How Falcons RB learned lesson in faith, joy through Dominican Republic trip

FLOWERY BRANCH — Where there’s normally a bed frame, there are four concrete blocks. Where there’s normally carpet or hardwood floors, there are rocks, puncturing bare feet with each step. Traditional walls are substituted by metal slabs, tinfoil or ratty curtains hanging on for all they’re worth.

Being joyful there — in the Dominican Republic, where small shacks and houses pieced together by junkyard scraps sometimes hold families with over a dozen members — seems incomprehensible. That’s what made it all the more memorable for Nathan Carter.

The Falcons’ second-year running back joined defensive lineman Zach Harrison, team president and CEO Greg Beadles and several other members of the organization in an early March trip overseas with Compassion International.

Together, they went into neighborhoods in the Dominican Republic, where approximately 19% of the population lives under the poverty line, and they worked with Compassion’s local church partners.

They helped with service projects, made home visits and spent time with children, acting upon Compassion’s faith-based mission of “releasing children from poverty in Jesus’ name.”

For Carter, the most eye-opening aspect of the trip, which spanned several days, centered around the difficult living conditions many faced — a stark contrast to the big houses and world-class facilities that are second nature to NFL players.

Standing on the edge of the Falcons’ practice field in Flowery Branch, Carter, with a newfound perspective rooted in gratitude, looked around at the nicely trimmed grass and million-dollar buildings and reached a conclusion: We often take the little things for granted.

“To see the joy these kids have, the joy some of these families have in the midst of not being in the best of situations — like man, what’s keeping me back from having that same type of joy?” Carter told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, referring to what he saw and the people he met on his trip. “They have nothing like this, and yet at times it’s easy to see they got more joy than we do and we got more than them.”

Carter, the son of a pastor, has long been attached to his faith. He grew up in the church but formed an identity in dependence on his parents’ faith, which he says kept him from forming “a personal relationship with Jesus.” He was more of a fan, less of a follower.

Then came his freshman year in 2021 at the University of Connecticut.

Carter met tough times and internal battles. He felt lost and lonely. So, he called his dad. “Son, I love you,” Darryl Carter told him. Nathan found comfort. More importantly, he found direction.

“A phone call with my dad changed my life,” Carter said, “and helped me to reinforce my having a true relationship with Jesus. Being able to understand the truth of the gospel and the truth of what Christ did for me and how I can now live for him out of gratitude for his love.

“Ever since then, man, it’s just kind of dedicating my life to preaching his gospel. Because at the end of the day, that’s what matters.”

The trip to the Dominican Republic reinforced Carter’s viewpoint on the roots beneath joy. It doesn’t come from money, and it certainly doesn’t stem from living conditions.

“Their joy is not based on their materialistic things,” Carter said. “It’s based on the fact they have life, the fact they have a relationship with God and they’re in the church and they’re involved and that gives them joy.

“For me, it’s like, ‘Man, I want that type of joy that’s not based on what I do and don’t have, but it’s based on my relationship with God.’”

Carter has been on mission trips before. So, too, had his wife, Madison. But this one offered a different opportunity: Meeting their 6-year-old sponsored child, Nauriel.

In the middle of a Compassion-run baseball game, they had their first face-to-face introduction to Nauriel, fresh off a four-hour trip for the meet-up. They played and further developed their relationship with Nauriel, who now gets holistic support, medical checkups and help with education and nutrition.

The chance to meet — and support — Nauriel served as a microcosm of the trip’s value. Carter views sponsorship as a means toward changing lives, and the joy it invoked certainly changed his own.

“We do so much to say, ‘Hey, how much can we impact them?’” Carter said. “But really, they impacted us, as far as just changing our viewpoint.”

The feelings of gratitude and lessons of faith Carter pulled from his time in the Dominican Republic still linger within him each day. He’s intentional about it. Whenever he starts to slip, he enters his camera roll and scrolls through pictures as a reminder of the conditions others are living in.

Carter now finds joy in smaller, more mundane things. It’s easy for the intensity of his initial feelings to fade away, but he’s committed himself to never forgetting what his eyes bore witness to some 1,300 miles away.

“I need to constantly practice gratitude and constantly practice reminding myself of the joy that I have in Christ and not in the things that I can hold in my physical hands, but something that’s a lot deeper,” Carter said. “It’s constantly reminding ourselves of that, that we can so easily forget.

“So, we really have to be disciplined in reminding ourselves of things like that.”

Compassion has a strong track record of sustained success. According to the company’s press release about the Falcons’ visit, 97 of 100 program alumni involved in a survey reported being released from poverty, while 95 said the program helped achieve education goals and build hope for their respective future.

Such proven success and impact on youth in the Dominican Republic is why Carter pleads with anybody willing to listen about the value in using $43 to sponsor a child. As a society, Carter says, people spend significant money on memberships and fancy accessories.

Remember his stance on materialistic things? Those, he says, will collect dust, rot and die. He feels Compassion International offers a much more everlasting alternative.

“Imagine spending just a little bit of your money a month to be able to change somebody’s life,” Carter said. “That’s my advice I would have for people. Truly consider a sponsor. Understand what that can possibly do to change a little kid’s and a family’s life if you just give a few dollars to them each and every month.”

Beadles said athletes, executives and Compassion International can’t solve every need by its own collective work. Everyone together, Beadles said in the release, can be part of a bigger mission to help free children from poverty.

Carter has made his commitment.

He wrestles with a heavy question each day: Where are you going to spend eternity?

“I want everyone to not only just spend eternity in heaven, but really to know Jesus for themselves,” Carter said. “Because I believe that’s where the true abundant life is found. It’s not in the things of this world, but it’s in having a real rich relationship with Jesus Christ.”

Carter spends his present on the football field, and he cherishes the life he lives. But he’s been struck by the realization that his athletic career won’t last forever.