by Kelsey Reiman | Feb 25, 2013 | News Slider, Sports
The Lipscomb women’s soccer team, with the encouragement and support of a new coaching staff, has planned its first spring break mission trip to El Salvador. The team will serve and share the Gospel with indigenous communities and knit a stronger bond between themselves. Assistant coach Chris Klotz has been in direct communication with the mission staff of Sports Outreach Institute, and they have set the trip to begin on March 15. Between now and then, Klotz will be leading team meetings and preparing the hearts and minds of players to accept and embrace the challenge. During a mission trip meeting on Wednesday, Feb. 20, Klotz asked the team to meditate on and pray about Biblical passage Romans 12, which tells Christians to become a living sacrifice for God, serving humbly with joy, faith and sincere love. “There is something very significant that happens to the culture of a team when they are focused on serving others,” Klotz said. “Through building relationships, experiencing a much different culture and realizing that God is bigger than the bubble we live in, it is my prayer that our team would become more unified in the purpose God has for us — to love Him and love others.” “I decided to go on the trip because I wanted to embrace this amazing opportunity God has provided – to travel to an area that isn’t as fortunate as we are here and to show His love to children that have been put in difficult living situations,” sophomore defenseman Brittany Rupple said. El Salvadoran native and freshman midfielder Cristina Giron said she hopes the values of her...
by Jonathan Corley | Apr 20, 2011 | News Slider
A small group of seven Lipscomb military veterans will travel this summer to Ghana to provide aid and relief to citizens in the West African state. The team will be working with Mobile Medical Disaster Relief (MMDR) and the Touch a Life foundation to help a local Lake Volta orphanage — which houses children saved from child slavery — to provide inoculations. They also will be identifying local villagers in desperate need of life-saving surgery to repair hernias. The students will be working in the area to help prevent children from being sold into dangerous labor in the future. Susannah Leonard, Air Force veteran and Lipscomb senior in the Yellow Ribbbon program is excited to be going on the trip. “I am just happy to be taking a part in a mission that could potentially change the lives of so many children,” Leonard said. “In the military you are always working to change the world for the better, but I think this trip will make it a more personal and spiritual experience. “The conditions many of these children have been forced to work in are just terrible. Many of them never survive the life-threatening work on the lake, and while we are there we want to do what we can to prevent this tragedy.” It will be the first Lipscomb University mission for the Campus Veterans Organization (CVO) which is comprised of veterans who have a history of serving and sacrificing for those in need of help. Each veteran’s experience is unique, some having traveled to the inhospitable terrain of the Middle East, others to the urban areas of Asia...
by Aaron Schmelzer | Jan 13, 2011 | Opinion
I like to catch up with friends at the end of the Christmas holidays. I often ask them, “What did you do over the holidays? ” With that question, my friends most often respond with the same answer. “Nothing much. Just spent time with family, you know.” They then follow up with the same question I asked them. I respond by telling them: “You know, I did the same thing. Oh, but I did do something a little different this year. I went to Peru on a mission trip.” I had been to Peru before– last June on vacation with a fellow Lipscomb student and great friend Joel Collao, who is also from Peru. I was privileged to be able to return on January 2nd with a group from Lipscomb on a mission trip to Lima, the capital of Peru that I had visited before. While the heart of Lima, the Plaza de Armas, retains its colonial architecture and is quite beautiful, outside of the colonial center is also outside “tourist country.” However, outside is where the real heart and culture of Lima lie. That is from where the real Peruvians come, but the real Peruvians are also often the people that need the most help both spiritually and physically. We went to Lima to create a VBS for the children and families that attend or live near the Iglesia de Cristo de Lucyana (Lucyana Church of Christ). Several members of the church welcomed our arrival with a large homemade sign and songs. The same members helped us throughout the week in breaking through the language and culture barriers....
by Heather Stewart | Aug 3, 2010 | News Slider
Every morning at the Village of Hope begins with God and ends with God. While the sun is creeping in through the netting and thin curtains on the windows, from across the yard you can hear the children singing. Each day they wake up at 5 am praising God, then doing chores before school. While the kids are at school the Lipscomb team goes wherever they feel called to help around the orphanage that day. Some of the team would go help teach in the schools, some would go assist in the clinic and other various projects such as painting the houses of some of the staff would occur throughout the two weeks. We also went to three different villages and had VBS activities in the second week. After school we got to spend time with the children playing soccer, basketball, talking on benches under the trees or helping fetch water. At 5 o clock the children go get their water from the well and carry it to take a bath, then we all have dinner and another devotional at each house at 6 o clock. The prayers of these children are so heartfelt and precious. Different children pray for different aspects of our lives such as those who are sick, those who are travelling, those who are lost, our parents, our families, and our every day struggles. When you take the time to recognize how blessed you really are it’s amazing to discover that you wont forget to pray for all the needs of others. The children at the Village of Hope have gone through so much heartache...
