Beach Reach

A summary of our trip to South Padre Island

Thank you so much for praying for us last month! Our trip to South Padre was amazing! Words can’t even describe how much fun we had and what a blessing it was to be a part of that team! If I had to sum it up I’d say that from my perspective, JOY was a major theme of the trip. Joy. God definitely filled us up with His joy that week. And the joy of the Lord was our strength. We did not get a whole lot of sleep during our stay but Jesus made up for that with an abundance of joyous energy.
I have so many stories I could tell you about how God worked at Beach Reach but I will only have room for a few so I’ll tell a couple that really stood out to me. However, before I go into that I feel it might be helpful to explain what exactly we did while we were down there.
The purpose of the 700+ people from all over Texas who came to South Padre for Beach Reach was to serve our peers. The method in which we accomplished this was giving free van rides and free pancakes. One the first day we all spread out over the entire island and handed out business cards with our hotline number on it along with the times and locations we’d be serving pancakes. For the rest of the week our teams were given different shifts in which we’d give van rides, serve pancakes, clean the beach or church, go to the beach and talk to people by the sand sculpture, or rest. It was a very organized and effective operation.
On the vans our goal was to start conversations with people about God and spirituality. The first day was a little awkward and we didn’t have many good conversations. However, after that God gave us all boldness and good talks became quite common and by then end of the week we talked about God with every single person who got on the van. Many of our chats went really deep and I believe God used them to plant a lot of seeds. At the end of one particular conversation with this one guy, he told me he hoped he would get the chance to read his Bible more cause he wanted to know God more. We gave out a few Bibles to some people too.
Most of the folks we met were either “Christian” or grew up in Christian homes so they already knew about God. Thus our discussions centered on going deeper with God or what it looked like to really be in a relationship with God. The habits of turning conversations to God are skills we will use the rest of our lives and I’ve already been able to have some great chats since I’ve been back on campus.
At the end of the week we had a baptism in the ocean and 78 people got baptized! It was a neat experience. The leaders of beach reach made sure to get the information of anyone who accepted Christ that week in order to stay in touch with them and follow up with them.
Thanks for your prayers this week! God did amazing things through them! It was such a fun week and I’m so glad I was able to go. Yay for the JOY of the Lord!