The new leader of the 16 million-member Southern Baptist Convention toured New Orleans’ vast flood zone the week of July 17 and, astonished at what he saw, promised to point more volunteers toward the region where tens of thousands of Baptist church members have toiled since the second day after Hurricane Katrina.
In a neighborhood off Elysian Fields Avenue July 17, Frank Page chatted with nearly two-dozen sweat-soaked Missouri teens who were gutting a house along with a few adult chaperones.
Later he visited more than 200 volunteers helping build 40 homes in the Baptist Crossroads Project, a New Orleans effort co-sponsored by local Southern Baptists and Habitat for Humanity.
Flanking those visits were tours of Lakeview and the Lower 9th Ward, two New Orleans neighborhoods hit hard by Katrina.
“My reaction is … incredulity,” Page said later. “It’s almost unbelievable. I’ve seen the pictures, but they cannot capture the widespread devastation. Mile after mile. It looks like something after a nuclear bomb.”
A pastor from Taylors, S.C., Page was elected in June as head of the nation’s largest Protestant denomination.
The trip was largely a personal reconnaissance to see Southern Baptist work in the area.
Like many faith-based communities, Southern Baptists have poured money and volunteers into the flood zone.
Their work began the second day after the storm with cooking thousands of meals a day for dazed homeowners.
It has expanded to cutting trees off homes, gutting thousands of ruined homes and now building some houses.
The convention’s North American Mission Board estimated its volunteers have contributed more than 43,000 days of Katrina relief work this year.
Share with others: