March 24, 2003

Spring Break
JOANNA Begnaud and Amanda Goble of Angelo State University work with Bruce Block of Shiloh Evangelical Free Church in Rockford, Ill., to cook pancakes for the free breakfast. (Ferrel Foster/BGCT Photo)	Angelo State University student Lluvia Escalona, from Mexico City, talks about Jesus with students on the beach.

HEAVENLY SUNLIGHT:
Spring break ministries
___By Ferrell Foster
___Texas Baptist Communications
___SOUTH PADRE ISLAND--Cassandra Sagan never had shared her Christian faith as boldly as she did during spring break at South Padre Island this year.
___But she had plenty of experience to know what it's like to be on the other side of the conversation--with young people whose sole priority is to party and get drunk.
___"What got me here was my past," she said. "All through high school, this is the kind of life I lived, the kind of life I wanted to live."

TWO Beach Reach volunteers (left) give their Christian testimonies to beachgoers near one of the sand sculptures used to start conversations. (Ferrel Foster/BGCT Photo)

___Ultimately, she realized that kind of life was "not going to make me happy" and would "eventually let me down no matter how much fun it is, how many nights you go out," she said.
___The junior at Angelo State University in San Angelo was among 400 Baptist Student Ministry members who devoted their spring break to Beach Reach, the annual student-led ministry on South Padre Island.
___In the wee hours of the morning, Sagan stood outside a tent where Baptist volunteers were serving a pancake breakfast to partiers. In the darkness, she talked with students about the light Christ has brought to her life.
___"This is definitely a challenge," she said. "It's our chance to tell them why we're here."
___Her message was simple: "The only thing that's really going to satisfy you is a relationship with Christ."
___"If I could tell one person about how God has changed me, then that would be enough," she explained. "That's why I came."
___Sagan was heartbroken to see students engage in personally destructive behavior. But she was encouraged, she said, "because I know if I could have come out of it, then I know that there's hope for anybody."
___Spring break on South Padre is a huge outdoor party, and beer flows as freely as the tide. Young men tote coolers onto the beach, then set up camp around it. Others bury kegs in the sand for insulation. Some rig funnels for guzzling the beer through plastic tubing.
___"College students come from all over the United States, and they come down here for one reason and one reason only, and that's to party," said Brenda Sanders, student missions consultant for the Baptist General Convention of Texas. "Walking on the beach, it breaks your heart as you see the sin. That's the only way to put it."
___Sanders described seeing "young ladies who have no respect for themselves or their bodies and young men who are treating them as nothing but a piece of meat."
___For many of the 40,000 students on the beach, Sanders said, their "whole purpose" is to "lay in the sun and get drunk."
___In this environment, Texas Baptist Beach Reachers used sand sculptures the size of Volkswagon Beetles to attract attention as they witnessed on the beach.
___This was the 24th year for Beach Reach, launched in 1980 by Buddy Young, Baptist Student Ministries director at West Texas A&M University.
___In addition to the counseling and pancake breakfast, BSM volunteers provided transportation to partiers who could not safely drive.
___What was most disturbing, several said, was seeing professed Chr

AT SOUTH PADRE ISLAND, Donnie Brown, Baptist Student Ministries director at Wayland Bapist University, prepares to baptize a new convert in the Gulf of Mexico with help from another Beach Reach sponsor. (Wayland Communications Photo)

istians behaving like the rest of the crowd.
___"God is the No. 1 priority in my life," said a young man from the University of Texas at Dallas. "He's great. He's my Savior. I praise him as much I can. I love him to death."
___But during spring break, that student said, "I just wanted to have fun."
___God, he said, would take care of him while he's getting drunk. "I know I'm sinning, but I will go to church, and I will ask for forgiveness about all this. I don't do this all the time. It's just spring break, and I'm out to have a good time."
___A student from Miami University in Ohio said spring break at South Padre enabled him to "let loose for a week before you face reality next Saturday, blow off a little steam." He spoke of having "his own beliefs" about God and going to church at times. "I just practice my own way. I try to stay moral." Asked how those beliefs affected him during spring break, he said, "Actually not a whole lot."
___He was not alone. Many students talked of God and about normally trying to do the right thing, but most said their beliefs had little affect on how they behaved during spring break.
___"Honestly," said one young woman from Texas, "I don't think you can make room for God and do this kind of stuff."
___The BSM students had a very different experience on the island. They brought their everyday faith with them for the break.
___They were "trying to do servant evangelism," Sanders said, "meeting the needs of the college students, giving them free rides, feeding them free food, talking to them, being there. They're being the light in darkness."
___Colin Feldhause, a sophomore at Angelo State, participated in his first Beach Reach.
___"It's so awesome," he said. "Christ has moved so much in my life. I'm able to share my testimony so much better now. I never really shared it that much before. I can feel when Christ is working in my life, and who to go talk to. ... People really will listen to you."
___That's a typical reaction from a first-timer, said Joel Bratcher, BSM director at Texas A&M in College Station.
___"First timers are blown away by how open the people are spiritually. It's exhilarating to them to be involved in something this cutting edge, because their faith is really stretched. They're realizing the power of prayer, the importance of praying."
___Bringing BSM students to the beach changes their lives, said Jimmy Daniel, BSM director at the University of Texas in Austin. He's been bringing spring break volunteers to the beach for 12 years.
___"Every year, this is evangelism training for our students," Daniel said. "This is part of what we do to equip our students back on the campus to share their faith."
___Generally, Beach Reach results in as many as 300 professions of faith in Christ annually, plus hundreds of other contacts through witnessing and prayer.
___It's the acts of kindness that make an impact on many of the partiers.
___A young woman from Southwest Texas State University ate from a plate of free pancakes as she stood beside a street at about 2 in the morning, and she expressed appreciation for the Baptist ministry.
___"We all got out of the club, and these people were out here with pancakes for us, helping us to sober up to drive home safely," she said. "They're amazing. It's all free. They're all happy. It's wonderful."
___Asked why she thought the Baptists would do that, the student responded, "I guess because they care about us."
___

The Baptist Standard



News of religion, faith, missions, Bible study and Christian ministry among Texas Baptist churches, in the BGCT, the Southern Baptist Convention ( SBC ) and around the world.

---

Contents/ Masthead / Why We're Here / Links / Archive / E-mail us/ SUBSCRIBE!/ Signup for FirstLook