Each year thousands of college students spend their spring breaks drinking and hanging out on the beach. This year members of Georgia Southern’s Athletes in Action spent their spring break in a tropical location helping others to be able to drink.
Athletes in Action is an international sports organization whose goal is to help sports minded people think and live biblically.
During March 12-17, 31 members of the Georgia Southern Athletes in Action went to Costa Rica where they partnered with Filter of Hope to provide clean drinking water to those in need.
“Our first mission trip was in 2015 and we went to Miami,” said AIA Campus Director Matt Wise. “This is our fifth one, and the last four have all been overseas. We went to Nicaragua, Cuba and twice now to Costa Rica. All of our trips overseas have been through a partnership with Filter of Hope who is a non-profit based in Tuscaloosa AL. Their mission is to bring clean water, and Christ’s love to those in desperate need of both. We go there to fulfill a physical need as well as a spiritual need.”
The mission trip to Nicaragua in 2016 helped Georgia Southern win the Sun Belt Conference community impact award. This year’s trip to Costa Rica earned each of the student athletes who attended 120 service hours.
There are over 100 athletes at Georgia Southern who are members Athletes in Action as well as coaches and staff members. Many Georgia Southern alum go on to work as interns with Athletes in Action including a few who attended the mission trip in March.
“When I came here to Georgia Southern, I was in search of community and to be around other believers,” said former Eagle baseball player Braden Hays. “As an athlete I think something like AIA really appealed to me. Being a baseball player, you don’t have a spring break so this was the first time I’ve been able to go on a mission trip. Me and my wife have felt called to go on a mission trip and it was amazing to go and have such an impact on others as well as them having an impact on us.”
Many of those who attended the mission trip spoke of how it changed them as well as better understanding what things are like in other parts of the world.
“Volleyball was my world and everything that came with that like training and working hard and feeling like I was on top of the world,” said Madison Brown. “Going on this mission trip really humbled me to my core. It showed me what my priorities in life have been and what they should be. The water they are drinking can make them incredibly sick. We just take things like that for granted. They have five families under one roof with sheets hung up as walls. Despite their circumstances you still see joy on their faces and I know if those were our own circumstances here, we would not have that same joy.”
For Eagle rifle team member Gabby Morrow, the mission trip really put things in perspective.
“I think it really made me understand the stupid things I complain about on a daily basis,” Morrow said. “I complain if my television isn’t loading quick enough, or if my Wi-Fi goes out. These are people who don’t know if their children will get sick from drinking the water and are sleeping on a dirt floor. It puts things in perspective. Being able to share the Word with them and getting to know them is such a special opportunity.”
Eagle quarterback David Dallas said he turned to AIA during a rough time last season when he found out he would need multiple surgeries on his shoulder. Through this journey he was able to attend the mission trip to Costa Rico and feels he may have actually gotten more from the trip than what he did for others.
“We were bringing a physical and spiritual need to them,” said Dallas. “What they gave to us I could never repay. Going to a house with 12 kids and multiple families with barley a roof over their heads and a dirt floor and just the joy on their faces despite the conditions, It was incredibly humbling.”
