MOBILE, Ala. – University of South Alabama volleyball twin sisters Kelley and Lauren Hartman each took a week off from the sport last spring break, and ended up discovering a new passion in life.

The Hartmans both served with FOCUS, an organization for Catholic students at the university, on different mission trips. Lauren went with a group to Denver, Colo., while Kelley traveled with her group to Ecuador – each a long way from their hometown of Woodstock, Ga.

"I knew that FOCUS held a lot of different mission trips, both domestically and internationally," Lauren said. "Last spring break (2017), I didn't want to devote my time, energy or money toward a mission trip, but I had a conversion with my faith and I knew that it was a possibility and something I would want to do the following spring break. I decided I wanted to go on a mission trip the summer of my freshman year, and then I started fundraising."

Lauren said she knew she wanted to stay in the United States when looking at potential trips. A South Alabama alum ended up helping tip the scale in favor of Denver.

"I just knew I wanted to stay in the country; there was Denver and Arizona," she said. "There is actually a South Alabama graduate, Morgan Waits, who is a missionary with Christ In The City – the group we ended up staying with. I thought it was perfect, because I know Morgan through the student Catholic association at South Alabama."

Kelley didn't initially have plans to go on a mission trip. She had a cruise already booked with friends, but then the opportunity to go minister through FOCUS presented itself.

"Two girl missionaries with FOCUS at South signed up to go to Ecuador, and they invited me to go with them," she said. "I looked into it and was really interested in it, so I ended up in Ecuador. I had to fundraise $2300, which is not easy but God provides to people who He wants to go on missions. That was really cool to see, because there were 15 people from South Alabama who had to raise that much money. It seems crazy that a college student could raise that much money, but the Lord provides so well."

Each girl's mission was similar – to come in contact with as many people as possible and share their stories of faith. Lauren said her group encountered some people on the streets of Denver who "didn't want anything to do with us", but said the overwhelming majority of people they came in contact with "loved to talk and share their stories with us – just open to talking to us about themselves once we introduced ourselves and sat down with them."

"Christ In The City is not as big in finding them jobs, shelter or helping them with money and things like that – they're more about encountering the people," Lauren said. "They say that homelessness is not a problem to be fixed, but a person to be loved. We devoted a lot of time to just taking time to get to know the people. We were told specifically not to bring money and food, we were there just to encounter and talk to them."

The biggest obstacle Kelley's group had to overcome in Ecuador was the language barrier. 

"They speak a little English in the city at the airport and places like that, but they don't speak any English in the very rural communities," she said. "We had about three or four people with us who could translate, but we were split up so we weren't always with people who could translate. There were a couple of us, myself included, who could speak a little bit of Spanish to get by. There is a saying that 'Love knows no language,' so that was really cool; a big worry for a lot of people going in who didn't speak fluent Spanish was how to encounter the people. It was cool to see that we could have encounters and things could happen without speaking. The language, at times, was challenging, but we could also do things. Little kids love trying to learn English and help us out. It was really cool to see how we could work together to get past the language barrier and still get so much out of it."

Kelley's group arrived in Ecuador with the understanding that much of the population identified as Catholic, but soon found that to be slightly misleading.

"Ecuador is 90 percent Catholic, so a lot of us were questioning why we were going to evangelize people," she said. "But the thing we found out is they are Catholic because it is a cultural thing. They don't really have a personal relationship with the Lord, they are just Catholic because the culture is to be Catholic. We would have an hour of prayer every day, and then we would have mass every day which was important. You can't give what you don't have, and we had to take time every day, about two hours of praying and mass to really just let the Lord love us so we could go out and love these people. And we would go house-to-house and pray with people and give them daily readings."

Both Kelley and Lauren experienced a similar feeling upon returning to Mobile and getting back into a normal daily routine.

"After I got back from my mission trip, it was kind of a shock to come back to normal life where I had all of the things given to me:  cars, food, and shelter – literally everything," Lauren said. "I just took so much for granted. Just being with the homeless put me in their shoes and let me see how the rest of the world views them. It's definitely shocking to come back to South and just jump back into my normal world."

"Life in Ecuador is so simple," Kelley said. "Everything runs an hour or two hours behind, because everyone just does whatever; it's very relaxed there which is good, because here it is so hectic, busy and loud. My schedule from volleyball practice, to school, and trying to handle my faith, family and friends – there is just so much going on and it's so simple in Ecuador. It was something I really enjoyed. Silence is something we all need, because the world is so loud. Coming back was very overwhelming. It was good to have that week to really reflect and just be calm and try to come back here and fit that into my schedule."

Now, the Hartmans are focused on helping lead the Jaguar volleyball program to a Sun Belt Conference championship. Kelley earned First-Team All-Sun Belt honors as a sophomore middle blocker last season, in addition to an American Volleyball Coaches Association All-Southeast honorable mention, after leading the league in blocks per set (1.29) and finishing fifth in hitting percentage (.319). She also finished tied for second in blocks per set (1.15) in conference matches, ranked third in hitting percentage (.367) and fourth in service aces per set (0.26). 

In the Jaguars' season-opening tournament at Dayton last weekend, Kelley finished with 44 total kills, seven service aces and 15 total blocks in 13 sets played, including a career-high 18 kills in four sets against Dayton on Aug. 25.

Lauren recorded 76 kills, 27 digs and 36 total blocks in 18 matches last season. She ranked fourth on the team in kills per set (1.77) in Sun Belt Conference matches, and closed 2017 with a strong final month of the season. She finished with a career-high 15 kills in four sets against ULM on Nov. 5, and capped the year with 12 kills and a .364 hitting percentage against Troy in the Sun Belt Conference Tournament on Nov. 16. 

Lauren appeared in all three matches in last weekend's season-opening tournament in Dayton, Ohio, and recorded two kills, two assists, two service aces and 29 digs in 11 sets played, including a career-high 14 digs in a win over Marshall on Aug. 25.

As for future mission trips, both Kelley and Lauren said it is an experience they would love to repeat in the future.
"I would love to go on another mission trip," Kelley said. "It changed my life and was probably one of the most impactful weeks of my life. I don't know when or where I'm called to go, yet, but I am definitely open to going again."

"I'm going to do another mission trip next spring break for sure," Lauren said. "That's how much it impacted me and how much I loved this mission trip."

For now, the Hartmans are focused on making a positive impact on the court for the Jaguar volleyball program with the mission of this season's trip a conference title and NCAA Tournament appearance.

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