Despite being without a pastor for the last six months, Start Baptist Church here is growing beyond its walls.     START – Despite being without a pastor for the last six months, Start Baptist Church here is growing beyond its walls. The church has been in its new, 600-seat worship center for about a year and a half, said Don Parker, chairman of the deacons. "I think we built too small," he said, referring to the fact that every Sunday at least five new visitors attend. The area surrounding Start, located directly on Interstate 20 near Monroe, has seen a recent surge in construction. "It’s hard to say what is causing the area to grow," Parker said. "A lot of people are trying to get out of the city." The new visitors are mainly young families. With an average attendance in Sunday school of at least 225, the worship service swells to at least 400 every Sunday, he said. "We used to be just a smaller, country church," Parker said. "But we’ve moved away from that and I would say we’re more of a regional church now. We attract people from as far as 30 miles away from surrounding areas. "Growth really started probably about three years ago," he continued. "We outgrew our old … [Read more...]

In the ministry for 41 years, Carson has gotten into hot water at least on one occasion, during a baptismal service at First Baptist Church of Deport, Texas, he said.     Born on his mother’s birthday, March 17, 1944, James Carson maintains that he was the best birthday present his mother ever received. His mother always agreed, he said, chuckling.   With his wife, Leta, Carson has two children, Libby, 39, and Derek, 31, who is married to Melissa. As of yet, the Carsons have no grandchildren.   After graduating from Louisiana College with a double major in elementary education and religion, Carson went on to Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth.   Because of a crippling case of arthritis that had developed his sophomore year in college, Carson was forced to drop out of seminary during his second year, he said. Carson has been DOM of the Richland, Deer Creek, and Caldwell Associations going on six years, he said.   "I believe that I have three of the best associations in the state. They’re just wonderful people to work with. I enjoy working with them so much."   In the ministry for 41 years, Carson has gotten into hot water at least on one occasion, during a baptismal service at First … [Read more...]

Marie Piro tells all the teen girls who come to Antioch Baptist Church to "get out of the truck and run!"         SLAGLE – Marie Piro tells all the teen girls who come to Antioch Baptist Church to "get out of the truck and run!"   Though the phrase has developed into a joke among girls within the youth group, it is nevertheless practical advice for a common situation: What to do in those awkward moments as a date is ending?   "I’ve told the girls not to say goodnight real late in a dark truck, which will lead to things they don’t need to be doing," Piro said. "God tells us to run from that. So [I tell them] ‘get out of the truck and run!’"   Married in 2003, after they both made True Love Wait pledges on separate occasions during their teen years, Marie Piro and husband Paul Piro are now youth ministers at Antioch. They encourage teens to seek and maintain their purity for God.   Marie made her True Love Waits pledge at 18, her senior year in high school, during a DiscipleNow weekend.   "It was one of those things that had been talked about a lot all during my growing up years," Marie Piro said. "It was something I really wanted to do."   After graduation, Marie met Paul Piro, the two began … [Read more...]

In the early hours of Tues. Feb. 13, a tornado left a five-mile swathe of destruction through this rural community about eleven miles east of Lafayette just below Interstate 10.         BREAUX BRIDGE – Filed 1 p.m. Feb. 13. In the early hours of Tues. Feb. 13, a tornado left a five-mile swathe of destruction through this rural community about eleven miles east of Lafayette just below Interstate 10. Teche Baptist Church, working alongside the St. Martin Parish Sheriff’s Office, is caring for at least 12 people whose homes were damaged or destroyed. At least 43 homes were either totally destroyed or sustained some sort of damage, said Guy Cormier, St. Martin Parish president. The tornado affected an area about five miles long.   "It is unbelievable how God must have been shining down on St. Martin Parish," Cormier said in reference to the three minor injuries reported after the tornado.   "We have some homes that are just no longer there," he explained. "The people just ended up sitting in their yards in the middle of the night. One man’s mobile home was flipped over. All that is left now is a frame. He found himself with a bloody nose sitting on his lawn."   Aware that the parish would need … [Read more...]

A powerful line of storms ripped through the New Orleans area in the early morning hours Feb. 13, toppling trees, downing power lines and taking at least one life.         NEW ORLEANS – A powerful line of storms ripped through the New Orleans area in the early morning hours Feb. 13, toppling trees, downing power lines and taking at least one life.   The storms were particularly frightening for thousands of area residents still living in small, vulnerable FEMA trailers 18 months after Hurricane Katrina.   The weather system moved into the area around 3 a.m., spawning at least one tornado. The tornado skipped across the metro area touching down on both sides of the Mississippi River. The storm also brought heavy rain and hail.   On the West Bank, media outlets in New Orleans reported that the storm destroyed a hotel in Westwego.   Significant damage was also reported in the Carrollton, Mid-City, Gentilly and New Orleans East neighborhoods. More than 30,000 homes in Jefferson and Orleans parishes were without power.   The power outages prompted school closings throughout New Orleans and Jefferson Parish as well as isolated street closings. Xavier University also closed due to a power outage. A … [Read more...]

Terror struck the hearts of New Orleans residents once again as early morning tornados touched down Feb. 13 in areas still recovering from the flood-waters of Katrina.         NEW ORLEANS – Terror struck the hearts of New Orleans residents once again as early morning tornados touched down Feb. 13 in areas still recovering from the flood-waters of Katrina.   Tornadoes came dangerously close to two Southern Baptist churches, Westwego Baptist and Gentilly Baptist.   Southern Baptists were on the scene immediately, as volunteers and residents trained in disaster relief went into action.   "We woke up to a ‘train’ coming through," said Jay Adkins, Westwego pastor. "Brian Scholl, my youth pastor, and I grabbed our disaster relief credentials and went to work."   In a 7:30 a.m. call to the Baptist Message, Adkins reported that by 3:30 a.m., 30 minutes after the tornado struck, he already could see Southern Baptist disaster relief volunteers at a nearby expressway. Jackie and Linda James, project managers for the Arkansas Baptist Builders, woke to a rocking trailer about 3:15 a.m. as hail and rain pelted the trailer that is their home while on their volunteer assignment in New Orleans.   The … [Read more...]

Saturday, Feb. 17 – Louisiana Baptist Disaster Relief, the American Red Cross and Calvary Baptist Church, New Orleans have teamed up once again to serve hot meals during a crisis.         NEW ORLEANS, Saturday, Feb. 17 – Louisiana Baptist Disaster Relief, the American Red Cross and Calvary Baptist Church, New Orleans have teamed up once again to serve hot meals during a crisis. After a tornado struck neighborhoods on both the east and west sides of the Mississippi River, the New Orleans area was reeling from the devastating effects of another natural disaster. Louisiana Baptists answered the call to minister in the affected areas. A kitchen unit was dispatched from Pearl River, Louisiana. Lonnie Lindsey and three other men came from Keithville, near Shreveport, prepared to cook 1,000 meals per day. In addition, Calvary Baptist Church provided housing for the cooking team and the use of their facilities to send meals via the Red Cross to the shelters and neighborhoods that were recovering from the devastation.   Dishall Davis and her nine-month-old daughter, Ashonte, have been eating the meals cooked by the Keithville team. She and her daughter were asleep in their first-floor hotel room when the … [Read more...]

The people of New Orleans are traumatized this morning as we hear accounts of last night’s tornadoes that killed one person and injured a dozen. Dear friends,   The people of New Orleans are traumatized this morning as we hear accounts of last night’s tornadoes that killed one person and injured a dozen.   The tornado damage itself is bad enough. Dozens of homes have been severely damaged or destroyed. Many schools are closed.   I write this email from my home this morning, as I did for months after Hurricane Katrina, and I am suffering from deja vu. Thousands of people are without electrical power. The church facility has no electrical service, so we are all working at home just as we did for much of the first year post-Katrina.   Beyond the immediate problems is the mental, emotional, and spiritual trauma of seeing our homes and schools dark once again and our neighborhoods strewn with fresh storm debris. We had too few schools in the area to begin with. Now some schools that were operating are damaged again.   It’s like the picture you see of a severely beaten man who is on his knees, bleeding, and then he takes another blow. You wonder if this is the point where the poor fellow will just fall over and lie … [Read more...]

At one time in his life, Guy Farnsworth believed going to a Baptist church was tantamount to sacrilege.         KENNER—At one time in his life, Guy Farnsworth believed going to a Baptist church was tantamount to sacrilege.   But at 15, Farnsworth moved from New York to Riverside, Calif., with his family. Reared in the Jewish faith by his mother, the five Farnsworth children were nevertheless made to attend a Baptist church by their gentile father.   Both parents thought their children needed an opportunity to make friends in their new neighborhood and that they "would meet the right kind of people at church," he explained. Neither parent expected them to meet Jesus.   "Within a three-week period all five us came to know Christ," Farnsworth said. "Mom forbade us to tell our grandparents."   Nevertheless, Farnsworth’s faith began to flourish.   "I haven’t lived a perfect life since then," he said. "But as long as I’ve kept my eyes on God, no matter what happens, He’s been able to pull me through a lot of things.   "Now I’m a completed Jew," he continued. "Jews are looking for the Messiah. I found the Messiah."   Farnsworth, a long-time member of First Baptist Kenner, moved to the area with … [Read more...]

Scheduled to exchange a kidney the next day, Bonnie and Jerry Grant stood surrounded by their church family bathing them in prayer on Dec. 17. ZWOLLE – Scheduled to exchange a kidney the next day, Bonnie and Jerry Grant stood surrounded by their church family bathing them in prayer on Dec. 17. Jerry Grant, a deacon at Aimwell Baptist in Zwolle, had suffered kidney failure more than six years previously and after more than three and half years of dialysis, was facing death without a kidney donor, Bonnie Grant said. "He was giving up," she explained. "He didn’t know if he could go on with dialysis; it had gotten so hard. He didn’t know if he wanted to live the rest of his life that way." But Bonnie Grant, insisting that doctors test her to see if she could be her husband’s donor, refused to let him give up. Doctors remained skeptical but performed the test. Jerry Grant, 47, first fell ill at work with flu-like symptoms and nausea in 1999. By the time his wife arrived to pick him up, his condition had worsened to heart attack-like symptoms, so the two rushed to the hospital in Shreveport, where doctors discovered his kidneys had failed, she said. In intensive care for four days, doctors doubted Grant would survive. Then, people … [Read more...]