Four Jamestown High School student-athletes and their adviser will be going on a mission trip to the Dominican Republic July 7-14.
“This will be a good experience for not only us, but the community we will be helping,” said Ben Smith, the students’ adviser and teacher and swimming coach at JHS.
It will be the first international mission trip for students Ben Hanson, Andrew Hornung, Josh Schulz and Nolan Love and their adviser. The mission team will meet with other groups in the Dominican Republic.
“It is a great opportunity,” Hornung said. “We can connect with kids from another country.”
The mission trip is through the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, which partners with Athletic International Missions based out of Houston. Smith said the mission team will join about 20 to 30 people to put on a youth camp for children in San Luis, which is in the southern part of the Dominican Republic.
The mission team will be teaching Bible lessons and basketball skills to children in the Dominican Republic. The mission team will also distribute 50 Bibles to people in the country.
Smith said it is a multi-sport camp, but the students going on the trip specialize in basketball. He said he hopes the mission team will be able to incorporate some training for water safety.
“We will be close to the beach at different points on our trip, so hopefully we will be able to teach some safety water skills to the kids, too,” he said. “Other mission work will be hopefully fixing up some schools and homes in the area.”
The multi-sport camp is free and open to the community, and Brittany Billings, executive director with Athletic International Missions, said approximately 5,000 kids will be in camp to hear about Jesus and participate in sports, music and art.
Smith said sports can help establish relationships.
“It (sports) is a common thread that people use to connect with each other,” he said. “I feel like that is a great way to share the Gospel.”
Smith said the students and he did some research on the Dominican Republic.
“I think 80 percent of the schools there don’t have running water,” he said. “It think only 1 in 8 people get past grade school. It is fairly impoverished. One of the main outlets for these people and kids to continue with their education is with their sports.”
Although it is the first time the students will be participating on a mission trip, it isn’t the first time they have volunteered. Schulz helped sandbag when the Jamestown area was going through a flood, Love helped when Minot was going through a flood, and Hornung has helped with Kids Against Hunger and sandbagging around here.
“With these guys, their parents are pretty involved in the community, so whenever the community needs help these guys get firsthand at helping like moving new people to the community and welcoming them to Jamestown,” Smith said. “Sometimes, if somebody needs help like mowing or something like that. We have elderly people at the church. These guys are always willing to help out.”
Smith said the mission team has raised more than $4,000 through different fundraising events.
“The community has been awesome and generous,” he said. “Not only are we raising money for us to go over there, but when we are there we are raising money for that camp, too. Part of our tuition is getting food for the kids that will be there so they don’t have to worry about that when they are with us and distributing Bibles.”
A baked potato bar will be at noon June 28 at Temple Baptist Church, 1200 12th Ave. NE, Jamestown. Admission is free, but a freewill offering will be accepted. All proceeds will help fund the mission trip.
To donate to the mission team, contact Smith at (701) 368-1706 or send a check payable to Fellowship of Christian Athletes, 1904 2nd Place NE, Jamestown, ND 58401.
Sun Assistant Editor Masaki Ova can be reached at (701)952-8451 or by email at
mova@jamestownsun.com
