November 8 , 2005

Nine students and Campus Pastor Kent Kersey returned from a week of disaster relief ministry in New Orleans with resolve for more of the same.

Dec. 31 through Jan. 6 is the anticipated week for what leaders are calling New Orleans Phase 2. Spring break is a possibility for a third disaster relief missions trip.“A big question mark is what the need is going to be in two months,” Dr. Kersey said. “Driving to the airport we saw blocks and blocks, miles and miles of houses that were still in trouble.”

The Corban crew during five days of ministry in hurricane-ravaged New Orleans cleared downed trees and brush from at least 20 homes, hauled trash out of sheds and furniture out of homes. They also listened to people express their emotions at the multiple losses they were going through.

“They were incredibly hardworking,” Dr. Kersey said. “None of them slacked off when they could have. … And I think they grew in their sensitivity to people in distress.”

The Corban crew worked with First Baptist Church of Kenner, La., a suburb next to the New Orleans International Airport. They anticipate working in the devastated Ninth Ward of New Orleans proper during the Christmas break trip, which they toured one afternoon during the mid-October trip.

“The streets look like a dump,” said Freshman Cameron Curtis, who organized the first New Orleans mission trip and continues in that lead role. “Everything they’ve ever owned, everything they’ve ever had, is out there on the streets in front of their houses.

“All the sheetrock, all the flooring, every street you look at, it’s covered with garbage,” Curtis continued. “In really bad areas, an entire subdivision smells like a dump. All the vacant fields – any vacant thing in the city – has been converted to a dump.”
During the Oct. 15-21 disaster relief missions trip, the Corban students helped the church fulfill its desire to minister in practical ways to people in Kenner, Dr. Kersey said. The church identified people – often elderly and widowed – who needed help clearing their yards of trees that had been uprooted by Hurricane Katrina’s 145 miles-an-hour winds.

“It’s a lot of hard work,” said Freshman Jesse Hayes. “From using chain saws to carrying these tremendous pieces of wood that weigh more than I do, it’s the entire team working really hard.

“We’ve been able to pray with every single family we’ve worked with,” Hayes said. “A lot of them are Christians but we’ve been able to build them up and encourage them, show them that someone cares.”

Insurance coverage for most people was limited to the house, Dr. Kersey said. With entrepreneurial brush clearers charging perhaps $5,000 per house, the Corban crew saved homeowners perhaps more than $30,000.

Planning for the next disaster relief trip to New Orleans has already begun, Dr. Kersey said.

“There’s still a lot of question marks as to what the work will look like when we get there,” the campus pastor said. “We might do more of the same [chainsaw work] or maybe we’ll paint houses that have been remodeled. What we know for sure is that we accomplished our goal of partnering with a local church to make a practical difference in people’s lives, and that all the prayers protected us from serious injury. We’re very thankful.”

--By Karen L. Willoughby