Flood victims receive relief
LU Send Now provides team to help Orange County, Texas flood victims
Earlier this month, students and faculty of Liberty University offered their time and energy to provide disaster relief to the people of Orange County, Texas where many had lost their homes and all of their belongings.
Though 12 people went on the trip, some of them previously did not even know that there was any sort of disaster happening in that area of the country.
Work — Liberty students cleared out damaged homes. Photo credit: Brian Johnson
Near the border of Louisiana and about 100 miles east of Houston, roads and homes continue to flood as emergency personnel try to assess the ongoing situation.
Samaritan’s Purse, whom LU Send Now partnered with on the trip, continues to work in the area by offering assistance and disaster relief to whoever is in need.
“Honestly, it was heartbreaking,” Austin Jones, a team member, said.
“You could tell the homeowners would try to be strong and act like it wasn’t bothering them, but you really were throwing away everything that they had. It was stuff like pictures that they couldn’t keep just because it had too much water damage.”
With hundreds displaced from the floods, the LU Send Now team had the opportunity to serve at three different houses and do demolition work by tearing up flooring and parts of the walls of the homes, as well as throwing away the personal items of the people who had lost their homes.
Kelsey Baker, a team leader on the trip, described her experience on this trip as one she is thankful she did not miss. After serving on another LU Send Now trip to Mississippi earlier this semester, she explained this trip was different because of the effect it had on her in the midst of a season in her life that she describes as “restoration.”
Close to home — Liberty students like junior Courtney Sullivan come from neighborhoods that were flooded. Photo credit: Jonathan Gray
“I feel like Texas was another piece in that healing process for me personally,” Baker said. “(I was) reminded of the world beyond Liberty … to see hurting people, to see the lost and to see the Lord’s provision and to see how much he chases after people. Then for me as a believer, (I was able to be) intentional with never wasting an opportunity to share Christ with others.”
Jones explained there were moments when members of the team would take a break from demolition work to sit and hear the stories of the people whose homes they were working on as well as share their personal faith in Jesus Christ with them.
“We live in a society now where we are all trying to make ourselves look good, but I didn’t go there to represent Austin Jones or Liberty University or Samaritan’s Purse,” Jones said. “We all actually went there to represent the body of Christ.”
When Jones received the phone call asking him if he would be willing to go, he initially thought that it was a prank.
They called him on April Fool’s Day, and the team served in Texas April 5-11.
When Jones realized it was not a joke, he jumped at the opportunity to go and serve.
Though initially weary of taking another week off of work to go, Baker explained that she is so thankful that she decided to go because of how she saw God work through her teammates, the people they served, as well as in her own life.
However, Baker knows that just because the team is back from their trip, Samaritan’s Purse and the people of Texas still need people to come help.
“They need more volunteers,” Baker said. “If you know anyone in Texas or you and a group of friends could take a few days and drive down, once you’re there, Samaritan’s Purse will have housing for you in a church…and they provide all your meals. Anyone can help. You just go to samaritanspurse.org and fill out the volunteer form.”
pierce is a news reporter.