Final Post .......

This final post regarding our incredible missions trip to the Dominican Republic is by Coach Denny Scott, Director of Sports Ministries at Northland. He was a vital part of the preparation for our trip, as well as a key member while we were there. His wisdom and insight were invaluable to keep us focused on accomplishing the goals we had prayed about for months.

A Total Team Effort

When I returned home from this trip there were a number of people that asked me how things went. My reply was usually the same, “On a scale of 1 to 10, I think it was an 11 or 12.” I honestly believe that the trip of “off the charts” in many ways. God did some amazing things both in us and through us and the glory for whatever was accomplished goes to Him.

Throughout the past few months it was obvious that God was overseeing many details both in the preparation and in the actual participation of the trip. God brought together a great team to do the work He wanted done. I’m not just talking about the actual members of the Northland women’s basketball team. I am talking about all of the people that God brought together for this special experience.

No team can function effectively without a head coach and Coach Whitt provided much insight with his years of experience in leading mission trips as a youth pastor. His spiritual leadership with the discipleship aspect of the team was a real blessing to see and be a part of. He led the team in a study of the book of Nehemiah throughout the trip. Also, his eagerness for sharing the gospel at each game and inviting people to respond was also a great example to the rest of the team. Praise the Lord for one young man that trusted Christ at our last game! There were also a few salvation decisions at the outdoor evangelistic meetings we participated in at Hato Mayor. I believe that a number of our own team members also made personal decisions in their walk with the Lord and future service to Him.

Jennifer Renner was a God-send in helping prepare the girls for ministering through music, puppets, and testimonies. These were all done in the Spanish language even though few of the girls can actually understand or speak the language. She was a great help in interpreting for us as well. I don’t know what we would have done without her. She manifested a real servant’s heart through the entire process of the trip.

Our bus-driver, Marcos was “hand-picked by God” to become a part of our team. He was a tremendous blessing. His enthusiasm and servant spirit was contagious. None of us who were on the trip will ever forget him.

Manuel Sanchez, who is an alumnus of Northland from the Dominican Republic, was an extra special help in planning the trip. I was able to spend a lot of time with him in the planning stages. He always helped me gain some insight into the Dominican culture and put me in touch with the right people to help provide housing, meals, and ground transportation.

Kristy Legg, the basketball team manager and Sports Ministries major did a lot of behind the scenes work in the planning stages. Her burden for sports ministries was “fleshed out” in this trip. She covered a lot of the “nitty-gritty” details of the planning and helped much in the communication of things to the team members.

Denny Vauters provided much advice and help from the Northland Center for Global Opportunities. He helped with many projects like copying support letters, booking airline tickets, getting team shirts, and sending receipts and thank you letters to all of those who have supported us financially.

In the Dominican Republic people like Don Juan (who opened his home for us to stay in), Doña Mechi (who prepared wonderful meals for us), Pastor Roberto Martino, Carlos Sanchez, Pastor Manuel Ruiz, Pastor Carlos Abreu, Yadin Rodriguez, Pastor Amos, Heidi Van Dyke (NBBC Alumnus and missionary) and all of the youth group at Iglesia Bautista Cristiana have touched our lives in amazing ways. It was difficult to say good-bye to many of these brothers and sisters in Christ who became so dear to us in such a short time.

A great blessing to me personally was the testimony of one of our team members who, after seeing Heidi Van Dyke (a single female missionary) being used by God in such a tremendous way, shared with the team, that she could “see herself serving the Lord in a similar way on the mission field in the future”. Prior to the trip she may have been uncertain about stepping out by faith to serve the Lord in this way, but having seen one of our alumni doing it first-hand has increased her faith and encouraged her to surrender to see God use her in this way in the future.

All in all, the trip was a wonderful experience. Praise the Lord for the opportunity to be used in this way. Sports Missions works, but it takes a team effort!

More photos....

Last Day....

Well, it's hard to believe how fast the last day has flown. We have enjoyed our time here in the DR in such an amazing way, and have all learned a great deal. I'm not sure how many people, if any, have been following the blog, but it has been fun to have the responsibility to document our experiences.

As I mentioned Sunday night, we were glad to spend some time with Dr. Horn, and went out to KFC after church with about 50 or 60 of our closest friends from IBC! We were there until after 11 pm fellowshipping and having a great time.

Monday morning we got up and headed to the beach. We were able to find a nice place about an hour from Santo Domingo, and the girls enjoyed spending a little time swimming and playing on the beach. I rented a wave runner and took several of them out in 5-10 minute increments to experience riding in the ocean. While there, we got a call that our game had been postponed from 4 until 5:30, and moved to Santo Domingo University.

We ate at Pizza Hut and fought the traffic to get back to the house and get ready for the game. A torrential downpour flooded many streets, and the traffic casued us to be about 30 minutes late for our final game against the San Carlos Club. SDU is the oldest university in the Americas, founded in the 1500's and has about 120,000 students. It was exciting to drive on this enormous campus and see so many students. We quickly got warmed up (in about 10 minutes) and tipped off. We recognized a couple of their players from the first team we played last Wednesday, but we sensed it would be an even game. The first quarter was even, and Taylor hit a 3-pointer at the halftime buzzer to tie the game at 28-28.

It was then that we met with the other team and shared the Gospel. Jenna shared her salvation testimony, and I gave a simple message about salvation. There was something "different" this time than the previous 4 or 5 times. The fans, students, and opposing players, about 50 or 60 in all, were incredibly focused on the message. I had great liberty, and when I asked about salvation, four players and six fans raised their hands asking for prayer. We gave the invitation to talk to several Spanish-speaking friends that were there.

The second half began, and from a basketball standpoint, was our worst quarter of the week. We struggled in all aspects of the game, and trailed by 6 or 7 points at one time. As the quarter continued, we looked behind the basket and Coach Scott, along with a man from the church, were talking to a fan who had raised his hand during the message. Coach had given him a tract in the 2nd quarter, and sensed he was tender. I called timout and gathered the girls around just to pray for the man and those talking to him. We were exciited to find out after the game the man had trusted Christ! I got to meet him and spend some time with him encouraging him afterwards. We were able to introduce him to Roberto, the youth pastor from IBC, and they exchanged contact info. Praise God for the privilege of seeing fruit!

As the quarter ended, we played a little better, and got a big lift when Jenna hit a shot at the buzzer to tie the game at 43-43. We played really well in the 4th quarter, and got great contributions from Lisa and Becky off of the bench. Lisa made a key steal that sparked us to a nine-point lead with five minutes left, and we held on to win 53-50. We had a great time fellowshipping with several fans and some of their English-speaking players before heading back to the house.

Once there, we enjoyed a HUGE bbq prepared for us by our host, Don Juan, and his sons. We had grilled chicken, ribs, porkchops, sausage, and wings. Several of the church members were invited as well, so it turned into a huge going away party for us. Bittersweet at best. Afterwards, about 10pm, we went to the home of one of the IBC members. He sells and installs home theater systems in Santo Domingo, and has the most incredible multi-level home theater I've ever seen. We watched Bolt with some of the youth, and enjoyed it greatly.

I will likely wrap up with a post sometime Wednesday. We leave here Tuesday afternoon, land in Chicago about 8pm, and most of us drive to Northland getting in about 2 or 3 am.

I'll do my best to attach a separate post soon with more pictures. Thanks again for praying!

Saturday night and Sunday in Santo Domingo...

We had a great time at the youth meeting at IBC on Saturday night. I would guess there were 40-50 people in attendance for a time of singing, testimonies and teaching. Ally and Kate gave testimonies and I preached. The meeting started about 8:00, and ended about 9:15. Afterwards, we all went to a local mall food court where we sat, ate and talked with the entire group until about 11:30pm. The bond of Christ is obvious in any language, although most of the teens are interested in learning and speaking English! Many of the team members mentioned that the time with the youth was one of the highlights of our trip!

On Sunday we attended and served in both services at IBC. The girls sang in each service, and Kristy and Julia shared testimonies in the evening. Our flute trio also played the offertory. Dr. Sam Horn from Northland has been in the DR since Friday speaking at a Couples' Conference for IBC, therefore most of the couples were still away Sunday morning. The conference ended Sunday afternoon, and we were glad to spend some time with Dr. Horn in the evening. We had lunch in the food court again on Sunday, with the youth of course, and were able to have an hour and a half of down time at the house before heading back out to church.

I think it would be approriate to say what a blessing Jennifer Renner has been to this team. Many of you know Jennifer teaches in our Music Department back at Northland, and is fairly fluent in Spanish. She has prepared the girls very well for music and children's ministry, but has also been our translator for a variety of situations, including with our driver Marcos. She has done all of this with a servant's heart, and I know has made a great impression on our team and everyone she meets.

Because I'm a rookie blogger and took my crash course a couple of days before we left the State, I have no idea what I'm doing or how to format the posts to look good (those of you who know me, know this drives me crazy!) The pictures are a big part of the issue, so I will add a few pictures in a separate blog. I hope this helps. The pictures include some outreach opportunities in the stands at the game at Hato Mayor, Marcos buying us sugar cane on the way back, Jenna and Kate enjoying sugar cane, some of the Sat night youth meeting and food court gathering, and Sunday services at Iglesia Bautista Cristiano.

Monday is obviously our last full day on the trip. It is very bittersweet, as we all miss families, but love what we're doing. We hope to see more of the city in the morning, and have our final game Monday afternoon. Don Juan, our gracious host, wants to have a bbq for us at supper, so I'm sure there will be stories from that! Please pray we can be salt and light on and off the court on Monday! Thanks for your prayers!


God has taught me a lot this week. I‘ve learned many truths about Him and His Word. The main truth He has taught me is that I need to examine my life all the time, not just to prepare for something special like a mission trip. I need to be willing to be open and transparent with Him every day. He already knows everything about my life. I know I need to be willing to confess the sin that is in my life to him and ask for forgiveness, but sometimes my pride holds me back. I want to hold on to things that God wants me to let go of. God knows what is best for my life, and I have to be willing to be used by Him. I need to let go of the sin in my life that hinders my relationship with my Savior, so I can better serve Him on the mission field and at home. -Kristy

It has really been an amazing experience to be here in the Dominican where the majority of people don’t speak English - especially when I don’t speak very much Spanish! It’s also great when we can still sing and worship God together with the other believers here. Friday evening we attended a revival meeting held by the church in Hato Mayor. As we were singing the opening songs, I was able to pick up on some words and phrases since we’ve been here in the Dominican for several days now. It was such an amazing experience to be able to praise God in Spanish! It was different than the songs that we had rehearsed already in Spanish because the words were not explained to me, I had to think and figure out the lines on my own and really focus on the truths of God and His word. What an amazing thought that in every location the truths of God’s Word and His majesty is still supreme and there is no language that can act as a barrier against our praise to Him! - Becky

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