By Brian Blackwell, Message Staff Writer
ALBANY – The water was rising to the door of the church parsonage and Pastor David Collins knew he had to make a difficult decision – placing his trust in complete strangers in an airboat to rescue his family.
With the water waste deep and Blood River Baptist Church just a few hundred yards away, Collins reassured his two young boys they would be okay. Moments later, Collins joined his children as the three breathed a sigh of relief, for they had found refuge inside the church building.
And in the midst of the situation, the Lord reminded Collins of a sermon he preached a few Sundays before on trusting in the Lord wholeheartedly for everything. Collins had to apply the message at that very moment.
“It’s crazy how some folks think that it’s easy to put our trust in someone with an airboat, that we’ve never met, and put our little boys and belongings, on the boat,” Collins said. “I’ve never seen these people in my life. They came to rescue us without asking for anything in return. They came into my house to help me pack, grabbed my boys, dogs, and some essential belongings up and unselfishly placed them on their airboat. They asked me what else I needed and I had to say just please just get my boys to safety. That was a little hard to do.
“I see and share the Gospel with so many people that are lost without Christ on a daily basis,” he continued. “People tend to put more of their love, devotion, faith and trust in things, people, and in complete strangers that we’ve never met to save them from the deep waters of sin than to wholeheartedly sell out, place our faith, trust, and our whole entire lives over to the Lord Jesus Christ.”
Blood River Baptist Church’s situation is similar to the more than 70 other Louisiana Baptist churches who sustained flood waters from several days of heavy rainfall in mid-August. The worship center took in 4 inches of water and the education building saw as high as a foot-and-a-half of water.
Though 90 percent of his congregation was impacted by the flooding, that didn’t stop them from ministering to their neighbors in need.
Not only did they open up the upper floors in the Family Life Center for people seeking shelter, but Collins and other members went out into the community on his tractor to distribute bottled water with Gospel tracks and a note of love and encouragement stuffed into each case of water. They also brought hot plates of food that other churches in the association provided, canned goods and just a warm embrace of a prayer and comfort only found in a right relationship with Christ.
Because the Family Life Center took on a minimal amount of water, Collins was able to have worship services on Sunday morning, Aug. 14, and feed the community afterwards. The following morning, Collins led the congregation to open up the Family Life Center to serve as a point of distribution of goods and space for those in need to eat a warm meal cooked by the church members.
Collins said this is helping to fulfill his vision is to be an outwardly-Gospel centered evangelistic light house for the community.
Provisions abound
Like many others in the area, Blood River Baptist Church was not listed in a flood zone, nor required to obtain flood insurance. The repairs will exceed more $200,00 in cost to rebuild.
Even with the monumental task ahead, the Lord has provided in so many ways already.
Someone donated two 40-ft. storage containers and volunteers have come to help the church gut their flooded buildings. Additionally, church member Charles Barnes has charged the church with an inspiration of hope by starting the ministry “Fill My Cup Lord” to collect money for those affected by the storm. Nearly $10,000 has been collected so far.
Collins said the situation has allowed him to fulfill a vision to share the Gospel in every home 1 mile from the pulpit. He expects to complete that soon and will branch out, sharing the message of Christ with many more homes.
“It’s just amazing what God has allowed us to do and is still continuing to do,” Collins said. “I feel like God just stuck his finger of love in Blood River Baptist and the community and stirred it up. Folks that were raised here have stated, “God is working here, this isn’t the same church that I grew up in.
“We count our trials as joy because through it all if we didn’t have this flood, I wonder how many more relationships we wouldn’t have developed,” he continued. “We met so many people so fast. Through it all our eyes are welded to Christ and the Gospel. We are continually wanting to meet new people in our community and actually be the Church of Christ. We are called to gather, grow, and go out into the community demonstrating Christ love to people through all this disaster is our desire. Losing stuff is sad at times but we are blessed better than we deserve. We have eternal life in Christ, family, our community, and church family and that is what matters the most.”
To help Blood River Baptist Church rebuild and reach its community, contact Collins at 225.567.3629.
