TWU students continue to give to Katrina victims

Posted by admin on Mar 10, 2010 in News | 0 comments

This past reading break nine Trinity Western University students went on a missions trip to New Orleans to assist with the massive damage caused by Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

Since Katrina hit New Orleans in 2005, TWU students have gone back for the past five years to work with people who still are badly affected by it.
Connecting with Urban Impact, Castle Rock Community Church, and crisis ministry teams in the inner city of New Orleans, the team was able to work alongside several families.

One significant story the group experience was helping an elderly woman who lost everything during the Hurricane Katrina flood. The TWU team painted her entire home and also helped fundraise for her floor to be replaced. For the elderly woman, she believed “this whole house has been built on a blessing and
through prayer.”

Working in a variety of homes throughout the week, the team was able to paint the entrance to the new Urban Impact staff housing, help at a church in Slidell, Louisiana, finish the corridors and fix up the dormitories, and pray with families.

“Meeting [families] was an awesome experience,” said TWU student Katie Ney. “We finally got to see who we were working for and they got to meet us. We got to see that we were making a difference to at least one family.”

Finishing their experience with a family prayer, the team was excited, but ready to come home. “Once again TWU has lived up to our expectations of compassion and good spirit,” said Bill Richards, Urban Impact Crisis Response contractor, who has worked with Trinity teams in the past. “I am proud of [them] for [their] attitude and compassion.”

Getting to help the Hurricane Katrina victims was what the TWU New Orleans team gave. What they received was something different.
“We got to see God’s mission working in little ways, not just in big ways,” said students Courtney Doerkson and Kathleen Glasgow. “It was great seeing the spiritual influence that our group had when meeting the families in the houses that we were working on in New Orleans.”