March 24, 1999

KELLIE KAHLBAU of Glenview Baptist Church in Haltom City witnessess on the beach.

Beach Reach deploys 'conversion' vans
___By Mark Wingfield
___Managing Editor
___SOUTH PADRE ISLAND--The young couple staggered onto the van, not only drunk but also embarrassed.
___They had been kicked out of one of the wildest nightspots on South Padre Island, a beachfront bar that night offering Vanilla Ice in concert. The young man had been busted for "floating"--allowing the sea of people to lift him up and pass him hand-to-hand above the crowd.
___He was the only one floating and should have known better, his girlfriend explained.
___No, others were floating too, but he was the only one who got kicked out, he insisted.
___Regardless, they now had been banished into the night, separated from their friends who still were at the concert and still had the key to the hotel room where they all were supposed to meet later.
___In the bar's sandy parking lot, the couple had spotted the white van with the shoe-polished sign on the window: "Free Rides."
___The ride was free, but it offered a message of eternal value.
___On the back seat of the 15-passenger van, they met two students from the Baptist Student Ministry of Tyler Junior College. These Christian students didn't condemn the couple for their alcohol-induced problems. They couldn't, because they knew firsthand what it is like to be in such a situation--or worse.
___So their message was simple and kind: There is a better way.
___"I used to be into the party scene," one of the Christian students explained. "But I never could find any joy there. Now I'm high on Jesus."
___Such was the scene from 8 p.m. until 3 a.m. every night during last week's spring break, as hundreds of Christian students cruised the 5-mile length of South Padre Island offering free rides to spring breakers either without transportation or too drunk to drive.
___Thousands of partiers called a well-advertised hotline to request the free rides on vans with nicknames like Baalam's Donkey, Slingshot, Glory, Bevo and Soul Train.
___At the students' base of operations, an upstairs room at Island Baptist Church, the two incoming phone lines rang almost constantly with requests for rides.
___What those requesting rides didn't know, but soon would understand, was that the Christian students were praying for them even as their church vans-turned-taxis rolled over the darkened streets to make the pick up.
___Once inside the vans, the often intoxicated passengers got a taste of the friendly conversation and testimony of Christian students bubbling over with the love of Jesus.
___"Never here do we have to tell anybody they're a sinner. They tell us," explained event organizer Buddy Young of West Texas A & M University in Canyon.
___In this context, dozens of students were led to faith in Jesus Christ on the vans March 14-19. And hundreds more were prayed for, counseled or comforted.
___Welcome to Beach Reach '99, the 19th consecutive year of spring break ministry on South Padre Island organized by Texas Baptists. This year's Beach Reach, which primarily was concentrated in the so-called "Texas week" on the island, was staffed by 425 young adults from 16 college campuses or sponsoring Texas Baptist churches.
___Each night, the "Beach Reachers" packed out the sanctuary of Island Baptist Church for a 6:30 worship service led by a praise band drawn from members of the various campuses. They

BRANDON ROSS(right) of Wedgwood Baptist Church in Fort Worth prays with guests at a breakfast.

sang loudly, prayed fervently and overflowed the small church house with enthusiasm.
___Beach Reach is part revival meeting, part evangelism training camp and part rescue mission.
___The van rides were just one point of contact the Baptist volunteers had with spring break revelers. They also combed the beaches each day, striking up conversations that led to opportunities to talk about Jesus.
___That happened easily on the most-trafficked part of the beach, where Christian artist Randy Hofman created life-size sculptures on a biblical theme each day.
___Spring breakers--often with longneck or king-size beer containers in hand--stopped to stare at the sculptures. Plenty of Christian students were on hand to talk about the gospel message rising from the shore through images such as Jesus on the cross or Jesus rising from the tomb.
___Some of those conversations culminated in prayer, some even in prayers of repentance and conversion.
___Near the sculpture and all over the beach, the Christians passed out small cards with the van hotline number and information about a free pancake breakfast offered every morning from 9 until noon.
___The pancake breakfast met a need of spring breakers while providing a perfect setting for one-on-one evangelism, Young said. With an estimated 150,000 visitors on the tiny island last week--and with many of those approaching the end of the week with all their money spent on beer--the free breakfasts drew large crowds of 1,000 or more each day.
___After two decades of formal spring break ministry on South Padre Island, Beach Reach organizers know what works--not only for changing the lives of those who need to know Christ, but also for empowering the Christian students to be fearless witnesses.
___"What Beach Reach is all about is this: Listening to the voice of God," Young told the students early in the week.
___It's about "divine appointments" orchestrated by God, he said, opportunities to be faithful in telling the thirsty where to find living water.
___In Young's mind, the beach is both mission field and training ground.
___"I can preach revivals all over the state of Texas, and it will never have the impact this event does, said Young, who has been a Beach Reach organizer every year since 1980.
___The difference, he said, is teaching people to lead others to Christ versus just leading to Christ the few people you meet yourself.
___Beach Reach "really has been effective in helping students learn to share their faith in creative ways," he said.
___The most effective evangelism training does not take place in a church classroom but in a real-life setting, Young said. "Evangelism training is about placing them in a situation where they'll have to totally depend on God."
___Once students experience this high, many want to keep coming back.
___"I would have come and slept in a tent if I couldn't come with Baptist Student Ministry," said Tim Turley of San Jacinto College in Pasadena.
___Turley's Baptist Student Ministry group took a spring break trip elsewhere this year, but because of his great experience at Beach Reach last year, Turley was determined to go back to the beach.
___Like most of the other students at Beach Reach, he felt a strong call from God to volunteer for the spring break assignment. Paying $150 and giving up a week of vacation didn't seem like a sacrifice at all, he said.
___The thing he likes best, he said, is that this ministry unifies the body of Christ.
___"A lot of times, people don't see Christ's love in us," he said, citing fighting between and within denominations. "But here they do."
___What happens at Beach Reach is "like real Christianity, like real Jesus stuff," Turley said.
___It's also unified by the broad support of Texas Baptists, Young added.
___Although the students work on the frontlines, their work is made possible by support from people of all ages--from the "winter Texans" who attend Island Baptist Church, to Texas Baptist Men who bring their disaster relief equipment to cook, to small churches hundreds of miles away that give aid through vehicles, supplies and money.
___Small churches throughout the Rio Grande Valley "give everything they have to feed us so we can share the gospel," he said. "It's the whole body of Christ coming together to make this happen."
___

ARTISTRandy Hofman works on one of his daily sand sculptures. (Photos by Mark Wingfield)

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