Editor’s note: Among the Vermont Daily Chronicle subscribers who read Kolby LaMarche’s Friday, April 21 ‘Generation Trash’ account of a Burlington beach strewn with trash by a horde of UVM students was Marcus Szczecinski, known to many Burlington and elsewhere for carrying a a heavy wooden cross everywhere as he provides breakfast, a listening ear, and the Word of God to the street population. 

Those who know Marcus, as I have for 20 years, know that he is ‘the real deal.’ So it is with confidence that I pass along this report from Rev. Szczecinski that something wonderful happened amid the carousing and littering Saturday, April 15 at Burlington’s biggest beach. So for the many readers who are tired of what seems like an unending torrent of Bad News…. Here’s some good news.

By Rev. Marcus Szczecinski

On Saturday, April 15, The Lord had me and my son, Sebastian, at North Beach in Burlington in the late afternoon, a packed beach filled with college students hungry for the Word of God and thirsting for righteousness.

After spending some time in the Word and prayer, the Lord had us proceed from the parking lot down to the beach, then to pause once again to pray, then to the water’s edge, where people, lots of them, immediately came up to the cross. The Lord used the cross to open doors to share the gospel. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of Christ.  

A lot of people, mainly college students, heard the gospel, and responded to the call to repent, confess their sin, ask for forgiveness and pray to receive Jesus as Lord and Savior and to confess with their mouths Jesus is Lord and believe in their hearts that God raised Him from the dead. 

And many were baptized in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit in the icy waters of Lake Champlain, having explained to them that baptism represents being buried with Christ, and rising from the waters represents rising with Christ to a new life. Hallelujah.

It was like something out of a movie. Except it happened here, as led by the Holy Spirit.  

The Lord was glorified at North Beach on Saturday, April 15th, 2023.  

It wasn’t some big evangelist outreach, it was a movement of God.  Zechariah 4:6-7 says, “So he said to me, “This is the word of the LORD to Zerubbabel: Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit, says the LORD of Hosts. What are you, O great mountain? Before Zerubbabel you will become a plain. Then he will bring forth the capstone accompanied by shouts of ‘Grace, grace to it!’ ” By the Spirit of the LORD of hosts, the great mountain of reaching liberal college students for Christ was turned into a plain.  

Hallelujah!

There is so much work to be done, and there were an estimated 1000 people farther down the beach, which we didn’t reach. There just wasn’t enough time. Pray the Lord continues to direct our path, to open more doors, to share the gospel with any and all we come into contact with.   

Jesus said to His disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into His harvest.”  Please join in prayer.

My Ephesians 4:11 gifting is that of an evangelist.  Rain, sun, snow, shine and/or even in the midst of gunfire. What was needed on Saturday were additional members of the body of Christ for follow up and discipleship. I am praying even now the Lord is directing the paths of the people who prayed to receive Jesus on Saturday that they will be led into fellowship with local churches and ministries.  They have my card and were given Bibles and even small wooden crosses.  

Between now and the end of the UVM term in mid-May, there is an unprecedented opportunity to reach college students for Jesus Christ at North Beach on weekends assuming the weather is favorable.  The Lord has had me doing this for a few years now, and for whatever reason, the college students are more open to talking about Jesus there. 

Sometimes they come up hostile to the cross and to Jesus, but they still come up, which opens the door to listen to them, answer their questions and share the gospel. And some, though they may have approached hostile and as enemies of God, walk away as brothers and sisters in Christ.   

We certainly want to and are called to take care of the world into which we have been placed. But first and foremost, our concern should be with the souls who were at the beach.  

Would you join me in praying for the people at North Beach? 

The author is affiliated with Breaking Chains Christian Fellowship. He can be reached at  802-310-0729 or breakingchainscf@yahoo.com.