Ouachita students have a chance to make a difference in areas affected by natural disasters. This semester the Elrod Center and a group of students have formed the OBU Disaster Relief Team.
Judy Duvall, assistant director of the Elrod Center, said one of the main reasons behind the team is that “in the South, we have hurricanes, floods and tornadoes. We’re affected by all of these.”
After Hurricane Katrina, a group of about 30 Ouachita students, faculty and staff members teamed up with the Red River Baptist Association’s team and went to Vinton, La., during fall break.
During the spring of 2006 the group went to Slidell, LA., about an hour from New Orleans and worked on a church.
According to Duvall, one of the most important things the group did was “give them hope for the future by the work that we did, by our actions and our words.”
Last spring, the Elrod Center helped a group of students go to Clinton, Ark., where they helped with tornado cleanup.
Ouachita student Andrew Yates said that going to Clinton is what got him interested in disaster relief.
“I realized how much work there was for volunteers,” Yates said, “and it was a lot of fun working.”
Yates and the Elrod Center decided to form a Ouachita disaster relief team to respond to disasters in our region.
Richard Adams said he joined the team because “serving someone who’s hurting is a good way to model Jesus’ compassion for others.”
The Elrod Center and the Arkansas Baptist Disaster Relief team held a training session at First Baptist Church, Arkadelphia a few weeks ago.
A group of about 30 Ouachitonians attended and were trained in either recovery — meaning that they can work with chainsaws — or with feeding units.
If you missed training, you can still volunteer, but will be unable to use certain types of equipment.
“We would love for anybody to join and go with us,” Duvall said.
Showing Christ’s love through actions is one of the main focuses of the team.
“I’m hopeful that our team will be able to demonstrate Christ’s love to these people who have been affected by these disasters,” Duvall said.
Most of the trips will not cost anything. The Dixie Jackson Arkansas Missions Offering and the Elrod Center cover the majority of the costs to go.
The disaster relief team is tentatively planning a trip during fall break. Other dates to volunteer will be Christmas break, spring break and possibly next summer.
Students and faculty interested in joining the disaster relief team can contact Judy Duvall at the Elrod Center, or check out the Facebook group, “OBU Disaster Relief Team.”
