Messiah College's Community Response to Hurricane Katrina
A Message from President Kim S. Phipps

September 2, 2005

This week, our nation experienced a devastating natural disaster in the form of Hurricane Katrina—a tragedy that has left so many lives in havoc and loss. On behalf of the Messiah College community, I want to express our deep sense of sympathy and compassion for the victims of this terrible storm and its crushing aftermath, especially to those who have lost loved ones, their homes, and their communities.

We continue to pray for God’s grace, love, and provision for the residents of those ravaged areas, including Messiah’s alumni, friends, students, employees, and their families who are from the Gulf states region. As a campus community, we are committed to doing all that we can to support and provide relief for those who have been affected. We also pray for sustenance and protection for those who are working courageously to provide the massive, ongoing rescue, evacuation, and humanitarian efforts.

In past days, we have all seen the images of the anguish, desolation, and despair in the city of New Orleans and the surrounding region. This week in Messiah’s Convocation ceremony, Dean Joseph Jones eloquently reminded us of our call as Christians to serve our neighbors. As a Christian community, we are called to model Christ’s love in practical and tangible ways to those in need—and to shine God’s light in the places and in the hours that seem the darkest.

To that end, there are several ways that those of us in the Messiah community can help. I have asked Greg Anderson, the interim director of the Agapé Center, to serve as the point person for our communal response, working in collaboration with the Mennonite Disaster Service. I would like to thank all of you who generously gave to the offering taken in chapel this week for the hurricane relief efforts, and next week, the Agapé Center will continue to facilitate donations for that purpose. Cash donations should be made in person at the Center, and checks, made payable to “Mennonite Disaster Service,” may be mailed or delivered to Greg’s attention at the Agapé Center.

Greg is providing leadership to a campus steering committee, comprised of educators, students, and employees, that is coordinating the College’s ongoing response and relief efforts. Next week, this committee will send out more detailed information regarding Messiah’s organized opportunities for prayer and for providing additional means of financial support, educational awareness, and service. If you have questions about involvement, or suggestions for other relief efforts, please contact Greg Anderson at ext. 7235 or at GAnderso@messiah.edu.

In the midst of this adversity, we are reminded by Mother Theresa that:
“This is God’s wish for us, to serve through love in action, and to be inspired by the Holy Spirit to act when called.”

As a faithful Christian community, may we respond as called to continue to sacrifice and pray for those whose lives have been so instantly disrupted by the hardship of this terrible tragedy.

Kim S. Phipps
President