Kansas Nebraska Convention of Southern Baptists (KNCSB)

Nebraska students return to Katrina-stricken Gulf Coast

Students from the University of Nebraska in Lincoln spent their spring break in Pass Christian, Miss., where residents are still recovering from Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Veteran campus minister Brett Yohn (first row, second from right) led the group that included many students who are not yet believers in Jesus. This was the seventh trip that Nebraska students have made to hurricane-stricken area. (Submitted photo)

Fifty-two University of Nebraska-Lincoln students led by Brett Yohn (Christian Challenge/BSU Director) spent the week before Easter in Pass Christian, Miss., helping residents who are still rebuilding from Hurricane Katrina in 2005. This is the seventh trip that Nebraska students have made to the stricken region.

Student leaders from several campus ministries, including Christian Challenge, organized the trip. But it was open to any student of any religious background who wanted to go and serve. Only a dozen students who went are active in any campus ministry, and over 20 students are not yet followers of Jesus. It was a very diverse group. It was clear to all the students before they signed up that there would be prayer and devotions on the trip.

“It was an amazing time of building relationships and serving human needs side by side with students who have never been exposed to a relationship with Jesus or have discarded Jesus as irrelevant to their lives,” said Yohn.

Each night after dinner, the entire group gathered to debrief their day and hear a short devotional from Yohn. Picking up on the theme of Holy Week, Yohn talked about what Jesus did and said before he went to the cross. One young man said that he had never heard of the Triumphal Entry or the Passover.

The group bonded and showed love to one another. Although they were sleeping in tents and working hard at cleaning yards and painting the exterior of houses, the students kept an upbeat attitude. Flexibility was needed when they evacuated the tents one night because of wind and thunderstorms.

Upon returning to Lincoln, an Asian woman who went on the trip wrote that she missed everyone and felt a definite emptiness in her heart. One of the Challenge student leaders said, “She is not missing us. She is missing the presence of Jesus that flowed from us to her.”

“It was one of my ‘Top 10’ mission trips ever. Not because of the work we accomplished but because of the relationships that I was able to build with students seeking to know Jesus,” said Yohn.

“All of us who know Jesus want to keep sharing with loving those who went on the trip. For those not involved in a campus ministry, we will be inviting them to Challenge events during the last six weeks of the semester.”

Students are already planning a return trip to the Gulf Coast during Fall Break in October.