The COVID-19 pandemic has been a hard and challenging time for many. The students we work with, their families, our volunteer leaders, our schools and communities have all experienced losses, unexpected changes, and stress to varying degrees.
Young Life staff and leaders have felt it too. Over the past seven months, they’ve learned to be flexible, innovative, and patient, perhaps more than ever before.
For Jordan Palladino, Young Life College Coordinator at Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo, the suspension of in-person learning on college and university campuses last March changed things for college ministry.
Campus emptied out, students headed home, in-person gatherings were discouraged, people were isolating and worried. How does Young Life College go on when students aren’t around?
But not everyone had a place to go.
Jordan and his ministry partners soon learned of an urgent need among some students at WMU.
“Several students were still living on and around the WMU campus after the university shut down and the stay-at-home order was enacted. Many of them were international students who had nowhere else to go,” Jordan explained.
“Typically, these students have had on-campus jobs, but they were laid off with no income. Almost all of these students don’t have a car, and the buses were not running, making it very difficult to go anywhere. Since they are international, they didn’t qualify for governmental assistance and they were struggling to know where help was, let alone get there.”
The students remaining on campus had many needs. And before long, a WMU professor got to work organizing a free mobile food pantry, going to campus every day on his own to hand out food from the back of his car.
When Jordan and his team found out about this, they decided to partner with this professor to help the international students at WMU.
YL College and campus ministry partners at WMU serve at a mobile food pantry. 
YL College and campus ministry partners at WMU serve at a mobile food pantry. 
YL College and campus ministry partners at WMU serve at a mobile food pantry. 
YL College and campus ministry partners at WMU serve at a mobile food pantry. 
YL College and campus ministry partners at WMU serve at a mobile food pantry. 
20 or so campus ministry leaders gathered at the start of the semester for a prayer walk.
“We hosted additional mobile food pantries at various locations around Kalamazoo. As it grew, we also raised some funds to help students with a rent assistance program. We had awesome partnerships and donations from many organizations, businesses, nonprofits, and churches.”
Since the pandemic began, Jordan estimates that they hosted over 100 mobile food pantries, served over 5,000 students (this include duplicates), helped pay for over 400 months of rent and raised over $175,000.
“It was amazing to see God provide and the community rally around this project,” he shared.
Now that students are back and the campus is open, Young Life College is back too, engaging with students outdoors and in smaller groups for now.
“We are working on some new and exciting ways to connect with students,” shared Jordan. “It seems that the guidelines and restrictions are shifting every week, which is making it very difficult to plan. I have been joking that I am currently on plan G, as plans A-F have already been scrapped.”
For Young Life College at WMU, their focus this semester will be on small groups and individual discipleship.
“It will look different this year,” shared Jordan. “However, I do know that Young Life College is more important than ever. With how weird and challenging this year will be, students need to know that they are loved and known, now more than ever. I think this may be our most difficult, but important year on campus.”
Interested in learning more about Young Life College on the campus of Western Michigan University? Be sure to follow them on Facebook, Instagram, or check out their blog for ministry updates.
