By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Insider
 
No part of Baylor Sports Ministry's trip to Costa Rica was even remotely comfortable for Josie Sutter, a sophomore base on the acrobatics & tumbling team. 
 
"Pretty much everything that's ever uncomfortable for me was on that trip," said Sutter, part of Baylor Sports Ministry's 16-member travel party that helped build a house in San Jose, Costa Rica back in August. "It was a mission trip, so it was about growing spiritually. I couldn't even say that out loud to people. 
 
"Obviously, I don't know how to build a house. I was really nervous about the language barrier and traveling to a different country. I'm also slightly introverted, so I was not a big fan of going on a trip with people I don't know. They're all athletes, and I know that athletes sometimes have big personalities. So, I was nervous about that. But everything that I was nervous about ended up being like the best parts, which is funny how that works."
 
Even as Josie was filling out the application for the mission trip, "I didn't even know if I was going to go," she said. "I don't even know how it happened. I just think God wanted me to go on the trip."
 
All of Sutter's fears, anxieties and reluctance were washed away in a week that ended with her being baptized by Director of Sports Ministry Holly McKenzie in a hotel swimming pool. 
 
"That morning during the devotional, we looked at the story of Jesus going after the lost sheep," McKenzie said. "He flung it over his shoulder and returned to his friends, and they celebrated. What better way to celebrate being found by Jesus than in baptism. And this baptism wasn't just a dunking and standing up, but it was such a celebration of our whole team. 
 
"Our entire mission trip team jumped in the pool and started splashing and cheering. It was just this pure and beautiful moment."
 
Sophomore Carly Stasio from the equestrian team said it was "honestly surreal," watching the Holy Spirit move in Josie's life throughout the week. 
 
"I'd never really been able to experience something like that firsthand," Stasio said, "and really just see that move throughout the week. That was such a cool experience on one of our last nights."
 
A group that included 12 student-athletes from three different sports, three leaders and graduate assistant student Kijana Love from men's basketball, the Baylor Sports Ministry team trekked to Costa Rica for the third-straight year and worked with Homes of Hope to build a house in the same neighborhood where they had worked the previous two years. 
 
"Having past teammates that had gone and really enjoyed it," said softball All-American Shaylon Govan, "they told me how God had shown them something that was different from being here or just sitting in the church every Sunday. So, they kind of influenced me. But, of course, I didn't know anything about building a house."
 
Each day started with a 5:30 a.m. wake-up call, 6:15 a.m. breakfast and 7:30 a.m. devotional before spending six hours at the work site, building a house for a needy family. 
 
"The whole community, everybody passing by, even the children, everybody was kind of hands-on working," Stasio said, "which was really cool."
 
The novice home builders got a crash study before getting thrown into different projects like painting and installing drywall. 
 
Govan, who joined softball teammates Kaci West, Shannon Vivoda and Presleigh Pilon, said the extent of her construction knowledge was "maybe just a hammer and a nail . . . that's it."
 
"The first day, I was part of the painting team," she said. "We painted the trims of the house and, of course, the outside and then the drywall. Painting is not terrible. It was definitely a lot, but the people from Homes of Hope kind of took us through everything. But, obviously, not everything. They were like, 'Here's a hammer, here's a nail. I just want you to put these two things together and just go.' That was kind of the gist."
 
After daily devotionals that looked at one of the attributes of God's character – love, mercy, justice, goodness, faithfulness and grace – McKenzie said the team did a holy scavenger hunt the rest of the day "where we tried to look for the attribute of God's character in the people around us, in the world around us."
 
Partnering with Hope Sports was the "best-case scenario" for McKenzie and fellow leaders Josh Ehambe and Dani Price, "because we just have to be present with our athletes and then participate."
 
"We did some devotionals and stuff as staff and had some things to do along the way administratively," McKenzie said, "but it's nice having another organization to manage the budget and the bus transportation and all that. They provide us with a translator and a guide who leads the trip . . . and they really know their way around."
 
Finishing the house on the second full day, Stasio said there was incredible joy "giving the keys over to the family and seeing everybody standing in the circle."
 
"The house was finished, it was furnished," she said. "We were able to go buy them a refrigerator and some supplies to get them started. It was definitely a sense of accomplishment, seeing the love of the community and our team and sharing that moment when we handed the keys over."
 
On the day of Sutter's baptism, the sports ministry team shared testimonies and did a soccer clinic at the Pavas Soccer Club "in one of the poorest neighborhoods" of San Jose. 
 
"Well, (Hope Sports) really did the clinic," McKenzie said. "Somehow, I was the only person from our group that was put with the 18- and 19-year-old boys' team. And none of them spoke English, I didn't speak Spanish, not a translator in sight. And I could not keep up with them. It was purely comical."
 
McKenzie said the soccer club has teams from "young youth up to 19 years old, and their men's program is really competitive."
 
"They've had some male athletes from the program play for the Costa Rican U20 National Team," she said. "The women's side is emerging and is growing, but they have hundreds of kids playing soccer with them on a weekly basis."
 
The soccer part was something else Josie was nervous about, because while she played the sport when she was little, "I was like the flower picker."
 
"We played soccer with the kids, which they definitely showed us up in many areas. They're all super talented," Stasio said. "That was a cool learning experience for me, too. Just something that was way out of my comfort zone that they were able to really teach me, honestly."
 
Like Sutter and Govan, Stasio had never been on a mission trip before, either. 
 
"I had heard about it through a few other teammates and other people in Athletics," said Stasio, who was joined by equestrian teammates Molly Roberts, Ella Peters and Taylor Smith, "and their experience, (about) how it impacted their faith journey coming into Baylor. So, (the mission trip) was something I wanted to do right when I got here."
 
Josie was on the other side of that fence, with a group that was just hoping to "meet God and get to know him in a personal way," McKenzie said. 
 
"You can ask Holly, I was kind of questioning everything, confused, not really putting myself fully into it," said Josie, who had support from A&T teammates Addi Grandy, Jordan Gruendler and Leah Fredericks. "Just because I'm very logical, it didn't really make sense to me."
 
With obvious self-worth issues, Josie was "more guilty than thankful," thinking that she was not "worthy enough of this for you to help me, even if it's something really small."
   
"I would go out of my way to make everybody else comfortable," she said, "even if it made me uncomfortable or hurt me in some way. . . . I always feel really guilty about being a burden and putting that inconvenience on someone. I remember Holly saying that I'm not a burden, you're not an inconvenience, and you are worth people doing things for you."
 
Before, Josie had looked for maybe that perfect moment, "when I'm going to feel God everywhere or rainbows are going to appear."
 
But she decided to surrender "even if not's perfect do that."
 
"I know that I am still going to have doubts and I'm still going to question things and have low moments. But I want to do this in a place that brought me closer to God, with people who helped me become closer with God. And I'm going to start living a life for God now."
 
Not only did the rest of the sports ministry team get to share the moment, McKenzie said a family from Holland came over to congratulate Josie. And a Baylor alum who was there on a business trip said it was "the coolest thing I've ever seen. I'm so grateful I got to witness that.'''
 
Govan called it a "Welcome to Team Jesus."
 
"It was like a warm hug, those other people seeing that and knowing that she put her faith in God and trusts him," she said. "It was just cool to see that people were coming to congratulate her on such a big step in life."
 
Listening to other places that Homes for Hope has been, including the Ukraine and Uganda, Govan said she would definitely go again. 
 
"Our group that was there, we want to do another one together," she said. "Hopefully, in the next couple of years, we'll decide that we want to go on one as a group."