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...]

By Gary Myers, NOBTS Communications Director NEW ORLEANS – The story of New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary’s Katrina decade is  immersed in grace and redemption and punctuated by hope. On the tenth anniversary of the storm, the seminary community is counting blessings rather than losses and leaning into the future with anticipation. “Here we are 10 years later,” said NOBTS President Chuck Kelley. “What is my conclusion? We serve an amazing God who delights in doing awesome work to care for his children and to extend the work of His kingdom.” “We are grateful that God was able to pull out of the rubble of Katrina a city of New Orleans that has more energy and has more vitality than it has had in a very long time,” he continued. “And out of the rubble, the seminary is now strong, healthy and doing well.” During the Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting in June, Kelley put an exclamation point on the recovery story when he announced that NOBTS recorded the largest enrollment in school history last school year. The future looked much bleaker after Katrina slammed ashore east of New Orleans Aug. 29, 2005. The storm left a wide path of destruction stretching from New Orleans to Mobile, Ala. Multiple levee … [Read more...]

By Mark H. Hunter, Regional Reporter BATON ROUGE – As soon as thousands of evacuees began flooding into Baton Rouge, hundreds of LSU students stepped up to help including Joshua Timothy, then the senior resident assistant in Kirby Smith (all male) Dorm, who now works as a youth pastor. “It was probably some of the craziest moments of my life,” said Timothy, who was a 20-year-old junior at the time. “I’m not gonna lie to anybody – I was scared to death.” Some of his residents were from the flooded areas of New Orleans including one who saw his family on the national news sitting on their roof waiting to be rescued, he said. One of his RAs was from Slidell and when they drove there to find his father, “there was no power - it was so dark you couldn’t see past the truck’s headlight beams,” Timothy said. “We found his dad – he was hiding in a freezer – a tree had fallen on their house. “When we pulled into the driveway people actually started walking toward us from their homes asking if we were there to help,” Timothy said. “We put as many as we could in my truck – including some who were insulin-dependent and needed to be brought back so they could get to a hospital.” Upon their return, they found the LSU campus, … [Read more...]