A tent, a carport, an old, deserted nightclub. Bobby Hodnett has used them all to spread God’s word in St. Mary’s Parish for the last 40 years.
CHARENTON – A tent, a carport, an old, deserted nightclub. Bobby Hodnett has used them all to spread God’s word in St. Mary’s Parish for the last 40 years.
“When I came here in 1970 as a missionary, it was to revive the work that had been started in 1937, but had gone dead,” said Hodnett, the pastor of Little Pass Baptist Church in Charenton. “My first service was in a tent on the guide protection levee that separates the Atchafalaya Basin from the city.
“As I recall, it was rather warm and we had more kids than adults in the beginning. I believe we eventually ended up with close to 52 adults before the year was out, ” he said. “We’ve been growing every since.
“In 1973, there was a tremendous amount of high water throughout the state, and the Corps of Engineers told us we had to leave,” he said.
“So, we found this old abandoned nightclub, cleaned it up, and began to hold services there,” said Hodnett. “I think I even had services in a carport at one time. We decided to have a Bible school and we held that in the city park in nearby Franklin.”
Eventually, 1974, he turned his attention to Chitimacha Indian Tribe, which had a reservation in Charenton. He wanted to begin a backyard Bible club there, and hold it under a large live oak tree.
Tribal tradition says that four sacred trees mark the boundaries of the Chitimacha world. What better place to begin the club than under one of these majestic trees. However, it got off to rather an inauspicious start, according to Hodnett.
“I wanted to do a backyard Bible club on the reservation, so I was told I needed to speak to the chief. I went to the old chief and asked his permission and invited him to come,” said Hodnett. “He said, ‘If white man doesn’t want me to go to school with me, why would I want to go to church with him.’”
It wasn’t the exactly the encouragement he had hoped to receive, but he didn’t let the chief’s answer discourage him. He continued to talk and work with him, and it wasn’t long before they became friends.
“I ended up preaching that man’s funeral when he died a number of years later,” he said.
Over the next few years, Hodnett did his best to help on the reservation, providing Bible study, free dental and health clinics, and he was even instrumental in helping get the Christian Indian Rally started.
“One had to be an Indian in order to attend,” he said. “But we always drew some large crowds as there were tribes and speakers – including Russell Begaye, head of languages for the North American Mission Board – from all over the country who would come to the rally.”
Hodnett, though, did not limit his work to Charenton. He traveled extensively to reservations in Oklahoma and the Dakotas.
The arrival of the Chitamacha Tribe’s land-based casino suddenly brought a monetary windfall to the reservation, which enabled them to get many of the health-related services Hodnett had been helping them get.
The one thing the influx of money, though, could not take care of was the spiritual need of tribe members and the people from the surrounding area. As always, Hodnett was there to minister to their needs.
“The church (Little Pass Baptist Church) is just two blocks from the reservation, so I am on and off the reservation all the time,” Hodnett said. “I perform weddings and funerals, visit them when they are sick and in the hospital, and baptize them.
“While some tribe members go to the Catholic Church and others to the Assembly of God, I have quite a few that come to Little Pass, including the former chairman of the tribe,” he said. “We have close to 500 on our rolls.
“And this area is growing. There are new homes being built everyday in Charenton and Baldwin and more and more people are moving here,” Hodnett said. “We have managed to bring the gospel to Baldwin and Cypremort. We have started a Bible study in Lydia.
“It is a very busy time and there are a lot of good things happening,” the pastor continued. “It just proves that God is at work no matter where we are.”