This article is part of a special series, “Just the Right Time,” featuring some of our outstanding Adult Learners.
Note: The average age of graduates in the Class of 2024 is 35. About 83 percent of the Class of 2024 — over 24,000 graduates — earned their degrees through Liberty University Online Programs. As an innovator in distance learning for 40 years, Liberty has a longstanding tradition of serving working professionals, veterans and service members, parents, and grandparents. It’s why Liberty remains one of the country’s largest online education providers.
It took her two days to travel from her home in the Middle East, but when Liberty University graduate Sarah Nowery stepped on campus for the first time at Commencement, she said it felt like coming home.
Nowery celebrated her Ed.D. in Community Care & Counseling with a cognate in traumatology, a degree she is already putting to use in her role with the international relief organization Samaritan’s Purse in an undisclosed location in the Middle East. She and her husband, Matthew (’12), have served with Samaritan’s Purse for nearly 20 years. Their past work in crisis response has taken them to Ethiopia, Sudan, and Northern Iraq. They have aided those who have endured incredible trauma, from survivors of the Kurdish genocide at the hands of Saddam Hussein, to victims of ISIS jihadists who carried out brutal attacks on Yazidis, Christians, and Muslims. Using Samaritan’s Purse’s DART (Disaster Assistance Response Team) training, which Sarah helped develop and implement in earlier roles with the organization, she is bringing healing to families and communities.
“When we started walking more long term with these communities that have been through so many difficult things in the last 15 years or so, I just started to see a real need for not just shelter and food but to sit down and get to know them, heart to heart, and hear the things that they had gone through,” Sarah said. More workers have joined their efforts, including over 30 expats from multiple countries and over 200 staff who are native to the region. When they work in communities devastated by violence, Sarah said “they’ll come out of it and their hearts are so heavy, asking why God allows suffering like this and what do I do?”
Her compassion for the families affected by unimaginable tragedies and for her teammates caring for them led Sarah to seek training beyond her background in emergency and disaster administration — and to Liberty University Online Programs.
“I happen to really enjoy learning, but I also realized that I need more tools in my toolbox, and I needed to further my education. I knew I wanted to get a doctorate, and I just didn’t find anything available at other schools, so I started to pray … and I came across the community care & counseling program at Liberty. You could not have scripted a more accurate description (than the program’s) of what it was that I wanted to do to walk with our team and other organizations that are serving in these hard places and equip them with the skills that they need to take care of themselves but also take care of those they’re serving and loving.”
“I didn’t want to go back to school just for my sake,” she added. “I wanted this to be something that would really impact and strengthen and encourage the hearts and minds and faith of those we are serving.”
She enrolled in 2020 and quickly learned that Liberty’s online program was a great fit for her lifestyle overseas.
“I was really grateful that I could find a program that wasn’t going to ask me to step away from the ministry that God had me in. We have three young kids, so I needed something that would allow me to balance that while at the same time not sacrificing the quality of education.”
She also quickly gained high respect for her professors.
“I was so impressed with the depth and breadth that they all have. In most areas of research and study, my professors were going out to speak at different conferences. They’re on the cutting edge of some of the things that are happening. That can be a difficult combination to find (in a professor) sometimes. You have these professors who are so studied and so well respected within the field but then are also able to connect with students as far as our faith goes and what our calling is: to go out into the world. It was a really unique and special combination.”
The professors accommodated her from different time zones and during the times when she had to relocate due to security concerns.
She said her courses began paying off in real time.
“Everything that I was learning was almost immediately applicable; I was able to take and learn and fine tune what I was getting in the classroom online and then turn around and begin to implement it for our organization and several other organizations. The things that I learned, especially grounded in biblical principles and understanding, have been very helpful and encouraging to our team as well, as they ask these big questions and look for ways to continue to draw near to the Lord and find strength from Him in the face of just tremendous suffering.”
Sarah praises God for the way He is restoring lives and bringing them to Him in the Middle East: “The amazing thing is that God created us and He knows us, and when we go through things like this, He knows what will heal us. When we can draw near to Him in the correct ways, we can find healing and find the strength that we need to keep going and to keep loving.”
God has used her as a Champion for Christ to shine the light that can overcome the darkest evils of this world.
“You can walk through some of these communities and see the difference that has been made,” she said. “We get so many amazing impact stories. People are able to find hope again, and that’s a beautiful, beautiful thing that we get to be a witness to.”
