Providing love: In an isolated South Louisiana town, a group of Baptists are
engaged in a caring ministry that is touching just about every single child
in the community
Grand Isle, Louisiana sits on the end – or the beginning
– of State Highway 1, depending upon which way one is headed.
Providing love: In an isolated South Louisiana town, a group of Baptists are
engaged in a caring ministry that is touching just about every single child
in the community
Grand Isle, Louisiana sits on the end – or the beginning
– of State Highway 1, depending upon which way one is headed.
Surrounded by gulf marshes, the pancake-flat island is home
of a United States Coast Guard station, a state park filled with rabbits and
commercial and sports fishing outfits.
There is an oil company outpost, some restaurants, a couple
of convenience and bait stores, five churches and eight bars, plus 1,500 permanent
residents.
There is not a lot to do for the children and young people
who live on the one-mile wide, five-mile long strip of land surrounded by “water,
water everywhere.”
The closest Wal-Mart is 45 minutes away, and the nearest movie
theater takes an hour to get to, if driving. When children and teenagers get
out of school at the end of the day, they do their homework, play in the streets
or watch television.
One can see this paucity of activities as a major reason to
complain – or a major opportunity for ministry.
First Baptist Church of Grand Isle sits one block off the only
highway in or out of town – and sees the conditions in the area as a major
opportunity for ministry. For several years, they have maintained a dynamic
and still-growing ministry to the children and young people of the entire Grand
Isle community.
“There are approximately 134 students enrolled in our
kindergarten through fifth grade school,” pastor Herb Cowan explains. “As
of today, we have 112 enrolled in our Team Kids Club. That is up from 80 last
year. We also have about 30 teenagers in our Teen Bible Study.”
The teenage Bible study is led on Wednesday evenings by the
churchs part-time youth minister, Annette Robin, who also is a public
school teacher.
Cowan and his wife, Sharon, have been with First Baptist Church
for six years – getting ready to start their seventh summer of ministry
here. Team Kids was started during the Cowans first year at the church.
The Cowans enlisted workers from within and without their church
who have grown in their commitment to the ministry.
On a recent Tuesday afternoon, 40 children streamed into the
churchs activity room for an hour-and-a-half of games, Bible studies and
refreshments. Some 50 had been there the previous week. The Cowans, who have
two grown children, enthusiastically led the opening activities that eventually
became a time of songs and large group Bible study.
Then, the children were divided into groups according to their
school grades and led into classrooms. Teachers led the children through learning
handcrafts, Bible memorization and Bible study.
The Team Kids activities are led according to curriculum by
that name published by Lifeway Christian Resources of the Southern Baptist Convention.
When the second graders were waiting in line for refreshments,
they gave staccato answers about why they come to Team Kids and what they enjoyed
about the meetings.
“I like hearing about God a lot.”
“Using the Bible.”
“When somebody doesnt know a lot about God, I try
to help them learn about Jesus.”
The seventh graders gave similar answers, but their teacher,
a high school student named Amy Barient, who is not a member of the church,
expanded on why she worked as a leader and what she enjoyed.
“They didnt know a lot about God,” she notes.
“Just seeing them learn about God and how to go to heaven.”
Genesis Ballard, a church member since 1986 but who became
“active again” some three years ago, is now one of the co-leaders
of the ministry. When asked why she gave her time in the ministry, she replied:
“The Lord told me to work with the children. Ive been a teacher in
Sunday School for three years now and working with Team Kids for two years.”
Her interest in working with children came when her third child
was born, she says.
“We have two boys, 23 and 20,” she explains. “And
we have one who is 7. Yes, you heard right.”
Now, the Galliano – up the bayou from Grand Isle –
native, whose husband runs a string of offshore crew boats and transporters,
is sold on the ministry.
“Seeing the love that was needed down here, the way the
children respond back to our love … there are homes down here where pets are
treated better than the kids,” she notes. “We took two children home
after Sunday School one Sunday, and their parents were not home.”
While the rewards of the ministry are great, so are the demands.
“It will take as much time as you will give it and more,” Ballard
says. “But we care, so, we put in the time.”
The motto of Team Kids is: “Learning about God. Using
the Bible. Living for Jesus.”
The weekly meetings help the children in each area.
Children are rewarded with “Team Kids Dollars” for
several accomplishments they can make each week, such as learning Bible verses,
reading certain passages, good behavior and bringing new kids to the weekly
meetings. Periodically, leaders provide a “Team Kids Store” for the
children to exchange their “dollars” for small items for themselves
and gifts they can buy for their mothers.
“It is just a way of encouraging them, and rewarding them
for what they do,” Sharon Cowan explains.
First Baptist Church has been a constituted, independent church
for 53 years. In 1939, a lady gave two lots upon which a church could be built.
Actually, a group of Christians began meeting as a church in the home of a Coast
Guard couple who were Penecostal but later became Baptists. Then, a 16 by 16-foot
canvas building was put on the two lots.
In 1947, the Gulf of Mexico oil patch brought people from the
northern part of the state, Oklahoma, Texas and Arkansas. They were a boom to
the church. A first wooden structure building was built in 1949, but in 1982,
Louisiana Baptist Convention church builder Ed Jelks led in constructing a new,
modern structure that meets the present hurricane-influenced building codes
of the area.
When the oil bust hit the area, many of the churchs members
lost their jobs and headed back home, leaving a diminishing congregation with
a building debt with which they struggled for 17 years but paid off a year ago.
Presently, the church has about 50 active members. They are not exactly sure
of their membership because “whoever kept records moved and kept them,”
Cowan says.
“We have about 30 to 40 in Sunday School most of the time,”
he adds.
In the summer, the island changes. The population swells from
1,500 to as many as 10,000. Many of the “camps” with names such as
Storm Runner, Pass Time, Papas Dream and Doc of the Bay that stand vacant
most of the winter fill with people during this time of the year.
The biggest event of the year is the Annual Tarpon Rodeo, held
the last full weekend of July. Boats from around the world converge on the island
as fishermen try to boat the largest tarpon. The island becomes so crowded with
people, the drive from one end of the island to the other takes at least 45
minutes, rather than the normal 10 minutes.
“The city gives us a place for our tent right in the middle
of activities,” Herb explains. “We give out water and tracts and witness
to people when the opportunity presents itself.”
For the last 11 years, the Southern Baptist North American
Mission Board and the Louisiana Baptist Convention have provided summer missionaries.
The college-age missionaries help with the tarpon rodeo outreach, Crosspoint
sports ministry, Vacation Bible Schools, day camps and other resort-type ministries.
This year, the church is scheduled to have four missionaries during the summer
months.
Churches from other parts of Louisiana and from as far away
as Indiana assist the church with summer ministries as well. The congregation
still receives “a small supplement” from the state convention to assist
in taking care of the missionaries living arrangements and other expenses.
As in any other part of South Louisiana, hurricanes are real
possibilities during the summer season on Grand Isle. Current building codes
require any kind of human habitation in the area, including churches, to be
built at least 10 feet above ground level.
Sharon Cowan admits habitual evacuation alerts are trying.
“Three times last year, we had to lock our house and drive
off, leaving everything we own,” she says. “That is tough, but it
is part of life down here.”
Nevertheless, the Cowans confess great appreciation for the
work on the island. “The kids, and even their parents, are starving for
someone to love them,” Cowan says.
The Cowans and other members of First Baptist Church strive
to provide spiritual sustenance to satisfy that hunger, regardless of the persons
age or need.
Indeed, Grand Isle may be the end of Louisiana State Highway
1, but it is where the ministry of First Baptist Church begins – and continues.