This article appears in the Fall 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.

A four-sport athlete at Mansfield High School in Mansfield, Ark., Kynslee Ward capped off an impressive career full of All-State honors and invitations to play in all-star games, making it to state tournaments in each sport during her senior year. Her volleyball and softball teams won the state championship and basketball was state runner-up.

Her biggest accomplishments, though, don’t lie on the athletic field or court but in her spiritual transformation. A back injury early in her freshman basketball season sidelined her for a year, but through her school’s FCA Huddle, Ward learned what it meant to truly integrate faith into her life. She speaks at local Huddles, participates in FCA Camps and has helped shape the sports culture at her school to seek God before the scoreboard. This fall, she began her studies and collegiate basketball career at Crowley’s Ridge College in Paragould, Ark., and has great hopes for God to move among her team and throughout the campus.

When did your faith become real to you?

When I was younger, I went to church two times a month because I’d always have travel ball over the weekend. I knew who God was and was baptized at an early age, but I just went through the motions and didn’t really know Him because I set my foundation around sports.

Then I got injured my freshman year and couldn’t play anything. That’s when I looked toward God and started asking Him why He would take me out of something I loved. Sports was my everything at that time, and I already wanted to play basketball in college. I was afraid everyone else would get better than me and I’d be left behind. I struggled and pulled away from God.

I remember sitting in my room bawling and praying, “Lord, I do need You. I know I’ve turned away from you, and I’m sorry.” I had to trust Him to make it into something bigger and better for the next two years of high school.

Where did FCA come into the picture?

I went to FCA all four years of high school, but I would say my freshman and sophomore years, I went for the games and to be with friends. I ended up recommitting my life to Christ at an FCA Camp before my junior year and learned a lot about the Lord and how He can change a person and make things better for you.

It changed so much within me, because I went from liking my sports to being all in. God has shown me that if I don’t place my platform around sports but instead around Him, He can make everything else better and greater in my life.

What do things now look like for you with that perspective?

It has changed so much because I always used to play for myself and wanted to be  the best. Now, we pray before every game and do Bible studies before every game in every sport. We always play for God number one and then ourselves and our teams. God has been in everything that we’ve done through Mansfield. Some teammates and I held Bible studies with our younger teammates and really encouraged them to continue when we are gone. I’ll share my testimony at middle schools and will have four or five people come up to me and tell me they’ve struggled with the same things, and I’ll pray with them and talk about it. It’s such an honor. 

He has shown up for me a lot. Everything that I’ve accomplished is because of Him, and I wouldn’t be who I am without Him. I’ve started going to church more and I do Bible studies on my own and pray more. People in the community would see me talking somewhere and watch me play sports and see my growth in the Lord. [They] tell me they’ve seen me at FCA Camp and helping others, and I just feel God really has changed me throughout to the woman I am today.

What would you say to someone who has been in a similar situation, whether dealing with an injury, seeking impressive statistics, or keeping God at a distance?

Keep trusting in God. Don’t ever just turn your back against Him and think that you can do it all on your own because you can’t. You physically and mentally cannot do it on your own. If it’s an injury, family problems, whatever it is, no matter the ups and downs, there’s always going to be a light at the end of the tunnel with Him.

What are you hopeful for God to do this year as you begin your time at Crowley’s Ridge?

I’m grateful for the opportunities that He’s given me to play, but I’m praying that I can connect with local schools and talk to high school students about FCA and how it’s changed me. So I’m hoping I can help get Bible studies going before games and change the atmosphere there and surround it with God.

-FCA-

Photos courtesy of Kynslee Ward