This article appears in the Spring 2024 issue of the FCA Donor Publication. The FCA publication is a gift from our FCA staff to all donors giving $50 or more annually. For more information about giving, visit here.
Alexandra Albano has been radically renewed by Christ. A sophomore softball player at Converse University (Spartanburg, S.C.), Albano arrived on campus in the fall of 2022 carrying a lot of grief.
A few years earlier, her brother Bryant, one of five siblings, had passed away. But that December, she surrendered her life to Christ and benefited from seeing the godly example of Grace McKinney, a senior teammate that season and the team’s former FCA Huddle student leader. On the field, Albano cracked the starting lineup as a freshman, batting .253 in 30 starts.
Last summer, Albano found a strong community at a church back home in Cooper City, Florida, and she returned to Converse last fall seeking more Christian fellowship, praying specifically to this end.
During her first week back in Spartanburg last August, she saw an FCA event on campus while walking her dog one night. Feeling a nudge inside her, she approached Kelsi Pack, FCA’s regional director of ministry advancement for the Carolinas Region. Albano was just the person Pack had been looking for, having been encouraged to connect with her by a Converse administrator.
Albano is now meeting weekly with Pack for discipleship, leading her team Huddle this spring and seeking opportunities to be a disciple-maker. Last November, she had the privilege of baptizing one of her teammates at a church near campus.
How did you first get involved in FCA?
My first week back at Converse last August, I felt lonely and was praying for community and some encouragement. It was hard for me to connect with the people around me for a while because last year I lived a completely different life. I was still trying to figure out my new lifestyle here at school. It was technically my second year here, but coming back felt as if I was basically going into my first year of the unknown all over again. God intentionally placed Kelsi Pack in my path after many prayers. After some conversation one night on the quad, we started to meet weekly and I began to get more involved with FCA.
How has being involved in FCA impacted your faith?
I couldn’t be more grateful for how Kelsi has been discipling and pouring into me. I struggled with how I could share and live out my faith while competing on a sports team. Kelsi has provided me endless advice, Scripture and encouragement through this process of learning. Allowing God to do the transformations in me through my awareness and intentionality has been so relieving and, honestly, beautiful. FCA has truly impacted the way I live out my faith on my team, and it has also given me a community here at school with people that have been called to similar missions within their own sports.
What are some recent challenges in your life where you’ve seen God at work?
It isn’t always an easy environment to be in when you’re on a sports team and at a college where you don’t find many people on this same walk with the Lord. There is plenty of temptation when it comes to being at college. I found myself feeling lonely at times, discouraged with my calling, and I felt confused about why He placed me here. Yet throughout my time here, I have never felt so encouraged and excited for what God is going to do in all of the places and people He has called me to. I’ve seen His faithfulness time and time again, with the people around me, with the opportunities and moments He has brought me through. Coming back to school was the most recent challenge I have faced on my walk with the Lord, and I have seen God’s hand move in ways that are completely beyond what I could have ever imagined. What a blessing it is to be part of it all.
How do you combine your faith with softball?
Glorifying the God who deserves all the glory, honor, and praise—and nothing short of that. The team I am on, the teams I face and compete against, the coaches and the support that surrounds me—I was called to minister to all of these people. That’s what I am truly here for. The fact that God has allowed me to minister while doing something I truly love is such a blessing. It’s about glorifying God through the wins, the losses, the blood, the sweat, the failures and the small steps of achievement. I have come to realize that the way I steward the losses is just as important as the way I steward the wins. When winning the game was no longer my greatest dream and He simply became the dream, that is when it all fell into place for me.
How do you experience spiritual renewal in Christ as a believer and an athlete?
I truly find my rest and renewal from allowing Jesus to pour into me. There is nothing this world can offer me that will ever compare with the rest Jesus has given me. Through my surrender, through sitting with Him alone and learning from Him, through living in the heart posture of gratitude towards Him—this is where I find my rest, every single time, without fail.
Please briefly share your testimony of how you came to know the Lord.
If you would’ve told me a year ago that I’d be thankful for the hardships that I’ve endured throughout my life before I knew the Lord, I wouldn’t have believed you. But the Lord has lifted those pains off me. Growing in my relationship with Jesus, I started to learn that the gift—that hidden treasure in the field—isn’t all the tangible things that He has blessed me abundantly with. It isn’t the gift of an unexplainable peace that doesn’t shake no matter what comes my way. It isn’t the fact that I now have true joy in chaos, and it isn’t even the fact that I no longer find myself worrying because my steps are ordered by the Lord. I found that hidden treasure is the privilege to fall more and more in love with Jesus every day. The gift is Jesus. The love that I now remain in. The love that sustains me. The One who never fails. The purest and most gentle, selfless, compassionate, genuine and immense love of Jesus Christ. Knowing Jesus, sitting at His feet, I have found my rest in Him.
What impact is FCA making on your campus?“Alex is one of the most intentional athletes I know in sharing the Gospel, and I think her drastic change of lifestyle and pursuit of Jesus and others has really drawn her teammates to her to grow in their faith.”
—Kelsi Pack, FCA Regional Director of Ministry Advancment for the Carolinas Region
FCA events make a huge impact, especially for the athletes on campus. They typically have a good turnout the way they are organized and planned out. FCA has made sharing the gospel welcoming and fun for people who may just be coming because of an invite from a friend. God’s Word will never return void. They bring people through the doors to hear the good news of Jesus Christ, and God does what He always does. He calls His people home.
How did the Lord meet you as you grieved the loss of your brother, Bryant?
Truthfully, when my brother passed away, I actually drew further away from God than I ever have in my life and fell deep into my worldly desires. I was carrying so much weight around for two years after his passing. I was numb and found comfort in it without even realizing it. The first time I experienced God’s presence, He lifted this weight that had been draining me for so long. He freed me. He gave me true and complete peace in my brother’s passing. The phrase “It isn’t a goodbye, it’s a ‘see you later’” became a reality of truth for me in that moment, knowing that life here on earth is like a speck of sand in comparison to eternity in heaven. I know I will see my brother again.
What's the hardest thing about being a college athlete?
Not being able to visit home as often as I would like. I have a busy schedule being a college athlete, as most do, and during my softball season, I am only able to visit home once within the four months after winter break. I am a huge family girl, so being away from them for that time can be difficult.
When do you find it most difficult to find rest and renewal in the Lord?
In the heat of the moment, when something catches me off-guard, I tend to get worked up about whatever it may be. I catch myself worrying or being anxious, through the way my body and emotions are feeling, and I continue to speak truth into myself. Humbling myself and being confident in who God is, He gives me confirmation over and over again and reminds me that He has already been where I am right now. With the reassurance that God planned out all my days before I was even born and the way He has not failed me one time, I am able to be confident in Him throughout all of it because He has persevered every other time for me. Everything He has brought me to, He has brought me through.
What’s a key verse or passage of Scripture you turn to when you need spiritual renewal and why does it minister to you?
“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” (Matthew 11:28-30)
This passage reminds me of who Jesus is and helps me to sit confidently in His promise to me. When I read these verses, I reflect on how much He has brought me through and how much transformation He has already done within me. I am able to be still and wait on the Lord because He has shown me, time and time again, that His timing is worth waiting for. I belong to Jesus and I know that I will live in the Lord’s rest because He holds me in His hand.
How do you intentionally pursue being a disciple-maker for Christ?
I do this through building genuine relationships with the people God has called me to and being intentional about growing in that connection with them. It’s about being a servant to all people and pouring out the love that Jesus has poured so freely into me. It all comes down to my intentionality of denying my flesh and picking up my cross every day, stepping into someone else’s world and meeting people where they are. I was called to make disciples, and through building those relationships, I am able to be a street sign that points people towards Jesus. I get to plant seeds that He waters and minister to those around me 24/7.
What is God teaching you now?
God has been teaching me the simplicity of being where my feet are and saying, “Here I am, Lord.” Instead of being fixated on what plan I may think that God has for me or how I think He wants to use me, I have come to realize that when I walk in obedience to where He has been calling me, I always end up right where He has placed me. He wants our hearts; He wants our yes. Through every step of obedience, I have learned I can be confident in the Caller even when I get shaky about the calling.
-FCA-
Photos courtesy of Kelsi Pack and Alexandra Albano