MARSHALL – The shared goal of MBCollegiate ministries across Missouri is the same shared goal of MBC churches: make disciples who make disciples. At Missouri Valley College (MoVal) through The Bridge Collegiate Ministry, that’s exactly what’s happened with three football players.
The story goes something like this: A campus employee takes a freshmen under wing, invites him to her church, and connects him to the campus ministry. He finds community and gets discipled. He takes another lower classman under wing and pours into his life. That student becomes an upperclassman who takes another freshman under wing and pours into his life.
A tale as old as time, as they say. But it’s not just a tale. It’s the true story of Cedric Davis, (whose story was told in The Pathway in 2021), DeAngelo Davis, and Damon Williams. Three students. One ministry. Three football players. One faith.
DeAngelo Davis grew up going to church and got baptized at the age of 8, but “I just continued living life as I was before,” he says. “There was no change in my heart.” His mind understood that Jesus had died for his sins, but his heart didn’t grasp the connection between Christ’s Lordship and his everyday life.
When he arrived at MoVal as a shy student in the fall of 2020, a church building on the corner of campus piqued his interest. With increasing curiosity about the college ministry housed inside, Davis passed the building multiple times a day coming and going from his dorm to class. Finally, he worked up the courage to go to one of their Thursday gatherings. After walking in the door, “I never turned back,” he says.
The Bridge Collegiate Ministry gave him a place to explore his faith, experience what it’s like to be a part of the body of Christ, and go on mission trips to places like Mexico and Florida. From the start, Campus Missionary Scott Westfall and fellow football player Cedric Davis poured into him. They taught him how to grow in his own faith through the Word and prayer. They showed him how to serve others “in a way that glorifies His name and spreads His Word,” he says. They modeled for him how to disciple others. They taught him different ways to share the gospel.
Getting involved with The Bridge and finding his faith footing happened just at the right time. Just before that, he had lost a family member and experienced a career-threatening injury. “A lot of athletes identify themselves in their sports,” he says. “It’s all they have and what they hold onto. Finding my faith allowed me to hold onto what we should identify ourselves in—Jesus and as believers.” He says the injury was painful not just physically, but mentally and emotionally as well. “My faith got me through that,” he says of both the injury and the family loss.
Davis says there’s been “a dramatic change in who I was then and who I am now. At first, they could barely get one or two words out of me. Now, I’m on leadership team, leading a small group, helping lead worship. They’ve helped develop me not only as a Christian but as a person and a leader.”
He and Cedric Davis refer to each other as “my brother”. Despite the shared last name, they aren’t related, but DeAngelo says “blood couldn’t make us any closer.” As Cedric took him under wing like a big brother, so he’s had the chance to do the same for another younger football player, Damon Williams.
Williams, like Davis, grew up in the St. Louis area. His family went to church regularly, prayed before meals, and emphasized God. But, like Davis, he was living under the lordship of fleshly things instead of Christ. Those struggles led him to some dark places culminating during his sophomore year of high school, when COVID hit.
Pushed to the brink and unfulfilled, he questioned what life was about. He started reading the Bible—something he had never done before. “The Holy Spirit started talking to me, helping me understand it,” Williams says. “It started changing me.”
A new freshman at MoVal last fall, Williams showed up at The Bridge and, like Davis, never looked back. He found the community he’d been looking for, people like Davis to pour into him and walk alongside him as he battled his flesh. The Florida spring break mission trip in March taught him how to share his faith and live on mission, and it also deepened his community with his peers at The Bridge. “We shared our testimonies with each other,” he says. “Broke through that barrier…I can be vulnerable with people at The Bridge with what I’m struggling with. That’s when you get the most growth.”
It wasn’t until recently that Davis realized the effect he’s had on Williams.
“He’s also played a big role in this chapter of my life as well,” Davis says. Discipleship is rarely a one-way street. “People compare my relationship to Cedric with my relationship to Damon. The role is just switched for me now.” They had the privilege of getting baptized together on the beach by Scott Westfall with two others during their Florida mission trip.
While Williams is just beginning his college career, Davis just graduated with a degree in Exercises Sciences and is hoping to join a football coaching staff after spending time with family this summer. Wherever he ends up, Davis has learned to stay in the Word and in relationship with God through prayer, surround himself with a body of believers, and seek to glorify God in all that he does. “We all have a general calling and that is the Great Commission,” he says. After his time at The Bridge, he feels equipped to fulfill that calling.
As for Williams, he’ll spend the first half of his summer sharing the gospel with inner city kids at Kids Christian Camp in Branson. Then he’ll return home, where he plans invest in the youth at his church and prayer walk his neighborhood when he’s not working with his landscaping business. When he gets back to MoVal next fall, he has his sights set on joining leadership team. “The main goal is to spread the gospel,” he says, starting with his football teammates.
Maybe he’ll find a freshman to take under wing and pour Jesus into, just as DeAngelo did for him, just as Cedric did for DeAngelo. Disciples making disciples.