In New Orleans’ Zone 6, the air is still. The early summer and midsummer were strong for work in the portion of the city adopted by Alabama Baptists, but in the last six weeks, the sound of hammers pounding has basically been silenced.
“We’ve had some good teams from Alabama but we’ve hit a lull,” said Gary Walker, Alabama Baptists’ project coordinator in New Orleans for the state’s partnership with the Zone 6 area of Operation New Orleans Area Homes (NOAH) Rebuild. “Summer vacations have ended. School and football are starting back but we’re still here and there will be work to do here for years to come.”
People who come to the tourist section of town say, “New Orleans is back,” Walker noted. “But until you get out in the neighborhoods and see the devastation, you just don’t realize what terrible shape this city’s still in.”
Thousands upon thousands of homes still need major work in Zone 6, he said. “But the main thrust is we want to try to help people rebuild their lives, not just their houses.”
Tommy Puckett, Alabama Baptist disaster relief director, said the way state Baptist leaders hope to accomplish this is through associations and churches adopting a family and its home and seeing the project through from start to finish.
An association or church can take teams down regularly, get to know the family, work on the home and when it’s finished throw a block party as a celebration, he said. “The consistency in their lives gives us an open door to share the gospel.”
One church that has been a “shining beacon of constantly sending people down” is NorthPark Baptist Church, Trussville, in Birmingham Baptist Association, Puckett said. NorthPark Baptist has been consistently involved in relief efforts since Hurricane Katrina hit in August 2005 and has sent teams to Zone 6 since the state’s adoption of the partnership in March 2007.
“They are one church that has really gone time and time again,” Puckett said. And he and Walker are hoping for a lot more like it.
“There’s so much of a spiritual need to minister to people here. They’re on their last leg — there’s no hope left,” Walker said.
Anyone “who would put on a pair of shoes and come” is welcome but Zone 6 is especially in need of people who can do carpentry and electrical work, hang Sheetrock and do other specialized construction tasks, he said.
“Lots of houses have been worked on and lives have been changed,” Walker said. “But we as a body of believers are missing a great opportunity to help change New Orleans if we don’t come down and do all we can to help people and plant churches.”
To volunteer for a project, call Puckett’s office at 1-800-264-1225, Ext. 229.
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