Spartans Serving the Community

Here are some leadership and mission projects Spartan athletes have been and are currently involved with in the local and global community.

Service Goes Well Beyond Volleyball - December 2007

Trinity Western University women's volleyball team visited China from December 11 - December 22, 2007.

"As the TWU women's volleyball team, we have been appointed by God to use our talents and abilities to their full potential. We commit to positively impacting each other. This is our purpose statement that we live by as a program. We agreed to this trip as a team because we believe that what we do in China will achieve what our team is about: impacting others." - Saralyn Stel.

The team was hosted by Tianjin University of Technology. The Spartans traveled and played various teams in the country. Besides the competitive matches, the team provided Christmas gifts to the students and staff at the Handicapped Children's Center run by the Jian Hua Society - a Christian Organization in China. The team didn't know exactly what to expect, but once inside realized they were just one part of the audience attending a Christmas program put on by the children. After the show, the Spartans were able to interact and give gifts to the children.

The Spartans also offered gifts to, and played with, about 30 deaf children from the kindergarten of the Regional Disabled Persons Association, an organization run by the Tianjin government. The children's disabilities didn't hold them back from playing the games and activities put on by the Spartans. The kids were excited for their Christmas presents and a break from the regular classroom schedule.
The team learned a lot about the Chinese culture and enjoyed getting to know the people.

AIA Takes on Honduras - Summer 2007

In the summer of 2007 Athletes in Action Canada put together their first ever women's international tour. The team was comprised of 11 volleyball athletes hailing from all parts of the country, representing the NCAA, NAIA, CCAA and CIS leagues. Three of our own Spartan Athletes joined the tour this June: Saralyn Raugust, Kim Klassen and Liz Spear and a previous Spartan: Shannon Wassen. Our Women's Volleyball assistant coach, Ryan Adams, was the head coach of the tour to Honduras. After a brief training camp in Langley BC, the team headed to Honduras where they would compete and train with and against the top University, Women and National teams.

The first week the team lodged at the Honduras Olympic training centre where they rubbed shoulders with Honduras' top athletes in a variety of sports. The second week the team was billeted with local families which was a great cultural experience and different for each individual athlete.
The team got right into playing, taking on Global, the top women's team in the country the second night. After going down 2-0 in the first set, Canada stormed back taking the next three to win in 5. This would be a continuous trend for the games as the team went undefeated with every match going at least to 4 sets.

The matches were played in the evening, but the days were full as the team would visit local schools and universities where they would run clinics or just interact with the students. The girls had lots of opportunities to share their faith as they frequently had their testimonies translated for all the fans that came out to watch. A highlight for many of the girls was a stop at a local orphanage where all the kids had blankets that were actually made by churches in Canada which was cool to see.
After some crazy rain storms, road trips and experiencing the "Honduran way", the team departed for home with a newfound love for the people and country of Honduras.

Saralyn Raugust (2003-2008)

Women's Soccer South Africa/Zambia Summer 2005

Our trip to South Africa and Zambia in August of 2005 proved to be a defining moment for myself as a soccer player and as a child of God. It was on this trip that I decided that becoming a Christian was something that I really wanted to pursue. Before this trip I had just started to search for that "special something" which was an obvious part of the lives of my coaches and some of my fellow teammates and friends at TWU. While on this trip I found it! I could see it in the excitement of my teammates' eyes when they shared the gospel with their personal stories of faith. It was evident it in the lives of the children, the opposition, and the people who were receiving these testimonies, and I saw it in myself by the way I felt when I heard them and witnessed what was going on around me.

As a soccer player, this trip was a great experience because it was our pre-season/training camp and enabled our team to gel on the field and get to know each other better off the field while playing against National teams and elite club or university teams. We were able to experience the continent of Africa as tourists and grow in our compassion and love for others. Seeing that God really is everywhere, no matter where on the earth or how financially stable a country is, was truly amazing. Not only were we able to help the people there by running camps for youth, visiting orphanages, playing games, and spreading the message of Jesus, we ourselves were able to grow in our faith in God and our love for one another.

I have been on a few trips like this one throughout my soccer career at TWU and each time I have gone it has been a defining moment in my life. Sport is such a great way to do these types of trips because it is a universal language; you do not have to speak the same language in order to understand the rules. I would absolutely recommend going on a missions trip, whether through sport or not, because it is THE experience of a life-time.

Erin-Marie Higgins (2003-08)