{"id":1042,"date":"2011-08-24T19:36:10","date_gmt":"2011-08-24T23:36:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/on_the_front_lines_of_the_culture_wars\/?p=1042"},"modified":"2011-08-23T11:56:24","modified_gmt":"2011-08-23T15:56:24","slug":"what-if-god-told-you-to-go-build-a-sand-castle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/on_the_front_lines_of_the_culture_wars\/2011\/08\/what-if-god-told-you-to-go-build-a-sand-castle.html","title":{"rendered":"What if God told you to go build a sand castle?"},"content":{"rendered":"<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"You Are My King ( Amazing Love )\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/s-9O-AygYfA?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Century Gothic, Arial, Helvetica;\"><span style=\"font-size: medium;\">What if the Lord moved you to take your testimony to the beach? And to build sandcastles for Him?<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Century Gothic, Arial, Helvetica;\"><span style=\"font-size: medium;\">That&#8217;s the unlikely mission of Randy Hofman. He&#8217;s been creating stunning Christian sand sculptures along the <\/span><\/span><span style=\"font-family: Century Gothic, Arial, Helvetica;\"><span style=\"font-size: medium;\">Ocean City, Maryland, boardwalk for two decades. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Century Gothic, Arial, Helvetica;\"><span style=\"font-size: medium;\">He&#8217;s got a regular spot on the public beach at Second Street. Hie sculptures run as big as 20 feet across and always have\u00a0 biblical themes such as Christ on the C<\/span><\/span><span style=\"font-family: Century Gothic, Arial, Helvetica;\"><span style=\"font-size: medium;\">ross, The Last Supper, Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane and\u00a0David and Goliath.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Century Gothic, Arial, Helvetica;\"><span style=\"font-size: medium;\">Yes, the wind and rain destroy his masterpieces on a regular basis.\u00a0A few\u00a0years ago, a\u00a0teenage girl urged her boyfriend to jump on one of Hofman&#8217;s creations. He did and spectators were furious with the couple.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The police arrested them for disturbing the peace,&#8221; Hofman said. &#8220;It&#8217;s good they did. A crowd saw what happened and went crazy.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Century Gothic, Arial, Helvetica;\"><span style=\"font-size: medium;\">An ordained minister since 1985, Hofman views the sand sculptures as his ministry. &#8220;The messages show people that God is reaching out to us,&#8221; Hofman says. &#8220;They have to be short and simple so people can easily read and understand them &#8230; like a billboard.&#8221;<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>He hands out a small, 32-page Bible booklet to anyone who wants one &#8212; and averages 50,000 takers each summer. He says he has distributed about 800,000 booklets.<\/p>\n<p>Most observers treat Hofman&#8217;s sculptures with respect, if not awe. Some stop at the site to pray. If invited, Hofman may join them.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Century Gothic, Arial, Helvetica;\"><span style=\"font-size: medium;\">One woman wrote to him that her son had been killed in a car accident but had one of Hofman&#8217;s Bible booklets with him when he died. &#8220;That brought her peace,&#8221; Hofman said.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>In 1989, a stranger offered to pay Hofman&#8217;s expenses if he&#8217;d go to Argentina, South America,\u00a0and\u00a0build his sand sculptures.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Century Gothic, Arial, Helvetica;\"><span style=\"font-size: medium;\">&#8220;I accepted and spent several weeks on the beach at Mar del Plata,&#8221; Hofman recalls. &#8220;I enjoyed it so much that I went back later at my own expense.&#8221;<br \/>\n<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What if the Lord moved you to take your testimony to the beach? And to build sandcastles for Him? That&#8217;s the unlikely mission of Randy Hofman. He&#8217;s been creating stunning Christian sand sculptures along the Ocean City, Maryland, boardwalk for two decades. He&#8217;s got a regular spot on the public beach at Second Street. Hie&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":270,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,83,86],"tags":[375,377,117,385],"class_list":["post-1042","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bible","category-inspirational","category-video","tag-bible","tag-prayer","tag-sand-castle","tag-video"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>What if God told you to go build a sand castle? - On the Front Lines of the Culture Wars<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/on_the_front_lines_of_the_culture_wars\/2011\/08\/what-if-god-told-you-to-go-build-a-sand-castle.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"What if God told you to go build a sand castle? - On the Front Lines of the Culture Wars\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"What if the Lord moved you to take your testimony to the beach? And to build sandcastles for Him? That&#8217;s the unlikely mission of Randy Hofman. He&#8217;s been creating stunning Christian sand sculptures along the Ocean City, Maryland, boardwalk for two decades. He&#8217;s got a regular spot on the public beach at Second Street. 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And to build sandcastles for Him? That&#8217;s the unlikely mission of Randy Hofman. He&#8217;s been creating stunning Christian sand sculptures along the Ocean City, Maryland, boardwalk for two decades. He&#8217;s got a regular spot on the public beach at Second Street. 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