While lots of people pack their bikinis and cute tops for spring break, I packed work boots and long socks. My destination, along with about 30 others, was Houston, Texas. We were going to give of our time during our spring break to help those who had been affected by Hurricane Harvey. We worked through Send Relief during our time in Houston, along with other college students from Washington and Kentucky.

Upon our arrival in Houston, we were divided up into different crews. These crews all went out for the next few days to work on different houses. We cut and installed sheetrock, tore out bad wood, demolished someone's kitchen that needed a fresh start, mudded the sheetrock, installed insulation, put up ceilings, and many more things.

We came to help these people, and show God's love while doing so. Sometimes, you need to help meet people's physical needs in order to help them see their dire need for a Savior.

After a long and tiring day's work on Monday, our group was driving around Houston searching for a late night snack in two of our vans. We started getting the weather alerts from JSU.

For some reason, this time I was more afraid for my town. I texted my roommate to see if she was still in our dorm, but thankfully she was safe at home. We began to hear news from social media about the damages. Some were fortunately false claims, but many others were tragically true. We were in shock.

We had so many questions, but no answers. All we could do was get some sleep, and go back to work the next day. Our campus minister and a couple pf students left the next morning so that he could get back to campus and get to work. Our BCM building had been damaged, but not severely, and he had much bigger concerns than our building in mind.

We decided to stay in Houston and keep doing the disaster relief work that we had come there to do. Some may think that was crazy, but since campus was closed there wasn't much we could do back home. We had no access to our cars, our dorms, and our apartments. So we kept working, and we prayed for our city and our school.

We were interviewed by two local Houston stations who were blown away that we had not left town. They put us on TV, but they didn't fully grasp why we stayed. We stayed because God had called us there.

He kept us safe in Houston, doing His work and helping His people. We had to be patient, just as all Jacksonville State students are still being patient.

I hate not knowing, just like most people. I want to know everything I possibly can, so that I can make plans and make informed decisions. But, I don't need to know it all, not right now.

I have friends who lived in the apartments that were hit, and friends who lived in my freshman dorm that lost its roof. These same friends kept working in Houston, too!

While my dorm is fine, they had no idea about their material things back in Jacksonville. While they were hurting, they still knew that these things were purely material things. What mattered was that they were safe, and that no one died during this tragedy.

Our group made it home safely on Friday, March 23. We knew it was time to rest, and then get ready to help our city. We are #GamecockStrong. Please keep our city and our school in your prayers!

If you want to buy a t-shirt or donate funds to support disaster relief for Jacksonville and JSU, here are some links:

https://web4046.campusnet.net/onlinegiving_421/sit...

http://redthreadsapparel.com/tornado-relief-shirts...

https://www.rileygreenmusic.com/product-page/jacks...

https://sbdr.org/