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RAMS CLUB UPDATE

Mission Quality – On and Off the Field

Ever since CIU began competing in intercollegiate athletics in

2012, transformation has been taking place on campus with

79 athletes added to the student body and athletic facilities

constructed and/or renovated. The Moore Fitness Center

is now the “Home of the Rams” for basketball, a collegiate

soccer field was constructed, and cross country paths cut

through the 400-acre campus. Women’s soccer and men’s golf

are scheduled to start this fall, with softball soon to follow.

Meanwhile, the old recreation field is being improved this year

and will be used for intramural athletics and other activities.

Campus life has a school spirit about it with encouragement

and support at its foundation. But there’s more; things you may

not see.

One of the goals of CIU Athletics is for each team to be a

“mission team.” In January, we saw that vision become reality

for the first time. The men’s soccer team, led by Coach James

Whittaker, ministered in Guatemala, sharing the gospel with a

variety of people including professional soccer players they met

in competition.

(See page 18.)

“The score definitely didn’t turn out in our favor, but it was a

blessing to be able to gather with those guys [afterward] and

share our testimonies with them,” Whitaker said.

Not only did the Rams play three exhibition games, they

also hosted soccer clinics for children, visited terminally ill

children at a cancer hospital, ministered to people who live

in a community built on a trash dump, and even did a little

construction work — all the while sharing the gospel wherever

they went.

“We were able to love on a lot of kids who don’t have a lot of

love in their lives,” junior Ethan Chandler said.

But in the mystery of ministry, not only were lives of

Guatemalans changed,

so were the lives of the

members of the CIU

soccer team.

“The amazing thing is that

we were the ones who

ended up being blessed,”

Coach Whitaker added.

“I think God used this

trip to make a profound

impact on each one of us.

For me the highlight was

recapping each day and

hearing what God was

doing in the lives of each

of these guys.”

These student-athletes are admirable representatives of CIU on

the field and in the classroom. God is equipping each of them

to impact the nations with the message of Christ, whether it is

in sports, in ministry, in the marketplace or as in the case of the

soccer team, on the mission field.

Athletics contributes not only to the growth of CIU’s enrollment

but has created a new component to campus life, with students

proudly wearing their “Rams Army” shirts as they cheer from

the stands.

And

you

can be a part of the excitement.

Check out the athletics schedule and support the Rams on the

CIU campus, or when they compete near your home. Go to

www.ciuathletics.com.

While you’re at our website, consider becoming a member of

the Rams Club. When you join the Rams Club, you are more

than an athletic booster. You

are assisting CIU athletes who

are being educated from a

biblical worldview, and

impacting the nations with the

message of Christ.

One of the goals of CIU Athletics is for

each team to be a “mission team.”

CIU FAST FACTS

21

The number of athletes

on the men’s soccer

team mission trip (18

players, 3 coaches).

26

DEVELOPMENT

CIU Today

Summer 2015