wfn.org | University group spends holiday doing disaster work

[COBNews@aol.com]

Date: Jan. 19, 2006
Contact: Cheryl Brumbaugh-Cayford
V: 847/742-5100  F: 847/742-6103
E-MAIL: _CoBNews@AOL.Com_ (mailto:CoBNews@AOL.Com) 
 
UNIVERSITY OF LA VERNE GROUP SPENDS THANKSGIVING DOING DISASTER RELIEF	WORK
 
by Debbie Roberts and Steve Kinzie
 
Jan. 19, 2006 (Elgin, IL) --  Six University of La Verne (ULV)	students and 
four university staff members traveled to the Lake Charles area of  Louisiana

over the Thanksgiving break to help clean up debris and destruction  left in 
the wake of Hurricane Rita. ULV is a Church of the Brethren school in La  
Verne, Calif.
 
Although it had been more than six weeks since the hurricane hit,  
communities were still struggling to recover from extensive damage. Much of
the  
destruction inland resulted from uprooted trees falling into houses and 
buildings. 
In Cameron Parish, a tremendous storm surge did enormous damage t  lakefront 
homes, killed animals, and pushed furniture, house siding, appliances,	and 
large boats hundreds of feet onto the land.
 
We worked at a number of different sites. The first day we spent raking  
debris and recycling boards from a jumbled dock. After sharing in a wonderful
 
Thanksgiving meal hosted by Lake Charles Community Church of the Brethren, on
 
Friday we spent the morning cleaning up dozens of fallen trees in the acre  
behind an inland home. That afternoon we cleared debris from around the much 

damaged home of an elderly woman resident in Lake Charles. The last day, we  
cleared a massive tangle of fallen trees at the small home of a disabled
couple.  
Their poverty and need was tremendous, and we were very touched by their  
suffering and graciousness.
 
This mixture of suffering and graciousness, in fact, met us at every turn.  
Even when people had very little to share they were generous with their food,
 
smiles, and thanks. All of us returned sobered by the reality of the 
continuing  hardships faced by the wonderful people we were blessed to meet
and work 
with  for even so short a time. 
 
Many thanks to La Verne Church of the Brethren, ULV, and the wider La Verne  
community for their financial support in helping to make this experience  
possible.
 
The Church of the Brethren is a Christian denomination committed to  
continuing the work of Jesus peacefully and simply, and to living out its
faith  in 
community. The denomination is based in the Anabaptist and Pietist faith  
traditions and is one of the three Historic Peace Churches. It celebrates its
 300th 
anniversary in 2008. It counts about 130,000 members across the United	
States and Puerto Rico, and has missions and sister churches in Brazil, the  
Dominican Republic, Haiti, and Nigeria.
 
--Debbie Roberts serves as campus minister and director of Peace Studies at  
the University of La Verne, and her husband, Steve Kinzie, is assistant 
director  of the university's Learning Enhancement Center and an adjunct
professor. 
 
# # #
 
For more information contact:
 
Cheryl Brumbaugh-Cayford
Director of News Services
Church of the  Brethren General Board
1451 Dundee Ave.
Elgin, IL 60120
847-742-5100  ext. 260
_cbrumbaugh-cayford_gb@brethren.org_ 
(mailto:cbrumbaugh-cayford_gb@brethren.org) 
 
*****************************************************************
The  Church of the Brethren Newsline is produced by Cheryl Brumbaugh-Cayford,

 director of news services for the Church of the Brethren General Board. 
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