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LU staff member recounts Mexico earthquake relief trip to native country

While many Liberty University students enjoyed time off for Fall Break last week, a team of 10 students and two staff members were moving brick and concrete in Morelos, Mexico, where residents are recovering from a devastating 7.1 magnitude earthquake. The quake affected Mexico City, the nation’s capital, and the Mexican states of Morelos and Puebla. It killed 359 people and toppled structures across the region.

The group was part of LU Send Now, the university’s disaster relief initiative. This trip marked the third LU Send Now trip this semester and the first time since the initiative launched in 2015 that students have aided in earthquake relief.

For team leader and LU Shepherd (which is part of Liberty’s Office of Spiritual Development) Carla Nava, the trip was personal. Nava grew up in Mexico City. Though her family still lives there, they were not harmed during the earthquake.

“As a Mexican, I was really hurting because these were fellow Mexicans who were hurting,” Nava said when she first heard that the earthquake struck her country. “It was really hard.”

She shared her concern with Vice President of Spiritual Development Josh Rutledge, who asked her if she wanted to go home and take a team of students with her to help.

“I said, ‘Yes, I’ll take a team. I’ll take anyone,’” she said.

The group flew to Mexico on Sept. 29 for a weeklong trip, where they partnered with The Rawlings Foundation and Impact Youth Worldwide. The group stayed at Camp Tierra Alta, an hour outside of Mexico City, which hosted other disaster relief teams as well as displaced residents.

While there, the team worked with local churches to help clear debris.

“In Mexico City, the infrastructure is completely different because they have well-built buildings,” she said. “Where we were (in Morelos), it was just concrete and brick rubble. All we had to move it with were shovels and buckets.”

Though the team worked long hours doing intense physical work, Nava said she was encouraged by the students’ attitudes throughout the week and their hearts to serve the people of Mexico. When an older couple asked them to help clear debris from their home, the team got right to work.

“We had spent all day clearing other homes,” Nava said. “When we got to this couple’s home, it was just a pile of concrete. It was in a narrow alleyway and no machinery could get down there to help clear it.”

Despite the long day, Nava said it was obvious that the Lord strengthened the team to complete the work. At the end, they prayed with the couple.

“The couple was crying, the students were crying, and it was clear to see that the Lord was moving,” Nava said. “The entire week was like that. There was another woman who ran up to us and asked to take a picture so she could remember what the Lord had done.”

Nava said it was a blessing to be able to go back to Mexico to encourage fellow Mexicans.

“I was able to say, as a Mexican, that my boss at Liberty saw me hurting and wanted to send me with people to help,” she said. “That is the point of LU Send Now. They see a need and respond. For me, they saw that I wanted to help my people and supported me.”

Though there is still a lot of work that needs to be done in Mexico, Nava said the trip was a chance to plant seeds and to see the Lord continue to work there.

“This is only the beginning (of recovery efforts),” she said. “But, if we were able to ease the burden for some of those families, then it’s a start.”

Earlier in the semester, LU Send Now partnered with Samaritan’s Purse to send teams to Victoria, Texas, and the Caribbean islands of Antigua and Barbuda to help with relief efforts following two deadly hurricanes.

Earlier this week in Campus Community, a weekly gathering for worship and spiritual growth for Liberty students, a special offering was collected to aid with relief efforts in Puerto Rico, as well assist the survivors of the Las Vegas shooting.

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