Joy in Serving – Roger + Rebecca
We first became involved with First Sports back when it was called Sports Outreach and Beacons. Our son played various sports and we coached. We enjoyed helping and serving with Pastor Mark. That led us to begin praying about also serving on one of the Soccer Mission trips.
This summer God made it clear we were to go to Tucson, Az by providing unexpected financial means after we had submitted our applications to go.
During our trip, just like back home on the sports field, Pastor Mark led our group to be united as a team family with positive Christ-centered interactions with everyone we came in contact with. We had missions team devotions, did service projects, and worked the soccer camp daily all the while being devoted to serving and growing with our group. We truly did feel like family and looked like a family by our diversity and multiple generations. Our team ranged in age from 2yrs to 69 yrs. and had people from every walk of life!
First Naples has partnered with Aspire Church for a number of years. We were able to witness this partnership first hand by helping to set up for church service, attend service and then observe a baptism of a previous First Naples/Aspire soccer camp athlete. This athlete had attended a previous camp which prompted her parents to attend Aspire’s service and later to become married, attend a small group, and themselves be baptized.
We felt God’s hand all over our trip and the churches’ partnership.
The whole week was filled with encounters of God’s work. We learned of the beginnings of Aspire church and how they are serving the community. We were blessed by the story of one community member who believed God’s answer to her prayer for years for a church to be planted just like Aspire. We were encouraged by the way we were able to work alongside Aspire to assist local schools suffering from damage from a recent tornado. We also attended several church events that drew us close to God’s presence.
We believe that First Sports has enabled us to serve the body of Christ and to reach others seeking to know more about God; especially our students and their parents. We find joy in this service because sports is not only an area we love and are gifted in but it is an area rich with teachable moments of how God can guide, lead and direct our lives! We look forward to each practice and future mission trips with First Sports!