An Iowa State University student is working today at a summer job, as many do…but he spent the first part of this year working even harder, in Thailand — helping rebuild after the deadly tidal wave that hit parts of Indonesia last December 26. Nicholas Jensen is a construction-engineering major at ISU, one of four young Iowans who volunteered to work on the beaches of Thailand. They helped build 50 single-family new homes, 2-story concrete houses. He helped mix the concrete by hand, pouring coundations and frames “bucket by bucket.” Jensen says he thinks the homes they built are more sturdy than the ones that vanished in the tsunami. The homes had been destroyed, washed out to sea with nothing left but scattered debris. The goal was to build a tsunami-proof house, since everyone’s now pretty paranoid and wants a stronger house. Jensen says “That’s what we tried to do.” He and four other young Iowans were there for nearly three months. Jensen says they worked 6 days a week for 8-10 hours a day. He adds, “The Lord just really took care of us every day we were there, no one got sick, no one got hurt, and we were just really under His wing.” Jensen confirms that their religious fatih was a strong motivation for the four college students who went from ISU and UNI. They’d been seeing the tsunami story on the news everywhere, and Jensen says he and the others felt “God had laid it on our hearts to take the gifts and blessings we’ve been given, and just go out and help some people meet some other needs that weren’t our own.” Their churches, Cornerstone Church in Ames, and Harvest Evangelical Free Church in Story City, agreed to sponsor their work and a donor paid their expenses. All the Iowans are back home now, working at summer jobs like Nicholas. A couple have family businesses, one’s at a golf course, but though they’re staying busy Jensen says if another chance came up to return to Thailand, to work or just to see the folks they’d made friends with, they’d all jump at the opportunity. With Jensen were ISU horticulture major Colin Madden, and UNI students Jonathon West and Luke Jensen, a cousin of Nicholas. (shown in above photo)
