By Mark H. Hunter, Regional Reporter BATON ROUGE - When  Ron Lambe, now-retired administrative pastor of Istrouma Baptist Church in Baton Rouge, recalls Hurricane Katrina he can’t help but quote Charles Dickens, “it was the best of times and the worst of times.” “It was the worst of times due to how grossly ill-prepared our entire state government, the Red Cross, our church and even our nation was for a natural disaster of this proportion and the grueling 16 hour days our staff and volunteers put in each day,” Lambe recalled. “It was the best of times because it allowed our church members to learn quickly to love those who are less fortunate than us and to demonstrate true sacrificial love to those displaced by the floods.” Istrouma is the largest SBC/LBC church in Baton Rouge and had previously made an agreement with the Red Cross to be a shelter the year before Katrina made landfall. A small group of Loyola University students evacuating from New Orleans after summer sessions were the first to “camp out” in the church’s Bain Building, a two-story building of classrooms centered around a gym. Then the flood hit, New Orleans nearly emptied out and more than 600 distressed people ended up sleeping on cots and the gym … [Read more...]

By Marilyn Stewart, Regional Reporter Raw emotions bubbled to the surface as people struggled to process the losses brought about by Hurricane Katrina. As Southern Baptists faithfully offered care to those suffering from the storm, hearts warmed to the Gospel. The power of relationship When the local news warned that those remaining behind must write their social security numbers on their arms so bodies could be identified later, Kelli and George Esler knew it was time to leave. The couple went to Grenada, Miss., where John and Candy Saxon, a couple who had befriended them the previous year, found them a place to stay. John was a New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary student. Candy taught school in Chalmette with Kelli. When the news of the devastation in Chalmette reached them, Kelli realized her perfect life was over. “Living on the floor of some lady’s house, in a city I’d never heard of, in a state I’d never visited, that was the breaking point,” Kelli said. “I knew how out of control all of this was.” Kelli saw how far downward they had fallen when her husband, George, a computer programmer, took a job sweeping the floor of a sawmill. As George worked alongside John at the mill, he came to faith in … [Read more...]

By Mark H. Hunter, Regional Reporter BATON ROUGE - It only took a few days after Hurricane Katrina for the majority of Baptist churches in the Baton Rouge area to coordinate their efforts and begin helping thousands of evacuees that filled the Capitol City. Of the 85 or so churches and missions of the Baptist Association of Greater Baton Rouge, then called the Judson Baptist Association, more than 50 churches are included on a September 2005, list outlining which church provided what kind of goods or services to the response effort. Nine churches provided direct shelter for hundreds of evacuees on their campuses and many of the others provided food, clothing, transportation, telephone service, showers, counseling and whatever else was needed, according to an October 2005 “Good News” newsletter that BAGBR office manager Jan Terral found in her files. BAGBR also served as an organizational hub for emergency responders, such as Red Cross and military and law enforcement, and found housing for them in dozens of area Baptist’s homes, including this correspondent’s house where several military officers stayed during the crisis. “The churches of the Judson Baptist Association have shown the world how Christian people … [Read more...]

By Marilyn Stewart, Regional Reporter NEW ORLEANS – From the belly of a Coast Guard helicopter, Aviation Maintenance Technician 3rd Class Allan Campbell snapped photos of Edgewater Baptist Church in New Orleans days after the levee breaks of Hurricane Katrina that left 80 percent of the city under water. The church steeple dangled perilously on its side. Its tip pointed downward into deep water. For Campbell, the devastation was personal. Two months earlier, he had walked his bride down the aisle on their wedding day and out through doors now submerged in water. “My heart seemed to stop,” said David Platt, International Mission Board president but Edgewater staff evangelist at the time, on seeing Campbell’s photos for the first time. “This was the place where I gathered together with the people in New Orleans I loved the most. The people I laughed and cried with. The people I worshiped with and served alongside,” Platt said. “I knew that we would likely never gather together there again in the same way.” Hurricane Katrina crossed the tip of Louisiana early Monday, Aug. 29, 2005, pushing water over the tops of homes in lower Plaquemines Parish, then overwhelming the Mississippi River Gulf Outlet in New Orleans to … [Read more...]

By Marilyn Stewart, Regional Reporter Here are a compilation of stories from the people who lived through those dark days during and after Hurricane Katrina. Port Sulphur Baptist Church Water still covered the roads when Lynn Rodrigue went in to see what was left of Port Sulphur, his church, and his home two weeks after the storm. The eye of Hurricane Katrina had passed directly over Buras and nearby Port Sulphur. “It looked like a nuclear bomb had gone off in lower Plaquemines,” Rodrigue said. Wind took the sides and the roofs of the church and the fellowship hall. Twenty-five feet of water took the rest. “There was nothing salvageable,” Rodrigue said. “It practically washed everything away.” With the help of Southern Baptists, the church rebuilt. Though 70% of the membership did not return, Port Sulphur Baptist Church today averages 45 each Sunday. BOBBY WELCH, former president of the Southern Baptist Convention In the early days after Katrina, Bobby Welch stood in a pastor’s office in the New Orleans area with a pastor whose eyes were fixed on the mud-caked debris outside his window. “I don’t think I’ve ever felt this hopeless before in my life,” the pastor said. But in a moment, everything … [Read more...]