Nebraska Synod ELCA

When Sarah Price talks about her year of service in England, she doesn’t start with plane tickets or sightseeing. She starts with church.

“I give all the credit for getting me here to my home church,” she says. “They invited me to the table from the time I was really young. It didn’t matter that I was a kid—I was seen, and I was asked to show up.”

Today, the 22-year-old from St. John Lutheran Church in Beatrice is serving in Wolverhampton, a city on the edge of the UK countryside near Birmingham. She’s there through Young Adults in Global Mission (YAGM), a program of the ELCA, and placed in a local United Reformed Church through a UK partner program called Time for God.

It’s a year of service, learning, and a lot of holy questions.

“I always said I was going to do this”

Sarah first heard about YAGM as a child when a former volunteer came to her congregation to share about their year.

“Sometime in elementary school, somebody came to our church and talked about their YAGM year,” she remembers. “Right then I was like, yeah, I’m doing that when I get older.”

Through middle school and high school, mission trips and church involvement kept that spark alive. But by the time she finished college at the University of Nebraska Omaha—with a bachelor’s degree in psychology, a concentration in forensics, and a minor in Spanish—life felt more complicated.

“I was getting to the end of my semester thinking, okay, I either go for my master’s or I go to work,” she says. “I wasn’t in the right headspace to keep going with school.”

That’s when her mom reminded her of something she’d said years before: You always wanted to do YAGM.

“I wasn’t even sure where I was with God,” Sarah admits. “I didn’t know if this would really align with what I wanted to do. But I thought, I can at least apply and talk with them and see what happens. And here I am.”

Learning, not fixing

Sarah is clear about what drew her to mission work—and it isn’t a desire to “fix” anything.

“It was ingrained in me from my parents: we don’t go into situations asking, How can I fix this?” she says. “We ask, What can I learn? How can my experiences and their experiences collide? How can we grow together?”

That posture lines up beautifully with YAGM’s model of accompaniment—walking with people, not ahead of them.

“We’re not here to be saviors or to bring God to anyone,” she says. “We’re here to learn about one another and let all of our worlds expand because we were open.”

Everyday ministry in a different church

On paper, Sarah’s role might look a lot like a youth or children’s ministry assistant in a congregation in Nebraska. In practice, it’s shaped by a new culture, a different worship pattern, and a lot of listening.

On Sundays, she floats between the sound system in the sanctuary and Sunday school with children.

“The kids start in worship, then go out for their own time, and later they come back to tell the congregation what they learned,” she explains. “It’s really sweet—and different from what I was used to.”

During the week, most of her time goes into “the project”—the congregation’s community programs and youth clubs.

Being a YAGM—and not being alone

Sarah is one of four YAGM volunteers currently placed in the UK. While there isn’t a huge cohort in one city, there are chances to connect.

Together with other volunteers, she’s slowly learning how to navigate British culture—everything from public transportation to communication styles.

“Even though we speak the same language, we’re vastly different,” she laughs. Those differences have led to a lot of reflection.

“I walk away from certain conversations thinking, Okay, what was that? What is God inviting me to see? What is God showing me through this? It’s a lot of reflection and a lot of growth.”

Supported and sent by her home church

When Sarah talks about how she ended up in Wolverhampton at all, she goes back to St. John Lutheran in Beatrice.

“Growing up, the church was like my second home,” she says. “I don’t even remember the first time I was invited to serve. It was always, ‘Sarah, come sing with us.’ ‘Sarah, help take the offering.’ ‘Sarah, come do this with us.’ They make kids feel seen.”

As she discerned YAGM, that community showed up again.

“When I said I was thinking about this, the church was so supportive,” she says. “They listened. When I had doubts, they didn’t shove God at me. It was, ‘Sarah, come to the table. What do you think?’ They empowered me to have conversations and challenged me when I needed to be challenged.”

Faith, adulthood, and what comes next

Like many young adults, Sarah is navigating the shift from “the faith I was handed” to “the faith that is mine.”

That process, she says, is very much still in motion—and this year is shaping it.

“Going into this, I thought, When the year is done, I’m going straight back for my master’s,” she says. “Now I’m not so sure. Do I want to jump back into school? Or do I want to find work like this and keep serving somewhere?”

Whatever comes next, she knows she won’t walk away unchanged.

“The things you learn, you can’t unlearn,” she says. “Living abroad, different culture, all these conversations—it all becomes part of who you are.”

What she wants other young adults to know

If another young adult in Nebraska is wondering whether a year of service might be for them, Sarah’s honest:

“It’s not going to be easy,” she says. “There will be hard conversations. There will be homesickness—especially around the holidays. You’ll have to learn how to budget on a small stipend and decide when to travel, when to stay put, and how to really be part of a community.”

But she’s just as clear about the gift.

“You’re going to learn a lot about yourself,” she says. “You’ll learn what environments work for you and what don’t. You’ll learn about different cultures, and you’ll grow in how you communicate. It’s an amazing experience of growth.”

How Nebraska helps make stories like this possible

Sarah’s story is uniquely hers—but it’s also deeply connected to the people of the Nebraska Synod.

Her willingness to serve is rooted in a congregation that:

• Invited children and youth to participate, not just watch
• Listened seriously to her questions and doubts
• Encouraged her gifts and named her leadership
• Supported her call when she said, “I think I want to do this”

Those simple practices—inviting, listening, encouraging, supporting—planted the seeds that now bear fruit in a church on the other side of the world.

As Sarah spends this year in Wolverhampton, the Nebraska Synod gives thanks for her courage, her service, and the congregations and families who helped her hear and trust God’s call.

To learn more about the ELCA’s Young Adults in Global Mission (YAGM) program, visit the ELCA website (https://www.elca.org/our-work/global-mission/young-adults-in-global-mission) or talk with your pastor about ways to support and encourage young adults in global service.