Nine members of the Geneva College men’s soccer team, along with assistant coach Caleb Musselman, traveled to Cap Haiten, Haiti, over spring break on March 4-12, 2016.
The team served primarily at the English Baptist Army of Christ (EBAC) School, where they tutored local students, and in the IDADEE Children’s Home, where they spent time with the young residents.
For four days, the team spent mornings with the students at EBAC, which has pupils ranging in age from 6 to 24. The team tutored the young children in spelling and English and worked with the older children in more advanced subjects such as calculous.
After lunch, the team spent afternoons throwing balls and playing soccer with the students.
Jonathan Shoaf, a junior mechanical engineering and men’s soccer starter, was among the nine people on the trip. He shared, “EBAC has a dirt field with just two walls for goals. At the end of the week we ended up spray painting white stripes to make goals.”
The team spent time before dinner in the IDADEE house. Because the children at IDADEE are very young, the original intention of running a soccer camp was not possible. Instead, most of the time was used to hang out and build relationships.
“We had some ideas of what we would be doing down in Haiti, but our main goal was to run some kind of soccer camp. It changed pretty quickly into the tutoring piece that was probably the most important part of the week,” said Musselman.
The team also had the opportunity to hike for several hours to a mountain church to worship with other believers on Sunday.
“It was just crazy how hard of a walk it was, and people from all over go there three or four times a week to worship together,” said Shoaf.
The trip to Haiti was a challenge for the team because of the absence of a recently deceased team member. Nate Ferraco, a freshman forward, was supposed to make the trip with the team. However, Ferraco died as a result of injuries suffered in a car accident on Sunday, January 24, 2016.
"Caleb got to share the gospel and Luke Nolan got to share about Nate. I think that was probably one of the coolest parts of the trip.” said Shoaf.
Musselman added, “We did help, but in a lot of ways it was really for us to heal and to grieve in a different place and to have tough conversations. A lot of our plans were centered on being able to honor his name. We brought his jersey and it was in most of the group pictures we took because he is still a part of our team. Even though we had a plane ticket and could have filled his spot we didn’t to show that he was still with us.”
The team also honored Ferraco by painting #NF12 at the goals that the team made at EBAC, as well as building bookshelves in his honor.
Shoaf reflected on lessons he learned during the trip. “I learned to keep an open mind,” he said. “After this trip, I think about the kids a lot and how the experiences I had will stick with me and with the team for the rest of our lives.”
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