Unlike the infamous Bermuda Triangle, where victims disappear and hope is lost, the Triangle of Hope Ministry, based in Bogalusa, is focused on destroying despair and building hope.
BOGALUSA – Unlike the infamous Bermuda Triangle, where victims disappear and hope is lost, the Triangle of Hope Ministry, based in Bogalusa, is focused on destroying despair and building hope. The name came from the fact that churches in Arizona, Iowa, and Florida all felt led specifically to provide relief in Bogalusa. The three congregations formed a triangle around the devastated community.
Katrina greatly impacted ministry in Washington Baptist Association. Some pre-storm ministries died or were put on the back burner, while disaster-related projects blossomed. A year-and-a half after the storm, the Triangle of Hope continues to provide disaster relief for families whose homes were destroyed by the storm.
“With so many trees down, it has been a little easier to look up,” said Pastor Marcus Rosa of Westside Emmanuel Baptist Church in Bogalusa. “This is true not only in the physical sense, with so many trees down in the Bogalusa area, but in the spiritual sense as well.”
Rosa’s church serves as the ministry base for the Triangle of Hope. They have housed the volunteers recruited by the ministry since October 2005. The upper story of their education facility was converted into dormitory-style sleeping quarters and ministry offices. The fellowship hall and kitchen were commandeered for feeding purposes.
“The hurricane has been a blessing to us,” Rosa said. “Historically our church is notorious for turmoil and splits. The Lord
used the storm to bring unity to the body. It has allowed us to focus on people who would have been ignored otherwise.”
Westside Emmanuel is located in the middle of a poverty-stricken city. Prior to the storm, a congregation too busy looking inward ignored many of the needs of the community, Rosa said. Katrina served as the great equalizer. With everyone in need, God got the attention of the church.
Rosa is on the Triangle of Hope board of directors, as is fellow pastor Bob Adams of First Baptist Church Bogalusa. The effort, though, transcends denominational lines with volunteers responding from many diverse Christian faiths across the nation.
Currently the ministry is coordinated by Henry and Wilma DeWolde, a couple from Bethany Christian Reform Church in Bloomsfield, Ontario, Canada.
“We’ve always been interested in missions,” Wilma said. “God worked in our lives to uniquely prepare us for this opportunity.”
Wilma and Henry were pig farmers, not an occupation that sounds like a preparation for ministry. In 1986, they suffered a major barn fire, with 75 percent of their farm structures destroyed. That summer people from all over Ontario camped out in the field and gave of their time and resources to help them rebuild. They knew then that one day God would give them the opportunity to repay the kindness. What they did not know was that they would do it in Bogalusa.
In the intervening years, God provided Henry with the skills needed for his current work/ministry. He spent years in construction. Later, for six years, he was a manager in a genetics corporation, honing the people skills he would need to supervise volunteers. Wilma was employed for a time in an office, where she learned the organizational skills necessary to coordinate the assignment of volunteers.
The couple arrived in Bogalusa in February 2006 on a two-week commitment to help the ministry. They found Triangle of Hope during a search on the Internet for disaster relief ministry opportunities. Near the end of April, they returned as the ministry coordinators, voluntarily giving a year of their life to this ecumenical effort with a Southern Baptist base.
“It’s been a beautiful relationship,” Wilma said in reference to the cooperation between Westside Emmanuel and Triangle of Hope. “Can you imagine strangers coming in and out of your church, taking over your fellowship hall, kitchen, and Sunday school rooms. They have been wonderful. They include the volunteers in their church activities.”
The ministry identified 500 locations that needed some type of disaster relief. Some homes required partial repairs, from roofs to rooms rebuilt where a falling tree demolished part of the structure. Others needed only debris cleanup. The most heartbreaking were the ones that could only be razed; the damage is so extensive.
So far, 130 homes have undergone repair. Some of the easier locations that needed only debris removal have been completed. Still, there are 140 sites that have not even been assessed to determine need. Two homes have been built from the ground up, to give those made homeless by Katrina a new start. A third is under construction.
One eye-opening, life-changing experience all volunteers are offered is dinner out. The unsuspecting volunteers are taken to the home of someone who has benefited from the ministry, where they are served MRE’s (military meals ready to eat,) – the fare that many in the parish existed on after the storm.
They eat in the open around a campfire. Afterwards they sing songs of praise and listen to the testimonies of the victims.
One volunteer, Carol Lue Weaver, posted a testimony on the ministry web site. She tells how blessed she was as she worked on the home of Miss Carol.
“We tore down a room on the old house and gutted the bathroom. The room was so poorly constructed that it took less than 3 hours to demolish and haul away with the frame coming down with three women pulling a rope and two men pushing. We then laid footers and put down a sub floor for a four-room addition. The old house no longer had a kitchen, thanks to Katrina. Miss Carol described lying under mattresses with seven other people and her animals crowded in the house with her – dogs, ducks, geese, and chicken – while pieces of her house blew away. After the storm trees were piled twenty feet or more into the air and it was over a week before they could get a block from their home. … I saw courage, determination, faith, hope, and a love of life and others in the midst of terrible obstacles. … People in the community smile, honk, and wave, because each week they are reminded that they are not alone and hope is present. “
The ministry is moving toward more local involvement. The hope is that the new coordinators will be from Washington Parish.
“The ministry will continue to be dependent on volunteers, mostly from outside the parish,” Wilma said. This despite the fact that many churches in the parish have disaster relief teams of their own, who are volunteering on the coast, in New Orleans, or in other states that have experienced disasters.
“It’s hard working for your next door neighbor,” she said. “That’s the reality of it. We know too much about our neighbors. We hear gossip about them and judge. That’s why it’s easier to get volunteers from away.”
Rosa believes the ministry can and should continue even when it moves beyond Katrina-related needs. In a poor parish, the needs will always be great. Now that the eyes of his flock have been opened to those needs, he believes their vision will remain inclusive. He prays that the tunnel vision that characterized the church prior to the storm will never again rear its deadly head.
Already, Rosa is leading his church to expand the vision of the ministry from disaster relief to community restoration. They pray for the ministry and the community. They actively seek to identify needs. They are committed to taking the gospel to the people rather than expecting the people to come to them. Backyard Bible Clubs and other evangelistic efforts are planned for the summer. Outside groups are lined up to help the church conduct them. They have no plans to dismantle the dormitory space reserved for volunteers.
“We have a good setup for groups that want to have a mission experience but are limited costwise,” he said.
They provide an affordable alternative to opportunities like World Changers, a great program, but one that smaller congregations often cannot afford, Rosa said. As a former youth minister for 10 years, he knows the value of providing ministry opportunities for affluent youth, who are often self-centered. The Triangle of Hope welcomes such groups.
Any group interested in Triangle of Hope ministry opportunities can find out more on their web site at www.trihope.homestead.com. Old-fashioned mail can be sent to Triangle of Hope Ministries, Inc., PO Box 515, Bogalusa LA 70429.
Contact can also be made by calling Henry DeWolde at 985-294-3236 or Pastor Marcus Rosa at 985-732-9602.