Every year Valley Christian High School sends students all around the world to share the love of Christ to people of all cultures through a variety of service opportunities. This year, for the first time, our Valley Christian baseball team participated in service trip to the Dominican Republic from March 2nd-March 9th as part of Valley's ENGAGE program. The baseball team was led by Adrian Gomez, the leader of 212 Athlete. Adrian has taken multiple baseball focused service trips to the Dominican Republic before and was thrilled to lead Valley Christian’s baseball mission trip. 

The Valley Christian baseball team ready to leave at the Phoenix International Airport.The team flew from Phoenix to Miami, and then straight to Santo Domingo, the capital of the Dominican Republic. It was a total of 10 hours of travel including a three-hour layover.

Junior Carson Grier said, “The travel wasn’t too bad, we had a good time bonding and talking to our teammates on the travel day.” 

Kyle Grier with one of the IPB players. 

The boys first arrived at the hotel, got a feel for the place, and headed down to check out the beach. The next day was an early morning, like many, where they took an hour bus ride down to the International Baseball Performance (IBP) Academy. Our baseball team first met the kids they would serve here and donated over 1,000 items of baseball equipment that they had collected earlier in the year. The baseball equipment included items such as hats, cleats, gloves, helmets, and glasses, which the kids were thrilled about.

Valley Christian distributing all of the items they had collected to donate. 

Junior Caleb Sweeney said, “my favorite part about the trip was seeing their faces light up when they first got the equipment and later getting to form bonds with them.”  

Every day, our Valley baseball boys would lead practices for the kids. Due to AIA rules, the team was unable to compete on this trip, but they had the opportunity to watch the IBP teams practice and participate in their own inter-squad scrimmages. 

The two baseball teams together after exchanging donations.

Every Valley Christian ENGAGE trip values a cultural experience in addition to service, so on Wednesday, March 6th, the team went to Santo Domingo to visit a historic monument to Christopher Columbus to Faro a Colón in the Santo Domingo Este and then went downtown to eat dinner and visit shops. 

Caleb Sweeney after giving away his cross necklace. 

The last day that the team spent with the kids and many of the boys gifted them their cross necklaces. Several of the Trojans realized these kids did not have protective eyewear, which is important in the game of baseball, especially in a Carribean country like the DR, where the sun shines year-round. They were moved to gift the DR kids with their own personal sunglasses. 

Players from both teams pose together after a day of interacting. One highlight of the trip was that the team had nightly devotions on the beach where they would join in community talking about their experiences of the day and how they saw the Lord working. Sophomore

Brock Jackson reflected on how this was impactful for the team. “It was really cool watching each teammate step out of their comfort zone during devotions and truly speak from the heart.” 

After spending the week serving, the boys spent their last day having some fun on a boat. Our Valley Christian baseball team had a very impactful trip and bonded with each other, the kids, and grew closer to the Lord. They are excited to see how the bonds they formed on this mission trip together will positively impact the rest of their season as they work toward a state title.

The team participating in a reflection and devotions time on the beach.