“South Padre Island is always one of the top-5 ranked destination beaches for Spring Break,” explains Joe Osteen, one of the coordinators of this year’s Beach Reach project. The students from around the country gather to “blow off steam, to party, to go to the clubs to meet new people - and from a Christian perspective, to often make decisions and do things that are destructive.” That can involve abuse of alcohol and risky intimate casual relationships.
Many parents may not know or appreciate what Beach Reach does to try and protect Spring Breakers. “We partner with the city to offer free van rides all over the island,” what Joe describes as “safe rides” with “no questions asked” – no judgment calls.
Volunteer Christian Beach Reach students ride along and try to strike up friendly conversation while also keeping the ride incident free. If the passengers are willing, the chat can lead into talk about life and eternity. The vehicles quickly became known as “Jesus Vans.” And one of Joe’s favorite things, “After a day or two of ministry, it seems like the whole island knows that if somebody has a Beach Reach t-shirt or hoodie on, ‘this is a person that can help me.’” There’s a sense of trust that develops helping out-of-town young people feel a bit more secure as the rowdy party-time behavior rages on across the four-square-mile barrier island on the Gulf of Mexico.
A complex mission
Osteen, no relation to the well-known Houston pastor, is director of Baptist Student Ministries at UT-Tyler. For Beach Reach many SBC volunteers, some from as far away as Vermont, come to the island to serve. And to serve up – pancakes! The group was given permission to cook and serve pancakes in front of one of the most popular clubs, Louie’s Backyard, a sports bar that remains open until 2:00 a.m. “They give us some space in their parking lot,” for the pancakes and they offer space to set up a line for Spring Breakers who want a safe van ride back to their hotels.
There’s more
For the next morning, partners from Island Baptist Church offer more hot-n-fresh pancakes for early-risers, which Spring Break style, is from 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. During the pancake feasts, Christian volunteers check on students, see if they have any needs, or want to converse. Once again, an opportunity to share about Jesus.
On a private web platform where volunteers share insight about their time with Spring Breakers, Osteen is able to see what kind of progress has been made when it comes to faith encounters. Some of the typical remarks relayed this year: “They are so open to hearing about Jesus – continue to pray!” Another report says, “The Holy Spirit has clearly been working on this person, open to a Gospel conversation.” The shared information is not intrusive, but designed to track the spiritual atmosphere of the large outreach. Forces of darkness and light both at work.
Bottom line, “We saw a real openness to being served and a real openness to having spiritual conversations this year,” smiles Osteen.
Check out our complete interview podcast below:
Baptisms in the Gulf:
