Valdosta State linebacker, and member of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, Chris Pope talks to a local youth during the chapter’s mission trip to the Bahamas last week. Pope made the trip despite having knee surgery less than a week before the group left for the island nation.

While many college students flocked to the Florida beaches for spring break, a select group of student-athletes from Valdosta State University were busy donating their time to a community in the Bahamas.

The 15 former and current university athletes helped form a group of 26 individuals that embarked on the mission trip to the island nation, setting a new FCA organizational record for largest group to every serve on a foreign mission trip.

The team from the VSU FCA chapter served a local Bahamian community, that is considered one of the worst in the nation, for the entire week that made up spring break.

Specifically, the group served at Eight Mile Rock High School, teaching conflict resolution during the day and sports activities, like basketball, soccer and dodgeball, in the afternoons.

“Before we went and we found out we were the largest team, we were spending most of our time going through humility, so I think my natural instinct was to be proud and to carry that as a chip on my shoulder,” VSU FCA Campus Director Trea Brinson said. “I had to immediately knock that off, though, and I think that is part of the leadership. If I am consumed with pride and not being humble, then they were not going to get that while they were down there.”

Among the student-athletes that made the trip was football linebacker Chris Pope, who had MCL reconstructive surgery the Monday prior to leaving for the trip. It wasn’t until five hours before departure that he was cleared to make the trip. Despite having to use crutches on the entire trip, Pope felt the need to attend and make the journey.

“I kind of made some excuses not to go, at first,” Pope said. “But it only took me one reason, and I just thought about going out there and serving God and getting through to the kids. It didn’t feel like I needed to go, but I felt like I could serve the Lord, and I felt like it was no coincidence that I was over there. I couldn’t do much, and my voice was gone at first, but I could just get through to them and I could relate to some of the situations they were going through. I kind of bonded well with some of the younger kids.”

Pope, a leader on the football field, called the experience ‘great’, saying he learned more from the kids he was ministering to than they learned from him.

“I learned things that I will bring back to my everyday life and try to apply,” Pope said. “They were all so humble… I was just trying to let the light shine through me and I think that was the biggest thing. And I think all the kids started to notice that. It was just a great experience.”

For Brinson, the trip proved that the stereotype that if often cast across athletes is not always true, saying there is a lot of good going on, especially at VSU.

“This was out of their comfort zone, they had never been out of the country,” Brinson said of the group. “But, they are branching out to do good and that is so often overlooked in the athletic realm. With the news and media, they are quick to expose the negative, but there are people here at VSU that are doing so well. Let’s face it, Chris is not just a leader at FCA, but he is a leader on his team and they take note that he went and they take note that he is involved and they watch him. That holds his accountability to a new level.”

The FCA’s motto for the trip was “Flex and Obey”, and Brinson said Pope and the rest of the group was the exact model of the motto, even when the groups plans changed at a moments notice.

“There were no complaints, at all, on the trip,” Brinson said. “Right when we got down there, there was no time schedule. (The natives) came late to everything, if they came to anything at all, and time just isn’t like it is here — be here at seven, be there at seven. But, (our group) was flexible with everything.”

The group was even flexible when they were dropped off at an event to work a camp at a local youth home. The group was actually dropped off at the wrong location, that turned out to be a nursing home for the elderly. Instead of complaining, Brinson said the group started to fellowship and minister to the residents of the home.

“They said ‘we are just going to go into this home and minister to these people and pray with them, talk to them and share the gospel with them,’” Brinson said. “Then the other half of the group went off to an area next door and started beating on buckets with sticks as drums and started to entertain kids. I think it just spoke volumes of the guys here, because they were the ones that had to be flexible.”

All 26 members that attended the trip from VSU were responsible for the fundraising of the trip, as several local donors helped make the trip possible.

The VSU FCA chapter embarks on one mission trip per semester, but the trip to the Bahamas was the first that was non-domestic. According to Brinson, the chapter plans on making more foreign trips, as plans are being drawn to make a trip to either Haiti or Kenya. He also said the chapter plans on returning to the Bahamas within the next six months, although it will be with a smaller team.