Monday, December 21, 2009

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!

Wednesday, October 28, 2009

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!

Monday, October 12, 2009

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

Saturday, August 29, 2009

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!

Friday, August 14, 2009

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.