More than 200 Arkansas Baptist college students from around the state recently traveled to Panama City Beach, Florida, to spend their spring break serving others and spreading the Gospel of Jesus through Beach Reach.
Beach Reach is a partnership between college ministries all over the nation to serve other college students on spring break. It utilizes vans and buses to give free shuttles to students around town, providing an opportunity to talk with the students about the Gospel.
Thomas Guinee, Conway Baptist Collegiate Ministry (BCM) campus minister, said eight Arkansas BCMs and a local church, Woodland Heights Baptist Church in Conway, took teams to Florida.
“It is hard to capture just how incredible it was,” Guinee said. Over the course of the week, they shared the Gospel 4,177 times, prayed for nearly 5,000 people, and saw 412 people make decisions to follow Jesus.
“Those are numbers that we can track and numbers that we can look at and those are direct representations of how the Lord moved in and throughout that week,” he said. But Beach Reach is more than just the tangible.
Beach Reach helps develop a passion for evangelism in the students. Guinee said they do a lot of evangelism training on campus “but until a student does it, they don’t capture a heart for it.”
“We see students jump out of their comfort zone. We see them grow in their capacity for sharing the Gospel. We see students come away from this trip with a passion for evangelism, with a burden for students on their campus who live different lives from them, and with an ability to have actual beneficial strategic conversations that can lead toward life changes,” Guinee said.
University of Arkansas at Fort Smith BCM Campus Minister Luke Dawson said by the end of the week students were naturally transitioning to Gospel conversations and sharing faithfully.
“We even had students who shared the Gospel for the first time on this trip – I couldn’t be more proud,” he said. “It is always so much fun to partner with the other Arkansas BCMs to do ministry. Our students have built relationships with students from BCMs on other campuses, and to see students from all over the state working together to lift high the name of Jesus is something I’ll treasure for a long time.”
Luke Impson, Southern Arkansas University (SAU) BCM student, said he enjoyed seeing the change in his peers throughout the week, going from nervous to excited to start conversations. He shared how one of his friends overcame that hurdle.
“When he got there, he was nervous. He wouldn’t talk. But by Thursday night, he was completely comfortable going up to people striking up a Gospel conversation or ordinary conversation,” Impson said, touting how transformative Beach Reach is for students. Already, his friend has told him of people he has shared the Gospel with since being back on campus.
Sharing one of her own experiences from the week, Hope Sass, SAU BCM student, said while she was on the shuttle, a group of six girls hopped in for a ride. One was named Olivia. Instantly, Sass said she and Olivia got into a deep conversation and she was given the opportunity to share the Gospel with her. Their time together soon ran out as the shuttle arrived at the girls’ destination, Waffle House.
“The door opened, and her friends pulled her off. I was sitting there, and I just felt the Spirit tell me, ‘you have to get out and go,’ which is something we weren’t really supposed to do. But I just knew deep down that had to happen,” she said. So, Sass got off the shuttle and went into the restaurant.
“She saw me out of the corner of her eye, and she walked over and said, with tears in her eyes, ‘I need to finish this conversation,’” Sass said. “I walked her through the salvation process, and she prayed out loud and it was probably one of the most sincere prayers I’ve ever heard. It was very deep and from her heart.”
Trenton Moore, Henderson State University BCM student, experienced a full circle moment at Beach Reach. Two years ago, he and his girlfriend were in Panama City Beach. After drinking too much, his girlfriend was rushed to the hospital in an ambulance. He was left stranded at Waffle House. He ended up getting a ride to the hospital on a Beach Reach shuttle. They prayed for him, and he said, “it was a really pivotal moment.”
“It helped us get back on track in our faith and following Christ,” he said. Then they got a new BCM director on campus and he mentioned Beach Reach. Moore and his girlfriend immediately signed up for the trip.
“We want to help people, too, like they helped us,” he said. “It was awesome. Just seeing so many answered prayers and seeing God move so freely in front of our eyes.”
One night, Moore said his shuttle picked up a couple of high school kids. The conversation turned personal, and he shared his testimony and the Gospel.
“They were crying and both received Christ that night,” he said. “They prayed to receive Christ in the wharf parking lot where I stayed two years ago and then we dropped them off at a gas station across the street from the Waffle House that I got picked up at. …It was awesome to see the full circle moment.”