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.

“Certain food smells or conversations we would have in Spanish — they would take me back,” the global development major said. “Other meals, like the one we had with the Burundi congregation, were vastly different from anything I’ve ever experienced before.”

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 “serve others as the hands and feet of Jesus.”

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 “a central place where different cultures can come together,” Abera said. 

“After hearing her story, I was like, ‘I’ve known you for five minutes and I want to be just like you,’” 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 “lots of repainting.” 

Her favorite part of the trip was getting to know the homeowners whose house they were repairing. 

“They were a lovely couple,” Evans said. “We took long breaks from our work to sit and have coffee with them and talk about our lives and God.”

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’s focus, Evans said, was on the Kingdom of God.

“That felt really important to the whole trip — 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,” she said.

Evans, who also led a Y-Serve group with Abera to Kimball over fall break, described the service trip as a “restful and productive experience.”

“I felt really well-rested from the week,” she said, “but I also know I made a decent difference in someone else’s life.”

Twelve students, led by Philip J. (Jordan) Good and Hannah E. Yoder, will do construction and rehabilitative housing with Service With Appalachian People (SWAP) in Harlan, Ky.

Another group of 12, headed by Kendra R. Nissley and Felicia D. Wideman, will be involved at Jubilee Partners in Comer, Ga. This farm-based intentional community provides advocacy services for refugee families entering the U.S.

Students Jennifer A. Edwards and Joseph A. (Joe) Horst will direct another 12-member group in hurricane relief and rebuilding work in the devastated community of Long Branch, Miss., under the auspices of the Valley Response Group.

Ten students, led by Paul J. Yoder and Kara L. Bender, will visit and assist organizations addressing poverty and other urban issues in Philadelphia and Camden, N.J. They include Camden House, New Hope for Women Center, Urban Hope and the Lighthouse Family Center Church.

EMU sophomore Ariel C. Ressler, (YPCA) trip commissioner, said the service experiences “benefit both the students and those they relate to.

“It’s a great opportunity to interact with new people and to experience a different way of life,” she said.

Ressler, a major from Lititz, Pa., went with a group to Philadelphia last year and said she came away “with a lot of questions” related to urban problems and how to address them.

In addition to the service teams, the EMU Royals will participate in the annual EMU-Sarasota Spring Classic over the break week. The Royals will compete against Kenyon College, Gambier, Ohio; Cedarville (OH) University; Trinity International University, Deerfield, Ill.; and Northwestern College, Orange City, Iowa.

EMU President will speak at the 9 a.m. worship service Mar. 5 at Bay Shore Mennonite Church in Sarasota.

Representatives of 13 church-related service organizations will have displays set up in the Campus Center Greeting Hall and are available to talk with students and area residents about openings with their agencies.

Programs represented will include Mennonite Central Committee, Akron, Pa.; Mennonite Board of Missions, Elkhart, Ind; Eastern Mennonite Missions, Salunga, Pa.; Presbyterian Church USA; Mennonite Disaster Service; Lutheran Volunteer Corps; Serving With Appalachian People and Virginia Mennonite Board of Missions.

A group of EMU professors and students who have been in mission/service assignments will hold a panel discussion 10 a.m. Monday, Feb. 13, in the Campus Center Greeting Hall. A Peace Corp information session will be held 5 p.m. that day, also in the Campus Center.

Walter Caballos, a pastor and trauma healing specialist representing Justpaz, a justice and peace ministry of the Mennonite Church in Columbia, Central America, will speak at 8 p.m. Feb. 14 in the Common Grounds coffeehouse in the University Commons.

The event is coordinated by EMU

Representatives of 10 service organizations will have displays set up in the Campus Center Greeting Hall through noon Wednesday and are available to talk with students and area residents about openings with their programs.

Programs represented will include:

• , Akron, Pa.
• , Elkhart, Ind.
• , Salunga, Pa.
• Innisfree, Crozet, Va., a community for persons with disabilities
• , home repair among disadvantaged people
• Metro Youth for Christ, Maryland

The event is coordinated by EMU