Volunteers sought for cleanup at New Orleans Seminary
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| Next steps New Orleans Seminary President Chuck Kelley consoles two students during the Oct. 5-8 move-out of the flood-damaged campus. Now a volunteer effort is being launched to restore the seminary’s on-campus housing. Photo by Sherri Brown |
Bob and Linda Jackson, new directors of the seminary’s MissionLab program, will coordinate the initiative which will involve scheduling 50 volunteers per week from Oct. 31 until the job is finished.
“God has put before us a task too big for us, but not too big for Him,” Bob Jackson said. “Southern Baptists have an opportunity to come bring the message of love to the city of New Orleans.”
New Orleans-area pastor sees revival amid the devastation
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| Church’s post-Katrina look After Hurricane Katrina, the New Orleans-area First Baptist Church in Luling took on the look of a warehouse, with the influx of much-needed disaster relief supplies. |
Todd Hallman, pastor of First Baptist Church of Luling, said his people have been revitalized by distributing 20 tractor-trailer loads of supplies and establishing three distribution centers in the New Orleans area.
“There’s excitement in the church,” said Luling, senior pastor since June 2003. “The church has been transformed into a hospital where people’s needs are met. It has changed our mode of missions.
Volunteer’s query to Muslim family yields positive response
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| Charmaine Fenstermacher |
“As a car pulled up, we’d say, ‘Hi, how are you? Do you want some lunch?’” Fenstermacher, of Southlake, Texas, recounted. When asked, “How are you doing?” some of the displaced Louisianans told how Hurricane Katrina had left them destitute and hungry.
Volunteers’ lives transformed as God uses them in disaster relief
GRAPEVINE, Texas (BP)--When Hurricane Katrina slammed into the Gulf Coast, destroying towns, homes and possessions, victims’ lives were changed in an instant. However, as evacuation sites opened to bring aid and comfort in the devastated region, many volunteers got their first taste of disaster relief work and found that Hurricane Katrina changed their lives as well.
Luter among N.O. leaders who met with Bush to discuss future
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| Dinner with the president Fred Luter (right), pastor of Franklin Avenue Baptist Church, dined with President Bush, New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin and Coast Guard Admiral Thad Allen Oct. 10 in the French Quarter as a 17-member commission discussed plans for rebuilding the city. Luter said he was “thoroughly impressed” with the president’s sincerity. Photo courtesy of the White House |
The group dined with President Bush and his wife, Laura, at the Italian-Creole restaurant Bacco in the French Quarter Oct. 10 and had the opportunity to express their concerns and ideas with the nation’s leader.
Luter told Baptist Press he has known Nagin for years and the mayor has visited his 7,000-member Southern Baptist church several times. Luter believes he was chosen for the commission because of the number of people he represents and because he is a lifelong New Orleans resident.
“Everybody knows I love New Orleans,” he said Oct. 12.
Disaster relief rejuvenating 50-year-old Louisiana church
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| Friendly welcome Jim Caldwell, pastor of the New Orleans-area Riverside Baptist Church in River Ridge, visits with a woman who came to the church for a meal. Church members and other volunteers feed about 1,500 people a day. Photo by Sherri Brown |
That’s exactly what Riverside Baptist Church looks like. The River Ridge church, just outside of New Orleans, has been feeding 1,500 to 2000 people every day for the past three weeks. Volunteers plan to continue feeding until November.
“We’ve got a crazy, eclectic group of people working here,” said Jim Caldwell, pastor of the church.
When Caldwell returned to the city and found the church’s facilities in fairly good shape, he envisioned the location as a food and water distribution center. He called the Louisiana Baptist Convention but help wasn’t immediately available in the post-hurricane days.
Bush pledges federal government will support, not dictate Gulf rebuilding efforts
COVINGTON, La. (BP)--With a tool belt around his waist and a hard hat close by, President Bush said Oct. 11 that the federal government will not dictate terms for rebuilding the Gulf Coast after Hurricane Katrina but will support the key decisions made by local leaders.
Record 7.3 million meals provided to Gulf hurricane victims
ALPHARETTA, Ga. (BP)--An all-time record has been reached -- more than 7.3 million meals prepared to date for victims of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita under the Southern Baptists’ mammoth disaster relief effort across the Gulf Coast.
Steeple remains seminary’s beacon for the Gospel in N.O.
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| At the steeple Endel Lee, a New Orleans Seminary professor and Navy chaplain, leads a brief worship service Oct. 5 for relief workers and seminary families on the steps of Leavell Chapel with its beacon-like steeple. Photo by Gary D. Myers |
In 2002, when seminary administrators chose a new logo for the school, they chose the steeple as a symbol for the NOBTS. The symbol represents the seminary’s witness in the city and the world.
As seminary families returned to campus in the early morning hours Oct. 5-9, the steeple was the only light visible for miles and miles. This lone point of light shining in a sea of darkness represented the hope many have for the seminary and city -– a hope rooted in Jesus Christ.
“The steeple was the first thing we lit when power was restored,” NOBTS President Chuck Kelley said. “It really is a light in the midst of darkness.”
Seminary’s former residents endure days of cleaning & moving
NEW ORLEANS (BP)--The first week in October was a week of emotional highs and lows for the New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary family. Joy mingled with pain and loss. Tears mixed with laughter and hope.
