Student Ministry Summer Serve
This summer, our high school Student Ministry group headed to Denver, Colorado, for a summer serve trip with new Student Ministries Pastor Skylar White and Associate Student Ministries Pastor Joey Nilsen. The group worked alongside Open Door Ministries, serving Denver’s homeless and impoverished communities during their time there.
Twenty-four of our StoneBridge students spent time serving members of the community living in poverty. They helped serve food, assisted with cleaning and yard work, and spent time among children in a foster care home.
At the home, Skylar says, “We did yard work, cleaning, reorganizing inside and outside, sweeping, mopping--the lady who runs the foster house was very appreciative and proud of what it looked like when our group left.”
The students even participated in a prayer walk throughout the city and had face-to-face interactions with some of the homeless population. Skylar says they took turns approaching people in the city to simply ask them about their stories. To their surprise, the people they spoke to opened up to share.
“Some students had never been on a mission trip before, so their perspectives on the world changed a lot,” Skylar says. “They realized everybody has a story, and everyone needs to share their story.”
In turn, the people the students spoke with felt seen and heard. This was refreshing and energizing for everyone involved--both the servants and those they served.
“I think, going into the week, the students were a bit worn out, sort of going through the motions,” Joey says. “Coming back, it was like they’d experienced some fresh air in their walk with God.”
Skylar and Joey set up daily devotionals for the students, starting the day in the Word first thing every morning, followed by serving in the afternoons.
“We all felt God’s presence and power that week,” Skylar says.
Returning to Omaha, Inspired to Continue Serving
Many of the students who experienced the Denver trip returned with deeper friendships and a renewed desire to serve the needy, including Concordia High School junior Max Hartman.
“Before the trip, I wasn’t close to God,” Max says. “Going into the mission trip, I didn’t want to be there--I wasn’t feeling it.”
Max said his movement away from God had been a slow decline, but the way God worked on his heart during the mission trip was life-changing. He experienced a shift in his mindset during the trip, and a gradual shift in his mood from the beginning of the week until the end.
“‘I remember praying to God, ‘Please, just give me a sign of what you want me to do. I know for some reason you want me here, but I don’t know why. I just need something for reassurance as to who you are.”
In the middle of the week, he stumbled on Psalm 119:114 - “You are my refuge and my shield; I have put my hope in your word.” The verse stood out to Max because it was a reminder that God is here for those in need, and a shelter for those who have no sense of home.
Max says he enjoyed growing closer to his peers during that week, as they served God and those in need together. Going forward, he wants to continue serving and spreading God’s word, and he hopes more of his friends and fellow students can experience Student Ministry with him.
“For those students who want to get into student ministry, I would recommend they envelop themselves in the Word and just be there in the moment with God as much as possible,” he says. “And pray for wisdom. That’s the key because the Lord gives us that wisdom unconditionally, all the time.
“That’s one of the most important parts of ministry--asking for the wisdom to help others.”
Meet Skylar White
Skylar and his wife, Rachel, are from St. Louis, Missouri. They moved to Omaha from Savannah, Georgia, where Skylar served as a middle school pastor. The Whites have two children, Jude (3) and Jael (16 months).
Skylar believes you should know your testimony in a sentence. “I was a fatherless kid searching for value and I never found it until I met Jesus.”
When Skylar was 17, he heard the gospel clearly for the first time. It was so impactful, he abandoned dreams of building a civil engineering career and decided to become a student pastor instead.
Rachel majored in missions, and even interned in Africa during college. “Rachel’s mother was a pastor, and she fell in love with sharing with students that they mattered,” Skylar says.
Skylar and Rachel have dedicated their lives to serving students, and they’re thrilled to be part of the StoneBridge family.
Meet Joey Nilsen
Joey is a native of Colorado Springs, Colorado, where he felt like it was fairly easy to be a Christian. He attended Nebraska Christian College as a Student Ministry major.
Halfway through college, he moved to Las Vegas, where he saw ministry from a new perspective.
“I saw ministry in the context of reaching people who were extremely far from God,” he says. “I loved every minute of it, but it was extremely hard to walk with students through divorce. Eight out of 10 guys in my group didn’t have a dad in the state, alive, or in the picture. It was a huge challenge to help them understand that they could grow up and not follow in those same footsteps.
“It was uncharted territory in my own life, and my own walk with God. Nothing about that is in a textbook,” he says.
Joey’s personal mission here at StoneBridge is to ensure there’s an on-ramp to ministry for students who want to serve.
Joey, moved to Omaha in July.
Student Ministry for the 2019-2020 School Year
As the new school year kicks off, Skylar and Joey are steering the Student Ministry toward focusing on three primary areas:
Service
Small Groups
Serving
Each upcoming student activity will fulfill one of these areas. Plans for this year are in development, and Skylar says he and Joey are open to shaping the ministry’s direction throughout the year. Ultimately, they hope to offer our students opportunities to share Christ, build believers, and actively move with God to make a difference in the world.