The final recap of the ETBU Women's Soccer trip to New Zealand is provided by Head Coach Kristin Cox.  Thank you for your prayers for the entire group over the past two weeks. 
 
"Today will be a 41 hour day for us. Our time traveling adventures began at our camp grounds this morning. We started with a beautiful sunrise on the beach to soak in our last morning. It was so peaceful to watch the sun come over the horizon and ignite the sky with God's radiant light. The beach sunrises and sunsets will be greatly missed.  Most of the girls were sitting there saying that they don't want to leave.
 
Following breakfast, Dr. Seeley started us off with a devotional. She talked about the Great Commission and how our missional calling to go, is not just overseas, but anywhere we go, even if that's going from our dorm to the classroom. The group encouraged each other to continue stepping up in faith and sharing their testimony in daily conversations, even in reply to 'how are you doing' as Micah challenged us earlier in the week. Next, Cheryl, ISF CEO, gave a challenge to the players to continue to grow as a team and as sisters in Christ, but also challenged them in their team roles, work ethic when others are and are not watching, and social and physical choices they make. She pushed them in things not only for their current life season as an athlete, but for their future careers and roles as well.
 
Next, as Kiwi culture encouraged, the gathering ended with an open floor for people to share, and several people shared their gratitude for all parties involved in making this an incredible trip. Some even shared the profound impact it has had on their spiritual journey. It was really cool to hear that our Kiwi van drivers, Ian and Andrew, loved and cherished their time driving us around, they were a huge part of why this trip was so fun! Coach Kiersten then challenged everyone on the trip to not go back to a life of comfortability and to not live in fear of change or the unknown.
 
Next we did a deep cleaning on the camp grounds and made last minute trips to the store for souvenirs before loading up and heading to the airport. Just before we left, the Papatoetoe girls' soccer coach came to pick up a couple donated items and he prayed over our coaching staff. It was a sweet encouragement of the impact we made in his life and it was awesome to see him motivated to pray for us as we did for him and his team.
 
This trip has been FULL of girls stepping up and stepping out. From praying over random people on the streets, to forming new relationships, to acknowledging faith through baptism. These 12 days on the ground of New Zealand have left everlasting memories, not only in the lives of people we encountered, but in the lives of our ETBU students. Please continually pray with me for their hearts to be comforted and their outreach to be unlimited. It's such a precious sight to watch them being led by the Holy Spirit and reaching out and building connections, even as we sit here on the airplane. The New Zealand National Youth Swim team is aboard our flight, and now friends with our players.
 
The swim team's physiotherapist, Alex, sat down next to Coach Kiersten and I, and within 5 minutes we told him we were in New Zealand to share about Jesus. He said 'Jesus huh,' and we knew that was our cue to talk more about the prayers we left in New Zealand. He happily said we could pray for their team to remain healthy while in Trinidad.
 
Even though you might not have been with us in New Zealand, the Holy Spirit was, and He is with you now. Go and make disciples of men!"