Students give hope and help to Florida families after Hurricane Michael

Though Hurricane Michael struck the Florida coast more than a month ago, the devastation was still very apparent in Wewahitchka, Fla., where a team of 21 Liberty University students and staff members recently worked alongside Samaritan’s Purse to help with relief efforts.

“It was eye opening,” said team leader Hannah Jones, a resident director at Liberty. “The locals told us that some of the roads had just opened up about a week before we got there.”

Jones was one of two leaders assigned to the trip, which was coordinated by LU Send Now, the university’s disaster relief initiative.

“I was asked a week before we deployed if I wanted to go,” Jones said. “I said yes, and it was worth it. I think it’s incredibly rare for a university to encourage its students and staff to take part in a humanitarian trip and not to worry about missing work or class.”

When the team arrived last week, they broke off into two groups where they helped four families completely gut their homes in order to jumpstart the rebuilding process.

Wewahitchka is a small town located on the Chipola River about 25 miles east of Panama City. Many homes in the town were damaged during the Category 4 storm, which was recorded as the strongest storm of the hurricane season was responsible for 60 deaths.

While in Wewahitchka, Jones said her group made a personal connection with one  homeowner, Dan, whose home had extensive wind damage and flooding.

“You could see that he was just devastated,” she said. “We didn’t know what to do, but each day we encouraged him, and by the end of the week he was a different man.”

Senior Megan Grant said as they worked on Dan’s home, they learned a little more of his story. A retired fisherman, he had settled in Florida with his wife.

“He ended up sending his wife to Tampa because the damage was so bad,” Grant said.

At the end of the week, the team prayed with Dan and presented him with a Bible, a tradition for Samaritan’s Purse workers after completing a job.

“He asked us to pray with him and for his wife,” Jones said. “Though we didn’t lead him to salvation, I did see him crack open the Bible and begin reading it as we left.”

Grant said it was apparent that the team had left an impact on him.

“He said seeing us, as millennials, wanting to help others really helped restore his hope in society,” Grant said. “He asked us to pray that his wife would also have that same hope.”

The group also met residents Jim and Jess, who are Christians. Jess worked for the local government in the utilities department.

“People were calling her and asking her when crews would be through to help or when their electricity would be on,” Grant said. “What the callers didn’t know is that Jess was living in her own backyard in a small camper because of the devastation to their home. It was hard for her.”

Grant said the trip changed her perspective.

“They’re saying that the beach may never look the same and there’s still so much work that needs to be done,” she said. “I wish I had gone on an LU Send Now trip sooner. I’m graduating in May, but this trip stirred the pot for me, and realized that I want to do more of this.”

Liberty also dispatched a chaplaincy team to Albany, Ga., with the Billy Graham Rapid Response Team in late October to care for residents affected by Hurricane Michael.

Several teams have also been deployed this semester to the Carolinas to aid in hurricane relief and to California to assist wildfire victims.