Faithful MBU Athlete Wrestles with Heart of Love

Mills, 19, a sophomore biomedical major and aspiring veterinarian who loves dogs, is dedicated to studying and researching animal anatomy while working toward her goals.

But most importantly, Mills focuses on her spiritual growth.

“She has a heart to know God. She wants to study the Bible, she wants to learn more about him and that’s something I admire about her,” said Oellermann, 21, who wrestled for three years and has a strong faith, making her a mentor and friend to Mills.

Mills went to church as a child but her family stopped attending when she was 10 and she began to feel distant from her faith.

“My senior year of high school I was in a pretty dark place,” said Mills, who is from Festus, Missouri. “I started going to church with a couple of girls on my cheer team and I was saved. I was listening to ‘Another in the Fire,’ they were playing that in the background, and the lyrics really hit.”

She was saved after experiencing God’s extreme forgiveness and the realization that she was not living the life she was called to live.

During her junior year at Festus High School, Mills connected with wrestling, a sport she had never seen until sophomore year when she attended a wrestling match and was immediately intrigued, pushing her to try it because she hated the idea of leaving high school wishing she had.

Mills expressed it is difficult to be a Christian in wrestling because your whole sport revolves around fighting others, but as a Christian we are called to turn the other cheek and respond in love.

“One of the main things is just love. Sportsmanship is super important and honestly hard to have in wrestling because girls are literally trying to beat you up, so it’s definitely approaching situations with love and grace and all about how you conduct yourself because it’s really easy to lose your cool whenever things are getting hard at practice,” Mills said. “What Jesus commanded us to do most is love, and I think that is one of the best ways that you can really be God’s wrestler – to be a wrestler that approaches the sport and other people with love even on the hard days.”

Kirwyn Adderley, coach of Mills and the rest of the MBU wrestling team, recognizes her loving attitude toward her teammates.

“She is always willing to assist and listen to her teammates. She will go out of her way to help anyone on the team,” said Adderley

Her coach has also noticed the passion Mills has and said she is easy to coach because of her attitude.

“Lindsay is very passionate about wrestling and has the willingness to keep learning,” said Adderley. “She is very coachable, and this has helped her learn and grow in the sport.”

Oellermann, a junior elementary education major at MBU who although no longer wrestles with MBU, remains a close friend to Mills, noted Mills has persevered through many challenges but has yet to give up.

“It has pushed her to be stronger in her faith, learning to say the gospel with your words and know how to share it with people,” said Oellermann. “I think she’s become an encourager.”

Mills agreed that encouragement toward her teammates is one of her spiritual gifts and a mission opportunity.

“You can tell there is something different about the way I wrestle,” said Mills, “and honestly those practices that are really hard, one of the ways I minister to my teammates is just approaching them with love, and practices that are hard where we’re getting drilled into the ground, just maintaining a positive attitude and knowing in myself where that attitude comes from.”

Teammate Emma Schrieber, a freshman business administration student, appreciates the constant joy and positivity Mills brings to the team.

“Lindsay always makes me laugh,” Schrieber said via text message. “She understands how hard we all work and sometimes we make mistakes. Instead of being disappointed in us she chooses to help us smile and learn from the mistakes.”

She also encourages young wrestlers at Purler, a wrestling camp where she coaches girls between age 7 and high school.