Today's post is written by Randi Henderson:
Hello everyone! As many of you know I just had the opportunity of a lifetime, to go on a missionary trip to Europe. This journey began three weeks ago when nine girls from all over the United States met for training camp in Denver, Colorado. The day began with introductions and ended with knowledge that many of us would be lifelong friends. After 11 hours of flying, a two hour layover, an hour and a half train ride, and a twenty minute bus ride we had arrived to our destination of Garmisch, Germany. It was beautiful to say the least. The view of the largest mountain of Germany could be seen from the gymnasium or outside the window when you woke up in the morning. Our first basketball camp lasted two days with 13 U.S. Military children ranging from twelve to sixteen years old. Since we had free time during this camp we spent most of our time getting to know each other through bible study, cooking dinner, and practicing two times a day.
The following week we traveled just twenty minutes by car to Garmisch-Partenkirchen. During this week, the team separated and stayed with church members who had volunteered to be our host families for the next couple days. It was a great experience staying with our host families because most of them spoke very little English. For instance, my host could only tell me who was going to take me to the gym in the morning in German, so honestly I never knew if I was going to be picked up or not. It was clear that this camp was going to be tough because of the language barrier between us and the campers. However, it was great to listen to worship songs that were being performed in both German and English. The basketball camp lasted five days, from 8 am until 11 
pm. The day included prayer time with the campers, small groups, tons of defensive drills, ball handling stations which I led, an amazingly hard pain station, and many more offensive stations. It was a ton of fun to run the ball handling station because I had to use German words for the kids to understand what I wanted them to do. I quickly picked up on “links, rechts” which means to the left and to the right. My two favorite words to use were “Schnell” meaning quicker and “nein” which meant No! The day ended with workshops, consisting of dancing, photography, geocashing, or crafts along with many fun games put on by the church staff. On Tuesday and Thursday of that week we played our first two games of the tour. Fortunately, we won the first game with a good advantage. During halftime the team sang a song then I delivered my testimony followed by another song. Giving my testimony was an amazing experience because I had to break my normal larger words into simple phrases so that those who knew very little English could understand it. The second basketball game brought forth a much larger challenge. At the end of the third quarter one of our teammates who already had a back injury was pushed down by the opposing team and from the fall she had lost feeling in her left leg. The injury was very serious and our teammate was quickly surrounded by a group of medical staff that spoke very little English. As the team began to pray it was very humbling as we watched two non-believers step into the circle to pray. As our teammate was carried away the team had decided to finish the game in honor of her. We ended up winning the game 100 – 55. The next morning, there were many children who claimed that they had felt the presence of God. We were all so touched by this experience. It was very clear to see that God works in all situations.
After three days in the hospital we were reunited with our teammate. On Sunday, we set out for Brussels, Belgium. At this basketball camp many of us stayed on base and slept on army cots. It was truly a great and fun experience! This basketball camp lasted four days from 9 am until 2 pm. This was probably my favorite camp because not only did we get to have amazing Belgium waffles in our spare time but we got to teach the game of basketball to kids whose parents have been stationed in Belgium. Many of the kids have dreams of playing basketball at large Universities like Virginia Tech and UNC. During this week, we played one game and scrimmaged against some members of the Olympic team. It was a wonderful experience but both times we fell short. Regardless of how well we played, testimonies and songs were still performed to show our love for Jesus Christ. As the trip ended we spent a couple of days going to downtown Brussels and shopping, mainly for Belgium chocolates. Leaving those eight wonderful girls was not easy but I can say we gave everything we had to planting seeds in young children’s lives.
I would like to say that the story ends there but it doesn’t. Mainly because News Release Basketball is a program that revisits the same areas in Europe year after year so that lifelong relationships can be built. I would also like to add that the fairy tale continued because after reaching the Kansas City airport, Isaac Norman my boyfriend of 2 years and 9 months picked me up and took me to downtown Kansas City, supposedly to eat dinner. Since the MIAA championships are at downtown K.C. every year I was really excited about seeing the beautiful city again. After walking around downtown for about twenty minutes I finally caught on to the real reason why Isaac had brought me downtown, to propose to me! After wiping away a few tears of joy I said “Yes” and grinned really big as I thought about the wonderful future we have in front of us and the great memories that we have shared from attending Missouri Southern State University. This trip was a great experience that ended with many lifelong relationships. I am grateful to everyone who donated and supported my MSSU college basketball career. Thank you so much!
Randi Shay Henderson
Class of 2010
