Will Imfeld is one of 12 Cedarville University students who volunteered to clear mud and debris from Florida homes wrecked by Hurricane Ian. It was a 15-hour drive from Ohio to Fort Myers, Florida.
“We’re all young. We love hanging out with each other and we were like, ‘hey, what better way to hang out with each other – and use our energy over break – than just serve other people that unfortunately have been affected horribly by this hurricane,’” shares Will.
When they arrived in the damage zone, it was eye-opening. “You just saw peoples’ whole lives on their front lawns, man, just 10-feet high by 10-feet deep on both sides of the road – peoples’ belongings just in their front yard because everything they had been ruined.”
The group connected with human aid organization Samaritan’s Purse to organize their service efforts. “Samaritan's Purse organized groups into teams and gave us assignments for service projects,” said fellow volunteer Chloe Metaxotos.
The group was sponsored by Cedarville University’s global outreach office, which provided the group with university-owned vans and funding for gas and food. “Global outreach took away the entire financial burden,” noted Metaxotos. “It’s super cool that I go to a school that makes service easy and possible for all students.”
Will describes some of the hard work they did. “We tore out drywall and insulation and essentially anything that had been touched by the water because mold had started to set in.”
The students were able to clear out four homes in all, spreading the love of Christ as they went. The group even went so far as to present each family they encountered with new Bibles, including one couple that had lost theirs in the storm.
Will witnessed a lot of human emotions going on. “Homeowners would be breaking down and crying and you’d see team members praying with them and talking with them. That was awesome!” And he stressed a point that the team didn’t see this as some major sacrifice, rather it was something natural a Christian would do to help others.
On the drive back home, there were conversations about letting this project just be the beginning of more ways to help people and share faith. “So, a lot of our conversations were geared towards, ‘how can we do that more in our hometowns and back at our school?’”
Hear about the 'road trip for God' in our complete podcast interview, just below.
The Student Volunteer Team
Seniors Chloe Metaxotos from Merrimack, New Hampshire; Eli Wicker from New Market, Tennessee; Will Imfeld from Danville, Kentucky; Jonah Lynch from Clermont, Florida; Zach Forehand from Chichester, New Hampshire; Ethan Kelly from Plainfield, Illinois; Caleb Stechschulte from Delaware, Ohio; Micah Spaulding from Willow Grove, Pennsylvania; Evan Lyon from Lititz, Pennsylvania; Braden Whitehead from Brownsburg, Indiana; and Lindsay Murch from Nashua, New Hampshire and junior Sydney Mason from Heath, Ohio.
