This association, covering the parishes of Vermillion, Lafayette, St. Martin, and a portion of Iberia, ministers to a population of nearly 368,000, according to recent U.S. census statistics.
EVANGELINE BAPTIST ASSOCIATION – This association, covering the parishes of Vermillion, Lafayette, St. Martin, and a portion of Iberia, ministers to a population of nearly 368,000, according to recent U.S. census statistics.
The 48 churches spread across the heart of this Cajun country serve a mixture of people, said Director of Missions Bert Langley, including educators, professionals, farmers, crawfishers, commercial fishermen and more.
“You name it, we got it here,” he continued. “We’ve got some of the best people in the state of Louisiana in this area – and the best food in the United States!”
The largest metropolitan area is Lafayette, home to more than 100,000 people, and surrounded by many smaller communities. The area is rich in festivals, Langley said.
“We’ve got festivals for everything,” he explained, including hogs, frogs, boudin, rice, and, of course, Mardi Gras. “If there’s a festival out there we have a name for it. It’s kind of the atmosphere of the area: ‘Let the good times roll.’”
Tourists come for the Cajun culture, the food, and the festivals, especially Mardi Gras, which shuts things down in the area, Langley said.
Serving amid a predominantly Roman Catholic population, the Southern Baptist churches have a difficult time helping people grasp relationship with God as opposed to rote ‘religion,’ he said.
The churches in Evangeline Association serve their communities through a variety of missions and ministries, including food pantries, clothing stores, nursing home ministries, a motorcycle ministry, hospice, hospital work, and language.
“At one time I counted up that we had the gospel being preached in seven languages – Chinese, Korean, Spanish, English, Vietnamese, Laotian, and French – on Sunday in this association,” the DOM said. “One of the things we’re trying to get off the ground in this association is putting together mission trips,” Langley said, explaining that the many small churches in the association would find it impossible to put together mission teams on their own.
“So we’re organizing this at the association level, doing most of the work, and funding a good bit of it,” he said. “What we’re doing at the associational level is trying to open the door for churches to at least send one person to join others and go out on a mission team and have a first-hand mission experience on the mission field.”
The association’s goal is to have teams going to international, North American and local mission fields each year. This year the association plans to send out two teams, one to the Ukraine, and one to Alaska, Langley said.
In addition to mission teams, the association supports a mission fund, observing the Bower-Conrad Missions Offering Week to raise money to meet the special needs of mission churches throughout the year, Langley said. For three years the association has observed the offering week, named for two men instrumental in starting churches in South Louisiana.:St. Clair Bower and Carl Conrad. Thus far the funds have been used to help the Association’s Spanish Mission, which has begun a work in Honduras – see related article this page – and Community Chapel in installing an air conditioning system.
The association has also begun two other ministries, one for ministers’ wives and another for secretaries throughout the association, Langley said. “Ministers’ wives are the unsung heroes,” he explained. “They get the brunt of a lot of things.” The ministry provides bi-annual fellowships for the ladies. The Church Secretaries Ministry, organized by Langley’s sister-in-law, Elizabeth Langley, provides an opportunity for the secretaries to get acquainted with one another, strengthening the bonds among the churches, the DOM said.
Evangeline Association also provides support to Acadian Baptist Center; the Baptist Collegiate Ministry at University of Louisiana, Lafayette; a pregnancy center and clinic; a disaster relief ministry, as well as many others.
In 2006, the churches saw a total of 308 baptisms and gave more than $880,000 to the Cooperative Program, while the missions saw 86 baptisms and gave $61,000 to the Cooperative Program.