negative; accentuate the positive.”
By Andi Cook
Special to the Message
BOGALUSA – “Eliminate the negative; accentuate the positive.”
The words to the old wartime ditty personify why
Pastor Bob Adams of First Baptist Church Bogalusa was named Citizen of
the Year for the City of Bogalusa.
The post-Katrina activities that helped win him the
nomination were an extension of this positive attitude that cinched his
selection, according to Carl Cutrer, a member of the selection
committee.
“He does not condemn, criticize, or complain,”
Cutrer explained. “He’s been supportive of all of the good in Bogalusa.”
After arriving in Bogalusa a short five years ago,
Adams concentrated on unification. He suggested participation in an
annual Christ for the City campaign, which brings together many
Christian faiths and races in praise of the Savior. This fall will mark
the fourth annual event.
He also got involved in activities that epitomize
Matthew 25:35: education, hospitals, senior citizens aid, and
discovering unmet needs in the parish.
Adams is a member of the LSU Medical Center Board,
served on the Bogalusa School system Task Force, serves on a city group
composed of ministers to help in times of crisis, and is a member of a
group in its infancy named Unmet Needs of Washington Parish.
“His tireless work following Hurricane Katrina to
help people in all walks of life stands as the hallmark of his
outreach, according to those who nominated him” for the Citizen of the
Year award, reported the Bogalusa Daily News in a May 5 article.
When Katrina hit, Adams had a web of contacts not only in the city, but
in “Hurricane Alley” in Florida. The church he pastored there had
served as a disaster relief center following Hurricane Andrew.
Adams knew what Louisiana was in for if the weather
predictions came true. His call for help went out to his daughter in
Panama City, Fla., the Sunday before the storm’s killer winds plundered
Bogalusa on Monday.
The tempest had hardly passed when aid arrived from
the Illinois Southern Baptists in the form of disaster meals. More than
225,000 hot meals were dispensed from First Bogalusa’s parking lot
during the weeks following Katrina. Volunteer chainsaw crews felled
trees at 1,200 sites. Adams also started a Christ for the City
Reconstruction Fund to provide assistance throughout Bogalusa.
“It was not my astute planning skills to get ahead
of the storm that brought them here,” Adams insisted. “It was only by
the grace of the Lord that someone picked up a three-sentence appeal
from a small place like this.”
An email found its way via Adams’ daughter back to
the Louisiana Baptist Convention office Aug. 29, the day Katrina
slashed its way through New Orleans and across the Gulf Coast. That
email was forwarded to the Southern Baptist Disaster Relief
organization and the Illinois Baptist State Association picked up the
cry for help. Illinois DR immediately dispatched a work crew; they
arrived in Bogalusa at 11 p.m. the Tuesday after the storm, looking for
Bob Adams.
Adams said that in his estimation, the work of
Christ for the City has been “every bit as strategic as the hurricane
relief effort.”
“What my heart has been about is always voicing hope
and confidence in the name of Christ that the Lord means to do good in
this place,” Adams said. “I wanted to reintroduce the venues of hope,
confidence, and joy in a community that hasn’t had much of that in the
last several decades. The city has been a place where hope didn’t have
much room. That spiritual dynamic is what I’m really about.”
Adams will be presented a Distinguished Service
Award at 4:30 p.m. Thursday, May 25, at the Bogalusa Country Club.