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Liberty University students Micah Green and Hannah Lankford asset with cleanup and rebuilding.
Faith & Service

Ready and Willing

May 31, 2016

During the spring semester, Liberty University students responded to calamities at a moment’s notice, serving those in need through the LU Send Now disaster relief program.

Liberty student Spencer Gravely worked with refugee children in Greece.

Liberty student Spencer Gravely worked with refugee children in Greece.

In February, a team of six students and three group leaders traveled to Greece on the program’s first international trip. The team worked at a holding camp where refugees displaced by the Syrian civil war and other conflicts within the Middle East were trying to cross the Macedonian border in search of a better life in Germany and other countries in the European Union. Students witnessed refugees arriving every day. Liberty’s team partnered with a variety of relief organizations, handing out bags to refugees to hold their belongings, assisting with crowd control, playing games with the children, sorting through trailers of donated clothes, and talking with the refugees about their journeys.

People who are displaced are often searching and questioning in a lot of ways,” said Anna Strickland, LU Send director and team leader of the Greece trip. “To come alongside them when they are hurting and are not able to process what they have been through is really critical. I think it was a special opportunity for us as believers to show God’s love in a tangible way. We were able to bear a little bit of their sorrow with them and rejoice with them in the hope that is ahead.”

Less than one week after the Greece team returned, the LU Send Now office was mobilizing more students to help after a disaster much closer to home. In the wake of a tornado near Appomattox, Va. (about 30 minutes from campus), Liberty partnered with the Southern Baptist Conservatives (SBC) of Virginia to send over 160 students to the affected area. Students distributed food, nailed tarps over stripped roofs, and assisted residents as they sorted and salvaged belongings.
In March, another team of Liberty students responded to the water crisis in Flint, Mich., where thousands of residents have been exposed to toxic amounts of lead in the city’s water system. The crisis has garnered national media attention, and President Barack Obama declared a state of emergency in January.

Junior Daniel Trotter delivers water to a resident of Flint, Mich.

Junior Daniel Trotter delivers water to a resident of Flint, Mich.

The team of six students and three leaders spent a week in Flint, working alongside the SBC and the North American Mission Board. Liberty students installed 200 water filters on kitchen faucets and handed out 3,000 cases of bottled water.

Richard Spach, who has lived in Flint for 72 years, said that the water crisis created a panic in his community.
“Having the Liberty students here meant a lot,” he said. “It helped fill the need for volunteers to go out and minister to the community. It shows (Flint residents) that others really do care about what is going on.” (Watch news videos documenting the team’s work at Liberty.edu/Flint).

In April, a team of 10 students and two leaders went to Orange County, Texas, where they partnered with Samaritan’s Purse to help residents whose homes were destroyed in floods.

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