In October 2017, I thought I was going on a surf trip. My wife surprised me with the news – a getaway with friends in Nicaragua. What she didn’t mention was that I’d be traveling with four pastors.
That trip changed everything.
I’d surfed plenty of waves before, but I’d never been so shaken by what I saw on land. The poverty was unlike anything I had ever witnessed. But it wasn’t just the physical conditions that got to me – it was the spiritual posture of the men I was with.
Every morning, without fail, they were in their Bibles. We surfed, yes, but we also passed out food, prayed for strangers, and listened to the stories of locals whose faith ran deeper than most. It opened something in me I didn’t know was there.
Before the trip ended, one of the pastors invited me back to help lead a larger mission with his church and Bible college students the following month. I called my wife. I didn’t even get through the whole question before she said, “Yes. Go and help.”
That second trip marked the beginning of the story.
I revisited the same families we had met just weeks before — and they were shocked I came back. “Most missionaries come once,” they said. That stuck with me. I didn’t want to be someone who came once. I wanted to know their names, meet their kids, and show up again and again.
On the last night of that trip, something broke loose in me. A small group of us gathered to pray over one another. I felt the Holy Spirit so strongly that I had to excuse myself. I went back to the room, put in my headphones, and the song Reckless Love came on. In that moment — tears streaming, soul trembling — I cried out, “Jesus, I forgive you.”
I didn’t even know I had been holding resentment toward God. But something in me shifted. Years of guilt, shame, and regret lifted. I felt brand new.
The very next morning, I shared what happened with my pastor friend. He asked if he could help me plan a men’s hybrid surf and mission trip for the spring. I said yes.
The next spring, in 2018, we assembled our first team.
I was amazed at how many men signed up right away. From that trip on, with the love and support of my wife, our mentors, and our community, we committed to hosting two men’s trips a year — one in the spring, one in the fall. And we haven’t stopped since.