Concordia Students Volunteer for Nebraska Youth Gathering  

by April Bayer 

A group of Concordia students traveled to the Omaha area over Thanksgiving break to serve as young adult volunteers at the Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod (LCMS) Nebraska District Youth Gathering. 

The theme of this year’s event was “Hero: Greater. Better. True.” and was based on Hebrews 1:1-4 as well as the stories of prominent Biblical figures such as David, Esther, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. Featured speakers included LCMS high school teacher Sarah Salzberg, and author and youth speaker Rev. Jeffrey Meinz. The gathering took place at the LaVista Convention Center from Friday, Nov. 17 to Sunday, Nov. 19.  

Volunteers’ duties included setting up and taking down various materials, greeting youth groups as they arrived, assisting with fellowship events, taking pictures and helping to lead servant events. Some of the servant events involved packing clothes and food for Orphan Grain Train and cleaning classrooms at a local school.  

“Taking part in the service project was really cool,” junior Amanda Segebart said. “I did not hear one youth complain during the event. Just seeing the youth get their hands dirty was really neat, just getting out there and doing this as an outreach project for the community.” 

Students from Concordia who helped with the event included Segebart, junior Beatrice Lala, sophomores Kailey Bales and Camille Bolte, and freshman Drew Boggs.  

The Concordia students were joined by other volunteers from a variety of schools and organizations, including the University of Nebraska—Omaha, the University of Nebraska—Lincoln and several LCMS districts and churches. 

“It’s just fun to be with your brothers and sisters in Christ having a great time praising Jesus,” Lala said. “I hope we (helped) the high school youth see how important it is to keep your faith strong in college and that we (were) a good display of that.”