Trading in coaching for missions
Nate Wiens and his family are moving to a missionary boarding school in Germany.
By Sarah A. Moser
After coaching track and field and cross country for 20 years in various settings, Nate Wiens (’00) is following God’s call to missions. Nate was the head Cross Country and Track & Field Coach at MNU from 2014 to 2022. The Wiens family is now heading on a new adventure to serve at Black Forest Academy, a missionary boarding school in Kandern, Germany.
Nate and his wife Katy are no strangers to missions. Nate’s grandpa was a missionary in Mali, Africa. His father attended boarding school in Africa during that time and became a pastor himself and his uncle is a missionary. Katy’s father is also a pastor. “I have a rich history of family going to unreached people groups, pastoring, and fulfilling the great commission,” says Nate. “I think there was always a call in the back of my mind for me to be a part of this. During my coaching years, I felt the need to reach people who need to know Christ and coaching became my outlet. The wins in coaching are icing on the cake. Sharing my faith and making sure students know who our God and Father is, how amazing Jesus is, is most important.”
As a college student, Katy had visited Black Forest Academy and was drawn to the health of the institution because of the people there. “Throughout our 16-year marriage, we’ve joked that when things got hard, we’d just sell everything and move to Black Forest Academy and be dorm parents,” says Nate. “The last few years, we’d been feeling a push from God to do something new. We often prayed that we are happy here, but we are open to going wherever God wants us to go. And we started feeling the call.”
Nate and Katy sent an email to Black Forest Academy expressing interest in being a part of the school, which led to a series of interviews and the confirmation that this is the next right step for their family. Nate will serve as an academic advisor and counselor during the first year, then transition into a dorm parent role. The English-speaking academy hosts students from all over the United States, Africa, Asia, and Europe. The school offers sports, arts, music, and drama; 70 percent of the students enroll in AP courses and 80 percent go on to four-year colleges. “The students are really successful academically, but more importantly they have a heart for spiritual matters,” Nate says. “We get to be part of shaping the next generation of missionary kids. We will be encouraging the faith of future generations and I don’t know of a better calling in our life that we could experience right now.”
The Wiens family, including their children Nya (14), Judah (12), and Zeke (7), has felt confirmation along the way that they are making the right move, including meeting people at their sending organization who have worked with their families in past missions work. “Everything we’ve experienced with fostering, coaching, building programs from scratch, budgeting, all wrapped into one really fit what we are supposed to do,” he says.
The biggest challenge at the moment is raising the funds needed to go. If you’d like to support the Wiens family in their new endeavor, they ask for your prayers first and foremost. And if you’d like to become a monthly sponsor or give a one-time gift, you can do so at www.avantministries.org/missionary/nate-and-katy-wiens. To receive updates on their journey, email nate.wiens@avmi.org and be added to their newsletter distribution list.