Flames’ men’s hockey team gearing up for LU Send trip to Finland in New Year

This is the fifth cultural exchange trip the Flames Division I men’s hockey team has ventured on, following spring break excursions to Sweden in 2007, Southern Russia in 2009, Latvia in 2013, and East Asia in 2016. Future Club Sports outreach opportunities include the men’s indoor and beach volleyball teams’ journey to Sweden in May, also organized by LU Send.

Senior forward Quinn Ryan is familiar with traveling to Northern climates in the dead of winter after representing Liberty and Team USA at the Winter World University Games in Russia last March.

“We’re all really excited for the opportunity,” Ryan said. “(Club Sports Global Outreach Director) Brian Davidson, our team chaplain, was telling us the Gospel hasn’t really reached Finland as much as it should, so we’re going there and hoping to make a lasting impact after we leave. We’re going to try to show the love of God through everything we do and say there, off the ice and on the ice. Wherever we are, we’re going to be present in that moment.”

The team will be accompanied by Davidson, Boettger, Handy and his wife Jannie, Team Manager David Puskas, Assistant Director of Business Operations Reese Braband, Assistant Athletic Director for Sports Medicine Angie Witt, and Video Coordinator Olivia Becker.

“We’ve got 30 people going and it is a tremendous group,” Davidson said. “Our purpose is to go and serve. We’re there to serve others and God will speak to us in our lives and we will see spiritual growth within as well.”

Former Flames defenseman Jackson Kuhn played professionally in Finland in 2015 and goalie Cary Byron and forward Joe Smith played in Sweden, with Smith serving with Hockey Ministries International there and more recently back in his homeland of Ontario, Canada.

“It will be good for these guys to see how sports can connect with people socially so they can share their testimonies of how God has changed their lives,” Braband said. “It would be a huge answer to prayer if someone from this trip has a heart for it and wants to go into fulltime sports ministry.”

The team will be based out of the capital city of Helsinki and serve in cooperation with OM (Operation Mobilization) coordinator David Pike, an associate pastor at United Community Church.

“It will be a good opportunity to come alongside a church and use the sport of hockey to strengthen those relationships, build those bridges, and see what God does,” said Davidson, who worked with Boettger, Pike, and LU Send Trip Coordinator Blake Pilgreen to establish the team’s itinerary.

After a cultural debriefing upon arrival on Friday, Jan. 3, the team will have opportunities to share their testimonies, and the Gospel, at youth events that night and on Saturday before helping to teach four classes at two churches on Sunday. From Monday through Thursday, the players and coaches will lead hockey clinics for elementary and middle school-aged students as well as participate in school assemblies and classes, followed by “Kids’ Action Night” events set up at the church.

A highlight of the trip will be on Sunday, when the team travels to Hämeenlinna, a town where Pike is in the process of planting another church, to play an A-Academy non-elite U-18 team. Players will hand out hockey cards and FCA Hockey New Testament Bibles featuring NHL players’ testimonies.

“There is no hockey accomplishment they have previously achieved or could dream of achieving that would compare to seeing a life changed for Christ,” Davidson said. “We are unable to change hearts by ourselves but we want to be ambassadors for Christ. He can use us if we are obedient and faithful to share a message, to be bold. Oftentimes in my experience, God does the rest.”

Video by Patrick Strawn/Club Sports Director of Video & Media