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2005-2007 Hurricane Katrina
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Trip to N. Orleans introduces Conn. students to faith in action - 3/6/2007
| | U.S. Coast Guard cadets and Connecticut collegians pause for a photo during a missions trip to New Orleans that prompted some of the team’s non-Christians to rethink their view of Christianity. |
NEW ORLEANS (BP)--Unconventional mission trips to New Orleans have helped a number of U.S. Coast Guard cadets and college students from Connecticut see that many of the folks helping with hurricane recovery work on the Gulf Coast are Christians as opposed to secularists.
“Our mission team was our mission trip,” said Randy Bond, director of the New London Collegiate Ministry in Connecticut who has taken four teams of Coast Guard cadets and students -– including non-Christians -- to his home state of Louisiana for volunteer work.
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FIRST-PERSON: The weekly New Orleans pastors’ meeting - 11/3/2005
NEW ORLEANS (BP)--Each Wednesday, pastors/ministers in the New Orleans area have been meeting at First Baptist Church of LaPlace for fellowship and information. Around 50 of us gather there each time, but it's never the same group.
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Baptists’ 10.5 million meals shatters prior disaster relief record - 11/2/2005
| One among millions
Chricendie Joseph, 7, helps pick up meals for her family from a Southern Baptist feeding unit at First Baptist Church in Belle Glade, Fla., in a region where crops were ravaged by Hurricane Wilma. Southern Baptist Disaster Relief units have served more than 10.5 million meals this year. Photo by Joni B. Hannigan/Florida Baptist Witness
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ALPHARETTA, Ga. (BP)--Southern Baptist Disaster Relief announced Nov. 2 that volunteers have prepared a record 10.5 million meals since Hurricane Katrina made landfall in late August. The meal count shatters the previous record of 3.5 million meals set in 2004.
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Multi-week cleanup of flooded New Orleans Seminary begins - 11/2/2005
| Sorrowful stuff
Outside campus housing at New Orleans Seminary, piles of left-behind items and debris underscore the heartache of Hurricane Katrina and the flooding it caused. Photo by Keith Manuel
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NEW ORLEANS (BP)--The first wave of volunteers in a major cleanup initiative at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary arrived Oct. 31, aiming to boost the campus to an even greater place of prominence in the city.
The first project for the team of volunteers from Alabama and Mississippi was the removal of belongings left behind by students in their apartments and dorm rooms, said Bob Jackson, director of the seminary’s MissionLab program.
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College’s journalism students boost post-Katrina morale - 10/26/2005
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (BP)--A photograph of a gate snapped in two by hurricane-force winds tells the story: William Carey College’s three campuses -– in Hattiesburg and Gulfport, Miss., and New Orleans -- will never again be the same.
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Campus police chief leads worship for crews at seminary - 10/24/2005
| Workers’ challenge
With work crews facing moldy walls and ceilings in student housing at New Orleans Seminary, campus police chief Barry Busby is helping and ministering to the laborers who are cleaning up the campus. Photo by Jonathan Blair
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NEW ORLEANS (BP)--Decked out in his police uniform with a pistol at his hip, New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary’s police chief, Barry Busby, does not look like a pastor. But he is.
On Oct. 9, Busby gathered about 15 relief workers together in the seminary’s Martin Chapel for worship and Bible study. They called it the “Church in the Quad.” The next Sunday, attendance swelled to nearly two dozen in the original chapel at the seminary.
Although spared from the effects of Hurricane Katrina, the chapel was without air conditioning, so the doors had to be propped open.
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New Orleans-area church ready for next post-Katrina challenges - 10/24/2005
BOUTTE, La. (BP)--The kitchen is closed.
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New Orleans churches struggle to resume worship & ministry - 10/21/2005
| Back in church
Becky Boykin and Renee Page greet each other at First Baptist Church in New Orleans during the first worship service since Hurricane Katrina. Photo by Sherri Brown
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NEW ORLEANS (BP)--They sang from a screen fueled by a borrowed generator. They hugged friends and waved to others across the sanctuary. And they asked the all-important post-hurricane question: “How did you do?”
It was the first time that First Baptist Church -- significantly smaller in number but no less enthusiastic –- met for worship since Hurricane Katrina tore through New Orleans.
| Flooded flag
Lakeview Baptist Church's Christian flag never turned over during the New Orleans floods, but it bears the marks of the waters. The New Orleans congregation lost everything to water and mold damage. Photo by Sherri Brown
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The church is built up enough so that the floodwaters stopped at its doorstep. But the church didn’t escape damage. Winds ripped away about a third of one building. Rain poured into Sunday School classrooms. Offices and church records were destroyed. Parts of the buildings that escaped damage soon showed signs of growing black mold. Weeks after the storm, there is still no electricity.
“Everything around us stood in four to six feet of floodwater for weeks. The grass is dead, the trees are dying,” said David Crosby, pastor of First Baptist.
But when the first worship service since Katrina was held Oct. 9, Crosby offered a prayer of thanks to “the God of storm and wind and rain.” First Baptist New Orleans will recover, but many other churches in the area may not.
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Hondurans give $18,000 to Hispanic church hit by Katrina - 10/21/2005
METAIRIE, La. (BP)--Seven years ago, members of Good Shepherd Hispanic Baptist Church in Metairie, La., had compassion on fellow believers in Honduras hit hard by Hurricane Mitch. And now the favor is being returned many times over as Good Shepherd recovers from Hurricane Katrina.
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Church went door-to-door to meet needs after Katrina - 10/21/2005
MOBILE, Ala. (BP)--As thousands of volunteers descended upon the Gulf Coast region after Hurricane Katrina’s destructive winds and storm surge leveled entire communities, members of Dayspring Baptist Church in Mobile, Ala., decided the best way to help people start to recover was to walk house-to-house and knock on any doors that remained intact.
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Volunteers sought for cleanup at New Orleans Seminary - 10/20/2005
| Next steps
New Orleans Seminary President Chuck Kelley consoles two students during the Oct. 5-8 move-out of the flood-damaged campus. Now a volunteer effort is being launched to restore the seminary’s on-campus housing. Photo by Sherri Brown
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NEW ORLEANS (BP)--New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary will launch a major volunteer cleanup initiative Oct. 31, giving Southern Baptists an opportunity to assist with the restoration and renewal of on-campus housing at NOBTS.
Bob and Linda Jackson, new directors of the seminary’s MissionLab program, will coordinate the initiative which will involve scheduling 50 volunteers per week from Oct. 31 until the job is finished.
“God has put before us a task too big for us, but not too big for Him,” Bob Jackson said. “Southern Baptists have an opportunity to come bring the message of love to the city of New Orleans.”
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New Orleans-area pastor sees revival amid the devastation - 10/17/2005
| Church’s post-Katrina look
After Hurricane Katrina, the New Orleans-area First Baptist Church in Luling took on the look of a warehouse, with the influx of much-needed disaster relief supplies.
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LULING, La. (BP)--Amidst the heartbreak and destruction left by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, a New Orleans-area pastor also sees revival.
Todd Hallman, pastor of First Baptist Church of Luling, said his people have been revitalized by distributing 20 tractor-trailer loads of supplies and establishing three distribution centers in the New Orleans area.
“There’s excitement in the church,” said Luling, senior pastor since June 2003. “The church has been transformed into a hospital where people’s needs are met. It has changed our mode of missions.
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Volunteer’s query to Muslim family yields positive response - 10/13/2005
| Charmaine Fenstermacher
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KENNER, La. (BP)--Charmaine Fenstermacher had just three Gospel tracts left to share with families lined up to receive food from Southern Baptist Disaster Relief volunteers in Kenner, La.
“As a car pulled up, we’d say, ‘Hi, how are you? Do you want some lunch?’” Fenstermacher, of Southlake, Texas, recounted. When asked, “How are you doing?” some of the displaced Louisianans told how Hurricane Katrina had left them destitute and hungry.
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Volunteers’ lives transformed as God uses them in disaster relief - 10/13/2005
GRAPEVINE, Texas (BP)--When Hurricane Katrina slammed into the Gulf Coast, destroying towns, homes and possessions, victims’ lives were changed in an instant. However, as evacuation sites opened to bring aid and comfort in the devastated region, many volunteers got their first taste of disaster relief work and found that Hurricane Katrina changed their lives as well.
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Luter among N.O. leaders who met with Bush to discuss future - 10/12/2005
| Dinner with the president
Fred Luter (right), pastor of Franklin Avenue Baptist Church, dined with President Bush, New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin and Coast Guard Admiral Thad Allen Oct. 10 in the French Quarter as a 17-member commission discussed plans for rebuilding the city. Luter said he was “thoroughly impressed” with the president’s sincerity. Photo courtesy of the White House
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NEW ORLEANS (BP)--Fred Luter, pastor of Franklin Avenue Baptist Church in New Orleans, was one of 17 business and civic leaders chosen by Mayor Ray Nagin for the Bring New Orleans Back Commission charged with the assignment of developing a master plan for rebuilding the flood-ravaged city.
The group dined with President Bush and his wife, Laura, at the Italian-Creole restaurant Bacco in the French Quarter Oct. 10 and had the opportunity to express their concerns and ideas with the nation’s leader.
Luter told Baptist Press he has known Nagin for years and the mayor has visited his 7,000-member Southern Baptist church several times. Luter believes he was chosen for the commission because of the number of people he represents and because he is a lifelong New Orleans resident.
“Everybody knows I love New Orleans,” he said Oct. 12.
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