WHS football coach Jake Gilbert and eight players serve others at Haitian missionary
For eight Westfield High School football players it won’t matter how many touchdown catches they make or open-field tackles they have this upcoming season. These players have already made a lasting impact on a community during a week-long mission trip to Haiti last month.
“I hope they feel good about what they did so they know, ‘I can make a difference, affect someone’s life by going out of my comfort zone,’” WHS Football Coach Jake Gilbert said.
Gilbert said the trip began as a request from a parent to assist Three Angels Ministry by selling Kenbe Fem (“Stand strong” in Haitian Creole) T-shirts last season. The parent was hoping to raise $500 during the “Neon Night” home game in August.
“I know God can do more than that. I was looking for a big summer project for the year and selling shirts made $10,000,” Gilbert said. “We try to teach our kids there are needs in Hamilton County, people to serve right under your nose. We also want to teach them that one person is big enough to impact the entire world.”
Gilbert said the ministry can only house 14 missionaries at a time so he and wife, Christina, joined four parents and eight players on the trip.
“Amazing and astonishing. That’s how I’d describe our mission trip to Haiti. It seemed like there were two worlds competing for one space, almost like Heaven and Hell existing on the same turf. I am positive that those of us who went will be changed forever. We selflessly served the Haitian people and they certainly made a difference in our lives as well,” he said.
Gilbert said the goal of the trip was to change the perspective of his players and have them appreciate how good they have it in Westfield.
“They saw how content these people are even though they have nothing. It’s good for all of us to see. These people are really living day-to-day,” he said.
At the Haiti orphanage, Gilbert said the team spent the mornings doing work, connecting and interacting with the Haitian people in the afternoon and doing devotionals at night.
“It was a great mix,” he said, adding labor projects included cleaning gutters, removing and straightening nails to be reused, clearing rocks from farm fields, making meals at the orphanage and pouring cement and fixing a street “with a crater.” “They had the ability to learn how to work and get nothing back in return but the experience of helping.”
Players’ perspective
“I’ve always wanted to go there or a third-world country to serve the less fortunate than us. When this opportunity came up I couldn’t resist,” said Jake McCrary.
McCrary, who will be a senior in the fall, said he expected to the Haitian people to be beggars before the trip.
“But they make the best of everything. They always greet you with a smile. They are really nice people and I enjoyed being around them,” he said. “It was so much fun to do the work no one wanted to do.”
McCrary said the team discussions made a lasting memory of the trip.
“The talks we had at the end of the day about what we learned that day and how to make the lives of the Haitian people better the next day,” he said.
The trip allowed the players to bond together, which they said might not have happened otherwise.
“I got to know some players a lot better. My views on them are a lot different,” McCrary said.
“I knew most of them,” sophomore Drew Cox, “now I know about their lives. We talked about how it was back at home.”
Cox made his second trip to Haiti. He previously went in October 2012 after the earthquake.
“I like to make people happy. They don’t want to ask for help but need it. They are really proud people and it was great to help them and see their thankfulness,” he said. “I was impacted by how grateful everyone was – applauding, clapping and saying ‘Thank you.’”
When Cox and some of his teammates were filling in large crack in the neighborhood road a 60-year-old man volunteered to help.
“He was caring buckets of cement. He wasn’t looking to get paid he was trying to help the community and was doing it for the city,” Cox said.
Why serve?
Football Coach Jake Gilbert said the team has a platform to positively impact the community and it is their obligation to use it.
“We’re so visible in the community and our school. We have an obligation to help and serve,” he said. “As a coach, I have an obligation to teach these guys to give. We have it so good here we need to teach our guys to give back.”
While the team raises money for organizations or natural disaster victims, Gilbert prefers when they take personal action to assist.
“I like for our guys to roll our sleeves up and become part of the solution. It gives them a new experience to serve and help somebody,” he said. “We use football to make a difference in the lives of others and nothing is mandatory.”
Gilbert said the team has a new message each year. In the past the team has worked with the Hamilton County Cancer Services, Habitat for Humanity, packed 10,000 meals for Africans and raised money for tsunami victims. Gilbert tries to vary the local and international projects so something interests his players in their four years in the program.
“You can have a big impact on others’ lives,” senior Jake McCrary said.
