Serving at the Cap Haitien Children’s Home in Cap Haitien, Haiti, brings the Lipscomb men’s and women’s track and cross country teams closer as they minister to children in need.
“At the end of the day, we won’t remember every 100-meter sprint or every mile we ran with each other. But I will never forget serving with my teammates and my family,” said Alexander McMeen, a junior from Nashville.
The teams strive to make service a focus both in Nashville and around the world. They have held mission trips to Los Angeles and Belize City, Belize. But they have recently shifted their attention to Haiti, making it an annual mission trip.
The Cap Haitien home was founded in 1988 and hosts about 60 children of all ages. For the past few years Hunter and Jillian Kittrell – two Lipscomb graduates – have taken position as the field administrators.
“Our main goal while in Haiti is to use our athletic abilities as a tool for teaching the kids in Haiti and showing Christ’s love through the talents that God has given us,” said Katie Bunker, a junior from Cedarville, Ohio.
Every aspect of this trip calls for teamwork, even the fundraising. The teams hosted a 24-hour relay on Friday, Nov. 2, where track and cross country teammates ran for a full 24 hours, switching runners during allotted times. The runners tracked their miles, and people who wanted to help the team raise money donated a certain amount of money per mile. This year, the team ran a total of 160 miles, raising about $2,500 for their trip.
“It’s an event that the whole team can get involved with to tell people about what we’re doing and earn money, instead of just asking for it,” Bunker said.
Amanda Twigg, a junior from Cumberland, Md., said the trip unites these large teams in a special way through sharing God’s love.
“The track and cross country teams are really big, so it’s hard to know everyone,” she said. “The first group to go to Haiti seemed random for that reason, but the trip made us best friends.”
“You see a different side of people that you don’t get to see hanging out with them at school, or running 16 miles together,” McMeen said. “You see right to the depths of people’s hearts when they’re serving someone else. And getting to see the team go down there and let go of themselves and their problems to spend time with these kids definitely connects us on a more meaningful level.”