Nestled snugly along the banks of Illinois’ Fox River, Judson University has long offered its students a chance to follow their athletic and academic dreams in a nurturing, community-minded environment. But for student-athletes at Judson, an evangelical Christian university, there always seemed to be a hidden disconnect that kept them from truly connecting to Christ, each other and the surrounding community of Elgin.

Every summer at FCA Camp, Marla Williams prays that God will reveal to her one or two Huddle Leaders He wants her to invest in during the week — athletes for whom she can be that sharpening iron of the Lord. This summer, her pre-camp prayers were answered with stunning clarity.

In the first staff meeting at FCA’s Black Mountain camp in North Carolina, Williams, an FCA staff member in Alabama, felt almost an immediate calling to two young women from the U.S. Naval Academy: Ali Currier, captain of the Navy’s basketball team, and Aubrey Manes, an outside hitter for the volleyball team.