NAMPA, Idaho – When Cami Heninger boards a plane Monday, May 7 to fly to the Dominican Republic, she will be one of four Northwest Nazarene University volleyball players to go on a school-sponsored mission trip in the last two years.

Sophomores Jess Brennis and Taylor Jones went to Haiti in 2017, graduating senior Mari Thomas is headed to Poland also on May 7 and Heninger, a junior, is going to the Dominican.

"I'm going because I want to do anything I can to help the people down there as well as get to see their culture," Heninger said. "I'm sure my two weeks down there I'm not going to be able to help them in any great or amazing way, or dramatically change their lives. But being able to experience their culture – hopefully I'll be able to do something throughout my lifetime to help."

While it's not rare for athletes to go on the trips, the influx from the volleyball program has been noticeable.

"I kept getting the feeling that I wanted to travel and then (Jess) went and absolutely loved it," Thomas said. "She got to know all these people on campus that she didn't know and it was powerful being in another country.

"When will I have a connection like this again to go and do mission work?"

While volleyball coach Doug English isn't pushing his players to go on the trips, he does provide outlets for faith-based activities in the program.

The team has a devotional period once a week with co-chaplain Olivia Metcalf during the season, has athletic director Kelli Lindley come in and pray with them before the season and then the team does road chapels.

The road chapels not only help the athletes fulfill the school's chapel requirement while traveling, but are an opportunity for the athletes to grow closer together.

"I think that doing the chapels is a cool way to be open on another level with each other," Brennis said. "Hearing teammates give testimonies is a cool way to bond. Once you hear someone's story, you can't not care about them."

The chapels can be intimidating, though.

Brennis came to NNU without much of a church background and was initially a bit nervous about attending a church-based school.

"When I came here, I was super skeptical," she said. "I asked my teammates if you had to be religious to be on the sports teams. They said no, that no one forces it on you but that it is really inclusive."

The team has five aspirational values: discipline, grit, reliability, intentional talk and faith. The team tries to live out those values, whether through the road chapels, the mission trips or their play on the court.

"It is good that we know that our worth isn't in volleyball," Jones said. "Or how good or bad we play doesn't define us. I think that helps us on the court as well. Whatever happens doesn't define us."

Coach English hopes the chapels help his team realize there is more to life than volleyball.

"Most of it is about perspective," he said. "It's easy to get narrowed in and be like, 'I have to be good. I have to win. I have to be great.' And all of that kind of stuff. We try to remind ourselves that we are playing for God and not ourselves."