Faith takes Mukwonago woman overseas

Posted: Feb. 2, 2012

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VISION TRIP - UW-LaCrosse student Noel Albiniak holds an infant during a vision trip to Ghana with Campus Crusade for Christ.

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VISION TRIP - UW-LaCrosse student Noel Albiniak holds an infant during a vision trip to Ghana with Campus Crusade for Christ.

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Faith was a driving force in Noel Albiniak's life as she made her way through Mukwonago High School (MHS) and participated in the school's Fellowship of Christian Athletes group. So when graduation came in 2009 and Albiniak enrolled in classes at the University of Wisconsin-LaCrosse, her mom asked her, "Is there another outlet to keep your faith going?" That's when Albiniak found a world of friendship, love and faith through UW-La Crosse's Campus Crusade for Christ (CRU) group.

A campus crusade

CRU offers college students the chance to practice their faith, spread the word of Jesus and see the world by participating in "vision trips," which is what took Albiniak to Ghana last month. During the trips, students travel to other universities whose CRU group needs assistance in some way. So from Jan. 2-12, Albaniak and 13 other UW-La Crosse students traveled to Kumasi, Ghana, to aid the school in hopes of getting more students involved in CRU.

"Our goal was to give them a larger student base for this semester," Albiniak explained.

Albiniak and her colleagues went from dorm room to dorm room asking students if they would be willing to talk.

"We got to know them a little bit," Albiniak said, and then "We could ask if they knew who Jesus was, and that he died for them to remove their sins and give them eternal life if they accept him as their personal savior."

The La Crosse students shared a book called "Knowing God Personally" with the Ghanaian students and talked with them about God.

In the hopes of reaching a wider audience, CRU members presented "The Jesus Film" to the villagers, which had been translated into their native language of Twi.

"At the end of the film, the children whom were so excited for us to hold them, play with them and love them for the duration of the film invited their parents to pray and accept Christ as their savior, and many did," Albaniak said. "It was so amazing to be a part of."

CRU members were also able to visit an orphanage where about 200 children are housed, fed and educated about the gospel.

"It was beautiful to see the family that they had developed there, despite not having the born family with them," Albaniak said.

Life changing

"It was a really enlightening experience," Albaniak said of her trip.

Ghana turned out to be a mix of scenery for Albaniak. She found that many people in villages outside of Kumasi walked instead of drove, carried heavy loads on their heads, and had babies slung in a cloth on their back.

"You could see the areas that had a lot of poverty," just by the way they dressed, she said.

At the same time, just a few miles away, the city was sprawling with modern technology and fashionable people.

The moment Albaniak said she will never forget came one evening in a little village. CRU members asked to speak with the Nana, the name for someone high in power akin to a queen, to ask permission to share the word of God with the villagers. Out in the open evening air in front of a glowing camp fire, the Nana told the students "I can't refuse the Lord." As they sat and spoke with each other through a translator, Albaniak recalls looking up into the sky and seeing the bright glowing moon. She then realized the significance of the moment she was in.

"I was beyond myself," she said.

"It was an amazing and life-changing experience to see these people halfway across the world with the same commonality that we love and want to share our news about the Lord," Albaniak said.