Where the Shore Became a Mission Field

This spring, students stepped out of their comfort zones and onto the beach and God moved in ways that exceeded every expectation.

There is something unique about watching a student - someone who has been quiet, hesitant, unsure of the words to say - take a breath, approach a stranger, and share the Gospel for the very first time. That is what happened at Beach Reach this year. Not once. Not twice. But across an entire week of ministry, over and over again, as our students stepped into their invitation to the Great Commission with boldness and humility.

For many, it was a series of firsts. Their first time explicitly sharing the Gospel with someone they had never met. Their first time spending two or three uninterrupted hours in prayer, Scripture, and quiet connection with God. These were not small moments. They were the kind that tend to mark a life.

2,195 SHUTTLE RIDES GIVEN

10,438 PEOPLE TRANSPORTED

6,062 GOSPEL CONVERSATIONS

8,153 PEOPLE PRAYED OVER

271 PROFESSIONS OF FAITH

Our students did not go alone. Throughout the week, they served alongside students from many other schools, a beautiful picture of the Body of Christ working together in unity. The combined effort of all groups produced numbers that can only be described as a testament to God's faithfulness.

"We gave 2,195 shuttle rides, drove 10,438 people, shared the Gospel with 6,062 spring breakers, prayed over 8,153 people and saw 271 of them profess faith in Jesus."

Two hundred and seventy-one people. That is the total number of names written in the Lamb's Book of Life from this one week of gospel saturation. Spring breakers who came to the beach for a vacation and left having encountered the risen Christ. Praise the Lord.

Our students at H2O Athens shared the Gospel 127 times, saw 7 people recommit their lives to Christ, and witnessed 5 people profess faith in Jesus for the very first time. Each one of those conversations matters eternally.

What happens after the beach? One of the most encouraging outcomes of Beach Reach this year is what students are carrying home. Many of them are now excited about contact evangelism on their own campuses. They leave with a greater burden for the friends, classmates, and family members in their lives who do not yet know Christ.

That may be the most lasting fruit of this trip, not only the 271 who professed faith on the beach; but the students who return to Athens, to their dorms, to their dining halls and neighborhoods, now equipped and emboldened to keep going. Beach Reach did not end when they loaded back into the vans. It is continuing in the conversations they are initiating this week, this month, this year.

We are deeply grateful to God for this opportunity, and to the Scioto Valley Baptist Association for your partnership in the Gospel. This was a beautiful and important week, one where our students truly saw God do abundantly more than all they could hope or imagine.

Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us. — Ephesians 3:20