DHAKA (UCAN) -- American university students who raised funds, dug dirt and wielded paint brushes to build houses for cyclone victims in Bangladesh stressed the importance of offering love and service to others.

A 10-member student team of seven women and three men in their early 20s arrived in Bangladesh on June 9 and all but one left on July 10.

UCA News spoke with some of the Azusa Pacific University (APU) volunteers, who said they were shocked in November 2007 when they heard the news that Cyclone Sidr killed more than 3,000 people in Bangladesh.

Students at the Christian university in Azusa, 50 kilometers northeast of Los Angeles, decided they should help, and the school's Office of World Missions (OWM) got involved. Through its Focus International program, it offers short-term opportunities in various countries ranging from medical, education and construction work to hospice, evangelism and sports ministry.

The prime mover behind sending the team to Bangladesh was Russel Anwar, an Anglican Bangladeshi student studying at Azusa whose father works in Dhaka for World Vision International (WVI), a Christian humanitarian NGO working.

"OWM and the students of APU wanted to help the victims of Sidr in any way possible, so they came together and decided to help these victims by providing homes for the poorest who have lost their homes," said Anwar, who finished secondary school in Bangladesh. WVI provided the expertise needed and arranged the program.

From Barisal, 250 kilometers south of Dhaka, the team traveled 70 kilometers each day to help build 10 houses badly-affected families in the village of Gouripur.

Mandy Oswald, a 4th-year nursing student, "learned how loving and hospitable these (Bangladeshi) people truly are." She said villagers showed her how to live a life of "simplicity and contentment."

For Jimmy Barger, a 4th-year bio-chemistry student, "being able to provide housing for those in need was fulfilling," but he also hoped the volunteers provided a good example of service too.

Back in Dhaka, he said team leader Anwar, the only Bangladeshi, "overheard some of the elderly men in the village speaking about how they could learn from this."

The message was that they could help each other solve problems, and that if these "rich kids" from the United States could help the poor, they could too. Barger said the "planting of seeds of love and service" will last longer than any of the houses.

"I think the most valuable thing that I have learned is that love and service can cross all cultural and language boundaries," he added.

According to Anwar, they raised US$6,500 before coming, enough for 10 houses. He said they followed Bangladesh government housing construction standards.

"During the building of the shelters, I felt the presence of God in the work sites," Anwar said. "I saw the men and women of Bangladesh and the United States coming together and working to better the lives of the poor."

Many people came to watch, he noted, "because they have not seen people from the U.S., let alone se them building homes for the poor."

The team members tore down the people's temporary shelters and prepared the house foundations. WVI helped with the technical aspects, "but we did the non-technical work such as digging, moving dirt, painting doors and windows, tarring and so forth," he said.

The houses were made with corrugated iron sheet roofing, fabricated bamboo walls and concrete pillars.

Anwar reported that some of the team members are thinking about coming back and leading a new group of students next year.

"We are depending on God's future plan to decide where or how we will be serving, even if that means the need is somewhere else and not in the village of Gouripur," he added.

Anwar stayed behind to see family when the rest of the team departed.

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