As soon as he landed at the Des Moines airport, Forward Asa LaFleur messaged his teammates on WhatsApp, “What a trip guys. Miss it already.”
Fellow freshman Miriam Beenken chimed in, “It was amazing.”
Several players from the Eagles basketball teams visited the Dominican Republic in May and did what they love most—played basketball and shared Christ. They visited Christian schools, led a basketball camp, and worshiped alongside Dominican believers, observing firsthand how the Gospel crosses cultural lines.
They also had the unique privilege to play against semi-professional Dominican basketball teams. The women won both games that they played, and the men went 1-2, an impressive showing considering they only had seven players and played against some great competition.
But what made these games extra special was what happened after the clock hit zero. The Faith players gathered their opponents and shared their personal stories of faith in Christ.
Worship Without Words
For many of the Faith students, the most powerful moments came during church services. Tshiya Keepers found herself moved during one particular service where the team sang “Man of Sorrows.”
“We were able to sing in English and then a chorus in Spanish, and it was really cool to be able to see the congregation singing along with us and knowing that we were all worshiping the same God,” she said.
Gabriella Widman also enjoyed the church visits: “One of my favorite parts of this trip was going to the churches and just worshiping with other believers who come from a totally different country and have a completely different background than I do, and even just worshiping in a different language. But still knowing that we are worshiping the same God and we believe in the same gospel.”
Breaking Down Barriers Through Basketball
The basketball games created natural opportunities for gospel conversations. Visiting the DR for the third time, Cade Cooper experienced how sharing a love for the game opened doors to talk about Christ.
“I’ve just found something that is really fun is competing against these basketball teams, these club teams, and then also being able to share my testimony and our testimonies with them,” Cooper said. “It’s just something we have in common. And then, just to be able to use that to share the gospel with them.”
Aksana Chromy saw God use these athletic connections in powerful ways. “Getting to share our testimonies with the local Dominican basketball teams that we’ve been playing has been really cool to see how receptive they are to our words, even though they’ve never heard it before. And that’s just really cool.”
Gospel Conversations and Life Change
The week was filled with opportunities to share personal faith stories. Mikayla Jones found herself telling her testimony more than 20 times during the trip as the teams visited schools and camps throughout the week.
For Aksana, the trip included seeing God work in ways she’ll never forget because of her testimony. “My highlight from the trip was for sure getting to talk about how God changed my life and my testimony and getting to lead a couple of teenagers to the Lord, and they asked God to be their savior, too. So that was an awesome experience.”
Seeing God in the Mountains
The trip included a visit to a mountain village called Pica Pica, where the team experienced a different side of Dominican culture. Gus Bunnell preached at the church there, describing it as “a really cool experience because we get to see sort of more a local village sort of aspect rather than the city.”
“I got the privilege of preaching in a church in Pica Pica. And that was an amazing experience,” Bunnell said.
The Power of Ordinary Stories
Not every testimony was dramatic, but that didn’t make them less powerful. Landon Brahs learned something important about the value of his own faith journey.
“I really just learned the impact and the power of personal testimony,” Brahs said. “It oftentimes, I think it’s hard with my instance, I would view it as almost boring because I grew up in a Christian home. And I’ve been in the word my whole life. But I think there’s power in the mediocre, and just having the privilege of being in a Christian environment my whole life, something that a lot of people here don’t get.”
Universal Truth in Different Languages
The trip reinforced something that the students learned in the classroom back in Ankeny—that the gospel message transcends cultural and language barriers. Asa LaFleur put it this way: “The love of Christ is cross-cultural. Lots of times we can think that because we’re in America, we are the most Christian nation. But it’s really cool to see the love of God in other nations and see how even in Spanish and all the different languages, how you can see when someone loves Christ and you can share the love of Christ to them, even without speaking the same language as them.”
Levi Shaeffer found the same thing. “It’s a beautiful country, beautiful people. And for me, it’s been a really cool experience to see how no matter where you are in the entire world, no matter what language is spoken, that the gospel is still the same and the truth remains.”
Building Relationships Beyond the Court
Katie Costello, a missionary kid from Portuguese-speaking Brasil, appreciated how relationships formed naturally during the trip. “One thing that I’ve really enjoyed is being able to just build relationships with the people at the schools and camps and, as we play games with them and also the churches, just being able to see how the love of Christ can be shown as we communicate with each other, even though there is a little bit of a language barrier, we can still show them God’s love and also the gospel.”
Basketball as a Ministry Platform
Mason Gorsh summarized what many of the players discovered during the week: “It was a great experience to come overseas and just share our testimonies and just share what we’ve been learning in our lives. Playing basketball and using basketball as a platform to glorify God and not just play games, but to share testimonies through that.”
The athletes saw that their athletic abilities could serve a higher purpose than just winning games. They learned that sports can be a bridge to meaningful conversations about faith, and that sharing Christ doesn’t require perfect language skills—just willing hearts.
For these students, the Dominican Republic trip showed them how their everyday talents could be used for eternal purposes. They came home with more than just memories of basketball games and beautiful beaches.
They returned with a deeper understanding of how God can use anyone, anywhere, to share His love with the world.
