The Azusa Pacific women's basketball team spent a weekend in Tecate, Mexico this September building a home for a local family.
Photo Courtesy: APU Sports Information
In summer and fall 2014, the men’s and women’s basketball teams traveled abroad on mission trips. The men’s team spent three weeks in Costa Rica playing exhibition games and participating in service projects, while the women went to Mexico for a weekend to build a home for a local family.
Athletes are not always able to go on mission trips or to study abroad; however, this opportunity, under NCAA guidelines, allows the teams to travel internationally once every four years, and they are also allowed to compete.
Before the trip, the men’s team visited a ministry called Francisco Homes in Los Angeles, where players heard stories of men who were criminals with life sentences and the redemptive processes they have gone through. Leading a worship service at a rescue mission in Long Beach with homeless people was another opportunity the team had before traveling.
What happened over the course of that time and the trip with the team as a whole was something that head coach Justin Leslie says will be a memory for a lifetime.
“There’s a lot of tourist-y things we did as team, like the longest and fastest zip line in the world and hiking the volcano,” Leslie said. “There were also times where the guys were culturally uncomfortable and it stretched them. Time together was so incredible throughout the trip, even on the buses on our way to different locations, because of the conversations that were had, and also not having cellphones was a plus.”
The team played games and hosted youth basketball clinics in San Jose, Grecia and San Ramon.
“In conjunction with each of the games, they were marketing them by offering a clinic for the youth in the area where the players were leaders 100 percent,” Leslie said. “It was good to see that by the end of the time we were there, you couldn’t even tell there was a language barrier.”
The men participated in other projects such as leveling a field at a school, visiting classrooms and other experiences that allowed them to see what life was like in the country.
“From a spiritual perspective, I think that there is a greater perspective of the world getting us thinking outside of ourselves,” Leslie said. “Through that process, we all learned a ton about each other, and there was a chance for everyone to even share their testimonies.”
According to sophomore Lauren Gilster, the women also had “an awesome team bonding and service trip.”
Traveling to Tecate, Mexico, the last weekend in September, the women’s basketball team built a three-bedroom home for a local family in alliance with Baja Christian Ministries.
“It was incredible to see that the kids had so little, yet they brought so much joy to everything,” Gilster said. “We learned so much from them, like learning how to go to the bathroom in a place that didn’t have plumbing like we’re used to. They wanted to be a part of the building of their house and asked to let them help us.”