Staff and students of InterVarsity Christian Fellowship have joined in prayer for the Gulfcoast area victims of Hurricane Katrina, and are responding to the many opportunities for ministry. Among those affected by the hurricane damage are the staff and students of New Orleans area colleges.
The American Council on Education reports 75,000-100,000 students were enrolled in the 30 New Orleans area colleges. Many of these students have been able to make an emergency transfer to an alternative college for their fall semester.
InterVarsity is involved in ministry on the campuses of the University of New Orleans, and Tulane University. The Chronicle of Higher Education reports that UNO has set up temporary headquarters in other Louisiana State University System facilities in Baton Rouge. The headquarters of Tulane University have temporarily moved to Houston.
InterVarsity’s New Orleans Campus Staff Member Myron Crockett is temporarily relocating to Baton Rouge to begin re-establishing his ministry to students. For several days Myron and students from the Tulane University chapter helped with the relief effort at Interfaith Fellowship Church in New Iberia, about two hours west of New Orleans. Church pastor Zack Mitchell, the father of one of the chapter members, is coordinating relief distribution for the Iberia Parish.
After people are provided space in a shelter, helping them reconnect with relatives is the next priority. Myron says the church has two computers that are connected to online forms and blog sites that are helping people re-establish contact with their loved ones.
Nurses involved with Nurses Christian Fellowship are at work in clinics and shelters, and churches that have been pressed into service as shelters, caring for hurricane victims. Amanda, an NCF student leader at LSU in New Orleans, was evacuated to Baton Rouge and now is volunteering among refugees there. Ana, NCF alumni living in Baton Rouge, and others from her church are going around to hotels and shelters to feed people.
Students on campuses across the country are not only praying but sending support to hurricane victims. For instance, the Reno Gazette Journal reports University of Nevada-Reno students are involved with a benefit concert and a car wash to raise money to send to victims. UNR’s InterVarsity chapter is coordinating a “Time of Reflection” in the student union which offers “a place where students, faculty, staff and community members can find spiritual healing.” The Daily Tar Heel reports InterVarsity students have joined with other student organizations on the University of North Carolina campus to raise $50,000 for hurricane relief.
We invite you to track the disaster response through the urbana.org weblog, Of Christ and Katrina. Jon Stone, a Campus Staff Member at Michigan Tech, has driven a truck to the Gulf Coast Area filled with relief supplies collected by InterVarsity students in Michigan, Wisconsin and Indiana, and a church in Tennessee.
Louisiana governor Kathleen Blanco has asked for prayer. “As we face the devastation wrought by Katrina, as we search for those in need, as we comfort those in pain and as we begin the long task of rebuilding, we turn to God for strength, hope and comfort…Pray for the victims and the rescuers. Please pray that God give us all the physical and spiritual strength to work through this crisis and rebuild,” she said in a statement. President George W. Bush has declared Friday, September 16th, as a National Day of Prayer and Remembrance.
If you would like to help with disaster response, visit these ministry sites:
Salvation Army
International Aid
World Relief
World Vision
Habitat for Humanity
You can also donate to InterVarsity’s ministry to college students in the affected areas by going to: https://www.intervarsity.org/donate/
Photo: Petty Officer 2nd Class Shawn Beaty looks for survivors of Hurricane Katrina as he flies over New Orleans in a Coast Guard rescue helicopter. Photo by Petty Officer 2nd Class NyxoLyno Cangemi/U.S. Coast Guard via Baptist Press.
