News Release Basketball 2017

thank you!

I am finally sitting down to write a little bit about my trip. If you are reading, I just want to thank you so much for giving me the opportunity to go on this trip. Whether financially, in prayer, or otherwise, I know that I had a lot of people supporting me. In many ways, one of the most encouraging things about this opportunity was knowing how generous and willing people were to send me out. I hope that this summary shows that your support was worth it as much as I know it was for me. So I’ll start with the beginning…

Recently, God answered my prayers after a very long, dark, challenging, growing year at work and in my personal life. He renewed my vision for the work I am called to do. Relieved by the Presence, I became refreshed and rejuvenated, confident and strong. I felt I found favor with God despite my shortcomings. I was bold and motivated and confident in my identity no matter the outcome, which resulted in opportunities I thought would be impossible to make happen. One of these opportunities was this trip with News Release Basketball to Sweden and France. It had been in the back of my mind since I went 2 years ago, but I ignored it, shutting it out as something that I wouldn’t be able to do as a full-time Resident Hall Director who was paying off college loans. But I asked and God opened the door. It’s crazy how fast it happened. Before the trip, I worked like crazy in the summer to prepare as much as possible for the beginning of the school year so I did not come back completely unprepared. I tried to pull my weight as much as possible but have to give credit to my co-workers for pulling my load while I was gone. They allowed for me to be extremely blessed and refreshed and encouraged on this trip. 

The middle of July came very fast and I found myself on a plane to Denver Colorado very early in the morning. The next few days I met my 7 teammates, practiced basketball at a level I haven’t in years, realized I am out of shape, met a couple of amazing hosts, Don & Mary, who absolutely spoiled us and encouraged us and prayed for us while we were there, led a little worship for my team and the two men’s teams who would be traveling to separate destinations in Europe (mainly Germany), trained to host basketball camps in Sweden & France, and prepared to share my story and the gospel however and wherever God opened the door. And He would. 

A week of training went by very quickly and our team packed up and were taken to the airport for a very long travel day to our first destination in Sweden. We flew 9 hours to Germany, then jumped on a flight to Stockholm, Sweden, then hustled to a bus which took us 6 hours North where a host picked us up and drove us another hour to a small town called Hammarstrand. 

Charlotte and I were able to stay with a host couple who were actually from Holland and owned a hotel/hostel. It was one of the cutest little “bed and breakfast” type places I have ever seen. 

We were able to get some rest and prepare for a full week of basketball camp. Monday came quickly. We had a huge amount of campers from the age of 5-18 show up to the Ragunda Basketball Club gym. The skill levels of these kids varied widely, but in general most of these kids were looking for something to improve on and to find some success in as well as have some fun. That is exactly what we did. 

Due to the high population of refugees in this area, there were several different languages spoken including Arabic, Swahili, Spanish, and of course Swedish. It was difficult to communicate critical fundamentals in drills because of this, but I found it extremely special that there were so many kids willing to quickly step up to translate. It became a fun challenge to try to communicate as much as possible with big actions and facial expressions and demonstrations for the kids. All of these things created a unique culture during this camp that I cannot re-create anywhere else and opened my eyes to the beauty of other cultures.

The first game came around, and I volunteered to be the first testimony during half-time. I was able to talk a little bit about how my faith has made a huge impact on my experience competing in the sport I love, basketball. I spoke about my high school experience and how I grew in competing and living in the freedom that Christ has given me knowing that no matter what goes on in the game or the outcome, Christ is still my identity and he could never love me any less. I talked about how I do not have to compete or play with a fear of man because my identity is not wrapped up in what people think of me. I never had to earn my value in Christ, but it was given freely and so I will live in the confidence that nothing I can do will ever replace that. We won the game, but on the way home I was able to speak with one of our campers who opened up about how her anxiety keeps her from playing with freedom, and I felt that opening up this conversation was more of a win than any competition could have been. 

Half-way through the week, Sarah (our main Swedish contact and organizer of camps and church) put together a church gathering in a host family’s barn and invited church members as well as all the campers and their families. Not every camper showed up, but I was blown away by the diversity and family feel. One of my teammates, Cassie, mentioned that this was a great picture of what heaven would look like, a blend of colorful people who love the Lord and treat each other like family. During the service, I was able to lead worship with Jonas (who is now Sarah’s fiancé). It was such an intimate and freeing setting. There are not many other places I would rather engage in worship. Desiree, another teammate, was able to share her testimony and perform her original rap song. We heard testimonies from a few other members of the church as well, ate some food, and fellowshipped. The amount of laughter formed after the service with a group who started an Arabian dance I’ve never seen before was refreshing. My heart was full and I was thankful.

In Sweden, I heard many, many stories from campers and church leaders that were hard and quite tragic. These stories actually became such an encouragement for everyone on our team with the message that although some very tough things happen, God can shine through and still be enough.

At the end of the week, we said our good-byes to the campers and amazing host families. They begged us to stay, and one of my teammates, Megan, actually went back there to live and play and coach basketball after we travelled to France. I wish I could have been there longer because these people were so kind and real. Maybe I will go back someday.










We took a mid-night train to an airport in Stockholm, and flew from there to Switzerland where we took another short train towards France and were picked up there by our hosts.

This was Saturday morning when we arrived in Guebwiller, France. This place was familiar as I had been there 2 years prior. We went to Francois’ house and hung out there for a little while. The main missionary/pastor there, Randy, who I also had known from the last trip, asked for a testimony in church. I said I would be willing to share. I somehow felt prepared to share what God called me to and had a peace. I shared about the day my mother was taken from me, when my heart was broken, and how God spoke softly with me when I was in a state of confusion and anger, but still surrendered it to the Lord. Then I shared the lyrics from “Hills and Valleys” by Tauren Wells and sang it. My message was that when we are in the Valley, God is there with us and  he knows and does not just look, but sees and understands. That is what I heard my God whisper to me in the midst of my valley. He had spoken the simple words “I know” even though he had the right to say anything to me, to tell me I was selfish and ignorant, to tell me to stop being sorrowful, but he didn’t. He was next to me, crying with me, even when he knew a greater purpose, even when he could see my sinful and questioning heart. He knows to dive into the sorrow because it mattered to him. It made my heart so full to be able to share a piece of that and to articulate it in a way that I felt people understood, even with an imperfect translator (props to translators because they are rock-stars), and even though they couldn’t hear the words I sang after I had read the lyrics. God moved there, and he moved in my heart.

The rest of this weeks excitement first of all came from seeing 1 particular camper that I had bonded with the last time I had come. His name is Noam, and he was a baller 2 years ago, but he  had grown a lot, and really could have been named MVP of the camp if only he was a little taller, but I am a little biased. I also recognized other campers and could see the growth in numbers and maturity even with a pretty large language barrier. That was exciting. The days were pretty long in this camp. We had our morning sessions, would walk the campers to lunch (I usually carried a little girl camper on my back every time :), and would then walk back for more competitions, stations, and games. We did 4 days of this, had 1 night game against a pretty scrappy team during the camp that we won (3-0 at this point). We finished our camp on Thursday and would play our last game that night. During the day, 1 to 2 of my teammates shared a little bit of their testimony or what God was speaking to them to share. I was able to share the last day during lunch time.

This time, God totally put something else on my heart to share, and I could totally see the attention of the kids that day as being extremely unusual especially for the last day. We had been speaking about how to treat other people as we heard that bullying and depression and suicide was a very common thing in France and in that area. Our theme for the week was focused on choices. In France, we were told to be more careful about the way we shared our faith in the camp because forcing religion on children is a huge no-no. So as we talked about how to get around that, we agreed that if we don’t present the gospel as a choice, their response to it would probably not be authentic. So each of us spoke about choices that we had made in friendships, in college, at school, during basketball, and the last day I had it on my heart to speak about how people’s choices around me affected me so much when I was in a low place.  

I began by asking the kids to raise their hands if they thought they had the best best friend. Many raised their hands and shared (through a translator) why they thought they had the best best friend. After listening to their reasons, I told them I thought they were wrong because I had the best best friend. I spoke about my best friend who was there when I was hopeless and cynical and sad. She stuck through it even though she did not have to. She chose to do my dishes, stay on a couch, and listen even when it became a burden for her. I was lost in my own suffering at the time, but I shared with them that I had asked her 6 months later how she was able to handle that. She told me she wasn’t, that she didn’t. She said she had to cling to God so hard to be able to. 

Then I told them that even thought I think my best friend is the best, that there is someone who showed he was the best friend and companion there ever was. That someone, even when we were selfish and mean and hopeless and hurtful, loved us so much that he actually died to continue to be in relationship with us. We did not deserve it. And he did it for each of us. And he did it for me. By  this time, by the power of Jesus, everyone was pretty quiet. I asked who they thought this was. One camper said “Jesus.” And of course she was correct. I told them that they had the choice to respond to the message and that we would love it if they would come talk to one of the NRB players during the last huddle session. During huddle time, my group was not extremely talkative (again very hard to be with translators), but it seemed they had such a respect for what was said and were thankful for the conversations. Not many of them go to church or really talk about religion, but I think in the time we were there, they could see such an authenticity in us and that it was not just a story.

That Thursday night was our last game. My group (the sharks) came and cheered me and our team on like I told them. They did our shark cheer anytime Raygon or I would score. That may have been more fun for me than the game. We did win by a lot that night to put us 4-0 for the trip.

The next day we were able to do a little shopping and site seeing with our entire team as well as spend some time with our hosts who had spoiled us all week with food and transportation and really all that we needed. We were so grateful for all that they did for us. It was a lot!

During the week in  France, our team had split up into 3 different host homes. Megan and I were placed in a rented out studio apartment on very steep, high hill overlooking the little town. Vineyards grew anywhere that did not have trees or houses or buildings or streets. It was a very, very beautiful land-scape as shown in the picture to the left. Many of these views showed themselves throughout the trip from Colorado to Sweden to France. 

God gave us a lot of amazing weather and skies and beauty in every direction we went. To try to give you a summary of all of it is nearly impossible. After a day of fun in France, we all went our separate ways. We boarded planes and trains and busses. None of us are from the same place, but all of us will be able to share the memories of this amazing trip. Amy will be finishing her collegiate career this school as a extremely hard-working, fierce forward at King University and will finish her degree in Security and Intelligence. It was extremely fun to play with her leadership and competitive drive as well as see her interact so well with the campers. Raygon played with one of my best friends in college and is a 3-point killer (had like 11 3s one game I’m pretty sure). Her attitude was always steady and she had such a heart for each camper - was fun being leaders together. Megan travelled back to Hammarstrand, Sweden and just earned a spot on the professional team in a city nearby that we played against. She is extremely competitive and clearly loves working with young players - she will be coaching up and helping with the youth basketball program there for at least a year. Carla had to have been one of the best coaches I have been around. She is young, but clearly has such a gift for coaching, strategy, pulling individual strengths, and practicing up. It did not take long to trust her judgement as a coach, and also call her friend off the court because of her genuine personality. I got to know Charlotte in Sweden as we stayed with the same hosts. She is a straight-shooter and has a great authentic relationship with God and loves to stop and listen and hear what he has to say. She is a trainer and one of the most fit and strong ladies I know. Cassie, our tour leader, has such a mission heart and loves to challenge herself and those around her to forsake the things of the world and just cling to Jesus, to be ready to move and go at a moments notice for the sake of the gospel, and build community and authenticity wherever she is. She will be in Germany for a little while doing ministry as God calls her to it. Desiree has an amazing God-story and such a genuine authentic heart for The Word and putting it into rhymes and relating with people on a real level. She’s creative in videography and photography and mixing music. Above all, she has such a hope in God’s promises and what he has been growing within her. If you could be in prayer for all of these girls where they are, I know they would appreciate it! 

From Left to Right: Cassie, Desiree, ME, Charlette, Megan, Amy, Carla, Raygon
[Featuring: Sara (Guebwiller Camper)]

There are more stories, more details, more proof of God at work in my heart, in News Release Basketball through each and every player on my team and beyond, in the campers, in the hosts, in the beauty of the people I met. If you ever have a conversation with me in the near future, I would love to share just one more nugget of all that God is doing. Because he continues to bless me beyond what I could ever hope for and equip me in even in my shortcomings, my life has been filled to the brim with evidence of His hand at work even since I arrived back home (my main mission field that God has brought me to). Most of these stories have more to do with becoming more and more aware of God in the midst of everything and also seeing his promises and character and glory continuing to be revealed in all of it. Trips like this give me fresh eyes to gaze into and trust in what God is doing where I am, and I am so grateful for the way God worked through it beyond just a story about an experience somewhere else. This story had a lot of extravagant views and cultural experience, but the heart is where God specializes. He digs into what matters and opens up the eyes to not just look, but see fully what He is doing and more of who He is.  

Again, thank you for supporting this trip in whatever way that you did. I hope this was a joy to read. I would love to hear from you and support you as well in whatever journey you are going on at home or elsewhere. Send me your prayers, your needs, or just share a similar story! God BLESS!!