Dordt Football Liberia Trip 2026

Trip photo album: https://photos.app.goo.gl/EwDykGAAeFVFFzF9A  To recap our trip to Liberia we wanted to give a few guys the opportunity to share about their experience. Their only prompt was to write about what God taught them during the trip. Here are the responses from Jake VanDonge, Thomas Walder, Will Henderson, and Micheal Vander Woude. Jake VanDonge:     "Our trip to Liberia was incredibly impactful in many different ways. It was truly life changing, and if you ever have the opportunity to go there, whether with your church, a team, or another organization, I believe it is something you should seriously consider. Throughout the trip, it became very clear that God is working powerfully through many people in Liberia. One of the first things our entire team noticed was the genuine joy the people had. It didn’t matter where we were or what we were doing, the people around us were always welcoming, kind, and smiling. This surprised many of us because most of them ...

               Our fifth and final day allowed us to get some rest in the morning before church. Most of us took good advantage of that by catching up on sleep, while a few of us got up an hour before breakfast to enjoy a morning swim in the ocean. We ate breakfast and left for church by 10:20. For the guys that have never gone before, church was an experience unlike any other. The Liberian’s worship incredibly freely. They truly make a joyful noise for the Lord and pour themselves out in praise to our God. It was an extremely special experience to worship with them, even for those of us who have been there before.                There were many unique things that we were not accustomed to. One of these was the greeting. Instead of turning in a circle and quickly shaking hands with only the people sitting by you, you greet the whole church. They a...

                 Today was a special day celebrating the orphans. Our plan for the day was to work construction for 3 hours in the morning, eat lunch, and then have an orphan celebration program. The morning construction started off with more of the same. We again hauled sand across campus with bags on our heads. We also started hauling rocks, the same distance, in the wheelbarrows. For a good hour and a half, we worked hard at hauling these materials in order to mix them for concrete. When we had enough down there, a majority of us started shoveling dirt around the foundation walls the Liberians finished the day before. Others of us started to mix the concrete. We mixed the concrete by first getting a pile of sand and dumping bags of concrete powder on it and mixing the two together. Once that is mixed, we added the rocks and did the same thing. Finally, we added water and the concrete was ready to be poured. ...

                 Our third day in Liberia was just as busy as the last two! With the trip cut short 2 days we tried hard to pack everything into the limited time. Today we split up our day into two parts: Farm and Construction. We left in vans at 8:30am to make the hour and a half drive out to the farm. The farm is owned by Abide in the Vine Ministry. The trip took us out of the city and allowed us to experience a little bit of the rural side of Liberia. To get to the farm we took an extremely uneven dirt road a couple of miles into the jungle. Along the side of the road, we saw multiple houses. These houses were all made with wood and dirt and gave an even more extreme glimpse into the lack of resources and development in Liberia. We spent our time at the farm touring and learning about their operation. The farm grows Palm and Coco. The Palm trees they grow are different than many we are used to. They produce ...

  Our second full day got us up early! We started our day with devotions at 6:45 am. After devos and breakfast we hit the road at 7:30. Our first stop of the day was at a local souvenir shop. These were three small huts on the side of the main road. Guys bought a range of things from wood carvings, bracelets, necklaces, and paintings. After a quick stop at the shops, we went over to the main campus, Dumbar Farms. The name can be deceiving as this place is near downtown Monrovia and not at all a farm. Dunbar Farms is the home of Abide in the Vine Church, along with the school and orphanage. Here we had a field day with the kids. First, we got a tour of the campus and saw all the finished construction that guys from our last trip helped build, and the new construction currently taking place. We got introduced to many of the church elders who were working on the construction project. Before the field day most guys walked around talking to the kids who either went to school there or ...

                 Our second day of travel went smoothly, and we have now been at our lodging for 24 hours. We were welcomed to Liberian life as soon as we stepped off the airplane. To us it was chaos, but to them, it’s just normal life. We had to quickly find all 48 of our bags that we checked in Sioux Falls, and all of our carry-ons that had to get checked at different stops throughout our journey. Surprisingly to us, all of our bags were there! We exited the airport and were welcomed by many friends from our church partner, Abide in the Vine Church. Again, to us this felt like chaos.                Our original plan for this trip was to divide into 3 groups each day and rotate between different activities. With 2 less days we decided to keep everyone together each day. Day 1 in country was the Historical Tour and Market Day. We started of...

  After a Sunday of rest, we are off! We got up early this morning and left Dordt at 5am. Big thank you to Luke Munsterteiger and Robert Smartnick for starting their Monday extra early to drop us off at the airport! Unfortunately, we had to bring back all 48 checked bags that we checked in on Saturday and recheck them in. The process once again was time consuming but thankfully we had a Dordt grad working for United that helped us out by keeping the line moving efficiently.                 Our flight from Sioux Falls to Denver left on time and got us to Denver 20 mins early. There, we had a brief layover before taking off for Washington D.C. Our next flight leaves the nation’s capital for Accra, Ghana at 6:40 eastern time. We will arrive there at 9:20am local time. Unfortunately, with the quick rebooking, only 22/24 of us could get on this flight. Coach Brandon McCormick and his wife Annie chose to be the ...