Senior International Correspondent, ASSIST News Service
WAHIAWA, HI (ANS) -- Tom Bauer is a man dedicated to bringing the message of love and hope to the world via surfing. Bauer was a radical surfer, surfing Seal Beach and Huntington Beach in Southern California, and was involved in doing drugs when a friend asked him if he wanted go to church. This was at the height of the Jesus Movement.
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Tom Bauer 'Surfs the Nations' (Submitted photo). |
Bauer said: “I loved being naughty -- (it was) so much fun being a surfer, it was the whole surfing lifestyle, and of course during this time the whole Jesus Movement was going on and now you’re confronted with ‘what am I going do with God, drugs and surfing?’ So that was part of the collision that was taking place in my life.
“Some of my friends who weren’t part of Calvary Chapel were discipling me and what somehow was being spoken to me was that surfing and Christianity was like oil and water -- they didn’t mix. And so it’s like did I have to give up my surfing to follow God? If I played the guitar of course they wanted me to do worship but I was a surfer at the time and then I ended up moving and going overseas. I lived in Africa and traveled over to Europe and surfed in Morocco and Angola and all that kind of stuff. So there it was hard for me to reconcile God and surfing in the same equation.”
Bauer said he was still surfing when he became involved working in Mozambique with street kids and missions. “It was years later I went to this conference and part of the exercise was to lay on a piece of paper and they drew an outline of your body like a dead man and tape it on the wall and the exercise was to see God at work in your life from a pictorial point of view. So I wrote the day that I was born and all the significant events in my life and, of course, surfing. I lived and surfed in Africa and all these other places and all of a sudden I heard the Bonanza music and I saw the outline of my body that was on the wall flames came around it and in 3-D and I’m weeping and I saw in 3-D the word ‘surfing’ jumped off the dead man’s body and then I heard God speak to me and say ‘you didn’t choose to be a surfer, you were called to be a surfer.’ And I remember just weeping and weeping and weeping; for the first time I realized that surfing was a calling and with God and surfing in the same equation, then life made sense.
“I realized that there’s all these millions of surfers all over the world who think that if they serve God they’re going to have to give up their surfing, or if they serve God you know how does surfing fit in, and now I realize that there’s only thirty landlocked nations and the rest are surfable.
They say there’s maybe 241 different nations. So now with surfing, with the way that it’s exploding through the media and through Hollywood, all these nations are all surfable; we used to say God hides so that we can find. So now we can find all these new surf breaks and the surfer is the perfect candidate to be a missionary -- they’ll go anywhere, sleep anywhere, eat anything -- you know what I mean.”
Bauer told how God led him to move to Hawaii. “I was working with a missionary organization there which thrust me basically into the South Pacific and Asia. So primarily we’ve been working in the Muslim world the 10-40 Window and we’re using surfing as a vehicle to get into those nations. So what we do is we hang out with the kids on the beach, sand in our hair, sun burned, you know with the fishermen, the poor kids, the rich kids. We’re teaching them surfing and then of course the subject comes up ‘well what do you do you know and what do you believe?’ And of course we share the gospel in a very natural way that’s really reaching this generation.
About working in Restricted Nations around the world, Bauer said: “Actually it’s really easy from our point of view. We just say that there are no boundaries, it’s limitless. I think it’s all imaginary. I can share we were just snowboarding in Iran just two years ago and of course the youth in Iran they are open to the gospel, you know? We have a team right now in Egypt so we did the first surf competition in Egypt, then we go into Jordan and Israel they have 10,000 surfers in Israel. So you have all these unreached people that are available through the sport of surfing. What I’ve found is that there’s hundreds and thousands of surfers that are Christians in the Southern California area and all around the world that are waiting to be challenged to see how God can use their surfing to reach this generation and it’s amazing -- there’s an explosion that’s taking place.”
Bauer then described how he started the Surfing the Nation ministry. "Well it’s like one of those things where God just gave me the name and we incorporated it in a 501©3 and of course you know my wife and I said ‘who’s gonna come and be a part of this?’ and then slowly they just started coming, and now we have a full-on center there’s about eighty of us right now for those who know Hawaii on the Island of Oahu. So we were able to obtain this old bar in a fifteen-unit apartment building, so we live in a community of surfers whose motto is ‘surfers giving back.’ It’s not just about surfers reaching surfers it’s about surfers reaching and bringing transformation to your community and finding the needs and meeting them.”
Bauer continued: “We had this 24- hour porn shop right next to us, so we had this youth group come from California and they put their hands in paint and they placed them on the wall and began to worship God and three months after they left the owner of the porn shop called my wife and said three months ago I felt I was to get out of the business and I want Surfing The Nations to buy the property and when that happened, somebody came and gave us a $300,000 donation and we were able to buy the porn, shop close it down -- and I mean literally when we were taking the sign it was called Divine Pleasures -- how’s that for a name, people were honking the horn, people in the town were writing us letters and saying ‘thank you.’ And actually this Japanese lady came up to me she put her head in my chest and she began to weep and to weep and she said I have been praying for 60 years for this area of town to change and to close down and then you know what she did? She looked at me and she said don’t you take the credit. So people have been praying for this little town to bring change and transformation, and bring God into the town.”
Bauer then described the thrill of surfing. “I believe, and this is my personal opinion, that surfing is the greatest sport in the history of mankind. I really believe that! There’s something, I’ll use the word magical, because people can understand that word. It’s like when you try it, something happens and we use the word ‘stoked’, you know, people just lift their hands up. When we’re introducing surfing, say in Bangladesh or Oman, Pakistan you know all these different places, Japan, India, and we’re teaching these kids how to surf, I mean they just throw their hands up and they are amped about the sport.
“I think it’s because this wave comes from thousands of miles away, it’s generated, it’s so unique you’re out in the open, you’re with the fishermen, you’re out on the beach with the sand and you see God at work in the midst of the sea and wherever you are.”
Describing how Surfing the Nations goes into Islamic nations, and the tactics Bauer uses to go in these restricted countries to work with the youth, Bauer said: “Well I think it begins with just being natural; so basically your surfboard is your pulpit and you set that pulpit up and you just begin to teach the kids whether they’re rich or whether they’re poor. And of course when you’re in some of these extreme places where surfing has never been introduced you just get hundreds of kids and people on the beach wondering what in the heck you’re doing and then before you know it you’re sitting in someone’s home having tea and they ask the question ‘well tell us about your background’ maybe through an interpreter, maybe some that speak English, and before you know it the Gospel is shared in a very natural way verses in a church setting. So basically you take the church to the beach, and they understand that because it’s done in a very simplistic way that fits into their culture.”
Bauer continued: “So what we tell our surfer guys or non-surfer guys, because we like non-surfers too, is that Surfing the Nations is for you too. But we basically just say you’re on call twenty-four hours a day, you hang out with the people, you go into the shops, you take a street kid and buy an ice-cream, you sit there…. We kind of jokingly call it’s called Shopping the Nations, we say ‘hey, everyone would like that.’ But basically we say we want you to go into the shops we want you to hang out with the people and so if there’s no time restriction our goal is to meet one person and become a friend for life. Like in one of these restricted countries we have a Muslim boy who through the sport of surfing he is now born again, radically saved. He was in his house and reading his Bible, his dad came in found out about it ,kicked him out of the house that night, and now he’s radically going for God and with an organization right now being trained and doing university ministries in this Muslim nation.”
Bauer said he’s never been arrested, but has been questioned in restricted nations. “You know we’ve been to some of these countries where it’s a hundred percent Islam and of course you’re taking literature in their language and so you are taking a risk. That’s part of the element of God and surfing in the same equation. Surfers are called, their DNA is to go.”
So what’s a normal day like at the surfing community in Hawaii? “Well a normal day is Monday is a day of prayer and fasting every Monday so you know we’re committed to prayer and then we have international prayer, we have local prayer. We do ministry with the street kids, we have tutoring. We teach art -- in fact twice a year we do a big art show. We do surf lessons on the west side of Oahu where we teach these underprivileged kids in transitional housing, ones that live on the beach, we teach them how to surf and how to swim. I think we’re the maybe the largest private distributor of food to the homeless and those that are in need of the Island of Oahu. So it’s not just about surfing -- we work in the community, meeting the needs of the community, and surfing is just a vehicle a way to give back.”
Bauer said there are several ways to serve at Surfing the Nations. “We have different levels you can get in. One is you have an internship that is for three months and basically you get the teaching but you also get the practical and then within that three months you go to one of the neighbor islands. Every year we do a surfboard contest in the island of Molokai. We just had teams back from Kauai from what is called the freedom surf contest right down to Waikiki, one of the big surf contests we do every year. And then you can come in and volunteer for two weeks a month. So if you’re a builder, a carpenter, whatever, you can come in and we have a leadership school for three months to teach on how you can be a leader and bring transformation to your community. “
As far as international ministry is concerned, Bauer said that one of his brochures says ‘if you’re not strong, this is not for you.’
“We’ve got a team right now in Egypt and Israel and Jordan and we have tours, we go to the Island of Lombok in Indonesia -- it’s the third best surf wave in the world called Desert Point. And then we go surfing in Bangladesh, The Philippines, you know a lot of different nations where we’re giving young people the opportunity to go on a one-month missions trip to one of these surfable nations and surf until you drop -- and at the same time learn about sharing your faith.”
Bauer said they don’t have a lot of pre-training for many people because the ministry feels that this is just an introduction. “Say parents are listening to this, their kid loves surfing but maybe he’s having a battle walking with the Lord. So this is a good introduction to validate the gift of surfing and to give them a platform to introduce you, to get to know God in a greater way. It’s a great opportunity,” he said.
Bauer went on to say they have been in operation for 13 years."We started small and surfing is becoming pandemic, it’s ballistic in its influence through the media, through Hollywood. Everybody wants to surf. I’ve had kids in Sweden, I went to their house way in the middle of nowhere and they had a surf picture on their wall and they said ‘one day I want to do that.’ We have hundreds of kids who are fascinated by the sport of surfing and they say ‘if it’s possible one day I want to do that’ and we’re giving them a platform to do that and put God in the same equation. “
Bauer said surfing started out in the Hawaiian Islands and was actually spiritual because the surfboard makers would pray over the wood as they would carve it. “So surfing has this incredible rich history behind it. Now we believe that surfing is Hawaii’s greatest gift to the world.
It’s Hula, it’s ukulele. So out of Hawaii, we’re taking the sport of surfing and giving it away to the world and the world is responding because this generation of young people they want what surfing offers.”
The ministry website is www.Surfingthenations.com. “It’s really easy you can go on the web, find out all about us, check us out and see if it’s maybe a place where you can come and have an introduction to missions or you come and be a part of what God is doing through the sport of surfing around the world,” Bauer said.
The ministry has trips coming up to Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Indonesia. It also has summer programs where, said Bauer, “You can come and hang out all during the year come and check us out and use your surfing for God.”
Bauer said the ministry is not limited to the strong or the perfect missions candidate. “We want the kids who are struggling and have a passion for surfing. And even if they’re not surfing but they love the surf culture this is a good introduction into a Christian community that loves God that has fun. One of the stories I tell is that I love quotes and one day I was just sitting down and said 'God, give me a quote' and I heard him speak to me ‘God is fun.’ And I realized that this generation, when we say God is love, it’s a little hard to understand that, but to this generation you say ‘hey God is fun’ and you show that character and that attribute of God, He is the God of adventure, of fun, of risk-taking, then to this generation surfing makes sense.”
**ANS would like to thank Robin Frost for transcribing this interview.
| ** Michael Ireland is the Senior International Correspondent for ANS. He is an international British freelance journalist who was formerly a reporter with a London (United Kingdom) newspaper and has been a frequent contributor to UCB UK, a British Christian radio station. While in the UK, Michael traveled to Canada and the United States, Albania,Yugoslavia, Holland, Germany,and Czechoslovakia. He has reported for ANS from Jamaica, Mexico, Nicaragua, Israel, Jordan, China,and Russia. Michael's volunteer involvement with ASSIST News Service is a sponsored ministry department -- 'Michael Ireland Media Missionary' (MIMM) -- of A.C.T. International of P.O.Box 1649, Brentwood, TN 37024-1649, at: Artists in Christian Testimony (A.C.T.) International where you can make a donation online under 'Donate' tab, then look for 'Michael Ireland Media Missionary' under 'Donation Category' to support his stated mission of 'Truth Through Christian Journalism.' Michael is a member in good standing of the National Writers Union, Society of Professional Journalists, Religion Newswriters Association, Evangelical Press Association and International Press Association. If you have a news or feature story idea for Michael, please contact him at: ANS Senior International Reporter |  |
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