FIRST-PERSON: Making evangelism good news again
ALPHARETTA, Ga. (BP)--I have just returned from the Gulf Coast. I am overwhelmed by what I have seen -- the devastating destruction, yes, but more than that. I am overwhelmed by the work of God in His people. It will take more than one article to share my heart about the heroic, New Testament Christ-followers I met and the hurting people they are reaching.
Katrina took their belongings, but new missionaries undaunted
PENSACOLA, Fla. (BP)--They fled New Orleans with three days' worth of clothes, a few photo albums and two pet chinchillas.
$10 million in loans to aid SBC churches hit by Katrina
ALPHARETTA, Ga. (BP)--The North American Mission Board will provide low-interest loans up to $100,000 to Southern Baptist churches damaged by Hurricane Katrina. NAMB is designating a total of $10 million to the disaster loan effort.
Katrina victim sees body of Christ in seminary’s relief team
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| Meeting needs Mark DuBois, a disaster relief volunteer from the Memphis-area Bellevue Baptist Church in Cordova, Tenn., speaks with Andrew Cooper of Slidell, La., who rode out Hurricane Katrina inside his wooden home. DuBois is one of many Baptists, including students from Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, who have lent help to hurricane victims in Slidell. Photo by Morris Abernathy |
“The only thing left in his house were ceiling fans,” DeBusk said.
DeBusk was part of a team of students from Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary who spent a week in Slidell, La., helping victims of Hurricane Katrina. The students tore carpet and drywall out of houses. They helped put tarps on roofs. And they handed out tracts, prayed with residents and tried to meet people’s spiritual needs.
New Orleans pastors voice hope for churches to spark revival
JACKSON, Miss. (BP)--Pastors of New Orleans Southern Baptist churches do not know the details of how they will rebuild their ministries but are committed to going back and working hard to see the churches return to life.
Families waited through the silence as seminary crew left N.O.
ATLANTA (BP)--While 24 people from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary struggled to find a way out of the New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, their families waited. Cell phones were out and floodwaters were rising. The families were left to cope with the silence.
Kelley: Katrina can lead church toward ‘proclamation & ministry’
ATLANTA (BP)--“If the church does not learn to deal with the poor, we simply can never fulfill the Great Commission,” New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary President Chuck Kelley said.
In Katrina’s shadow, IMB trustees appoint 86 new missionaries
PENSACOLA, Fla. (BP)--Eighty-six new Southern Baptist missionaries were appointed Sept. 13 by International Mission Board trustees at Hillcrest Baptist Church in Pensacola, Fla. -- a Gulf Coast city east of the region battered by Hurricane Katrina.
New Orleans pastor views Katrina’s toll: ‘We’re gonna rebuild’
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| 7 feet A Sept. 12 aerial view shows Franklin Street Baptist Church and its surrounding New Orleans neighborhood. Flood waters from Hurricane Katrina reached an estimated height of 7 feet there. Photo by Norm Miller |
Joined by Southern Baptist Convention President Bobby Welch and David Hankins, executive director of the Louisiana Baptist Convention, Luter and his companions have faces that express wary curiosity.
“I’ve heard 6 feet. I’ve heard 20 feet,” said Luter, answering a question from Welch about the extent to which Franklin Avenue Baptist Church had been inundated.
With front-end loader pushing floodwater, crew began escape
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| On display Gasoline cans, now on view in a hallway at New Orleans Seminary’s North Georgia Campus near Atlanta, served as a lifeline for an NOBTS crew’s escape from New Orleans Aug. 31. Photo by Gary D. Myers |
Friedmann called his senior staff to the cafeteria that had served as the command post since flooding began. Barry Busby, chief of campus police, James Byrd, director of housing and janitorial services, David Dowdy, associate director of grounds, and Friedmann worked to find a way out of the city.
Earlier in the day, the men heard that an escape route remained open. The problem for the seminary crew: making it to Interstate 10. Even getting off the campus would pose significant challenges.
