Peter Brandt received a Twitter message on the evening of January 12 relaying the news of a powerful earthquake that had rocked Haiti.

The natural disaster initially did not cause any great concern. After all, Haiti seemed a world away from his busy universe of business classes, library research, and student government meetings at Cedarville University.

“I figured there would be some issues because of the current state of Haiti's economic situation and lack of infrastructure,” said Brandt, a senior who serves as president of the Student Government Association. “Even so, I was shocked when I started hearing the statistics a while later. I expected serious damage, but not to such a huge degree.”

As the magnitude of the crisis played out on television screens across campus, students at the Baptist school in southern Ohio began discussing what they could do to make a difference—despite being 1,600 miles away from the quake’s epicenter.

“It became pretty clear that the only immediate help we could provide was prayer and financial support,” Brandt said. “We spent the next few days pulling other campus groups together and organizing one major week of fundraising.”

Students quickly mobilized to help, and more than two dozen university organizations planned fundraisers and held prayer gatherings. A day of fasting was also encouraged in which students donated money that they would normally spend on meals.

On January 29, students capped off the fund-raising week when they gathered for a time of prayer and to hold a special offering for Samaritan’s Purse Haiti relief during their morning chapel service. With the $16,000 collected at the service, the total funds raised by students, family members, faculty, and staff surpassed $20,000.

“I have many friends who have given sacrificially,” said Clara Gebert, a senior International Studies major who grew up as a missionary kid overseas. “I overheard a student tell another they were going to skip going to Mongolian BBQ that night so they could give to Haiti. That to me is the attitude I have seen the most of.”

Cedarville has a relatively small student body of about 3,000, but size has never restrained them from accomplishing big things. Some $94,000 was raised for Hurricane Katrina relief work in 2005, with a majority of the funds going to Samaritan’s Purse. A portion was also used for student teams to travel to the Gulf Coast to join other Samaritan’s Purse volunteers in the difficult task of mudding out flood-ravaged homes.

Recently, a group of Cedarville students spent a week of their Christmas break in New Orleans working with Samaritan’s Purse crews to renovate and paint houses.

In addition to outreach in the United States, students at Cedarville are encouraged to broaden their exposure to cultures around the world through the university’s Missions Involvement Services. Around 200 students a year participate in a variety of service projects ranging from construction and computer technology to nursing and English language instruction.

During the past four decades, over 5,000 students and faculty members have served on short-term projects in 90 countries.

Jon Purple, Dean for Student Life Programs at Cedarville University, said such projects and the crisis in Haiti offer opportunities for students to reach outside of the confines of their campus to a hurting world.

“Knowing the devastation, we know we need to reach out,” Purple said. “Most of the students can’t physically go to Haiti and be the hands and feet of Jesus, but they can at least give monetarily and sacrificially out of what they do have.”

Preliminary discussions have begun for a team of students to go to Haiti this summer when the situation becomes more stable.

“I know I speak for more people than just myself when I say that I would love to go now,” Gebert said.

Samaritan's Purse , Haiti , Help for Haiti , A Heart for Haiti