LU Serve Now is one of Liberty University’s outreach organizations that encourages students to step outside their comfort zones to serve local and global communities in need.
Senior Hannah Rodriguez shared her plethora of experiences with LU Serve mission trips, and how working with disaster relief efforts has transformed her view of Christian service.
Rodriguez has been on three trips with LU Serve Now to provide hurricane disaster relief in the states of Washington, Kentucky and western North Carolina.
Rodriguez joined LU Serve Now in Fall 2021 during her freshman year; she said she felt a distinct desire to travel around the world and serve underreached communities.
“I’ve always been really interested in doing international things and reaching out to international communities, so I joined so that I could have more opportunities to go on those refugee trips. When those refugee trips stopped, I started going on their disaster relief trips,” Rodriguez said.
Rodriguez’s first trip was to Washington in January 2022 for flood relief. She said her experience in Washington included working in the cold weather to fix up houses after the flood; the weather conditions escalated so drastically over the trip that she and the rest of the team became snowed in and trapped in a local church for the night.
“I remember that first trip, I didn’t really know what to expect, … I didn’t have any expectations for what was going to happen on that trip because things definitely did not go the way that they normally go,” Rodriguez said.
In July of the same year, Rodriguez also went to Jackson, Kentucky, to continue her efforts in helping flood victims. She noted that it was a challenging trip because of the high temperatures and destruction from the flooding.
“A lot of the people who we reached (on that trip) … had just been hit the prior year, and then it had been a year since they rebuilt and got hit again with bad flooding,” Rodriguez said.
In 2024, Rodriguez went to the River Arts District in Asheville, North Carolina, after Hurricane Helene hit the Appalachians. She was able to work with Operation Blessing International Relief and Development Corporation during her time in the River Arts District.
After her extensive time partnering with LU Serve Now, Rodriguez emphasized how she remains grateful and appreciative for what she has, considering how much people lost in these areas.
“One, for having a program through this school that I can go and travel and get an excused absence from my classes so that I can actually do this because I’m passionate about it, I’m grateful for that,” Rodriguez said. “I’m also grateful for … all of the things that I have that other people don’t have. Like in those moments where people are literally losing their house for the first or second time. It’s like ‘wow I’m grateful that I haven’t lost my house.’”
Simposon is an On-Campus News reporter.