EMU sophomore Sara Kennel spent a gap year after high school working for service programs in Guatemala and Ecuador and immersing herself in their cultures.
During a spring break trip to Atlanta with Y-Serve last week, as she broke bread with families from Central and South America, she was instantly transported back to those days.
鈥淐ertain food smells or conversations we would have in Spanish 鈥� they would take me back,鈥� the global development major said. 鈥淥ther meals, like the one we had with the Burundi congregation, were vastly different from anything I鈥檝e ever experienced before.鈥�
Kennel, along with nine other EMU students and University Chaplain Brian Martin Burkholder, spent the week from March 2 to 8 in the Peach State for a Y-Serve service learning trip. Y-Serve is the longest-running student organization at EMU and aims to 鈥渟erve others as the hands and feet of Jesus.鈥�
The Y-Serve group partnered with , a Georgia-based nonprofit that welcomes and hosts asylum seekers and immigrant families. Together, they attended multicultural worship services, shared meals with asylees from Latin America and Africa and listened to their stories and experiences.
The group met with students at the , a public charter K-5 school that educates refugee, immigrant and local children. They toured downtown Atlanta and the Martin Luther King Jr. National Historic Park. They then traveled about 135 miles south to Americus, Georgia, where they visited the , a racially integrated Christian community and working communal farm founded in 1942.
EMU junior and Y-Serve student leader Ruth Abera treasured the evenings they spent reflecting together as a group. Another highlight of her trip was meeting the founder of , a small coffee truck and coffeeshop in Clarkston, Georgia, that hires resettled refugees and immigrants and provides 鈥渁 central place where different cultures can come together,鈥� Abera said.
鈥淎fter hearing her story, I was like, 鈥業鈥檝e known you for five minutes and I want to be just like you,鈥欌�� she said.
West Virginia
While their Y-Serve group traveled to Atlanta, another headed about 225 miles south and westward to Kimball, West Virginia. Kimball is in McDowell County, which is the third poorest county in the U.S. (2020 Census). From March 4 to 9, three EMU students and one alumnus volunteered with Sharing With Appalachian People (), a ministry program through Mennonite Central Committee, where they repaired houses, connected with local residents and reflected on how to live out their Christian faith.
EMU senior Laurel Evans, a bible, religion and theology major, served as student leader for the West Virginia Y-Serve group. Much of their work included installing metal flashing and a new roof on one side of a house, she said, as well as 鈥渓ots of repainting.鈥�
Her favorite part of the trip was getting to know the homeowners whose house they were repairing.
鈥淭hey were a lovely couple,鈥� Evans said. 鈥淲e took long breaks from our work to sit and have coffee with them and talk about our lives and God.鈥�
Peg and Lee Martin serve with Mennonite Central Committee as SWAP location coordinators in Kimball. After their work during the day, Lee Martin would lead the group in devotionals and reflections. That week鈥檚 focus, Evans said, was on the Kingdom of God.
鈥淭hat felt really important to the whole trip 鈥� how the Kingdom of God shows up in the small things, and in things we might not consider meaningful, affected how I saw the week,鈥� she said.
Evans, who also led a Y-Serve group with Abera to Kimball over fall break, described the service trip as a 鈥渞estful and productive experience.鈥�
鈥淚 felt really well-rested from the week,鈥� she said, 鈥渂ut I also know I made a decent difference in someone else鈥檚 life.鈥�
