Beach Reach Provides Hope and Stretches Others

Over this past Spring Break, God gave me the opportunity to take part in a mission trip on South Padre Island. Me and 5 other students from Randall University in Moore, Oklahoma teamed up with a group of students from Navarro Junior College BSM. Together, we made our way to South Padre Island, where over 400 students from other colleges all around the United States joined together to be the hands and feet of Jesus in one of the biggest party towns for spring breakers. While I faced many ups and downs and battled what seemed like never-ending doubts and lies from the enemy, what I experienced was so intense and so incredible that it could only be explained by God’s Spirit moving on that island. 

After I got home from our trip, I spent a lot of time reflecting over my time at Beach Reach, and the following Wednesday, I decided to sit down and journal everything that happened for my own personal reasons. As I started journaling, the leader from Navarro BSM, Mr. Jason, texted and asked if I would be willing to journal my experience to be shared by the Ellis Baptist Association. I didn’t understand why God would choose to send someone like me to be a part of something so big, but this is just another testament to the fact that God’s timing is truly so incredible. When you choose to be obedient and be fully surrendered to God’s leadership in every area, He will do more for you than you could ever dream or ask for. 
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Sunday, March 15, 2026 

Sunday was our first full day on the island of South Padre, and that night would be our very first shift doing van rides. Our group of 15 would work 3-5 hours per night, doing 3 shift rotations per night, and when we weren’t on the vans, we spent our time at the church, where they had a prayer room set up where we would get real-time updates from other Beach Reachers on the field. I think the prayer room was my favorite part of the trip. Never in my life have I seen so many people constantly on their knees in prayer, in God’s Word, truly and earnestly seeking the Lord, and I have never been so aware of the weight and presence of the Holy Spirit as I was that week. However, as amazing as that was, I was still battling so many doubts over why I was there and why God would send me, of all people. I was convinced I had no idea what I was doing, but I was there, so I resigned to sit down and start reading my Bible. 

For the first 20 minutes, I flipped mindlessly from book to book, skimming the scriptures just waiting for something to jump out, waiting to feel the Holy Spirit lead me somewhere or reveal something to me. As the little hope I had started running out, I found myself in Matthew 5, Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. With little to no faith and not even sure what I was looking for, I began reading. I was about to give up and move on to a new book when I reached verse 14: “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden.” As soon as my eyes read that last word, the power went out, and not just where I was, but on the entire island. I sat there for a moment, feeling chills run through my whole body as I realized that God HAD sent me there, He WAS moving, and He was just getting started. The power went out 5 times that night, and something that I didn’t find out until the day we left was that our midnight pancake tent, which was set up outside the busiest bar on the island, was running on a generator. So that night, while the entire island went dark, there was one place that remained lit. Our pancake tent truly became a light to the world, a tent on an island that could not be hidden. 

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Monday, March 16, 2026 

Monday night, instead of working from the church, we would be doing rotations, transporting directly from the bar where we had our pancake tent set up. For the first half of the night, me and 2 others from our group were actually walking around outside the bars passing out free pancake cards and trying to start gospel conversations. Even though I no longer doubted what God would do that week, I still found myself doubting what God would do through me. For the first half hour, I struggled to have any meaningful conversations while my friend Clayton was on fire with the Holy Spirit. However, when I made my fear and anxieties known, my brother and sister immediately prayed over it, rebuking it all in the name of Jesus. Although I didn’t feel any different, I had already seen what prayer could do, so I stepped out in faith and immediately after that we encountered a group of boys, one of which, by the end of the conversation, recommitted his life to Christ. I realized in that moment, that God isn’t just calling on the bravest most fearless Christians to be part of missions. God can and will use anyone, if only we will be willing servants. 

After we finished our first shift on the field, we rotated onto the bus where, at the end of the night I met Carla. When Carla got on the bus that night I felt such a heaviness on her spirit and in that moment, I began to feel the Holy Spirit move in me in a way I’ve never felt before. I don’t remember much of that conversation, but I do remember holding her hands as I began to feel God move me to pray His love over her. I didn’t know why but I felt moved to remind her that she was a beautiful child of God created in His image and that’s when she gripped me even harder and started crying. We may not always understand why God has called us to something or asked us to do certain things and in the moment it may feel crazy. But one thing I do know is that it’s not crazy to the person God has to you. 

That night I realized how little I truly understand what it meant to love the lost like Jesus did and to bear one another’s burdens. In the span of 15 minutes, Carla and I had gone from being complete strangers to hugging and crying and saying, “I love you,” over and over again. And the crazy part was that I actually meant it when I said I love you. This girl that I had just met, I had a genuine and deep love for and in that moment I didn’t care why she was at the bars or that she was drunk or how close she was with the Lord. God opened my eyes to seeing his people, both lost and found, in His eyes which has profoundly changed the way I live my life. 

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Tuesday, March 17, 2026 

The day after I met Carla, the spiritual warfare really amped up. Satan was throwing every past failure, every trauma, and every insecurity he could at me. That day I let doubt win and instead of riding the vans, I spent the day serving in the prayer room. But that taught me that God truly uses everything, and in our weakness his power is made perfect. I cried out to God relentlessly and I stayed on my knees, at the altar and in His word for hours. That’s when I learned what it truly means to wait on the Lord. If you want to see God move, get out of His way. If you really want to be in His presence, get on your knees, in prayer and in worship, because there is power in humility, there is grace in honesty, there is relief in heaviness, and there is love in pain. God also showed me that there is power in His body. None of us were meant to carry the weight of this world on our own. God saw my pain, but my healing didn’t come in the form of visions and miracles. It came in the form of people who saw my pain even in my silence and chose to lift me up without questions. 

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Wednesday, March 18th, 2026 

Wednesday morning I got the opportunity to work as a sharer at our morning pancake tent. I was told I’d be there for about an hour and 20 minutes, then I would switch to van rides. As my time at the tent drew to a close, I became very discouraged because I had yet to have one meaningful interaction with the people we were there to reach and serve. Thankfully, God never stops interceding for us if we slow down enough to listen and pay attention. That was the day I truly gave everything over to God. I walked into the church and every doubt, every fear, and every expectation I had placed on myself were laid at his feet. I told God that if He had a divine appointment for me I would trust Him and let Him lead, and that if I didn’t that was okay too. So, fully surrendered to God’s will and plan, I walked back outside and that’s when I really saw God move. There were somewhere between 60-70 vans on the island, but as I walked outside, I saw our van pull into the parking lot and that’s when I met Brisa and her husband. 

I began talking with her as we walked through the pancake line and made our way to the tables where another Beach Reacher began talking with her husband. I didn’t know it at the time, but our leader Mrs. Julie had been convinced that many of us were going to have divine appointments that day. I don’t remember a lot of my conversation with Brisa, but I do remember that for the first time all week I wasn’t worried about the time or what I was saying. For 10 minutes we just talked like we’d been friends our whole lives and at some point I noticed an alien tattoo on the back of her neck. I still can’t tell you how, but sure enough that led us straight to Jesus. By the time I had finished sharing my testimony, we were holding hands while laughing and crying. Neither of us cared that we were crying outside a church next to a what a burger at 10 am on a Wednesday. I just know we both felt the presence of God. I was able to see God move in ways I never thought possible and because of what God did through all of us that week, Brisa and her husband got off the van lost but got back on as born again children of God! 

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Thursday, March 19th, 2026 

Thursday was not only our last day but our longest one and the enemy was attacking with everything he had, including two false fire alarms the night before. To say we were exhausted at this point would be an understatement. However, we met up outside the busiest bar on the beach and in the middle of all that worldly Chaos, God allowed us to baptize 20 new believers in the Mighty name of Jesus. While people partied and drank on the beach, over 400 college students and countless other volunteers crowded the ocean and shared the pure joy of our new brothers and sisters. However, later that evening as we got ready for our last shifts on the vans and in the prayer rooms, I found out that we would be working 4 hour shifts on the vans that night, which was more than double the amount of time we were usually on shift. To be honest I was less than excited to get this news and I noticed that my hot posture was in the wrong place. Thankfully, my brothers in Christ were there to correct me and to remind me to stay in the fight until the very end. As we finished praying I got a text from Carla, and I knew that God was not done yet. 

Because of how busy the island was at this point, it was extremely difficult to get a van ride through the hotline, and we weren’t allowed to make special pickups outside of what we had been assigned so unfortunately we weren’t able to pick Carla up at the beginning of the night. But God knew exactly what He was doing and by His grace, I was placed on the 2nd and 3rd shift which meant I would still be on the vans when she was leaving the bars later that night. I worked on the vans for 3 hours and had some amazing gospel conversations, and the thought of seeing Carla again and getting another opportunity to witness to her was the fire that kept me going. Finally we had a break where we didn’t have any assignments and I got permission from our driver to make a special pickup for Carla. As we were setting out to pick her up, our navigator told us we just got an assignment and my heart dropped, until they said the pickup name. We were on our way to go get Carla. 

Over the course of that week, God taught me so much, not only about Him but about myself. I have learned to love the lost in such a deeper way. I have learned just how powerful prayer can be. I have learned how much more we are capable of achieving when we allow God to lead the way. I learned how much power and genuine love there is in the community and family that is God’s body. But I think the biggest thing that trip taught me was to trust God more. Most of the time, at least in my experience, when God calls you to something, it doesn’t make sense. It feels like He’s asking the wrong person because what could I possibly have to offer? But as I sit here writing this, which is something else I never imagined I would be doing, I can honestly say that His plan is good and His way is perfect. So if God is calling you to something, don’t question it. Just say yes. 

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