Overflow raises the roof |
| Posted by Administrator on Mar 25 2009 at 2:55 PM |
Photo by Brain Osler
Kelly Hoff and Uran Kim work on a roof in Galveston, Texas, during a spring break service trip sponsored by the church group Overflow.
By Brian Osler
Antelope Staff
Most college students don't picture intense physical labor, sleeping arrangements more like a nightmarish boot camp and cockroaches in their beds as part of an ideal spring break. The 15 people from the Kearney Evangelical Free Church OverFLOW mission in Galveston, Texas, endured some hardships; however, the trip was a great chance to learn life lessons.
Sydney Buller, a senior business administration major with a management emphasis from York, said the experience in Galveston taught her the importance of being selfless. "To serve," according to Buller, "is to experience God's heartbeat."
During the majority of the trip, the group was divided into two teams. One team including Austin Asay, Emily Geschwentner and Philip Kolbo used hydraulic jacks to lift a house to highest point and then placed pillars underneath.
Asay, a junior multimedia major from Kearney, said though all four workers in his group were "unskilled" and "unqualified," they successfully managed to level the house within a week. Asay said the experience taught him "there are 100 ways to do things, and my way isn't always the best."
The remaining members of the team replaced a roof for Rose Mathews, a blind mother of six in her 80s. Mathews, according to a staff member, was depressed prior to the arrival of the team because she had been used by others due to her disability and was unable to find someone to fix her roof.
When the team arrived on Monday, Mathews' spirits seemed lifted. According to Buller, Mathews had a "bright, shining smile every day we showed up."
Julia Catsinas, a junior elementary education major from Waverly, said replacing the roof in Texas, while not something she always wanted to do, afforded her a chance to "give up my comforts" and "sacrifice like Jesus sacrificed for me."
Junior Jordan Hinrichsen, a family studies major from Minden, said he learned through the experience that "God is at work in bigger ways than we know." Now that he is back in Nebraska, Hinrichsen said he doesn't know what God's going to do through him next.
OverFLOW meets on Sunday nights at 7 p.m. at the Kearney Evangelical Free Church.
