April 28, 2003
Galveston church gives 'living water' to Beach Party revelers
___By John Hall
___Texas Baptist Communications
___GALVESTON--First Baptist Church members gave away 1,000 bottles of "living water" to thirsty, raucous revelers at the Texas Beach Party, a spring break-like gathering on Galveston Island.
___The church distributed free bottles of water that were labeled with Scripture as an experiment to see if they could provide a spiritual presence in the midst of 100,000 people who come to island annually for the party, said Pastor Pete Jory.
___Many people leave the island each year to avoid the large surge of people and debauchery that occurs, Jory said. The influx of people greatly restricts travel on the island. Many locals who remain do not leave their houses because they fear they will not be able to get back to them.
___The party has been characterized by illegal activity and lewd and destructive behavior in the past. Local government has beefed up security in recent years to keep the celebrating constrained.
___Rather than escaping the fracas, the church saw a large audience they thought needed to hear about Jesus. So they partnered with another local Baptist church to conduct the outreach effort.
___To the pastors' surprise, the small volunteer team was welcomed and distributed their supply of bottles in under an hour. Although the team was unable to engage many people in spiritual conversations, Jory saw people reading the bottle labels throughout the day.
___Phillip Bush, a member of First Baptist Church who distributed water, said he acted out of a "desire to do something" to "put a small portion of Scripture in their hands and hopefully in their hearts."
___The Scripture on the bottles, a section of Jesus' encounter with the Samaritan woman at the well as recounted in John's Gospel, has a dual meaning to Bush. While many church members immediately thought of Jesus as the "living water," Bush found the crowd and the Samaritan woman in the story similar in another way.
___"Just like the Samaritans were despised by the Jews, these people are despised by many on the island," he said.
___The water sent an underlying message of love to the partiers, Bush said. It was a way for the congregation to show it cares for the people without condoning their behavior.
___Encouraged by the response, the congregation is looking forward to improving the effort next year, Jory said. He hopes to expand the outreach by involving more churches and Galveston Baptist Association.
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