Sports Mission Trips - Evangelism and Discipleship

I did not write my blog last week because I was on a sports mission trip in the Dominican Republic with Northland's Women's basketball team. It was a great trip and God taught us many things. You can see some pictures and read about the trip by clicking on the following link.

Dominican Mission Team

Here are a few of my thoughts about the trip and the eternal value of taking trips like this.

Sports missions works in multiple ways. We often think of trips like this as an evangelistic outreach. Presenting the gospel to athletes in a foreign country is a great privilege. Seeing some of them respond to trust Christ is thrilling. This trip was especially memorable for me as I had the privilege of leading a young man to the Lord during our last game. He is a student at the University of Santo Domingo (the oldest university in the Americas – founded in 1538). When the gospel was clearly presented at halftime he raised his hand indicating that he was interested in finding out more. During the third quarter of the game he trusted Christ as Saviour. There were numerous others who raised their hands and we continue to pray that the Lord would cause the seed that was planted to be watered, take root and grow.

While giving out the gospel was a definite goal of this trip, the process of discipleship was also a large part. There were two aspects of discipleship that were obvious to me on this trip. They were: time spent in the Word of God and time spent in a different culture. Each of these aspects gave us a fresh dose of perspective.

The first discipleship impact was our time in the Word. This time was led by Coach Whitt as we studied parts of the book of Nehemiah. These studies were a personal challenge to all of us and it is obvious that they had an impact on each team member. The testimonies that the girls shared in our team meetings were evidence of that.

A second discipleship impact was the time spent in a different culture. It makes us reflect on all that we have to be thankful for in our own country and helps us to focus on a more eternal perspective. While on a trip like this it is amazing how unimportant some things become. I personally didn’t care how the NBA playoffs were going. The news of the day wasn’t that important. Things we take for granted at home didn’t really seem to matter as much. We heard no complaints from the team about things like, not having air conditioning, access to the internet, hot showers, or even water pressure. Flexibility was a must, which is a refreshing change from the demanding schedules we usually keep at home. The focus was on more eternal things and pursuing the purpose for which we came to the Dominican Republic.

This trip was amazing in what God did both through us and in us. I would encourage you to take a sports team on a mission trip, if at all possible. Please don’t hesitate to contact me if you have any questions about how to plan such a trip. You will never regret spending the time, energy, money, etc. to go on such a trip because of the evangelistic and discipleship opportunities they provide.