Though there are plenty of tourist attractions to see and things to do in Louisiana, this winter, a number of Alabama Baptists will burn up the road between here and there with something totally different in mind.
They’re going to rebuild — to love on Louisiana just as they’ve been doing ever since Hurricane Katrina slammed into it in August 2005.
“The largest number of construction workers working in the state have come from Alabama,” said John Yeats, director of communications for the Louisiana Baptist Convention. “We are so grateful for Alabama Baptists coming and helping us with this mammoth task, larger than any of us could have imagined.”
Some of the work state Baptists have participated in has gone on in New Orleans’ Zone 6 through Operation New Orleans Area Homes (NOAH) Rebuild and Alabama’s partnership with that section of the city.
But many other projects have been scattered across other parts of that city and the state of Louisiana, with groups such as Builders for Christ connecting with a particular family or church and working on a rebuild over an extended period of time.
One such connection was that between Alabama Baptists and First Baptist Church, Chalmette, La. When Katrina hit, the church building flooded as did area homes.
Enormous need
“It’s the greatest need I’ve ever seen, having done this for 27 years,” said Lawrence Corley, a member of Brookwood Baptist Church, Birmingham, in Birmingham Baptist Association.
“This” is work with Builders for Christ, an organization headquartered in Birmingham, that sent 1,700 people to First, Chalmette, La., including many from Alabama.
Corley, who serves as project manager at the Louisiana church and is president of CTSM Architects in Birmingham, has been down there seven times in the past year.
“A lot of people have given a tremendous amount of time to this,” he said. “In addition to working on the church, we’ve already finished three houses, too,” one of which was the pastor’s.
Valleydale Baptist Church, Birmingham, in Birmingham Association was one of the churches that sponsored a Builders for Christ team, sending 41 people to First, Chalmette, La., in June.
“The congregation of Chalmette First Baptist was over 350 before Katrina, and today it’s around 70 meeting in a local school,” said Valleydale member Ralph Harris. “Almost the entire congregation is still living in FEMA trailers.”
Considering the devastation in the area, the church’s rebuilding project is “an even bigger undertaking than Jacob’s Well (a church in Wisconsin that another Valleydale Builders for Christ team worked on),” Harris said.
That’s pretty much the thought all across the damaged portions of Louisiana, Yeats said, but Alabama Baptists are helping to put a dent in the massive task.
Sticking it out
“A lot of faith groups have pulled out but [Alabama Baptists] haven’t,” he said. “Baptists (in Louisiana) weren’t on the radar for decades, but all of a sudden, we have the opportunity to offer a message of hope that the citizens are receiving.”
In July, a team from North Jefferson Baptist Association also worked in Chalmette, helping work on the church and members’ homes.
A group of workers at a home near where the North Jefferson Association team was working asked for water, and the team provided it for them.
One of the workers said, “We knew you would help us, because the Baptist people have done more in this area than any other group."
“It was a great testimony of the work that has taken place there in the past two years since Katrina and is still being done today by Christians from our Baptist churches,” said Sue Brown, children’s minister at First Baptist Church, Warrior, in North Jefferson Association.
Yeats said there’s no question that the work and ministry of Alabama Baptists in Louisiana is making an impact.
“The projects that you have engaged in have offered a real beacon of hope,” he said.
“It gives us the groundwork to be able to share the gospel witness.”
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