Mission with UBM by Andrea Livingstone
Sarah Gillanders and l went down to stay in Youghal Methodist church at the very bottom of Ireland to do United Beach Missions. We were doing the actually beach missions on Garryvoe beach which was about a 25 minute drive away from the church. UBM (United Beach Missions) has been around for ages basically doing holiday bible clubs on different beaches all around Ireland. However, Garryvoe beach was on the whole ‘virgin’ territory because beach missions had never been there before and so it was quite a challenge to go there for my first beach mission experience! Although we were all a bit skeptical of what to do and so that made me and Sarah feel better because we both didn’t know what to do or expect. Our team was, in my opinion, amazing! I couldn’t have asked for a better team because they were all so supportive and encouraging on our first beach mission trip and the cook made so many excellent meals it made me feel right at home! 
Our typical day involved getting up early and having a time set aside for our own individual quiet times. This really got everyone filled up with God’s love and glory at the start of the day which I felt made a real difference. We then headed to the beach and did a few activities, such as volleyball, face painting, and even balloon making! After the children had played their games we taught them a Bible story and then we stopped for lunch. Once lunch was over we headed into the Holiday Special which consisted of memory verses, stories, quizzes, songs, competitions and lots of prizes! In the afternoon we had a family fun time which was big activities such as sand castle building competitions, which parents could help their children with. This was a really good opportunity to talk to the parents and share the gospel with them also. On the Wednesday and Thursday night we held a teen event and it was really encouraging as many boys came and played football and afterwards we told them the gospel in a way that I think really had an affect on them. Most of them had only heard the basics of Christianity but it was a real challenge for us to tell them of God’s love for them as an individual.
Unfortunately the problem with beach missions was that the tide kept coming in and therefore we had to hold our whole day’s events on the grass area behind the beach. However I see this as a blessing in disguise because the beach was very stony and the children could have easily got hurt while playing the games in the morning. Also the grass area was right beside the entrance to the beach and so more people saw us and came over to us because they were interested in what we were doing and also we found that the children were more focused while on the grass!
Our main purpose throughout was to share the gospel with the children and their parents and at the end of the week we were very happy to find that 2 young male teenagers were very interested in making Jesus Christ their personal Savior and so I would like everyone to pray that the seed that was sown there will blossom and flourish according to God’s loving plan. We handed out a lot of literature during the week about Jesus and His sacrifice so I would also like you to pray that all that took some literature and a DVD will read and watch and be moved towards Jesus because of it.
I know many knew about me and Sarah doing beach missions and that many were praying for us and so I really want to thank you all so much for the everyone who prayed for us or even just wished us well before and after the trip because it was so amazing and very encouraging to know we had our whole church family behind us! I would recommend anyone, young and old, to do beach missions because it really is so much fun and very rewarding!
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