by Josh Owsley, Contributing Writer
Asbury University requires each student to complete a cross-cultural engagement experience. According to Asbury’s website, this encourages students to “examine the lens” through which they view themselves, God and the world. Each student is responsible for selecting how and where they will satisfy this requirement. However, coaches from Asbury athletic teams have also taken it upon themselves to plan trips that their players can attend.
Since 2010, the men’s basketball team has taken five summer trips to Puerto Rico. Coach Will Shouse thought the best way to help his players fulfill the requirement was to take the team on his own. He noted that not all young men are comfortable sharing the gospel verbally and thought they could serve God through this opportunity. “We’re showing Jesus just as much, if not more, through serving than we are through our words,” said Shouse.
Shouse became connected with a small city in Puerto Rico called Aguadilla through the women’s basketball assistant coach, Chad Mayes. “He actually heard about a need for someone down there in Puerto Rico on K-Love,” said Shouse. Much of the funds for their trip came from letters sent out by players, a pancake breakfast fundraiser and former players’ donations.
According to Shouse, the area they went to was extremely impoverished and needed all the help it could get. A lot of the work they did was for the elderly, who were not able to fix anything for themselves. This past summer, the team spent the entire time working on a school that had been abandoned. “We could’ve been there another two weeks and still not have got finished,” Shouse said. “It wasn’t your ‘cookie cutter’ type of mission trip, it was more of a ‘we need this and if you guys don’t come, it’s not going to get done.’”
Clarien Washington and David McCorvey, both juniors on the men’s basketball team, thought the trip not only helped them grow personally, but it also allowed them to grow closer as a team. “Seeing us do everything for a common goal helped us as a unit to know [that] on the court and off the floor we can work together and achieve a goal,” said Washington.
McCorvey stated that it helped with their chemistry because they got to know all the incoming players. Getting to play games against the local town teams in Puerto Rico helped their team dynamics entering this past season. “You wrap up your day by playing games at night, so it’s a chance for us to get a little extra work in,” said Shouse. By gaining chemistry and experiencing real game situations, the team achieved a 17-11 regular season record this past year. Lastly, McCorvey noted, “We got to exemplify what it means to be Christians and go out and help the community.”
The women’s soccer team also attended a trip for the same purpose but in a different country. In the summer of 2016, the women’s team went to Colombia. Senior Mia Wiersema has attended a mission trip each year with the team except for the summer before her senior season. “It is always such a fun time to get to know the girls outside of soccer by serving other people together,” said Wiersema. She was also impressed by how her teammates would step up, even when tired, to serve others. Wiersema stated it was a time of team bonding and getting to know each other spiritually.
Sophomore Georgia Clark was humbled by her experience in Colombia. She talked about the kids there that loved the game of soccer. “We were living their dream,” said Clark. She stated that they were treated like superstars which was “crazy and humbling.” Even though they could not communicate in a traditional sense, Clark noted that soccer became their universal language which allowed them to love each other.
There appears to be a common theme among the athletic teams that travel together for their cross-cultural requirement. By spending time together and serving other people, McCorvey, Washington, Wiersema and Clark all agreed that the experience brought the men’s basketball team and women’s soccer team closer and increased the overall chemistry. More importantly, these experiences showed each player what it means to serve God individually and as a team. “Everything is stripped away and it’s just your team,” said Clark. “It’s your team, it’s God and it’s just growing closer together.”
