News
Fix takes mission trip to the Dominican Republic
Scott Wagar
08/27/2013
Rachael Fix has had a dream of participating in a mission trip prior to graduating from high school. With one summer left before she entered her senior year at Bottineau High School, Fix made sure she reached her goal and went to the Dominican Republic where she had a unique opportunity of doing mission work while playing volleyball.
“I went on the mission trip with an organization called Cross Training and they go through SCORE International. Cross training is a basketball and volleyball camp that I have been going to since seventh grade.” Fix said. “Every two years they go on a mission trip. Normally, only a boy’s basketball team and girl’s basketball team goes on the trip, but this year they added girl’s volleyball and I went for volleyball.”
According to Cross Training website, the organization accepts male and female basketball and volleyball players who are in the grades 10-12 to go on mission trips. The organization looks for players who want to test their athletic skills against international competition and their faith in the people they will be a ministering to.
“For the past 18 years, Cross Training Christian camps have ministered to tens of thousands of young people from across the region and country,” stated Cross Training’s website. “Using sports as a tool for ministry, lives have been changed and faith strengthened.”
SCORE International’s website stated that the organization was founded in 1985 by former head basketball coach of Tennessee Temple University, Ron Bishop, who resigned his post to start a sport mission ministry.
He started SCORE by taking a basketball team to Mexico, but in 28 years thousands of athletes have traveled to 20 countries and minister to individuals during halftime intermissions.
This year, SCORE International decided to add the Dominican Republic to their mission countries, granting Fix to be one of the first teams from Cross Training and SCORE International to make a mission trip which is a nation of the Island of Hispaniola that is part of the Greater Antilles of the Caribbean region.
The country is occupied by the nation of Haiti and is populated by 10 million people.
Fix went to Fargo on Aug. 8 to meet her teammates and then flew to Dominican Republic where she and her teammates conducted volleyball camps, mission trips and played the country’s International teams, which included the Dominican Republic’s Junior Olympic team.
“It was a surprise, we didn’t know we were going to do play their Junior Olympic team,” Fix said. “And, they were really good, but it was fun to do.”
The Cross Training players stayed in Boca Chica in the SCORE International complex, but conducted the majority of their camps and games in the capital city of Santo Domingo, which has a population of one million people.
The players also went on two mission trips, which included a sugar cane village and an all girls orphanage called Pasitos de Jesus. The players spent time with the children of the village and orphanage where they spent time visiting with the kids, playing volleyball with them, made friends and giving them donated items as gifts.
“When you get off the bus at the sugar cane village the kids literally chase after you and they call you “Mi Americano”, which means “My American”. They kind of call dibs on you and you are theirs for the day,” Fix said. “The orphanage was the same thing as the sugar cane village, but you make them your kid.
"It is mind blowing that you can feel so connected with a person and yet you only known them for two hours and you can barely speak to them because they only speak Spanish. It was a great experience for me.”
Cross Training, which is a non-denominational camp, also granted the players the opportunity to have time with God by granting them the opportunity to have devotions everyday on the beach, church on Sunday and to grant their testimony if they wished.
For Fix, her dream of a mission trip became an experience she will never forget.
“I enjoyed it so much it was ridiculous. Going down I knew I was going to have a lot of fun because of the group I was going with, but when they say it is a life time changing opportunity they are not kidding, it was amazing to have that opportunity to go,” she said.
“They are so happy with so little and it just makes you realize that when you complain about the hot weather or something, you see they literally have nothing, but at the same time they have everything.
“They had a coach who kept saying over and over again that they are raised on pride and love over there so even though they have nothing they have everything,” Fix added. “When it came to religion that is one thing they really cling to because when you have so little like they do you realized they have everything because they cling to God.”
As for going back one day, Fix said that she would “love to go back” through the experiences she gained in the country.