October 3, 2005

Nine Corban students and campus pastor Kent Kersey have made arrangements to travel to New Orleans Oct. 15 to help with Hurricane Katrina relief.

They’ll be involved with shoveling putrid sludge, tearing out moldy sheetrock and pulling up rotting carpet at people’s homes in the vicinity of First Baptist Church of Kenner, La., near the New Orleans airport.

“This is the beginning of what Corban wants to do,” said Freshman Cameron Curtis, who was the first to organize what was a half-formed idea in many students’ minds. “We want this to be an ongoing relationship with one church. A lot of students are being left out but they will be able to go Christmas.”

There were only 10 seats available for travel Oct. 15 to New Orleans, Kersey said. Students participating include Matt Oakes, Michael Turner, April Livingstone, Cameron Curtis, Wendel Hayes, Jesse Hayes, Caitlin Lind, Sarah Heinz and Ryan Rasmussen.

The Corban students will travel with backpacks, so their luggage allocation can be given over to some of the more than 2,000 pounds of clothing students, staff and faculty donated last week to hurricane relief. They have pledged to do their classwork for the week they’re gone before they leave.

Other campus relief efforts included students calling 158 churches in the Salem area to suggest the churches sponsor a Katrina evacuee family.

“I’m excited to see the student leadership and passion from our Corban students about this national disaster,” Kersey said. “I’m very excited about being able to minister in one local church that has been hit by this storm, a church committed to ministering in its community.”

At least $13,000 is being sought in hurricane relief effort donations, to cover travel expenses, food, and supplies for the church and community, Curtis said.

That’s an estimate; that’s a goal,” the freshman said. “We don’t know exactly what we’ll be buying, but we can say for sure that 100 percent of the money is going to our travel, food for us and others staying at the church, and supplies for the church like pressure washers or whatever they need to help in hurricane relief efforts.”
For the first time in recent memory, a chapel service will include time for an offering; the proceeds on Oct. 10 will go to the relief effort.

“Our tight time table makes it necessary to make a direct appeal for giving,” the campus pastor said. “Giving is an expression of worship that can be manifested through a school community as well as through a church.”

Fund-raising projects include recycling pop cans – leave them at any dorm, putting change into cups on tables in the dining hall and bookstore, and bake sales, among others. Those off campus who would like to participate are encouraged to send checks to Corban College, with the notation “Katrina relief team’ in the lower left corner of the check.

The Hurricane Katrina Relief Team came together in three days, including approval from administration, Curtis said.
“It was a vision I had; I just really had a desire to go and help,” Curtis said. “I think a lot of times Christians can be lazy. They send their money and their prayers but don’t sacrifice their time. I was telling the Lord it wasn’t possible; I had school; I had academics.

“But the Lord told me he can make this happen,” the student continued. “I was reading the first chapter of Joshua for Biblical Survey, and just like Joshua, I was wanting to lead a team to a place I’d never been before. I got really excited but the Lord told me ‘Hold on; if it’s going to happen I’m going to do it.”

Students on the Hurricane Relief Team have agreed to get their classwork done before they leave for the five days they will be missing classes.

“Our desire is to work with the professors, not the professors work with us,” Curtis said. “We want not just the blessing of our school but the blessing of the students and the professorss. We fully respect the need to take the right academic steps. As students at Corban College our first commitment is academics and the second is reaching out to our community.”

Donations can be made to Corban College; please indicate “Katrina Relief Team” in the lower left-hand corner of the check.

--By Karen L. Willoughby