Traveling, especially internationally, is such a crazy phenomenon. One minute you’re in a country across the world, and the next you’re back home in your living room.
It’s hard to put into words that this year’s internship is over. A month feels like forever until it’s gone. Looking back, now a week back in the States, it feels like an out-of-body experience to hear and see the interns’ reflections of what God did this last month. I think I mostly feel this way because, for us as RDIA’s, this experience is our normal life. We will be back. We will be interacting with most of the people again. We will be part of this internship many times over. So watching the experience unfold for those who view this as a one-time thing is truly fascinating.
I could give you all the screenshots of their Instagram handles and repeat back to you the words they said about the internship, but I’m just going to leave you with this:
All at once, these interns experienced what it’s like to be small. They experienced God at His earthly biggest. They got to worship in other languages, serve with people who live life differently than them, and experience traditions that may not even make sense to those who practice them. Through all of this, they experienced God in all of His character.
The trick and test now is to believe what they experienced—to really let it sink into their bones and into the DNA of who they are. If they do that, they will be lifelong disciples who live their lives in a way that is counter-cultural, even if they don’t go into full-time ministry. Because when you experience God at that level, you have to do something with it. You have to look the reality of what you experienced in the face and own that God was there and will continue to be there even when you get home.
So yes, we attended golf camp and another soccer camp this last week, and campers said they came to know Jesus, but the miracle is not that it happened. The miracle is what will happen this next year. Will each of these interns and those who accepted Jesus take Him at His word for who He is and choose to truly follow?
The whole point of our international ministry space is to advance the gospel around the world—to use the avenue of sports to bring the peace, love, and redemption of Jesus to a dark and lonely world, the United States included. If we just walk away after one experience, our job isn’t truly done; it’s like doing step one in building IKEA furniture—you’ll just leave pieces without the full picture intact.
The goal is the full-picture gospel, connecting countries to each other and those in them to people running after the cross. So this internship was just the first piece of the entire initiative. In turn, we hopefully equipped the interns to create the full picture back in their local communities, meaning their campuses.
And just maybe, the small ripples of what they learned in June 2025 will create a wave of the gospel. To keep with the analogy… I’m excited to see who it consumes.
Lauren Roback 