Arkansas BCM students serve, share Gospel over spring break

From Portland, Oregon, to Panama City Beach, Florida, Arkansas Baptist Collegiate Ministry (BCM) students from around the state traveled near and far during their spring breaks to serve others and spread the Gospel of Jesus.  

More than 150 Arkansas BCM students traveled to Florida for Beach Reach, a partnership between college ministries all over the nation to serve other college students on spring break.   

Beach Reach utilizes vans and buses to give free shuttles to students around town, providing an opportunity to talk with the students about the Gospel. During the week, March 16-22, they had 3,338 Gospel conversations and prayed for 4,316 students, resulting in 173 decisions of faith.   

Lani Rogers, a student at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, described Beach Reach 2024 as “one of the best weeks.”  

“God was moving big time in the city of Panama City Beach,” Rogers said. Her prayer at the beginning of the week was that she would be able to witness to at least one person who would accept Jesus in their heart. God answered that prayer on night two. 

 “A guy named Carson got on our shuttle by himself and I, along with two guys from my group, got to talk to him. He explained to us that he just felt like he had done too much bad and that he didn’t feel like Jesus could forgive him and my heart broke for him, because let’s be honest, we’ve all been there at some point in our lives. But that’s the beauty of the Gospel,” Rogers shared in a Facebook post. “And we got to share that with him along with an analogy that has been stuck in my head all week. We don’t wash ourselves off before we get in the shower, right? So why do we try and clean ourselves up before coming to Jesus? That really hit me hard, and I think really resonated with Carson too. Carson accepted Jesus into his heart that night. And we were so excited for him. God is just so sovereign, and I am still in awe of the many different ‘coincidences’ that happened on this trip. I know they weren’t really coincidences because God orchestrated every single interaction and I’m so glad He used me how He wanted to.”  

Caden Middleton, a University of Arkansas at Monticello BCM student, also saw God move during Beach Reach. While there, Middleton said he got to speak with a guy named Colin outside of the bars. Colin grew up in a religious household but fell away from it when he went to college.  

“He ended up rededicating his life to Christ,” Middleton said. A few days later, another student participating in Beach Reach asked Middleton if he talked to someone named Colin.  

“I guess they picked him up in one of their shuttles and he said it was one of the most genuine conversations he’d had in a while,” Middleton said. “It’s really great to be able to talk to people and just kind of show them that we’re all broken whether we have Christ or not and that is what the whole thing is about. We’re all broken people in need of a savior, and we can’t cast judgement on other people because we wouldn’t want to be judged that way as well. The gift of salvation is free, and you don’t have to change your life, you just go to Jesus. He’ll change it for you.”  

University of Arkansas at Fort Smith BCM students also participated in Beach Reach. Associate Director Emma Richardson said they took eight students and spent the week having Gospel conversations with people who were open to it.  

“Our crew got to lead two people to Christ which is really cool,” Richardson said, noting a lot of their students had never really shared the Gospel in that way. “It was a cool week just to get to share the Gospel with people and a lot of people that we talked to, they were like ‘we grew up in church, haven’t been in a long time,’ and we got to encourage them in their faith. But a lot of people had never heard the Gospel.”  

Other than Beach Reach, a team from Henderson State University traveled to Portland and engaged in Gospel conversations on area campuses. Additionally, a group of Arkansas State University BCM students traveled to Chicago, Illinois.  

Arkansas State University BCM Campus Minister Tyler Hoffpauir said they took 38 to Chicago and had an incredible trip working with migrants and children. He said some of the highlights included providing 150 meals to migrants in a shelter, teaching an ESL class to migrants who wanted to be able to look for jobs in the city, organizing a large community clothes closet in one of the churches, and presenting an Easter play in English and Spanish to children at the after school club.  

“So many of our students’ eyes were opened to the lack of resources and need for the Gospel in large cities outside the South,” Hoffpauir said, noting one student said, “I always thought you had to travel far to do mission work, but the nations are here, and they are closer than I realized.” 

Ouachita Baptist University (OBU) took 18 students and two staff members to St. Louis to serve with the North American Mission Board’s Send Relief ministry center. They served through construction projects for two church plants, with the Missouri Baptist Children’s Homes, and through a local refugee ministry center. 

“I was so impressed with the staff and the work of Send Relief center and appreciate that we could be a small part of their work. They are doing a tremendous job of building relationships in the community, meeting real needs, and sharing the love of Jesus with everyone they meet,” said James Taylor, Ouachita Director of Campus Ministries.  

As they served the groups that work daily with the community of St. Louis, Abby Moseley, OBU junior Education and Math major from Centerton, Arkansas, said she “loved seeing over and over again the work that the Lord accomplishes when the body of Christ works in unity.”