Rebekah Allick is a standout student-athlete on the University of Nebraska Husker volleyball team, one of the best teams in the nation. The college junior converted to Catholicism while at UNL, and has given talks to high school and middle school students in the diocese about her faith journey.
Dennis Kellogg, director of communications for the Catholic Diocese of Lincoln, talked with her recently about her conversion story, her work with the I’ve Got A Name organization fighting sex trafficking in the state, and this season’s Husker volleyball team. What follows is an edited version of that conversation.
Dennis Kellogg, Southern Nebraska Register: When you came to the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, you were not Catholic, and shortly after being there, you did make the decision to become Catholic. What changed for you?
Rebekah Allick, Husker Volleyball Student-Athlete: Friends. I remember coming to the university, and I kind of had a fallout with a lot of friends in high school, and I just felt really disconnected... I ran into (the older sister of a former teammate) in the study hall area. She mentioned a Bible study. So I went, and I didn’t know it was a Catholic Bible study, but I thought it was my chance to finally make good Christian friends. And from that Bible study, I got connected with the missionaries and then it just kind of blew up from there, where I met other athletes that I already admired and respected and wanted to be friends with. And then I found out they were Christian. I found out they were Catholic.
And so I got pulled into this community... I always thought any type of conversion, or any type of reach out from God would always be the super profound, dramatic thing. But ironically, me converting to Catholicism, one of the biggest and greatest decisions I’ve ever made in my life, was actually in a very gentle way, and it was almost like it was always there. I just hadn’t discovered the full truth yet, until I became Catholic.
SNR: You’ve been very public about your Catholic faith and your conversion to the Catholic faith. You could have done this very quietly and kind of eased into it, but that’s not what you did. You’re out there talking to high school students. You’re delivering that message. Why? Why do you feel confident and comfortable doing that?
Allick: I feel like God just gave me a mouth that won’t shut up, if I’m being honest with you.
I just remember the way that He makes me feel, and how complete I feel, and how excited I am to live life, because I’ve also been on the negative side of it, where it’s like I was going through the wolves.... I didn’t have a community. I didn’t have balance. So, I would have really high highs and super low lows.
But I will say, in the super high highs, I was like, all over my Instagram, because I’m like, “God is amazing and He loves you.” I just wanted people to experience what I felt, because it’s very evident. I just want more people to do it with me, because I just think the world would be a better place if more people knew, because just one other person knowing that Jesus loves him and He’s real and He’s present, that’s enough to rock anyone’s world.
SNR: Even as a Husker student athlete, you still find time to volunteer for I’ve Got A Name, which is an organization that is determined to end sex trafficking in Nebraska. Why that effort? Why that cause for you?
Allick: I’d say it hits really close to home. I’d say I know plenty of women who have been affected… whether it was pedophiles or even ... grooming in their own household, or friends....
It’s just that type of innocence. It’s really hard to feel like it’s been restored, because obviously it never really is. But just that feeling of security and safety and worthiness is something that will take years to build, and some women will live their whole life never feeling like they will ever get it back.
It’s just one of those things that it’s so scary. And I would even use the word “dark” to talk about it because when you leave this conversation, all I ever think about is all the women that we don’t have home, all the children that we don’t have home. The hardest part is you hear about all the rescue stories, but I feel like for every one kid we bring home, it’s arguable that there’s like 100,000 other kids that are just being sold, transported and then used and left for dead.
That’s the hardest part... I’m aware of the platform that God gave me, and I know that awareness will hopefully help one guy put his phone down or one guy report it. That’s the other part of the I’ve Got A Name movement that I really found just amazing is they’ve had this men’s awareness part that it’s not just about, “OK women, how can we keep our head on a swivel? How can we try and protect our children?” It’s, “OK men, where can we take accountability? Why is it that we find ourselves wanting to engage with children in this way? Why do we see ourselves wanting to attack this type of innocence?”
I love that. They’re trying to attack all fronts of sex trafficking. I just found that really encouraging.
SNR: So we made it this far in the interview without talking about Husker volleyball. We have to talk a little bit about it. Tell me what you think about this team. How good can this team be?
Allick: I think we can be great. I think we can be super great. Losing last year really had me reflect on why I do what I do, and what I want to go through, what I went through last year with the exact same group. Would I do it all over again? And that’s what really I had to figure out. What am I doing? Is this what I was supposed to do because God obviously asked me back.
I felt like I never really viewed my teammates as people. And this goes from when I was as young as 11 years old, when I started playing the sport. I tend to just get so focused on the winning and the execution that I just missed out on the people that were next to me. And this just goes back to grace, viewing them as women with hobbies and interests. That can seem so simple, but to hyper-competitive athletes, that is such a foreign concept that your teammates actually have feelings....
If you watched our SMU game, we stumbled and we stumbled bad. But I think that honestly made us better and it made us stronger. We’ve had some real conversations, real honest conversations... I’m just excited, because I feel like we’re working so much harder, not only on volleyball, but also just on being good women with respect, honesty, perseverance, all of those qualities. And so when we do face adversity, like we did with SMU, we can overcome it. I’m really hopeful.
SNR: College is a time when you kind of discover yourself, when you learn and when you grow. So tell me what you hope Rebekah Allick, five, 10, 20 years from now looks like and how her Catholic faith is influencing that person.
Allick: I just hope I’m making Jesus proud.
If I’m being honest, I just feel like I have made so many mistakes, and even when I started talking with high-schoolers, it’s like I’ve made mistakes, and I tend to beat myself up so hard about it, and I think for me to talk about grace and moving on, that is one of my biggest things. I want to be able to be someone that people can look to and be like, “Hey, we’re just human.” I want to be someone that can not only just be a light, but more of an understanding that you’re going to stumble. That’s why we have confessionals. Just to be a believer in second chances and just continue to pursue them. I just want to make Him proud... It’s so easy to nitpick the little faults that the Church has faced and exploit it, because people, or the devil knows just how good it is, and he’s doing everything he can to try and hide it and cover it up.
And so that’s just my biggest thing, too, is also to bring people to the Catholic Church and realize just how homey it is, because I consider myself laid back when it comes to talking about and loving on Jesus and that’s how it is. It doesn’t have to be this giant, flashy light show when you go to church. Being in the pew, smelling the incense, being somewhere with structure and tradition is actually incredibly inviting and exciting.
Watch an extended interview with Rebekah Allick with more questions and answers on the Catholic Diocese of Lincoln YouTube channel.
