Beach Reach sees 338 accept Christ; God’s faithfulness through “simple acts of obedience”

Four years after taking her first van ride “as a spring breaker,” Mackenzie Owens, Sam Houston State University junior, returned to South Padre Island for the first time as a Beach Reacher to proclaim the good news to those who are living the life she once lived. 

“I was in a relationship, and I had friends, and they were really big partiers. I never really enjoyed doing that, but I was like, ‘I should have a normal college experience, so I stayed [in the group],’” explained Owens. “They were like, ‘Let's go to South Padre,’... So I came with them, and I was 20, so I couldn't get into a lot of the places, but there was some drinking involved. All my friends were completely drunk at the time.” 

Owens recalled that “the craziest part” of that spring break was “we did take a van ride.” 

“I remember sitting in that van being like, ‘This would be so cool to do one day, and three, four years later, I'm here now doing what God had been putting on my heart then to do,” said Owens. 

Every spring break, hundreds of college students from Baptist Student Ministries (BSMs) across the state head to South Padre Island to join together in a mission effort called Beach Reach to share the gospel with those they encounter while providing free van rides in late hours of the night and free pancake breakfasts each morning.

Sunday through Thursday nights, while many spring breakers are engaged in revelry, Island Baptist Church opens their facility to act as a “home base” for Beach Reach’s ministry. From 9 p.m. to 3 a.m., a hotline opens for spring breakers to call and ask for a ride, and while vans with a team of five BSM students and a driver (mostly BSM directors) are dispatched to pick up the riders they were assigned, there is a team of students who stay behind and pray over the ride. The student acting as “navigator” on each ride tweets onto the prayer wall using #brspi26 so those praying can pray for riders in real time. Each BSM rotates between these two roles in three shifts throughout the night.

Owens connected with SHSU BSM after transferring, “about midway through the spring semester,” a friend she made at the BSM mentioned leaving for Beach Reach in “a week or two.” This sparked Owens’ memory. 

“I was like, ‘Beach Reach? The vans? Oh, I took one of those!’ But at the time, I don't think I said anything about it. I was just like, ‘I want to do that,’” explained Owens. “Now everyone knows that I have been here before, and I think it's such a powerful testimony to have.” 

Owens gave her life “officially to Christ on November 25 of last year.” She said “coming back [to South Padre Island] has stirred up some emotions, but it's also been a very healing experience.” 

“[My experience as a spring breaker has] helped me connect to other people and be like ‘I've been where you are. You can come to the Lord. You're never too far gone. He can redeem any situation,’” said Owens.  

Following the prompting of the Spirit

Drawing from Acts 4, Brenda Sanders, Go Now Missions consultant at Texas Baptists, encouraged the students before they went on a hotline shift Wednesday evening to remember “obedience is a daily walk with the Lord.” 

“[Obedience is] decision by decision by decision. It's prompting of the Spirit and following it every single time,” said Sanders. “Great moves of God are typically preceded by simple acts of obedience. Is the obedience going to end on Friday, or will it continue?... Will you walk in obedience when you get back to your campus?” 

Rose Markham, SHSU sophomore and first-time Beach Reacher, said that as a result of her obedience, she experienced God’s faithfulness throughout the week.

“We took the step [of obedience] to be here, and we listened to his calling… and he is equally faithful to us,” said Markham. “I have seen how that fear [of sharing the gospel] dissipated pretty quickly… based on my confidence, not because of what I could do, but because of what the Lord could do [through me].” 

On the other side of the island, at Louie’s Backyard, a popular bar and entertainment space, Texans on Mission (TXM), the disaster relief arm of Texas Baptists, had a tent set up for a “midnight pancake breakfast,” where BSM students can have spiritual conversations over pancakes with those coming to and from Louie’s. When they finish their pancakes, spring breakers walk over to the pickup line, where several vans are available to take them home without calling the hotline. Each night, a new group of 40 Beach Reachers and their vans rotate to be “on the ground” at Louie’s.

Simon Hanna, three-time Beach Reacher with Syracuse University in Syracuse, New York, said midnight breakfast and van rides at Louie’s are “the heart of the [Beach Reach] mission,” to “serve the spring breakers and to keep them safe.” 

Meeting God “in the first step” of obedience

During the day, a few BSMs are on shift to host a morning pancake breakfast at Island Baptist Church, an opportunity to deepen their relationships with connections they’ve made on the vans the night before. The BSMs who are not attending the pancake breakfast have the option of “fishing,” meaning driving around the island to pick up people walking to their destinations or going to the beach to invite spring breakers to call the hotline at night and have spiritual conversations.

On Wednesday, a team from Dallas Baptist University (DBU) BSM went to the beach to evangelize and saw “three people give their lives to Jesus.” 

Paul Woodby, DBU freshman and first-time Beach Reacher, said he was “super nervous” about being at Beach Reach and “had to keep stopping like every ten seconds to pray and ask for courage and boldness.” Upon arriving at the beach, Woodby asked his “partner in ministry” Matthew Gage, DBU freshman and first-time Beach Reacher, to pray with him. 

“The Lord really spoke to me, and he said, ‘I will meet you in the first step,’” said Woodby.

In obedience, Woodby shared the gospel with the first person he and Gage met on the beach that day. 

“We started talking to Lee. We asked if he had heard of the gospel, and he was like, ‘Yeah,’ but he didn't really know what it was, though. So we started explaining it… [and he] expressed interest in Jesus. We got to pray the prayer of salvation with him,” explained Woodby. “After we talked with Lee, a guy named Lino comes up to us and asked, ‘Can y’all pray for me?’ So we started praying for him, and we got to share the gospel with him… and he gave his life to Jesus, too.” 

Gage said the third person to give their life to Christ, he had met previously at morning pancake breakfast and “briefly talked to him,” and saw him again on the beach.

“Me and Paul went over there and talked to him, and you could just see right away that the gospel had already been planted in him and he was ready to accept Christ. So we presented the gospel to him, and then he accepted Christ. That was just awesome,” said Gage. 

Celebrating new life, obedience to the Great Commission

Throughout the week, Beach Reachers invite spring breakers who they’ve led to Christ to be baptized in the ocean outside Clayton’s, another popular bar and entertainment space, on Thursday afternoon before the last hotline shift of the week. The strategic location of the baptisms gives Beach Reachers an additional opportunity to share the gospel with beach-goers who are curious about the public display of faith. 

Ambros Mautsoe, University of Texas at Tyler (UT Tyler) senior and four-time Beach Reacher, reflected on his own beach baptism. 

“I got baptized here at Beach Reach [my first year]. It was an incredible experience to be able to share the gospel [with spring breakers during the week] and celebrate that I also have been saved,” said Mautsoe. “It’s great that we get to celebrate new life with a lot of believers and that [spring breakers] get to see that [new] life in us, in everything we’re doing here.”

Mautsoe said Beach Reach has taught him “every time I’ve surrendered to God and I’m obedient to the [Great] Commission of sharing the gospel, I get to partake in his work and his glory and experience him, too, in that [obedience], and it’s life-giving.” 

“I never come to Beach Reach and leave the same. It always changes me in some way because I’ve encountered God in a more intimate way,” said Mautsoe. 

Over two weeks of Beach Reach, from March 7-20, 14,389 van rides were given, 10,491 spiritual conversations were had, 9,366 spring breakers were prayed with, 338 people accepted Christ, 87 recommitted their lives to Christ and 55 were baptized. 

For more information about Beach Reach and how to partner, visit beachreachspi.org.