PINE – “Thank God for country boys with chainsaws.”
By Andi Cook
Special to the Baptist Message
PINE – “Thank God for country boys with chainsaws.”
This was the heartfelt cry of Pastor Wayne Cook
after Katrina roared through Washington Parish, toppling ancient oaks
and tossing towering pines across virtually every power line and
stretch of roadway in the rural parish two hours north of New Orleans.
After Cook climbed over and ducked under over fifty
trees littering the two-mile stretch of road between his home and Pine
First Baptist Church, he found the steeple upside down in the church
yard and half the tin roof stripped away, exposing the old damaged
shingles underneath. Several windows in the trailers that served as
Sunday school space had blown out, allowing rainwater to saturate some
of the rooms. Despite the damage, the church was to become the focus of
rescue operations for the surrounding rural community. God would reward
this faithfulness in the months to come in ways the church never
imagined.
With no gas, no water, and no power, the parish was
paralyzed and seemingly forgotten, as all eyes focused on the
devastation in New Orleans. The position of the parish north of the
stricken city turned out to be a blessing. Buses, 18-wheelers, and
pickups pulling trailers piled with food, medical supplies, water, and
ice poured southward but were told via CB radio that access to New
Orleans was closed. The Washington Parish sheriff redirected some of
the traffic loaded with life-saving supplies to help his rural
constituents. Pastor Cook offered his church yard as a distribution
center.
“Hundreds of people a day drove through our church
yard to get staples,” Cook said. “Some asked how we could let our lawns
be destroyed by the big rigs and constant traffic.”
“People are more important than grass,” was his answer.
The ministry focus of the rural congregation brought
the nation to its doors. Volunteers from Wisconsin to New York took
back home stories of a church that sacrificed its Sunday School space
to house a medical clinic, its yard to serve as a distribution center,
and its sanctuary to house representatives of the Red Cross and Social
Service workers taking emergency food stamp applications.
Volunteers from Elmsbrook Community Church in
Wisconsin and a pastor from Alberta, Canada kept in touch with Pine
First Baptist. When the church decided to build an education building
to replace the damaged trailers, both groups offered to send volunteer
building teams to help with construction.
Cook’s prayer of thanksgiving changed slightly to, “Thank God for volunteers with band saws.”
In a week, a group of 31 volunteers recruited by Ken
Ponath, the Volunteer Construction Coordinator for the Canadian
Southern Baptist Convention, raised the walls, framed the inside, and
got most of the roof on the new structure. The following week the
volunteer team from Wisconsin wired the building, put in the
insulation, hung and mudded the sheetrock, and finished the ceilings.
“God has given us an awesome building to use to
minister in our community,” Cook said. “The volunteers saved us half of
the initial construction estimate.”
But a building was not the only blessing that came
out of Katrina. The congregation caught a vision for missions. Twice
since Katrina, a group of volunteers has traveled from Pine to Gulfport
to aid in the rebuilding there. A third group, this one made up of
youth and school teachers, is slated to go during Spring break.
(Andi is a pastor’s wife who attended last weekend’s
Regional Reporters Training Conference; send in your stories from the
storms today!)