The Steenkamps

Casper and Ashley met in Oplin, TX, just outside of Abilene. They instantly realized that they had many things in common, most importantly being their faith in Jesus Christ and their Christian values, but also their passion for sports and missions. After three years of dating, which involved one mission trip to South Africa, they were married on October 3, 2008 in Hot Springs, Arkansas, close to where Ashley’s family now lives. In January of this year they welcomed their first child, Zoe Grace, to their family. Since getting married, they have led three different missions teams, through the Let’s Go missions program at Southern Hills Church of Christ, to South Africa and Egypt. These trips, along with much prayer and guidance from the Holy Spirit, have led the couple to strongly believe in their call to missions and sports ministry in South Africa. Casper’s South African citizenship will undoubtedly give the team a great cultural connection and they are excited to see how God will use them in this country with so many needy and lost people.


Casper Steenkamp was born and raised in South Africa. He grew up playing tennis and came over to the States for the first time in 2003 to play tennis for Texas Tech. After one semester, Casper transferred to Abilene Christian University in order to play tennis for their program. He graduated from ACU in May of 2007 with a Bachelor of Business Administration in Management. After graduation, Casper continued working as a tennis pro at the Abilene Country Club, teaching tennis lessons to players of all ages. While working, he pursued his Masters in Sports Management from Hardin Simmons University and completed the program in December of 2009. During this time, he also completed a sports ministry leadership training program in Egypt, which led him to his calling in missions and sports ministry. In May of 2011, Casper ended his job at the country club in order to have more time to work in sports ministry, specifically connected with an organization called SportQuest. From 2011 to 2012, he played tennis in some professional tournaments in order to reach out to other professional players. Currently, he is giving tennis lessons, conducting sports leadership trainings, writing weekly sports related devotionals, and leading missions teams to South Africa for sports ministry experiences. He was also a LIFE group leader for the seniors in the youth group at Southern Hills and is actively involved in sports ministry with refugee children in Abilene.

Casper’s dream is to see heaven on earth and in SA. His mission in life is to encourage, educate and equip disciples of Christ through intentional holistic kingdom discipleship, sport leadership and missional communities. His passion is facilitating kingdom dreams – helping people discover their God-given call in life and teaching them how to implement it.

Ashley Steenkamp was born in Pennsylvania, and then adopted into a family living in Virginia. After living there through kindergarten, her family moved to Alabama, which she now considers her home state.  She was raised in the Church of Christ and made the decision to attend Abilene Christian University to play volleyball after a medical mission trip to Guatemala, where she met several ACU alumni and faculty. Ashley began her studies as a pre-med Chemistry major, but felt the call into education after a mission trip to Uganda through the World Wide Witness program at ACU. After graduating in May of 2008, Ashley completed her Masters in Organizational and Human Resource Development and began teaching Chemistry at Abilene High School. She also became the pep squad sponsor, leading a group of over 40 girls each year. Currently, she is the lead AP Chemistry teacher at Abilene High and continues to sponsor the Bold Gold pep squad. She was also a LIFE group leader for the seniors in the youth group at Southern Hills and is actively involved in sports ministry with refugee children in Abilene.


Ashley believes that her long term calling is teaching and mentoring 15-25 year old girls to help redeem the purity and holiness that is lost to this world. She desires to build relationships with the students she teaches and/or tutors in chemistry and math. She also has a passion for sports and hopes to use them as another tool to help build discipleship relationships.