Betty's Closing Thoughts
Well, it didn’t take me long to get a shower last night and fall into bed around 10:00 p.m. for a long and deep sleep. Today is filled with unpacking and loads of laundry, catching up on mail, checking in with family and friends, paying bills, and adjustment back at home. I’m just glad it is a holiday week-end before getting back to work on Tuesday.
It is always difficult to wrap things up on this journal. There is so much to share. After reading what these team members have written during the trip I am reminded once again of how blessed I am to lead them and to experience first hand their work and their own spiritual development. They were everything and more than I had anticipated they would it. It truly was a team ordained by and called out by God. They played their hearts out with kids of all ages, along with grown men and women, and they stood with confidence and boldness to proclaim the good news of Jesus Christ. The more they verbalized their faith the more confident and comfortable they became. Moms, Dads, families, friends, Coaches, and all of Belmont can be proud of how they represented you.
As you read their entries on the journal you can get a glimpse of how God worked in their lives. I observed a gradual spiritual transformation in each of them. That is what I always hope and pray for. They are different now than when they left on May 17th. They have been challenged to “live out” this life-changing experience in their daily walk with Christ - on the basketball court, on campus and in classrooms, in their relationships, in families, and ultimately in their chosen profession as “on-mission” Christians. I could take each team member and write a story about each one and how I watched God open their hearts, fill them up, and overflow into others.
Seeds were sown, kids were loved and hugged, local teams challenged, and hundreds voiced a prayer to receive Christ. There is no way to know the eternal significance of these days, but I am confident God is pleased with our efforts and representation of His Kingdom. Tuesday evening at our open gym and following our sharing time a young woman of 19 years old (Becky) came down from the stands, walked up to me and said, “Thank you for your words and for inviting me to receive Jesus tonight. He is now in my heart and I wanted to tell you.” I talked with her a long time, she shared her dreams for the future, and I prayed with her. She talked with Earl and signed a card for him to follow up. There is story after story of how God gave us divine appointments like this one.
We absolutely loved sharing in ministry with Earl Pinkston. He is one Godly man, ultra gifted, the consummate communicator, lots of fun, a great story teller, and quite the historian of Malta. We learned so much from him. He impacted all our lives. I believe he enjoyed hanging out with all these athletes. And, he is pretty good on the basketball court - he loved slipping in when he got a chance and playing with our team. We’re grateful to Earl and wife, Robin, Colleen and Mike, Cam, the volunteers with Ministries of Malta, and so many others for giving us their best for two weeks. Doors were opened for them at schools that had been previously closed. They have been invited to return for future projects and events.
My special thanks to Debbie for her administrative assistance and partnership in ministry. I honestly could not have done what I was able to do without her attention to all the on-site logistics. Her responsibilities are demanding and Debbie is at her best doing all these “behind the scenes” tasks. And, thanks to Tony for his work behind the lens of the camera and keeping you connected through the journal. I’m confident he is already at work putting together a video which will become a treasure for team members, along with a short version for our donors and for sharing in churches.
Thank you to all the donors, prayer partners, families, friends, and Belmont who partnered with us in this ministry. I am forever grateful.
I thought you’d be interested in the words that the team used in a processing time during the trip to describe their mission experience. With these I will close out this journal…
“Life changing, transformational, indescribable, amazing, spectacular, a perfect 10, adventure, phenomenal, unbelievable, two thumbs up, a real victory, a home run, spiritual, encouraging, meaningful, historical, explosive, dynamic, bonding, a step in the right direction, humbling, growth, truth, God-filled, insightful, a full package, fun, reflective, once in a lifetime experience, HD movie but better, new beginnings, fulfilling, family, love, overflowing, crazy good, a boost, blessed, awesome, seeking, privilege, great, investment, joy, honor, service, personal, challenging, seeking, journey, inspiring, open hearts, Biblically significant, instruments, influence, a calling, a wake-up call.”
Just think, all of this and so much more happened through “a little round ball” - the platform of sports - Sports Evangelism! To God be ALL the Glory!!
Last day—WOW what a week. We ended our ministry this morning at a girl’s school. Imagine 750 screaming teenage girls sitting outside in the “hot” sunshine around a basketball court watching our student-athletes in action – it was quite a show!!! We were able to speak with the entire school and express our true reason for being in Malta – our personal relationships with Jesus Christ.
As we get ready to head home I want to say a special thank you to Betty for leading us as only she can, to Tony for capturing our experiences, and to Belmont University for giving us the opportunity to minister in Malta. I would like to conclude with a prayer for this team as we continue our life’s journey: 
How can ten days go by so fast? After leaving Nashville last Monday, it felt like it took forever to finally land in Malta on Tuesday here, but since we have been here, it has gone by so fast that I feel as though we have only been here a couple of days. This was my first mission trip, and I have enjoyed every minute of it. Thursday we will leave and go back to the United States, but I will never forget this place that I have called home for a week and a half. Malta is such a wonderful place, and there is no way that anyone of us could ever be able to explain the ultimate beauty that we have taken in these past few days. It is such a small and intimate island, and all of the people have been so friendly and welcomed us in with open arms. So far with one day to go, I have taken a little over 400 pictures and I feel as though there are so many things that I have not been able to take a picture of or chose not to because there is not a way that a picture could do this place justice. We walked and stood in the same grotto that St. Paul stayed in while he was shipwrecked on Malta. That alone explains how important this little country is to our Christian background. 
This past week in Malta has been filled with great moments. This is the first time I have ever been outside of the continental United States so simply stepping foot on foreign soil was significant. Once we started our mission work here it has been simply amazing. Watching my teammates give their testimony to people was an awesome experience, and the first time I spoke in front of the kids was even more awesome! I knew our time here would help the children we were going to be working with, but I did not expect this trip to have such a profound impact on my own life. Spending so much time with everyone here and talking about personal relationships with Jesus has caused me to look at my own life and my own relationship with him. Since I have been here I truly feel as though I have grown in my walk with the Lord.
I've now been on three mission trips after we go to our last school tomorrow. I still can't believe my mission and school life has flown by this fast it's unbelievable. Throughout this mission trip we have been many interesting places. We went to see where Paul was held captive, the girls ventured to Valetta on the great buses of malta by ourselves, worked with many schools, and visited with many kids. Today however I visited my favorite touristy place here we were able to take a little boat out into the Mediterranean Sea and go into these so called, "Blue Caves". The reason for this name was because when you went into the caves the water was so pretty and blue it was amazing. It was definitely one of God's prettiest creations! 
The trip has flown by so fast, we only have one more day here. It has been awesome and our team has really grown together over the time we have shared together. We have shared interesting experiences together, the site seeing, the van rides, the van breaking down lol, and just sharing God's amazing love to these kids and playing basketball with them. Today we went on a boat ride in Blue Grotto, it was amazing the water is so blue here and u can see the bottom in some places. It just shows how amazing God is and his beautiful creations. It was a really neat experience and Im so glad I got to share it with some of my closest friends. I am so blessed to have gone on this trip and the previous two as well. I hope to be able to continue this mission when I return home. 
Due to rain this morning, our scheduled plan to work with kids at a local school was cancelled. So today was a day of tourism. Even though we lost BW for a while, today was still another great day of the trip. We saw some of the oldest buildings in Malta, including the cave where Paul lived during his stay on the island and the nearby first church in Malta that he started. We were also able to visit numerous other local cathedrals as well as a museum and some of the local shops to buy some souvenirs (including ridiculously colored NBA hats that were at least thirty years old). 
We are getting an hour’s rest before a community event this evening where we will greet people at a local community center, play basketball, give an exhibition, share the gospel, and invite people into a relationship with Christ. This is the day the Lord has made and we are rejoicing and are glad in it.
After spending the last few days in the primary school, and yesterday afternoon on a beautiful beach, we got to sleep in a little this morning and rest up for a big day. We started by attending a Maltese church, where Keaton Belcher (aka. Bird) spoke in front of the church members and gave testimony. Following Bird’s testimony Haley, Cacy, Rachel and Tristan sang a harmonized song (that included a few synchronized hand claps) that had many people wondering if they should all enter the next American Idol competition. We then got to listen to a few of the locals share testimony, along with the pasture’s sermon, through a set of headphones that was giving us a translation in English.
Following church we made a stop by a Maltese festival. The streets were decked out with historical artifact decorations, with food tents all around. They also had a calming tune playing throughout the streets. Flurry, one of the locals that helps Earl, showed us around the festival and was a crowd favorite. He is a great guy that has been very helpful to us during our time here, and has become a good friend of ours.
After touring the city for a while (which is INCREDIBLE) we had a minor setback when our van broke down while traveling up a hill. After a kind local pulled over and offered to take us to the hotel, we made our final stop of the day to Mr. Wang’s Chinese Buffet. From the moment we set foot in the restaurant they opened their arms and made us feel at home. After introducing/pointing us out to every customer in the restaurant, Mr. Wang himself took a few pictures with us. He especially liked Bird, and they shared a very special moment together during a heart-warming talk. According to Bird, Mr. Wang earned himself a place in Bird’s wedding.
Today has been yet another great day. We had an event where anyone in the whole community could come. It was pretty awesome; I would say easily 80 people showed up. It is so neat to see how the Lord is working his magic over here in Malta. Today there was this one family that really touched my heart; the parents were there with their two daughters. One was 13 and loved to played basketball and the other was 10 years old and was a special needs kid. The family was so precious, and I got an opportunity to speak with them some. The mom and dad and their daughters where both so loving and happy. Sometimes I feel like the people who face the hardest challenges in life seem to be the happiest. I was able to give my shirt to the two girls and I will never forget the smile on their faces. I don’t know if I made a difference or impact on them, but I know they surly impacted me.
Being in Malta has already been a trip of a life time, which has been full of autographs and smiles. All my life I have been to beaches and not a one could compare to the gorgeous beaches they have here in Malta. The water is so blue and sapphire that it looks like a backdrop of a photo or some type of painting, and the scenery surrounding the water is indescribable. The astonishing thing is that God created this setting and allowed this team to contribute ourselves in this beautiful country together spreading his word. 
Then today we were able to spend some time together at the beach after the morning activities and we were thinking it was a time to take a break from missionary work but we were wrong. We had only been on the beach about five minutes when we go to ask about buying some chairs when the man selling them said, “you are the group from America that plays basketball?” We said yes with questioned looks on our faces and he continues to tell us that his son has been nonstop talking about us since we left his school and this really just set the mood for the rest of the evening. Knowing that we had made enough of an impact on these children’s lives to even continue talking about us as they returned home is a miraculous thing. 
We have been in Malta for five days now and I can honestly say that I could live here. The island is beautiful, the food is good, they speak English and most importantly the people are outgoing and very generous. There is a Maltesian man who is staying at our hotel who I have ran into at least 3 or 4 times already and every time we see each other, he comes up to me, shakes my hand and talks to me. He’s always asking me questions about America, about Belmont, about myself. He’s a very friendly person. People like him are easy to get along with and everybody I have met from Malta has been the same way.
Our team is very unique and special. We had a reflection meeting after the second day of work and I mentioned to the team how proud I was that all 10 members had already spoken in front of a group already. I also mentioned how we all have clicked as a team already. It makes our work a lot easier when all of us feel comfortable speaking in front of others and when we all get along so well. And when I say that, I am including all 13 of us (10 student-athletes, BW, Tony and Debbie).
My experience in Malta so far is something that I will remember forever. I lived in Europe when I was younger so going to schools and playing basketball with them brings back many memories that I had as a child. So far what I love the most is the influence that we as a team have on the kids. I can really sense that they look up to us and understand our ultimate purpose; to spread the word of Jesus Christ.
