Imagine your terror as floodwaters lap around your ankles while you huddle, trapped in your attic with your spouse, your toddler son, and your mother-in-law. BATON ROUGE – Imagine your terror as floodwaters lap around your ankles while you huddle, trapped in your attic with your spouse, your toddler son, and your mother-in-law. Imagine, now, your relief as a rescue helicopter, its propellor beating the air outside your destroyed home, arrives and rescuers send down a rope that dangles, finally, within your reach. Imagine, now, the heart-rending decision you must make. The helicopter can take only two people. Lindsay Masters, an LSU freshman the fall semester when Hurricane Katrina hit, comforted that toddler in her arms as his father looked on, desperate to find the wife and mother-in-law he’d had to leave behind in order to save his son. “Only two could go, so the mom and the dad wanted the baby and [his grandmother] to go,” said Steve Masters, BCM director at LSU. “The helicopter rescuer said it had to be a parent if a child was involved, so the mom had the dad go with the boy so she could stay with her mother.” Masters and his two daughters, both BCM members at LSU at the … [Read more...]

Louisiana coordinator for NAMB's Mission Service Corps volunteers, Blackwell reminisces on lessons learned in the wake of 2005's hurricane season. Editor’s note: Mrs. Blackwell is coordinator in Louisiana for NAMB’s Mission Service Corps volunteers and wannabe volunteers. MSC volunteers are people commissioned by their church and endorsed by the SBC’s NAMB, who raise their own support to do mission work in North America. Mrs. Blackwell also coordinated the Southern Baptist support for First Responders at Williams Boulevard Baptist in Kenner; that ministry started even before Katrina hit. Just days before Katrina made landfall, God gave me 1 Thessalonians 5:16-28. We had just completed about 2,000 volunteer hours working alongside the Greater New Orleans Sports Foundation and with the coordinators of the AAU Junior Olympics. It was an awesome experience as 30,000-plus athletes and coaches came together in New Orleans. Giving God thanks for everything was not difficult at all as we praised Him for so many miracles during those weeks.  Sharing the stories of open doors and of a young man who gave his life to Christ in his downtown hotel room just flowed each time someone would … [Read more...]

I remember a year ago being glued to the television along with thousands of Louisiana citizens as we watched the devastation caused by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. I remember a year ago being glued to the television along with thousands of Louisiana citizens as we watched the devastation caused by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Since I lived in the northeast portion of the state, the impact of the storm was negligible. It was as if we were watching a disaster somewhere else, rather than our neighbors a few miles to the south. Several months ago I began to wonder, what did I really do to help with this catastrophe?  Yes, I donated some food along with my church members for some of the evacuees in shelters in my small town of Columbia. Then when Hurricane Rita struck, I did allow a young mother and her two small children to stay in my home when my husband and I went out of town. However, this was only after my sister personally vouched for her character. I remember my daughter telling me of a woman who came into the grocery store where she worked. The woman noticed a button that my daughter had pinned to her smock. The pin said “I luv New Orleans!” The woman began to cry because she no longer had a … [Read more...]

This is the last issue in a series of three commemorative issues of the Louisiana Baptist Message. All three issues have reflected on different aspects of the 2005 hurricane season. This issue of the Louisiana Baptist Message is the last in a series of three commemorative issues of the paper, all of which reflect on different aspects of the 2005 hurricane season. It has been an honor and a great joy to develop these issues that together tell the story of how selflessly Louisiana Southern Baptists responded in a variety of ways to the needs of others in our state. We truly have worked together as the body of Christ – one church doing this; another group doing that: For as the body is one and has many parts, and all the parts of that body, though many, are one body – so also is Christ. [I Cor.. 12:12 HSB] A few extra copies of the previous issues are available. … [Read more...]

Imagine fleeing a hurricane with an infant or newborn and being herded into the Cajun Dome along with thousands of others. LAFAYETTE – Imagine fleeing a hurricane with an infant or newborn and being herded into the Cajun Dome along with thousands of others. Envision the fears that surface as you hear coughs, sneezes, and sniffles in the crowded facility, knowing that your child has not had time to develop immunities. Now picture the relief when a kindly volunteer kneels beside you and offers to take you and your vulnerable child out of the germ trap. The kneeling volunteer is from Lafayette First Baptist Church, where mission-minded Marty Melancon spearheaded the establishment of a shelter to minister to mothers with infants – and their families. The church responded to the opportunity, giving both time and money. “The beautiful thing was watching God work,” Melancon said. “It was a learning and growing experience for us. It helped us recognize that the church is not a building; it’s a people. We’re all a part of the same family.” The branch of God’s family that worships at Lafayette First Baptist ministered to extended spiritual family members they had never met, but also to … [Read more...]

Martha Bailey prefers not to be called the pastor's wife. COVINGTON – Martha Bailey prefers not to be called the pastor’s wife.  Rather, she’d prefer to be known as just plain ‘Martha,’ said her husband, Waylon Bailey, pastor of First Covington. Not that there’s anything plain about a woman beautiful inside and out, Bailey said. “She doesn’t play a role,” Pastor Bailey said. “Her name is Martha, and that’s the way she lives.  She doesn’t need a title.” A highly organized person, Martha, with the help of several other members of First Covington, designed a systematic distribution center at First Covington the day after Katrina – which in the weeks that followed served about 5,000 families with groceries, baby supplies and personal hygiene items. The church, situated on 40 acres just north of I-10, became the first staging area for post-Katrina disaster relief. Word spread quickly of the help being given by the church, and cars dashed to be in line while there was still something to be given out. “They didn’t realize because of the support of Louisiana Baptists and other Southern Baptists all across the country, we weren’t going to run out,” Martha Bailey said. But to … [Read more...]

Awashing machine and Post Its are the tools of choice for Anne Monroe when she wants to show her loved ones just how much she cherishes them. LAKE CHARLES – A washing machine and Post Its are the tools of choice for Anne Monroe when she wants to show her loved ones just how much she cherishes them. Randy Monroe, Anne’s husband, is the minister of music at Trinity Baptist in Lake Charles. He says his wife goes way beyond the call of duty when it comes to doing laundry for her family, especially for their two grown sons, Caleb, 20, who still lives at home, and Joshua, 25. She continues to do all Caleb’s laundry, and, for a time after he was married, she did Joshua and his wife’s laundry, even going so far as to pick up their laundry, Pastor Monroe said. “She is so faithful,” Monroe said of his wife.  “She waits on [our sons] hand and foot. She does everything for them.” “I have been teased about that for years,” Anne said.  “It gives us something to laugh about. “Most moms would not do that, I know,” she continued.  “I take every opportunity, even laundry, to make sure [our sons] don’t forget me. They’ll have laundry for the rest of their lives.  And years from now, when … [Read more...]

As his military helicopter approached the landing pad in Chalmette, Randy Harper was awestruck at the terrifying scene that awaited him on the ground. Editor’s note: Louisiana Baptist churches throughout the state have responded to the needs of Hurricane Katrina and Rita evacuees. The following article about efforts of Bellaire Baptist Church is representative of many others in the state who have taken multiple disaster relief trips to South Louisiana. CHALMETTE – As his military helicopter approached the landing pad in Chalmette, Randy Harper was awestruck at the terrifying scene that awaited him on the ground. In what resembled a war zone eight days after Hurricane Katrina devastated South Louisiana, water engulfed Chalmette homes and businesses, while there were news reports of snipers still in the area. “It was like time stood still,” said the pastor of Bellaire Baptist Church in Bossier City. “I still get emotional just thinking about what I saw. “The scene was chaotic,” Harper continued. “Rescue workers were everywhere and the devastation was far more worse in person because a television camera can only show so much. I’ll never forget that day as long as I … [Read more...]

The call for First Baptist to help post-Katrina came during the Sunday night worship service. MANSFIELD – The call for First Baptist to help post-Katrina came during the Sunday night worship service. Joe Waggener, minister of education, was the one to take the call. He was asked if First Baptist could take some evacuees. When he replied affirmatively, and asked when, he was told they were on their way. At the end of the worship service, the congregation was informed of, and discussed, the urgent need. Within two hours, many members had responded and First Baptist was ready to receive its evacuees. The fellowship hall and classrooms had been outfitted with cots, sleeping bags, mattresses and bedding. As they did not have shower facilities, arrangements were made with the fire station to take people there for showers. First Baptist volunteer cooks provided three meals a day. Others helped with clean-up, transportation, shopping, and supervision. First Baptist volunteers were at the church 24 hours a day. Some men, doing shift work, would stop by at 3 a.m. on their way home to see what they could do. Men, women, and youth gave of their time and possessions. Volunteers always … [Read more...]

Trapped down a country lane north of Covington, 12 Katrina survivors hung on for three days, with barely enough food and water, until the District Eight Chain Saw Team discovered their desperate sign. COVINGTON—Trapped down a country lane north of here, 12 Katrina survivors hung on for three days, with barely enough food and water, until the District Eight Chain Saw Team discovered their desperate sign: “12 adults stranded at end of the road.  Please help,” written on posterboard and attached to a mailbox. Happening on the sign at about 7:30 one morning, a five-person crew wielded chain saws three hours to cut an eight or nine-foot wide swath down that road to a group of houses where they found residents stranded without water or electricty. “There was no way [for all of them] to get out unless someone came with chain saws,” said Lee Dickson, Director of Missions for the DeSoto, Natchitoches, North Sabine, Red River, and Sabine associations, and a member of the chain saw team. “It brings back a lot of emotion just thinking back on it,” he said, remembering how one resident thanked God that the chain saw crew had come. One of the 12, an elderly woman about 85 years old, told workers … [Read more...]