills, Shelli cleaned up the floor with her smooth foot work, Liz showed off her top rock, and Emily had clean freezes! Ray Comfort powerfully shared the Truth. He took people who they thought were “good” through the Ten Commandment’s and then shared the gospel of Jesus Christ. So it was another duo of breakdancing to draw the crowd and to have Ray preach to that crowd. I vividly remember Ray showing great concern for a girl who went to catholic school and thought she was a good person. Ray preached the law, God’s grace, and the purpose of Jesus death on the cross. The girl acted like she didn’t care but God’s law, with the help of the Holy Spirit, was doing its work on her conscience and heart. We danced and Ray Preached for about 2 hours! It was awesome to see people come and hear the gospel. Veritaz and Bishop got to witness to another different group of breakdancers who did performances in that same spot. Tim said they were great conversations. Seeds were planted! After Ray left, I had the privilege to open air preach twice. I shared my personal testimony and incorporated the Gospel in how Jesus Christ transformed my life! There were crowds from about 15-40 people each time we danced and shared. The day was such a blessing and God truly gave us a great time! For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain! Philippians 1:21

Thats My King!

Beebop and Special K get married! Macedonia/Greece/London

On April 11th 2009, Josh Sazdanoff (beebop) got married to Krista Pleak (Special K)and it was a very special day! Krista looked amazing in her beautiful white wedding dress while Josh was playing it cool in his black suit. The day was an answer to prayer because the news and many skeptics said it was probably going to rain. But Krista and I prayed that it would not rain (like Elijah) and trusted that the Lord was going to give us a great clear day, and He did! The entire wedding took place in Whittier at a house that Krista always dreamed of getting married at. Family and friends of all different backgrounds came to celebrate our beautiful covenant that the Lord has ordained. My good friend pastor steve knox gave them message and clearly laid our the gospel while Krista and I's young adults pastor took us through our vows. My eye's were glued to my beautiful bride while craid was speaking, I dont remember what he was saying :) We were married and Krista and I walked out together as Sazdanoff's, with Cold Play playing in the background. There was a killer taco bar and some great speeches from friends and family. Krista and I did our slow dance but faked the crowd out when the music died and busted out some breakn to Run DMC! Krista is a natural bgirl! Bboy bisop (mike),Bboy veritaz (Tim), and some old skool bboys busted out like bboy L (landon) and Bboy backside (peter). And one of the highlights with dancing was when I called my dad out to break (he promised me he would break at my wedding) and it was a sight to see! After a great day of fun, dancing, and the gospel of Jesus Christ being shared, Krista and I headed out.Check out our wedding slide show on our photographers'(brandon kidd,great photographer!) website www.bkiddphoto.com/slideshows/josh+krista
The follwoing monday we headed out for our honeymoon to Europe! We flew into Macedonia for a day and hung out with some of my relatives out there (my dad is from Macedonia)and then took a train to thessaloniki (yes, modern day thessalonica, where the apostle Paul went!). It was awesome, we were blessed to have a hotel over looking the agean sea. We walked around the city and ate real greek Gyros. We had some really cool opportunities to witness to people in greece. While Krista and I were down in Greece we read through 1 Thessalonians and just imagined Paul walking the streets and witnessing and causing uproars in the synagogues for the sake of Christ (Acts 17). It was Easter weekend there and obviously Greek Orthodox is the major religion so we were able to get into witnessing convo's with a taxi driver, our front desk receptionist, a teenager on the streets who saw me breakn and a British man next door to us on the hotel. Praise God! "For our gospel did not come to you in word only but also in power, in the Holy Spirit, and with full conviction..." 1 Thess. 1:5 Then we went to Macedonia and stayed in the village where my dad grew up called Capari. It was awesome! It is an old, poor village that has about 400 people living in it. Beautiful scenery which had awesome mountains, forests, and cold rivers running through it.The Lord's creation is aweomse! My family really spoiled us with great food and taking us around the city. On our way home Krista and I had a 12 hour layover in London and we took a train to the picadilly circus and took a cool tour of the city. Krista and I had a blast and the Lord really gave us a great time!