by Eva Dean Folkert

Right from the start, there will be no mistaking this: God is in this story. To be sure, junior cross country runner Joey Dawson is in this story, senior volleyball player Emily Farwell, head basketball coach Greg Mitchell, and the people of Ghana, too.  But first and foremost, God gets the lede in a story about how Hope student-athletes and coaches love on people half a world away through sport.

It makes sense, doesn't it? God should always lead a story when the Gospel is shared and lives are transformed. In fact, there would be no other way to start a story with memories from a recent SEED (Sport Evangelism to Equip Disciples) trip. For two summers, Hope's SEED program has been impacting lives both at home and abroad by sending 75 student-athletes, plus 13 coaches and administrators, on seven trips to five countries (Costa Rica, Ghana, India, Uganda and Zambia). Their mission: To radiate hope, faith and love by conducting sports clinics and making clean water accessible.

Yes, God is in this story.  There will be no mistaking it.

***

Joey Dawson was exhausted, but it was a good exhaustion. He was filthy and sweaty and hungry too.  It was suppertime in Ada, Ghana, and Dawson — in all his grimy glory after a full day of hard, jubilant play with children — just wanted a clean up a little before he sat down to eat. As he walked away from his meal and across the compound to get hand sanitizer from a fellow SEED teammate, Dawson suddenly felt a small hand grab his forearm. A conversation then unfolded that was equal parts heartwarming and humbling. In it, the 21-year-old American felt compassion from a nine-year-old Ghanaian. It was one of those moments when mission work takes a breathtaking turn and becomes more about receiving love than giving it.

"So I look down at this little boy who had stopped me," starts Dawson who hails from Kalamazoo, Michigan, "and he says, 'Sir. Sir. You don't have a meal?' He thought I hadn't received a meal yet, but of course I had. Before I could tell him, he quickly said, 'Here. Take mine.'"

The young boy held out his boxed meal toward Dawson is a reverse Oliver Twistian kind of way. He didn't want more; he wanted to give his new friend what he already had in a gesture of sincere sacrifice. "These kids don't have much," reflect Dawson,  "and he had been looking forward to that meal all day. And he doesn't know if he'll get another one; for all he knows we're all out of meals and that is why I don't have one. But there he was grinning at me, trying to give me his dinner."

Dawson swallowed back the raising lump his throat as he told the boy to please keep his food. And in that instant, the Hope student-athlete realized a heretofore hidden lesson: he was connecting with Ghanaian children on a level of mutual trust and affection indicative of a Mark 9:37 moment. ("Whoever welcomes one of these little children in my name welcomes me; and whoever welcomes me welcomes not only me but the one who sent me.")

"That was just amazing," Dawson exudes. "I learned what makes us tick is the same everywhere. We all want to express love and be loved. And I found God's love everywhere in Ghana."

***

Emily Farwell has been on a number of mission trips but never outside of the United States.  Traveling 5,565 miles to Ghana for nine days did not worry her but making a lasting impact did. Short-term mission work can feel impermanent, and though she had no delusions of acting the hero, she had prayed to make some kind of long-term, meaningful difference. How would she know if she was? One day the answer became crystal clear: the answer was found in helping to clean Ghanaian water. 

Besides financing a vast majority of SEED trip expenses for Hope participants, Sawyer Products also donates hundreds of water filters which it manufactures. Hope SEED team members get to demonstrate how those filters work and then personally give them to local coaches. "And when we did, it was a powerful experience," she says. "Just the look on their faces at that moment — they were so appreciative. That's when it hit me. This is why I am here. This is something that will change lives long after we leave."

Another realization struck Farwell as she played and prayed in Tamale, Ghana, too. God's people don't necessarily need grandiose gestures or traits or events to serve the kingdom. All it takes is authentic caring.

"I was kind of worried going into the trip, wondering: Am I equipped to go to Africa and share the Gospel through sport with these kids? Have I prepared enough? Is this really like what I'm cut out for?" admits Farwell who is from Lowell, Michigan. "But what I learned is God can use people in any way. There really is nothing extra that we have to do really because He is able to use what we already have."

**

Greg Mitchell is thankful for Sports Friends, the organization that provided in-country assistance to Hope's SEED team in Ghana. Their expertise on local mission work was invaluable. But Mitchell also received a new appreciation for the depth of Hope student-athletes' invaluable hearts, too. In Ghana, as on the six other trips as well, the singular SEED team, comprising student-athletes from numerous Hope sports, not only bond with each other like a family, "they just constantly show their genuine love for others," Mitchell says. "Just the humility, the energy, the compassion that our students have is, wow, it is awesome. Never once did they take an hour off, a minute off or second off. That just speaks to who they are as young men and women and the families they come from. I'm really proud of how they represented the college and their families."