By Brian Blackwell, Message Staff Writer CAMERON – First Baptist Church in Cameron is like the town – badly damaged by past hurricanes but always coming back to survive. Hurricane Audrey nearly destroyed the town in 1957 and almost 50 years later, Hurricane Rita tried to do the same to the community that sits alongside the Gulf of Mexico. Among the last to leave during Rita were Paul and Cyndi Sellers. Paul was on duty as a sheriff’s deputy and Cyndi was capturing the final moments of reporting for a newspaper. The Sellers managed to escape and rode out the storm from their son’s home in Denham Springs. They returned to find their home, community and church nearly gone. Instead of choosing to count their losses and close, the Sellers believed God wanted to continue the work of First Baptist Church in the community. “Paul and I always thought from the beginning that God wanted a church in Cameron,” said Cyndi Sellers, who also serves as the church treasurer. “Some people said to tear down the building and merge with another church in the parish. We said we are the parish seat and we need a church here. God continued to remind us that we were making the right decision by the way people kept showing up to help us … [Read more...]

By Brian Blackwell, Message Staff Writer Much like during Hurricane Katrina four weeks before, Southern Baptist Disaster Relief teams were a powerful force in the rebuilding process in areas affected by Rita. Disaster relief crews from throughout the US came to southwest Louisiana to help. The first team from Louisiana to respond was Rolling Hills Ministry located in Ruston. David Abernathy, director of Rolling Hills and blue hat – leader – of the unit recalls how they were serving with Katrina operations when they received the call to go to Leesville, after serving in Hammond for several weeks after Katrina. Fatigued from serving for more than a month in Hammond, volunteers from the unit responded within 48 hours after Rita made landfall. When they arrived at First Baptist Church in Leesville, electricity was out and the crew did not have any food on hand. The unit had exhausted their supply during Katrina and was thus unprepared to respond to another storm of such great magnitude. Abernathy’s wife managed to find some Pop Tarts inside the church building to feed the crew. The following day food did arrive and for the next three weeks the volunteers worked nearly 12 hour days. The humidity was so intense that three … [Read more...]

  By Philip Timothy, Managing Editor WESTLAKE – When asked about Hurricane Rita, the floodgates of memories burst open for 71-year-old Joanna Robinson of Westlake. Ten years ago, she and her husband Jack, members of Bellview Baptist Church in Westlake, spent 2 ½ weeks feeding, helping and ministering to Southern Baptist disaster relief workers, members of the Coast Guard and people working at the nearby water plant. “It sometimes seems like it was just yesterday,” recalls Robinson, who had a kidney transplant six years earlier. “It was a very taxing time but a very meaningful time because God worked through us for His glory.” Jack Robinson, who passed away almost three years ago, was a member of the Carey Association disaster relief chainsaw crew. He had been home only two days after a strenuous stint of disaster relief work in the Covington area when he and Joanna were forced to evacuate as Rita approached southwest Louisiana. Climbing into their 38-foot-motor home, the couple traveled 235 miles west to College Station, Texas where they rode out the storm but were back in Westlake at 6 Saturday evening to survey the damage Rita had left in her wake. The storm had laid waste to their town. They, like … [Read more...]

By Philip Timothy, Managing Editor WESTLAKE – For the newly constituted chainsaw unit, it was baptism by storm. In September of 2005, the unit, which was only the third of its kind in Louisiana and hailed from the Carey Baptist Association, had been together for little over two months when Hurricane Katrina tore into southeast Louisiana. Louisiana Disaster Relief Director Loy Seal sent them to hard-hit Covington and Roberts, La., where they spent several weeks clearing a number of downed trees. They had just returned home when Hurricane Rita took aim at southwest Louisiana. “As I recall, we had only been home for several days when we were forced to evacuate because of Rita,” said Butch Guidry of Sulphur and a blue hat for Carey. “We went first to East Leesville [Baptist Church] but right before the storm hit decided to take our trailer and go to Auburn, Ala.” With his family safely out of harm’s way, Guidry then watched and waited. Twelve hours after Rita made landfall, he, two of his son-in-laws and a friend returned home to begin the arduous task of assessing the damage and cleaning up. “The devastation was bad,” Guidry recalled. “There were a lot of trees down on homes. The streets and roads were impassable. … [Read more...]

By Brian Blackwell, Message Staff Writer JOHNSON BAYOU – Father’s Day has arrived and the congregation of Johnson Bayou Baptist Church has gathered for a special homecoming service. Around 50 people, mostly current members of the church less than a mile from the Gulf Coast, are gathered at the original site of the church off Highway 82 in Cameron Parish to remember the past and celebrate the future. The past is filled with memories of a church building severely damaged by Hurricane Rita and then completely destroyed by Hurricane Ike three years later. The future is one of hope and plans to rebuild on the exact location where the two storms wreaked havoc on the church. “I don’t understand why the Lord did all of that for that building and a few years later another storm came in a washed it away,” said former pastor Les Fogleman, who preached the homecoming message on June 21. “But I know one thing. He has an army. His army can come together and do mighty things. That says they are not going to stop. They will keep on fighting. They have a community to reach. There’s no doubt they need to have a facility there.” Fogleman was pastor of the congregation when the storm made landfall between Johnson Bayou and Sabine … [Read more...]