Will Graham visited Lake Havasu City, Arizona, this past week for the Colorado River Celebration. A local pastor and his wife not only volunteered for the event but also found a way to tie in their ongoing spring break outreach.
Pastor Chris Blythe looked through his dark shades as he piloted his boat along the Lake Havasu channel with his wife Nancy by his side. The 73-degree, mid-March day was right on track for the Arizona winter, and it brought with it the promise that college students on spring break will keep filling up the beach area for the rest of the month.
The Blythes love these kids, these students from local universities and far-off colleges who primarily descend upon “America’s Playground” with one goal: to party until they can’t party anymore. Many leave with tormented memories. Some don’t return at all. Tragedies happen at this premier spring break spot locals call the west coast version of Daytona Beach, Florida.
The Blythes, a couple decades older than this crowd, have grown twin daughters of their own, but they don’t give a wistful nod to the shenanigans. This shimmering channel, with its backdrop of gorgeous mountain ranges, is a battlefield.
And the Blythes, with the support of New Hope Calvary Church where Chris pastors, have staked their territory where London Bridge State Park meets the channel. This little area has come to be known as Pancake Village, and it’s been there since 2007 when Chris and Nancy heard a speaker talking about resort missions. They were convicted to do something in their own community.
The battle plan is simple: serve pancakes, hand-deliver water and above all else love these kids. Don’t roll your eyes at their tattoos or fuss at them for their bad language.
Love them. Right where they are. Plant seeds. And let God work it out.
“The whole generation is crying out for love,” said Pastor Blythe, who, along with his wife, served as counselors at Will Graham’s Colorado River Celebration held last week in Lake Havasu. “They don’t realize what they’re looking for is Christ. When we get our filter turned on to understand and look at them through God’s eyes and see the need for Christ, then you can reach them.
“If we can present the Gospel message to them that God loves them right where they’re at, that’s pretty simple theology in my book. And that’s the way we try to present it. We serve them, tell them God loves them. We don’t even have to say anything. It’s just being there for them.”
The timing couldn’t have been better for the Colorado River Celebration, which brought along with it crisis-trained chaplains with the Billy Graham Rapid Response Team. Typically, the first week of spring break is the slowest at the Pancake Village and this year was no exception. That meant chaplain coordinators Chuck and Sandy Bender could spend time pouring into these volunteers who in turn will spend the next three weeks battling with spatulas and water bottles in hand.
“They do this Beach Reach every year, and they’re faithful,” Sandy Bender said. “They come out and they want to get these kids to come to know Christ. They don’t want them looking out into this Babylon world that is here to get their thirst quenched. It’s not ever going to be quenched until they receive Christ and the Holy Spirit in their lives. God provided a time for us to be able to minister to them one on one with them feeling like they were not taking away from the crowd.”
Sandy, who lives in California, said she and her family used to bring their boats and vacation in Lake Havasu. They didn’t come during spring break time, but they were aware of the area’s reputation—too much alcohol, too little clothing and an abundance of terrifyingly bad, sometimes fatal, choices by party-goers.
“It opens your eyes and breaks your heart,” Nancy Blythe said as the boat pulled into the Pancake Village. This boat is an instrumental part of the ministry. It’s the Pancake Taxi. Every day during spring break, Chris crosses the channel to pick up hungry students. It’s a short trip, but it can be a real game changer for hungover students out of cash and starving for nourishment.
Ultimately, the Blythes and the volunteers hope the students leave filled with more than just flapjacks and H2O.
“Jesus came in the form of a servant, and when we humble ourselves and serve as He did, we become the hands and feet of Christ,” Chris Blythe said. “People respond to that.
“The millennials aren’t coming to church. They’re turned off by church because we’re so quick to judge them. I accept them. And I’m not accepting their sin. I’m accepting them as an individual that God loves and allow God to clean the fish. We cast the net, and we’re going to catch all kinds of fish.”
