150-plus Alabama college students take precedent-setting trip to New Orleans

150-plus Alabama college students take precedent-setting trip to New Orleans

More than 150 Alabama Baptist college students spent part of their Christmas break working in New Orleans’ Zone 6, the western side of Orleans Parish, where state Baptists committed to help rebuild following Hurricane Katrina in August 2005.

“This project points to what Baptist Campus Ministries across the state value, which is mobilizing collegians to impact people all over the world with the love of Christ. We’ve had students from 10 to 12 college campuses from all over Alabama give up part of their break to show that love,” said Jerrod Brown, senior Baptist campus minister at the University of South Alabama (USA) in Mobile.

Noting the project was part of Operation NOAH Rebuild — a partnership project between New Orleans-area Baptist associations and churches, the Louisiana Baptist Convention and the North American Mission Board (NAMB) — Brown added, “The most basic goal of NOAH is to show Christ’s love in a practical way by getting folks back home.”

Mike Nuss, director of collegiate and student ministries at the Alabama Baptist State Board of Missions (SBOM), said, “We were expecting 75 or 80 students to participate and we had 150-plus students. This is a precedent-setting event for us.”

Gary Walker, an Alabama Baptist and Alabama Baptists’ project coordinator in New Orleans for the state’s partnership with the Zone 6 area, said with that many students, a large amount of work was able to be done in a short period of time.

He added that the students’ positive attitudes made “a huge impact on the locals with their hard work and servant hearts.”

Kim Andrews, Baptist campus minister at the University of Alabama and Shelton State Community College in Tuscaloosa, also found encouragement in the work of the students.

“The opportunity to see these students work so hard has blessed me more than they realize,” she said. “I have really been encouraged working alongside them.”

The students were involved in meeting practical, physical needs by rebuilding and repairing homes, which opened the door to meeting the homeowners’ spiritual needs as well.

Damon Smith, a student at USA experiencing his first missions trip, said opportunities to talk with people about Christ came as they asked questions about the students being in New Orleans.

Hannah Keel, a student at Troy University, recounted getting to know one of those individuals, Eartha Myers. “I came here expecting the homeowners to be bitter but Ms. Eartha was not,” Keel said. “She offered to cook meals for us. You could see that she was so grateful for the work that we did.”

Myers, who lived in the same house for 35 years before Katrina hit, expressed appreciation for the help. “Any little bit of help we can get is a big help,” she said. “Little by little, the help we are getting is bringing the city back.

All that have come to help are more appreciated than they could ever imagine.”

Bo Jolly, a student at Auburn University, highlighted the ongoing need in New Orleans and the role Christians should play in addressing it. “God needs us to show our love to others, and that couldn’t be more true than now in New Orleans. The community is happy to have us here. They see that they are loved through our work. You’ll be blessed to come help.”

Walker likewise emphasized the need for additional volunteers to continue the work of meeting numerous needs as there are 200,000 homes in the New Orleans area that need work done. “There’s still plenty of work to be done,” he said.

For more information on Zone 6 or Operation NOAH, contact Reggie Quimby, director of the SBOM’s office of global missions, at 1-800-264-1225, Ext. 239, or rquimby@alsbom.org.