AFTERMATH—Parts of Japan suffered indescribable damage from the massive earthquake and tsunami last March. Chris Tucker visited the country to help with the recovery. A college education sometimes means more than sitting in a classroom listening to lectures.

Chris Tucker, a 2008 Oak Park High School graduate, went on to college at Cal Poly-San Luis Obispo looking to become a doctor or a nurse.

In order adjust to college life, Tucker, now 21 and a senior, joined Love in Action on the Cal Poly campus. The group is a subsidiary of the international group Campus Crusade for Christ, which combines philanthropic work with traditional Bible study.

Tucker said he wanted to do more than just donate food or money to a cause. Until he joined the group he’d “always been somebody who sits on the sidelines,” he said.

This summer Tucker traveled with the group to Kesennuma, Japan, a coastal area ravaged by an earthquake and subsequent tsunami on March 11. More than 20,000 people either died in the disaster or are missing.

Chris Tucker The college group arrived to the island city ready to work.

In Japan, Tucker and other members of the team got down and dirty in hot, humid weather, working labor-intensive jobs that included clearing out the foundations of homes and hotels to jump-start rebuilding efforts.

Tucker was affected by the tragedy that had struck the region. The experience helped him embrace his newfound spirituality.

“I’ve gained so much perspective and learned how to serve like Jesus,” he said.

Tucker, who is part Jewish, refers to himself as an “average Joe” who previously had little religious experience.

“I only went to church on Christmas and Easter,” he said. “I never really went to temple.”

Tucker said he had many misconceptions about Jesus and simply believed he was a “good man or a good teacher.”

After joining Love in Action, he delved deeper into the life of Jesus, studying Scripture and literature on his life.

When he started his research, Tucker was skeptical that Jesus was actually the son of God.

“He was a liar, a lunatic or the son of God,” Tucker said about his confusion over Jesus. Through his studies, Tucker now believes that Jesus rose from the dead and was the son of God.

“I thought Christianity was (about) following the rules,” he said. “I thought God graded ( mankind) on some kind of curve. God doesn’t grade on a curve. No one can follow the rules perfectly.”

Tucker, who doesn’t speak Japanese, said he initially had some communication problems with the Japanese authorities at the job sites.

“It was kind of neat to find that just because you can’t talk to somebody (because of language barriers) you can have compassion for them or sympathy,” Tucker said. “These people have so many stories.”

Now that he is one semester away from college graduation, Tucker is weighing his options for the future. Perhaps he’ll continue his education and become a nurse or doctor, but life as a pastor now beckons.

“I have three different paths,” Tucker said. “I’ll just let God figure out that one for me.”