When Gary Walker first walked the streets of New Orleans’ Zone 6, the silence was deafening.
“The devastation was massive and everything was abandoned — one house in a whole block might have someone working on it,” said Walker, Alabama Baptists’ project manager for the rebuilding work in Zone 6. “There was a hopelessness in everyone’s eyes.”
In the 14 months following, under his watchful eye, a crescendo of hammers filled the neighborhoods.
Now the noise is waning again. But the silence means progress this time, he said. It means Walker has done all he can do and Alabama Baptists’ work there is wrapping up.
“The city’s beginning to find its spirit again,” Walker said. “It’s coming back. It’s encouraged.”
And Walker and his wife, Cathy, are planning a comeback of their own.
After feeling a call away from the pastorate of an Etowah Baptist Association church to help rebuild lives in post-Katrina New Orleans, they’re returning to another church in the association. He’ll start as pastor of Riddles Bend Baptist Church, Rainbow City, Aug. 10.
“Gary has done a phenomenal job in connecting our churches with homeowners in need in Zone 6,” said Tommy Puckett, Alabama Baptist disaster relief director. “He has been what I would call a complete missionary.
“His ministry was more than just construction — it was being a connection for other ministry opportunities, whether it be sitting and listening to the homeowners or looking for a place for a new church plant.”
Walker said when he got to New Orleans, his job quickly moved from construction facilitator to homeowners’ friend.
“They became more than just a name, a number and an address,” Walker said. “God blessed me with the privilege of getting to know them, their children and things about their lives.”
He spent a large portion of his time listening to stories of survival, and Cathy Walker invested months into rebuilding the library that nearby Calvary Baptist Church’s Christian school lost to the storm.
“She catalogued more than 3,000 books,” Gary Walker said. “The library is functioning now — that project kind of wrapped up at the same time.”
In the midst of all the ends tying up, the Walkers felt God leading them back to Alabama. But he said they’ve made memories and friends in New Orleans they’ll never forget. “It’s been a blessing,” he said.
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