As Gary Walker looks around at his little corner of New Orleans, he says he’s seeing a rebirth of homes, not at a record-breaking pace, but "at a good clip."
"There are a lot of homes still devastated, but there are lots that we can tell a difference in from a year ago," says Walker, Alabama Baptists’ project manager for the rebuilding work in New Orleans’ Zone 6. "In some neighborhoods that only had one or two homeowners back in, now 50 percent are either rebuilding or have moved back in."
Walker’s words are punctuated by hammering. As he talks about the improvements, a team of Alabama Baptists from his home church — Riverbend Baptist, Gadsden, in Etowah Baptist Association — are making one person’s home even better.
And he’s looking to see even more improvements happening soon.
"We’ve got hundreds of volunteers scheduled to work during this summer," he said, noting that there’s always room for more help in Zone 6, the area adopted by Alabama Baptists as part of Operation New Orleans Area Homes (NOAH) Rebuild. "We are hoping to see 300–500 people a day."
To herald that work in and get the ground primed for seeds to be planted, Alabama Woman’s Missionary Union (WMU) took a team of 73 to New Orleans April 24–26 to prayer walk in Zone 6. The effort was Alabama WMU’s second prayer-walking trip to the area as part of their Mission New Orleans prayer effort.
"The purpose of the prayer-walking trips has been to prepare the way for ministry," said Candace McIntosh, executive director of Alabama WMU.
"God expanded our mission during this trip," she said. "We were able to cover a larger area and participants were able not only to pray with many of the residents, but several were also able to present the plan of salvation."
One 12 year old was led to the Lord as a result, she noted. "I was in awe of how God used each of these women and men to minister in New Orleans."
While there, in addition to prayer walking all of Zone 6, the team ministered at two local schools, reading to students.
They also served at the Baptist Friendship House and the Baptist Campus Ministry of Tulane University and with two Baptist congregations that have recently moved back into Zone 6 for the first time since Hurricane Katrina — Faith Baptist Church and Carrollton Avenue Baptist Church (see story, this page).
McIntosh said Zone 6 has been likened to an international missions field in that it has the smallest number of Southern Baptist churches of any other area of New Orleans.
So part of the trip’s purpose, she said, was to encourage those congregations in their efforts to reach their neighborhoods for Christ. The prayer walking in their areas, she noted, helps soften the soil there for the churches’ ministry work.
"God is at work in these prayer-walking experiences, and I can’t wait to see how He continues to use the women and men of Alabama," McIntosh said.
For more information about Alabama WMU’s Mission New Orleans prayer effort, call 1-800-264-1225, Ext. 292.
For more information on how to get involved with Operation NOAH Rebuild, call Tommy Puckett at the Alabama Baptist State Board of Missions at 1-800-264-1225, Ext. 229.
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