Africa: A Life Changing Experience
During a typical Crawfordsville winter, many of us at Wabash yearn for our Spring Break adventures. As you may have read on the website, “Over 150 Wabash College students who literally traveled the world over Spring Break have returned to campus. Some traveled with course-related Immersion Learning trips, others did missionary work in Botswana and in New Orleans, and still others ‘spread the fame of her honored name’ singing in San Francisco and hitting baseballs in Texas”. Some of us on the Wabash Soccer team also did a bit of traveling! I recall from Coach’s email that Diego and Fabricio traveled to Spain, Devin left for Scotland, Funston left for Spain, and I’m sure there were plenty of other relaxing trips that our guys enjoyed. I also happened to do a bit of traveling over break, to a place that typically isn’t all that familiar to Americans. Me and 20 other awesome guys from the Wabash Football team voyaged for well over 30 hours to arrive at our destination: Maun, Botswana in Africa. This would prove to be a life changing event for all of us, as any reader will soon find out!
What comes to mind when you think of Africa? We are a bit old for this, but I always pictured Africa exactly like Disney’s The Lion King. Many of the same images held up to the movie, especially on the safari! Yes, a safari, and it was quite an experience to see Giraffes, Elephants, Gazelles, Zebras, and Beetles THE SIZE OF SMALL CELL PHONES (no joke). Consider this as well; it is the middle of Africa’s summer right now, in contrast to the snow, slush, sleet, rain, wind and whatever else you deem suitable, that Indiana is currently battling. While in Maun, we received a much warmer welcome. The weather remained the same, about 89 degrees with clear sunny skies, the whole time we were there. However, there is a darker side of the country that plagues their society on a daily basis. Stricken with poverty, theft, rape and various other crimes/poor living standards, our 21 Wabash guys chose to dedicate ourselves to helping youths, teens, and prisoners from the Maun area for the duration of our break. Sponsored and led by an organization known as OneWay Ministries (www.owm.org), we sought to minister God’s word to these people in hopes that they would come to know and develop an enduring relationship with Him through our Savior, Jesus Christ.
The people we worked with were genuine. Assisting us by whatever means they could, they were split into two teams: the “A-Team” and the “Checker” team. The A-Team
consisted of four Maun-natives who have completely given up their jobs, money, etc. to help those less fortunate in the surrounding villages and help them in their walk with Christ. The Checker team provided support for the A-Team, but they maintained their day jobs on the side. Let me elaborate on what it means to be a “Checker”. The natives considered any Christian who glorifies God in all that they do, and “checks” the actions of others - a “Checker”. We might relate this to accountability. Regardless, they are all awesome people and the villagers wouldn’t have been able to understand us without their translation skills! It was a real slap in the face to know that we take so many things for granted here in America though. When the day was done, we returned to our air-conditioned three-man chalets, complete with running water and cable TV, while they walked back to their mostly poor living conditions (we were living like kings). Aside from that, we could not have asked for better ministry leaders and group of guys (although I would have loved the company of some fellow soccer players!).
As I mentioned earlier, many of our lives changed in just one week; it was clear that barriers had been broken. All the fellas began to bond right as we left the airport in Indy, even though I did not know most of the guys all too well. The bond, which will probably never be broken from this point on, began in Johannesburg, South Africa during our overnight layover. Excited, jet-lagged and hungry, we did not quite know what to expect. After a KFC dinner, we ended up sleeping on benches in the terminal, which was not all that bad, considering an amazing night of fellowship was soon to follow. We played a card 
game with some of the Africans known as “casino”, practiced the six stories that we had to memorize, sang praise with guitar and harmonica accompaniment, and finally hacky-sacked for a remainder of the night. It amazed me how I left for the trip not knowing a majority of the guys, but came back good buddies with all of them. That was another thing that stood out to me because the bonds that we were creating through our love for God made life seem so real, aside from the fact that everyone has the opportunity to build ever-lasting friendships at Wabash. I was also the only soccer player on the trip, which was awesome because it revealed that we did not have to be on the same team here at Wabash to act like a team during the trip, regardless of our athletic focus. This made it really easy for God to use all of us in His own unique ways to reach out to the villagers and prisoners. Let me tell you, it was an amazing sight to see 300 to 400 kids, all with their hands raised willing to pursue a relationship with Christ!
Looking back on the trip, it was quite a memorable experience. As we are all aware,
the soccer team plans to travel to Costa Rica, or maybe even somewhere in Europe, in August 2009. This really fires me up because if barriers can broken in just one week, imagine the bonds we will build as players, coaches, and a team! I can probably speak on behalf of the whole soccer team on this issue, but unification has been one thing that we have been missing the past couple years. I truly believe that is going to change, especially with the determination our coaches and teammates have been showing. I would also like to encourage anyone from the team now, as well as the prospects coming in next season, to consider a relationship with Christ. Of course, our school and team are both non-denominational so I don’ want to force this upon anyone (plus you can’t force anybody to become a believer!), but I would simply like to voice my interest in starting a bible study, that meets once a week or so, to catch up with each other’s lives and dive into the word!
Anyway, it feels good to be back. Let’s keep up the hard work and have a successful spring season!
In Christ,
David Rosborough ‘10
As I sit here wondering what words can encapsulate what I’ve experienced since my departure January 16th almost two months ago, it becomes increasingly difficult. I have seen and done so much that mere pictures and words can not do it all justice. I should probably start at the beginning and with basic information.
information of , I will keep this short. I’ve seen everything from Raul of Real Madrid score his 200th goal, genuine gypsies dance flamenco in caves to the last Muslim stronghold in Europe. I’ve slept in a hostel that was once boarding for church guests in the 16th century. Oh, and I live with a Senora, who cooks paella every Sunday, in one of the top cities for tourism in the world. Not bad for just two months.