Cultural experience

LU Send dispatches students to three different continents for spring break

EXPLORE — Students were able to travel with LU Send to experience countries such as Ire- land, Israel, Ukraine and Belgium over spring break. Photo Provided

EXPLORE — Students were able to travel with LU Send to experience countries such as Ire- land, Israel, Ukraine and Belgium over spring break.
Photo Provided

History came to life for the 174 Liberty University students that spent their spring breaks learning and serving around the world on trips offered through LU Send.

Each of the eight trips, which traveled to a total three continents, had a unique focus that resulted in a range of experiences, from spending St. Patrick’s Day in Dublin to learning about the Reformation on its 500th anniversary.

The majority of the trips left on the morning of March 9 at a send-off event and returned March 18 and 19, according to the Liberty University  News Service.

Instead of planning these spring break trips as downtime, David Welch, executive director of LU Send, said the trips were designed to give students a safe environment to learn how to travel and practice their Christian worldview in real contexts and cultures.

“We want to give them a 10-day experience that’s going to allow them to apply what they’ve been learning here at school and continue to learn while they are in a specific country,” Welch said.

Welch helped lead the team that visited Israel, which is a trip he said every believer should anticipate taking at some point in their life.

Israel is more of a second home for Welch than a foreign country. Welch went to graduate school in Israel, served in the Israeli army and is a citizen of Israel.

Tours of Israel often balance the modern with biblical heritage and archeology with stories, Welch said.

Seeking these balances meant a full itinerary that included visiting numerous biblical sites such as Nazareth and Jerusalem, touring museums and celebrating Purim — a holiday that commemorates a time when the Jewish people living in Persia were saved from extermination.

The trip combined studying history with meeting those affected by it.

The day after Purim, the group met 60 holocaust survivors. Spirits were still high from Purim, an aspect Welch said they wanted to be respectful of by not bringing up their stories.

Instead Welch said they simply took the time to show the survivors they cared about them.

“When (the holocaust survivors), who generally feel neglected, experience the joy of having young people invest in them and truly care about them, they love it,” Welch said.

Two other trips visited the historical sites of the Reformation during the 500th anniversary of Luther’s 95 Theses, which served as a catalyst for the Reformation.

Both the school of divinity and the history department arranged trips, each of which visited Switzerland, Germany and France.

Kevin King, a professor for the trip who teaches homiletics and historical theology, said he cannot think of the Reformation without thinking of the reformers’ love of the Bible and preaching it.

“The significance of the Reformation is a return to engaging the word of God and the preaching of the word of God,” King said.

“This changed Europe and subsequently changed the rest of Christendom.”

From the Reformation Wall in Geneva to the Wartburg Castle where Martin Luther translated the Bible from Hebrew and Greek into German for the first time, the students got a glimpse into the lives of the reformers.

Molly Hall, the LU Send student development coordinator and one of the trip leaders, said the trip put into perspective the challenges the reformers faced but also how influential the movement was.

“(The reformation) made faith personal because people no longer had to go through someone else which is why Jesus came,” Hall said.

“It takes out some of the meaning of Christ’s death if you still have to go through a priest or the pope.”

The trip also included working with a refugee ministry, prayer walks and visits to Leipzig, Berlin and Paris.

While these students were learning about the influence of the reformers, a different trip spent part of its time learning about another influential church figure, St. Patrick.

The Ireland/England trip visited Dublin during St. Patrick’s Day and the St. Patrick’s Cathedral beforehand.

Nate Coffey, the manager of trips for LU Send and a co-lead for the trip, said the country had festivities and parades, but many Irish seemed unaware of St. Patrick’s story and impact.

“From the way that he got to know God, started to walk with God and his commitment to Christ which led to him sacrificing and return to Dublin after escaping slavery, here was a saint who was obedient to the Lord even in the midst of challenge and hardship,” Coffey said.

Another emphasis of this trip was learning about British literature while in London by touring the city and the reconstructed Globe Theater.

Other LU Send trips included sending groups to Guatemala, Ukraine and Belgium.

These trips were unified by the goal of LU Send, which Welch said is to expose students to an academically, culturally and spiritually enriching experiences.

Coffey said these experiences help students break out of the tunnel vision that can develop by spending an extended period of time in a small context.

“To go and have our perspective completely blown open by seeing more about the world helps us learn more about God, his heart for the world, his heart for the people of the world and his creativity in cultures,” Coffey said.

“It’s a domino effect of appreciating things in a new light, then asking better questions.”

With the different impacts these trips can make, Welch said the goal of LU Send is to see every student take at least one before they graduate.

Price is a news reporter.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *