Compassed about by lakes and the Gulf of Mexico and veined by bayous large and small, the churches in this Baptist association understand what it means to be fishers of men.
BAYOU BAPTIST
ASSOCIATION – Compassed about by lakes and the Gulf of
Mexico and veined by bayous large and small, the churches in this
Baptist association understand what it means to be fishers of men.
The association ministers to an area that –
except for Houma – is comprised of small communities and even smaller churches
in the parishes of Assumption, St. James, Terrebonne, LaFourche, and the mostly
aquatic southern portion of Jefferson, including the seven-mile-long Grand
Isle.
“Every church is
a little bit different,” said Joe Arnold, director of missions for the
association.
In all there are
31 churches, mostly with 50 or fewer in membership. “One has a membership of
nine,” Arnold
said, and just became a church this past October.
“A part of what
is happening is that a lot [of churches and people] have struggled after the
storm,” the DOM said. “The people are one of the best assets in this area,” he
continued. “The Cajun people are real friendly and family-oriented.” Fishing,
and eating, are the major attractions for the area, he added.
During the last
weekend of July, Grand Isle swells from a population of 1000 to one of 20,000
as people flood the area for the annual Tarpon Rodeo—a fishing tournament named
for a coastal fish prized by anglers. The tarpon grow up to 8 feet in length
and sometimes weigh 200 pounds.
“People come down
here to fish and drink, so we take evangelism teams out to minister to them,”
said Paul Edenfield Associate Pastor at Grand Isle First Baptist. The ministry
is year round but really booms during the weekend of the Tarpon Rodeo, he said.
“We’re the light
in the darkness,” he explained. “It shines really bright that weekend. People
need Christ, and that’s what we give them. We tell them we’re glad to see them,
and that we love them. We want to share the truth.”
Last year workers
led 20 people to give their lives to Christ through various ministries that the
church brings on-site to the rodeo, including face-painting for kids, a puppet
show, inflatable slides, water distribution, free balloons, and, at night,
“tail-gate evangelism.”
“That’s when the
fun really begins,” Edenfield said. When the festivities sponsored by the
Tarpon Rodeo shut down around 11 p.m., people park their vehicles up and down
Hwy 1—the only highway in Grand Isle—drop their tailgates and continue the
partying begun earlier in the day.
“We go to every
one we can find, on both sides of the highway,” Edenfield said. “Sometimes we
don’t get back till three in the morning. Last year we saw people pour out
their alcohol and put their faith in Christ. It was absolutely amazing,
something only God could do.
“Our major thing
is that it’s all bathed in prayer,” he continued. “We couldn’t do anything
without praying.”
This year’s plans
for ministering at the rodeo are the same, only bigger, he said. “It’s all for
God’s glory. We were given the largest spot in the pavilion last year. We’re
wanting to do our own tent next to the pavilion this year to get more slides
and more family activities. This year we want to be the major thing at the
rodeo.”
Disaster Relief
is still a major opportunity for ministry in the Bayou Baptist Association as
families struggle to recover from Hurricane Rita, Arnold said.
“This is kind of a lost area, between New Orleans
and Lake Charles,”
he said. “We’ve had a large disaster relief effort in this area because a lot
of these folks don’t have anything. They live in small houses on the bayou, no
insurance, and 10 feet of water [from the Rita flooding]. We’ve been acting as
a funnel for these people to find hope.
A lot of people felt that after the hurricane
there was nothing they could do,” the DOM continued.
But the churches
in the Bayou Baptist Association are making it their business to help those
still struggling, one person, one household at a time, by providing funding and
labor to put houses back together, he said.
“We have 20
active jobs going on right now,” he said, despite the fact that everybody wants
to go to New Orleans.
“Ask about going to Dulac and they say ‘Huh?’ Recruiting is difficult because
we don’t have any glamorous sites, just torn up sites.”
The association
is also scheduling block parties and one-day revivals throughout the area. In
February, Fred Luter preached at the association-wide evangelism rally to a
crowd of about 500 at First Houma’s northwest campus.
The association
also supports a music ministry, WMU; association-wide youth discipleship
training, Sunday school and family ministry events; home and foreign missions
initiatives; the BCM at NichollsState
University; and the AcadianBaptist
Center.
The Bayou Baptist
Association, known as the Adolphe Stagg Association until October 2006 – for a
missionary who had served in the area – had been without a DOM for 18 months
when Arnold
took the position June 1, 2006.