A different type of disaster

A team deployed by LU Send Now was sent to Flint, Michigan from Feb. 27 to March 5 to volunteer during the ongoing water crisis.

Consisting of six members and headed by volunteers from the Liberty University Campus Pastors Office, the team partnered with the Southern Baptist Conservatives of Virginia and with the North American Mission Board (NAMB). The project had been in the works by LU Send for two weeks before the team’s departure.

Morgan Monasterio, administrative assistant at LU Send, said the Flint team’s mission has had no set parameters except to assist the NAMB in whatever ways needed. Assistance took the form of installing water filters in whatever homes needed them, ultimately purifying the water in as many people’s homes as possible.

“We’re very big on assisting our partners, so we typically just head out to the sites and do whatever’s needed,” Monasterio said. “We don’t really come up with the plans ourselves. We help the people who
are on the ground.”

The water crisis in Flint was mainly attributed to toxic levels of lead in the drinking water. Lead is a neurotoxin, which, according to the World Health Organization, can damage the nervous and reproductive systems and cause blood problems.

Jarrett is a news reporter.