April 14, 2015
MARSHALL, Texas (4/14/15) - Each Spring Break thousands of college students invade South Padre Island to enjoy sun, surf and partying. But not all college students come to the beach looking for their next beer or party. This year, 1,060 volunteers engaged in servant evangelism while giving 27,396 car rides and serving 21,000 pancakes during the three week ministry of Beach Reach.
Once again, students of East Texas Baptist University spent their Spring Break involved in Beach Reach. ETBU Baptist Student Ministry Director Mark Yates assembled a team of 39 to join other Christian college students to verbally share the gospel of Jesus Christ with those they encountered while giving free rides and serving pancakes.
ETBU English Education major Whitney Justice of Tyler participated in her fourth Beach Reach experience this year. "I was a group leader and drove the van a lot," said the Lady Tiger soccer player and a member of Friendly Baptist Church of Tyler. "My conversations had to be super intentional and God leading."
Justice explained that as riders engaged in conversation with her fellow volunteers she would attentively listen. While listening to the conversations she was praying asking for direction from the Holy Spirit to give input.
"One time, specifically, we had a group of girls that had been on our van before and also a separate group of guys that were from England. As I listened to my teammates talk to them, I began to feel led to add some input," said Justice.
"When we arrived at their condo, I was able to turn around and address one of the girls. Her name was Jaime and she had a question, 'What happened to my friend because she committed suicide?' That was a really heavy question and I heard the Spirit lead me to answer. We began as a van to share the gospel with this girl. Although she did not accept Christ as Savior, I believe that a seed was planted because she was on our van numerous times. The gospel was presented and the seed was laid. Now, it's time to pray that God will continue to work in her heart," shared Justice.
"This was my second time to go to South Padre with Beach Reach," said Charles Quigley, a sophomore speech Communication major from Houston. "I wanted to go back to serve the people again. The Spring breakers do not expect servanthood and almost always ask why we are doing this, which is a great way to present the Gospel."
Quigley served in all areas of the Beach Reach ministry during the week. Island Baptist Church was the host church for all the Beach Reach volunteers. The church provided space for volunteers to enjoy meals together, fellowship, and pray in the prayer room.
"One night I was on the ground which meant I was next to one of the clubs telling people about the free pancakes and van rides," said Quigley. "Whenever I was not on the van or on the ground I was in the prayer room. The purpose of the prayer room is to be in prayer for the people who hop on the vans, the Beach Reachers, and all the people who are on the island. There is a live twitter feed in the room so those in the vans can tweet prayer needs instantly."
"I was in the prayer room the last night we were on the Island. There were some students from another university who were big on praying out loud. I heard one of them pray, 'God show yourself, do something tonight. What are you waiting for?' The very next second there was a salvation report on the twitter feed," testified Quigley, who attends Central Baptist of Marshall while at ETBU.
According to the Beach Reach website (beachreach.org), the ministry began in 1980 with 20 students who had a vision to reach their peers for Jesus Christ during Spring Break. Students from ETBU have been involved in Beach Reach the last five consecutive years and on and off since 1981.