Church mission helps with Sandy cleanup

Last Updated on Wednesday, December 26, 2012 01:52 pm Written by Jacob Schaad Jr. Wednesday, December 26, 2012 05:00 pm

LOWER TOWNSHIP—Thirty-five college students from the mid-west are back home today after a Christian mission that took them to, among other area places, a Civil War cemetery in Lower Township and under the boardwalk in Wildwood.

The students at Olivet Nazarene University in Bourbonnais, Ill. spent a week as the volunteer working guests of Lower Township’s 100-year-old Seashore Community Church of the Nazaene. Their mission was to help the victims of Hurricane Sandy.

When the news of the disaster reached the university the national head of the church’s disaster relief committee sent out a call for volunteers. Students responded by loading into three mini-buses and traveling 16 hours without an overnight stay to the Erma Holiness Camp, which is supported by area churches and is situated just a short distance from the Nazarene Church on Seashore Road.

They helped in the cleanup processes in houses in Wildwood and Atlantic City and traveled to the Lakehurst area where they provided food packages for survivors at a tent city.

At the local Civil War cemetery they mowed the grass and removed trees and branches that cluttered the historic site. Last Thursday, they spent the day under the boardwalk in the Wildwoods, removing debris that had accumulated there from the storm.

For some it was the first time they had seen the ocean.

Their arrival contrasted to the grim news of last week’s massacre in Connecticut.

“It was good to see and hear the good news that our young people made when all that bad news was being shown on television,” said the Rev. Dr. Charles Gates, pastor of the local church.

The students included those studying to be doctors, biologists, businesspeople and clergy. Seven were daughters and sons of ministers.

They began their return home on Friday, stopping to see the historic sites in Philadelphia en route.