January 19, 2006
by Debbie Roberts and Steve Kinzie

ELGIN, IL – Six University of La Verne (ULV) students and four university staff members traveled to the Lake Charles area of Louisiana over the Thanksgiving break to help clean up debris and destruction left in the wake of Hurricane Rita. ULV is a Church of the Brethren school in La Verne, Calif.

Although it had been more than six weeks since the hurricane hit, communities were still struggling to recover from extensive damage. Much of the destruction inland resulted from uprooted trees falling into houses and buildings. In Cameron Parish, a tremendous storm surge did enormous damage t lakefront homes, killed animals, and pushed furniture, house siding, appliances, and large boats hundreds of feet onto the land.

We worked at a number of different sites. The first day we spent raking debris and recycling boards from a jumbled dock. After sharing in a wonderful Thanksgiving meal hosted by Lake Charles Community Church of the Brethren, on Friday we spent the morning cleaning up dozens of fallen trees in the acre behind an inland home. That afternoon we cleared debris from around the much damaged home of an elderly woman resident in Lake Charles. The last day, we cleared a massive tangle of fallen trees at the small home of a disabled couple. Their poverty and need was tremendous, and we were very touched by their suffering and graciousness.

This mixture of suffering and graciousness, in fact, met us at every turn. Even when people had very little to share they were generous with their food, smiles, and thanks. All of us returned sobered by the reality of the continuing hardships faced by the wonderful people we were blessed to meet and work with for even so short a time.

Many thanks to La Verne Church of the Brethren, ULV, and the wider La Verne community for their financial support in helping to make this experience possible.

The Church of the Brethren is a Christian denomination committed to continuing the work of Jesus peacefully and simply, and to living out its faith in community. The denomination is based in the Anabaptist and Pietist faith traditions and is one of the three Historic Peace Churches. It celebrates its 300th anniversary in 2008. It counts about 130,000 members across the United States and Puerto Rico, and has missions and sister churches in Brazil, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, and Nigeria.

Church of the Brethren Newsline
Debbie Roberts serves as campus minister and director of Peace Studies at the University of La Verne, and her husband, Steve Kinzie, is assistant director of the university's Learning Enhancement Center and an adjunct professor.