South Africa Mission Trip

Posted on June 30, 2013

To be honest, I never really had a heart for missions until I came to Grove City and started playing on the women’s soccer team. In my time here, I have learned that soccer can be used to share my Christian faith with others. As a team, our goal is to change the culture of soccer by sharing the love of Jesus Christ on and off the field. When I was presented with the opportunity to go to South Africa with my team, it just seemed like an experience I could not pass up.
The trip took place May 21-June 5. I am disappointed that I have taken this long to write about my experience, but in my defense, life has been ridiculously busy since I got back (you’ll find out why in another blog post next week!). Before I left for South Africa, I was really excited to see God work in my life despite a very unsettling conversation with a friend right before I left. He really made me question the purpose/impact of short term mission trips, but, after going on the trip, all of my last minute doubts were completely put to rest. The relationships I built with the people we interacted with in South Africa confirmed this to me every single day. One of our South African contacts we had even told us that he was so encouraged by our willingness to come to South Africa. He further explained that South African churches don’t want Americans to just “send money,” they wanted us to come and join in their ministries! This is what confirmed to me that short term mission trips really are worth it.
As for the actual trip, if you would like an overview of what we “did” during our time in SA, you can read our team blog.
While I literally could write an entire book about this trip, I want to focus on my interaction with Ambassador in Sports’ Hope Academy. Even though we only

spent one evening with an official Hope Academy, this turned out to be the highlight of the trip for me. As it was described to me, Hope Academy is an intensive and holistic soccer (or “football”) based program that provides underprivileged children in Africa the opportunity to fulfill their God-given potential on and off the field. Ambassadors’ vision for this program is to strategically establish self-sustainable Hope Academies in disadvantaged communities and to uplift children in Africa in their football, faith and future. I was literally blown away by this organization and I hope that I am able to continue to support its growth and development in the future.
This is how the program works: after school, thirty-nine students (mostly elementary school age) come to the soccer field for practice. The coaches serve them a meal and then teach them a life lesson. Before changing into their uniforms, all of the children line up, introduce themselves and shake hands with the coaches. Our Grove City team was blown away by the amount of respect the kids show the coaches. Hope Academy was founded on seven core values, including self-discipline, integrity, humility, respect, compassion, equality, and excellence. The life lesson the kids talked about during our time with them centered on humility. After the whole group discussed humility, we broke into several smaller groups to dive into the lesson further. Each of the Ambassadors coaches took time to ask every single child in their small group how their day was at school and then followed up by asking them how they demonstrated humility at school. It was amazing to hear their responses. It was at this point in the evening that I realized how big of an impact Hope Academy was making in these children’s lives. I knew right then and there that this was a program I had to continue to support. After the lesson, they spend about an hour playing soccer – I was excited to participate in the drills alongside the kids.

Later in the week, we got to experience “life before Hope Academy” when we ran a clinic at an elementary school in the impoverished Mamelodi township. Mamelodi is one of the poorest areas in South Africa and almost everyone lives in a makeshift shack. Despite the circumstances, Ambassadors is trying to start a Hope Academy there in the near future. Most of the kids at the school did not know English, but despite the language barrier, they all understood the language of soccer. Though we all came from very different backgrounds, we were able to connect with them through the game. I don’t think I have ever seen so many smiling faces or received so many hugs while kicking a ball around before a practice. Once we were ready to start our official practice, we divided the kids into groups and helped the Ambassadors coaches run a clinic for 50 students, all U13 boys and girls. At each station, we connected soccer to a specific life skill. One thing that really stuck out to me was the kids passion for soccer. Most of them had to practice in bare feet on a field that had more sharp rocks than blades of grass. Nevertheless, the kids practiced hard and it seemed like there was nowhere else they would rather be than on that field. For me, their passion for the game and their willingness to give their all despite what I would say were horrible field conditions and circumstances, reminded me of what a Christian life should look like. As Christians, we should be so passionate for Christ that we are willing to step on the mission field even if we don’t have the right shoes, don’t speak the same language, and even if the field is filled with sharp rocks. If we were willing to do this, think about what God could accomplish through us.
Finally, I want to say thank you to everyone who supported this trip. Your financial donations and prayer support not only impacted my life, but the lives of hundreds of children in South Africa. I hope this blog post helps you realize that.