BEACHREACH STORIES & PICS

This is my third year coming to Beach Reach in Panama City Beach Florida. Every year God never ceases to amaze me with answered prayers and miraculous life changes in the spring breakers lives as well as my own. This year thus far has been a totally new experience. With my own personal growth and the growth of those around me it only makes sense that there’s different dynamics each year for this trip. Three big things I’ve learned or am taking back for this trip is this: First, The past two years I’ve come to Beach Reach with the same overbearing sin struggle. Both years begging for God to remove the bondage and chains of that sin and I’m proud to say that this year that struggle is no longer a part of my life and it’s an incredibly freeing feeling and it’s really cool to see the progression of that sin being removed from my life with Beach Reach serving as a marker. The second thing I’ve learned from this trip (and I’m actually stealing this from something I’ve heard from more than one person on my team) is that God hasn’t called us to “go and make new Christians” the command is to “Go and make disciples”. Not to lessen the importance of salvation but rather to realize that there are brothers and sisters out there who have fallen away and we are called to encourage, disciple, and mentor our fallen brothers and sisters. The third thing I’ve learned from the Beach Reach experience is to NEVER put God in a box or expect Him to meet OUR expectations. Because He WILL show up BIG (bigger than any box we could ever put Him in) and He will far EXCEED any expectations we think we have about what His plans are for us and the world around us. The verse I’ve claimed this year as my “Beach Reach Verse” is Ecclesiastes 3:11 “He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has planned from beginning to end.” God is continually in the process of drawing all men unto Himself and He does so by setting eternity in their hearts and I have seen that scripture come to reality right here in the streets of Panama during Spring Break! Glory to God, Glory to God forever -Veronica Kernodle

I had an amazing conversation with an agnostic guy. His name is Matt K. He was very open to discussing God, which really amazed me! It was my first deep discussion this week. We pretty much jumped right into God, and his beliefs. Matt, being agnostic, does believe in a supernatural being who created humans and the earth and such, he just hasn’t figured out who the Creator is. I explained to him my beliefs in God, the ONE TRUE GOD. He kept saying how do you know what you believe is right because no one can say they are right. But I told him that God hears me and answers my prayers and talks with me. That with God, our Creator, it’s much more than religion, it’s all about relationship. It’s not about good works, because there’s nothing we can do. It’s about God reaching down to us, and us accepting Him into our life as Lord and Savior and then wanting to glorify God with our lives. He was extremely in to the whole conversation and I recited Scripture with him. He said he does believe in the Bible and Heaven and Hell. At the very beginning of our conversation I asked him if he died and went to hell tonight would he be okay with that…and he said no, who would be okay with that. But then by the end of our conversation he said that if he died and went to hell he guesses he would have to be okay with that. It just breaks my heart, because he wants to physically see God-the only thing holding him back. I related God to the wind- you can’t see the wind, but you can feel it and see the effects of it through trees and such…just like you see God through people and creation and can feel His presence. He thought that was really cool and he said he never heard it put like that. I think he’s really questioning his beliefs, but he just doesn’t want to let them go..he’s holding on to the physically seeing God as the only thing holding him back. I loved that whenever his friends said that they were leaving and going back up to the hotel room, he said he wanted to stay and talk with me because he really liked this conversation. That was God moving right there. Also, at the very beginning of our conversation he said that he believed everything happens for a reason..that he’s in panama city for a reason. So I replied, well maybe that reason is so that you can talk with us. And to that Matt said, yeah, you may be right. I just love how God moved in our conversation. God never ceases to amaze me. Please be praying for Matt K. I gave him my number so that he could call me if he wanted to talk more some time later and so that he could call me if he came to pancake breakfast (which I am really praying that he does). He lost his phone in a taxi earlier this week…so pray that one of his friends let him use their phone. Matt told me he really enjoys talking about God and beliefs about God, but that he never gets a chance to because his friends never want to talk about it. So please be praying for Matt K. as God works in him. I can feel that he’s close to coming to know Jesus as Lord and Savior.
-Valerie Winters


Tonight God really showed His power and ability to set divine appointments! Starting out this night I was very discouraged and having a horrible night. I was set to work with Valerie Winters and Tyler Carr and I told them that I was having a hard night and that they would have to help me out tonight and Tyler told me that when we feel the most discouraged is when God is about to do something great and he was SO right! We were out at Sandpiper Beacon and it is out in the middle of no where pretty much and separated from the clubs and nearby hotels, but the second we got there, people came out of everywhere! We gave 2 groups van rides right off the bat and that was really encouraging! Then, as if that wasn’t enough encouragement, God sent a past beach reacher to encourage us and to pray with us even more! After that prayer, we had the two best conversations of our night! This is where God showed me His true power and detailed preparation of us! We came across this group of 4 guys from Illinois (Jake and 3 his friends). As we started talking to them he said he wanted to see just how good we were and said that he was going to say a random chapter of the Bible and that if we could say it he would quit drinking for 3 years. He picked Psalm 139, which just so happened to be the chapter of the Bible that my life group from last semester had chosen to memorize! Not only that, but then his friend (who claimed to be a Christian) said that the real test would be if we could tell him the location in the Bible of a random verse that he picked and that he would quit drinking forever if we could tell him where it was located. He picked the verse about the grass withering and the flower fading, which just so happened to be in 1 Peter, which is the book of the Bible that my current life group is studying! I asked if 1 Peter was right book and he said he didn’t even know, so I got out my Bible to show him and 1 Peter 1:24 says “ For all men are like grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field; the grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of the Lord stands forever.” My mind was blown when I realized that God had been preparing me for this very conversation over a whole semester ago! God allowed for those guys to pick the verses that God had been showing me the past 2 semesters and used them in miraculous ways. Our God is such a divine and all-knowing and powerful God! I am so thankful that I can call Him my Father!!!
-Brittni Brewer