Lubbock students travel to Florida for unconventional spring breakIt seemed normal.
A group of 50 college kids in a charter bus, dubbed “The Party Bus” by a few of its riders, who were antsy and excited to get to Panama City Beach, Florida, one of the world’s most popular spring break destinations.
However, the group’s purpose for going to Panama City was anything but normal compared to the majority of students in the city.
“The general response is ‘What is this?’ ‘Why are y’all doing this?’” said Clint Wren, one of the 50 students from First Baptist Church of Lubbock who participated in Beach Reach. Beach Reach is an evangelism-oriented mission trip put on by Lifeway.
Wren said the students gave up their entire spring break in order to serve and share the love of Jesus with spring breakers, most of whom are desperately seeking something.
“It just blew my mind to see how many people, even though they were there partying, they just had a turnaround,” said Elise Peak, a freshman at Texas Tech who went on the trip.
To reach the spring breakers, the students would begin their mission work at around 9 p.m., and finish for the night anywhere between 3 and 6 a.m. The night was divided into two shifts, and there were three roles the students served in.
One of the roles seems simple, riding a van, but that was not the only aspect of the role. Students had canvassed the area known as the strip, where most hotels and clubs in the city are located, with promotional cards advertising free van rides and a free pancake breakfast in the morning. Spring breakers were able to call a phone number and get a safe van ride to and from anywhere on the strip for free. When they took advantage of this service, they were greeted on the vans by beach reachers, as they became known, who were prepared to have conversations and establish relationships with the spring breakers and to intentionally steer the conversation towards Christ, in hopes of being able to share the Gospel.
“We’ll just talk with them while we take them to wherever they want to go and just pray that God will lead it into a spiritual conversation,” said Ricky Bolander, a sophomore on the trip who also went on the trip last year. “It usually happens, so it’s pretty cool.”
Another role was called street team, where students would get dropped off at an area of the strip and talk with people walking down the streets of the city.
“It was more casual so that people would talk with us, but then once we struck up a spiritual conversation it was just amazing where it took us, “ Peak said.
Tim Puckett, a graduate student who went on the trip said people are often very open to having lengthy conversations, even if they are heading to a specific destination. Puckett greeted a student who was on a way to a party to meet with a girl.
“He stopped and we ended up talking for probably 45 minutes, maybe an hour. He ended up rededicating his life to Christ,” Puckett said. “It was one of those things where like, he had his own plan and his own intentions, but clearly God had a different plan for him. Just the fact that he stopped, cause he was like on his way to go to this party and meet this girl, the fact that he stopped and we talked for so long and he made a decision that hopefully will change the rest of his life I think that was pretty cool.”
Wren, Peak, Bolander and Puckett all said prayer was the most important aspect of the trip, and much of that prayer originated from the prayer room, the third role the students served in. The prayer room was set up at the hotel the students stayed at, and had two screens at the front of the room displaying updated prayer requests. The requests came via text message from students in the vans and on the streets, so students in the prayer room were able to lift up spring breakers by name
“Our prayers were completely answered,” Peak said. The power of prayer was completely proven night after night.”
Puckeet said while the prayer room was important, prayer was a major aspect no matter where the team was.
“I think the coolest thing about the trip is seeing prayers answered right before your eyes,” he said. “I think the biggest summation of the trip would be prayer and seeing God work through that.”
After serving in these roles the students slept for a few hours and then woke up to go to the free pancake breakfast, to which they invited many of the spring breakers they ministered to the night before. The pancakes were prepared by a team of senior-adults from Georgia and given away free to anyone who came. Beach reachers then started conversations with spring breakers while they ate in an effort to continue to grow the seeds they planted in previous nights.
“Whenever we sat there in line and saw people we had seen the night before come to the pancake breakfast it was so refreshing because you know, there are people out there that are hungry for the Word,” Peak said. “People want to know the word.”
All four of the students said they were amazed by how God worked through them during the trip, and said their personal spiritual walk grew as the week progressed.
“For that one week there’s that intimacy and closeness with God that is almost indescribable,” Wren said. “It’s almost exactly what was intended for us as Christians to have with God. You can’t beat that.”
“Of course, you see God show up in miraculous and crazy ways,” he said. “(There were) just a lot of events that only God could ordain.”
The week of Beach Reach FBC Lubbock’s students attended resulted in more than 20 first-time decisions for Christ and numerous rededications.
Wren said the students gave up their entire spring break in order to serve and share the love of Jesus with spring breakers, most of whom are desperately seeking something.
“It just blew my mind to see how many people, even though they were there partying, they just had a turnaround,” said Elise Peak, a freshman at Texas Tech who went on the trip.
To reach the spring breakers, the students would begin their mission work at around 9 p.m., and finish for the night anywhere between 3 and 6 a.m. The night was divided into two shifts, and there were three roles the students served in.
One of the roles seems simple, riding a van, but that was not the only aspect of the role. Students had canvassed the area known as the strip, where most hotels and clubs in the city are located, with promotional cards advertising free van rides and a free pancake breakfast in the morning. Spring breakers were able to call a phone number and get a safe van ride to and from anywhere on the strip for free. When they took advantage of this service, they were greeted on the vans by beach reachers, as they became known, who were prepared to have conversations and establish relationships with the spring breakers and to intentionally steer the conversation towards Christ, in hopes of being able to share the Gospel.
“We’ll just talk with them while we take them to wherever they want to go and just pray that God will lead it into a spiritual conversation,” said Ricky Bolander, a sophomore on the trip who also went on the trip last year. “It usually happens, so it’s pretty cool.”
Another role was called street team, where students would get dropped off at an area of the strip and talk with people walking down the streets of the city.
“It was more casual so that people would talk with us, but then once we struck up a spiritual conversation it was just amazing where it took us, “ Peak said.
Tim Puckett, a graduate student who went on the trip said people are often very open to having lengthy conversations, even if they are heading to a specific destination. Puckett greeted a student who was on a way to a party to meet with a girl.
“He stopped and we ended up talking for probably 45 minutes, maybe an hour. He ended up rededicating his life to Christ,” Puckett said. “It was one of those things where like, he had his own plan and his own intentions, but clearly God had a different plan for him. Just the fact that he stopped, cause he was like on his way to go to this party and meet this girl, the fact that he stopped and we talked for so long and he made a decision that hopefully will change the rest of his life I think that was pretty cool.”
Wren, Peak, Bolander and Puckett all said prayer was the most important aspect of the trip, and much of that prayer originated from the prayer room, the third role the students served in. The prayer room was set up at the hotel the students stayed at, and had two screens at the front of the room displaying updated prayer requests. The requests came via text message from students in the vans and on the streets, so students in the prayer room were able to lift up spring breakers by name
“Our prayers were completely answered,” Peak said. The power of prayer was completely proven night after night.”
Puckeet said while the prayer room was important, prayer was a major aspect no matter where the team was.
“I think the coolest thing about the trip is seeing prayers answered right before your eyes,” he said. “I think the biggest summation of the trip would be prayer and seeing God work through that.”
After serving in these roles the students slept for a few hours and then woke up to go to the free pancake breakfast, to which they invited many of the spring breakers they ministered to the night before. The pancakes were prepared by a team of senior-adults from Georgia and given away free to anyone who came. Beach reachers then started conversations with spring breakers while they ate in an effort to continue to grow the seeds they planted in previous nights.
“Whenever we sat there in line and saw people we had seen the night before come to the pancake breakfast it was so refreshing because you know, there are people out there that are hungry for the Word,” Peak said. “People want to know the word.”
All four of the students said they were amazed by how God worked through them during the trip, and said their personal spiritual walk grew as the week progressed.
“For that one week there’s that intimacy and closeness with God that is almost indescribable,” Wren said. “It’s almost exactly what was intended for us as Christians to have with God. You can’t beat that.”
“Of course, you see God show up in miraculous and crazy ways,” he said. “(There were) just a lot of events that only God could ordain.”
The week of Beach Reach FBC Lubbock’s students attended resulted in more than 20 first-time decisions for Christ and numerous rededications.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment