Published: May 13, 2008 10:18 am      

College, local family seek China quake updates

No earthquake damage has been reported at the local university in Chengdu, China, where Goshen College operates a program.

Chengdu, the provincial capital and the largest city in the Sichuan Province, is about 60 miles from the epicenter of Monday’s quake.

Goshen College started a program there in 1980.

“Every report is that everything’s fine,” Tom Meyers, director of GC International Education, said.

The same can be said for West China Normal University in Nanchong, the city where the college’s new program, set to open in the fall, is located. Nanchong is east of Chengdu.

Meyers anticipates having more contact with people in the next few days.

Meyers also reported that his brother was in Beijing at the time the earthquake struck. His brother said the building he was in was swaying.

The family of Sheldon and Ellen Graber, Shipshewana, is also waiting to hear news of their son, Chad Graber, 28, and his wife Ellen, 30, who have been living in China for the past four years. He is a graduate of Clinton Christian School.

Chad teaches English at a university in the city of Wenchuan, located within miles of the 7.9-magnitude earthquake’s epicenter.

“We’re still waiting to hear anything,” said Ellen, indicated that she has not yet been able to establish any direct contact with her son or his wife. “We do know that a huge number of rescue workers were finally able to get into the city of Wenchuan on foot, which is where they are now.

“They are pretty close to the epicenter of the earthquake, and since they’re in the mountains, there is only one road there, and because of the landslides, there’s not been a way to get in,” she said.

However, Ellen noted that her family has heard rumors that the buildings in which her son teaches may have made it through the quake intact.

“We’ve heard a rumor, and it’s only a rumor, that the buildings that our son teaches in are still standing, so that gives us hope,” Ellen said. “So far all phone communications are down. There has been a satellite connection to Wenchuan, but we’ve only heard of one.”

Ellen said it has been difficult just waiting to receive some word of her son’s condition, but noted that the agency her son currently works for in Thailand has been keeping them up to date on the situation.

“Right now we’re just getting information as we can,” Ellen said. “The most direct line we have would be with the agency in Thailand that Chad is connected to. The director of the agency has been keeping in contact with us.

“It’s been more than 24 hours, and we’re just hoping to hear something. But as of yet, we don’t have anything confirmed as to whether they’re safe or whether they’re not, so we’ll just keep waiting,” she said.

Even so, Ellen said that her family has been taking great comfort in the outpouring of prayer and concern they have received from their friends, family and the surrounding community.

“We’re just so grateful of what we’re feeling from the community,” Ellen said. “The prayers, the phone calls, they just mean so much to us.”