This spring break, I had the opportunity to take part in a mission trip called Beach Reach.
This was my second year taking part in the event, this time joining with the Howard Payne University Baptist Student Ministry (BSM) along with another Hardin-Simmons University BSM leader. Much of my experience this year was similar to my experience last year, but there were still a number of things that made this week unique.
Beach Reach is a mission trip focused on presenting the Gospel of Jesus Christ to college students who are on spring break. Both Florida and Texas have versions of Beach Reach, with Florida’s taking place on Panama City Beach, and Texas’s on South Padre Island. The program began in the 1980s with a small group of college students seeing the need for Christ in these areas, leading to the growth and success seen today.
The key selling points to folks on the island are the free van rides and the free pancakes.
Pancakes are served during the pancake supper outside of Louie’s Backyard, a large bar on the island, and at pancake breakfast, outside of Island Baptist Church (IBC).
IBC graciously allows us to use their facilities throughout the week to make sure Beach Reach can happen and have a home base. Inside the IBC, there is a prayer room, combined with the Beach Reach prayer wall, where Beach Reachers can spend their time praying for the island and those in the vans. The church also serves a midnight breakfast to Beach Reachers, along with drinks and snacks to make sure everyone is able to function to the highest capacity possible during the late night shifts.
For rides, all people have to do is call the hotline number which is written on the vans, along with the van names and decorations which is also found on the hotline cards that are handed out to the spring breakers throughout the week.
Inside the vans there are four different roles that are played by Beach Reachers. The first is known fondly as the Door Mama. She opens the door, greets the group, makes sure that they understand the vans rules and lets them onto the van. Next up are the Ducks. Ducks sit in the back of the vans, waiting and eager to have conversations with the spring breakers, seeking to get to know them and hopefully have Gospel conversations with them.
They do their best to pour into each and every person that comes into the vans, showing them the love of Christ and their own genuine care for them, talking about life, religion and where Jesus’ place is in all of it. Door Mama’s also partake in being Ducks. Next are the Drivers. The main focus of a Driver is to make sure that Beach Reachers get to where they are going safely, getting spring breakers to their destination safely, night and day.
Some drivers are known to hop into conversations and interact with the spring breakers on the vans as well. Finally, we have the Navigator. Their role is to direct the Driver to each location, communicate with home base, post prayer requests on X, formerly known as Twitter, follow the prayer wall and pray for the group as a whole.
Last year, I was a Duck, mainly focusing on speaking with people in the vans and doing my best to share the Gospel during our conversations. This year, I had the opportunity to serve as the Navigator for my group. The entire experience was really fun, allowing me to do multiple things at once which works well with my scatterbrain.
I helped make sure our group got to each destination safely, even taking us on some intentional detours when I noticed that conversations were going really well. I was also able to talk to people while in the van, both as a Navigator and as a Duck, reliving a bit of what my job was last year.
Pancakes are a major driver for some people on the island. It gives them the opportunity to take a break from the parties and grab something to eat before they go back to their hotel. The pancake supper outside of Louie’s Backyard also offers a queue for van lines, allowing people to get pancakes and then wait for their van to show up. Pancake supper also gives us the opportunity to have conversations with the spring breakers, eating pancakes with them and continuing to learn more about them.
Along with the pancakes and van rides, Beach Reach does beach outreach/ evangelism. We were able to walk on the beach, telling spring breakers about the hotline and even getting to have good conversations with those who were willing to take a couple minutes out of their day to see what we had to say. I really enjoy getting to go onto the beach and talk to people in that way because it pushes me out of my comfort zone and allows me to get better at sharing the Gospel, adjusting my delivery based on who I am talking to and if we have anything in common.
The key for sharing the Gospel in these areas is finding common ground, learning more about who they are and what they believe, using those commonalities to share why we are Christians. To truly show people Christ, we have to show that we care about them. We make them feel seen and show them that even though we may not understand what is going on in their lives completely, we can still relate to their stories to an extent.
The long term goal of Beach Reach is to see people give their lives to Christ and begin to live for Him. However, we recognize that the short term and daily goal we need to focus on is planting seeds. We can plant and water these seeds, the idea of the Gospel and of who Christ is, but only God can bring the growth. We rejoice with the people who accept Christ while we are there and we rejoice that we were able to share the Gospel with those on the island, accepting the fact that we are there to plant seeds for the Kingdom of Heaven.
Beach Reach is a fantastic chance to go into the world and share the Gospel. I highly recommend it to anyone interested in ministry or missions to give this trip a chance next spring break.
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