Check it out! OAKDALE – The recent Incredible Love mother/daughter conference here was a huge success, reports Shane Wiggins, youth pastor at First Baptist Oakdale, which sponsored the sexual abstinence event. About 120 people participated in the day-long event, headlined by Marilyn Morris, founder of Aim For Success group, which focues on teen self-esteem and abstinence issues. Morris also spoke at the local middle school and high school, and one young woman was heard to say, “Where was she when I was in the fifth grade?” Morris has been invited back next year by the Allen Parish school board. NATCHITOCHES – The Outdoors Outreach program headlined by the Duck Commander Phil Robertson at Westside Baptist Sept. 7 was a huge success, reports Ken Lantz, a coordinator. About 425 outdoorsmen, women and children attended the event. “Following his address, 54 decision cards were turned in during the final prizes drawing,” Lance emailed. They included 16 professions of faith, 28 recommitments and 10 questions related to the person’s spiritual status. At the following Sunday service, two people made public their professions of faith, and seven people requested … [Read more...]
Evacuation preparations: Kingsville would house New Orleans evacuees
Designated as an official American Red Cross shelter, a handful of South Louisiana churches have specified Kingsville Baptist as one of their official shelters for members and attenders to evacuate in case another hurricane threatens their community this fall. BALL – This or any hurricane season many roads could lead to Kingsville Baptist Church for South Louisiana churches. Designated as an official American Red Cross shelter, a handful of South Louisiana churches have specified Kingsville Baptist as one of their official shelters for members and attenders to evacuate in case another hurricane threatens their community this fall. Kingsville could house up to 250 evacuees, said Walt Chance, Kingsville’s coordinator for disaster relief. In the event of a tropical storm or category one hurricane, Celebration Church in Metairie will offer evacuees use of its facility. Pastor Dennis Watson said most of his members live in FEMA trailers, which may not survive in the event of another such storm. Once on the Metairie campus, the evacuees will register onsite so the church knows who is seeking shelter there. But if a storm more powerful than a category one hurricane threatens to make … [Read more...]
Morrows fish for work to do
NEW ORLEANS – Committed. That’s the term most people use to describe Gary and Marilyn Morrow. NEW ORLEANS – Committed. That’s the term most people use to describe Gary and Marilyn Morrow. The Morrows arrived at Calvary the week of Christmas 2005. Gary, as the “White Hat” for Missouri Baptist Disaster Relief, came to check on his volunteers staffing the Missouri kitchen and shower units stationed at Calvary. Actually, Gary had been coordinating the work of the Missouri kitchen from his home since September 6 when he positioned the kitchen at First Baptist, McComb, Miss. “We were in McComb for three weeks and then closed the kitchen down. I just left it sitting in McComb because none of this area had been opened yet. I knew we would be moving down here,” Gary said. On or about September 14 the kitchen would find a long-term home at Calvary. Gary oversaw the ministry of the kitchen that functioned for 126 days and prepared 957,000 meals from the church parking lot. If that was not enough, Gary and Marilyn took on the tasks of tearing down the white house in Calvary’s back lot that sustained heavy damage from Hurricane Katrina. Then they went to work spreading rock to create three … [Read more...]
Jesus feeds 1,500 with one woman and no electricity
When Jesus is present, there is always enough. That's what Jack and Joanne Robinson learned after Hurricane Rita demolished their town of Westlake. WESTLAKE – When Jesus is present, there is always enough. Perhaps the boy with the five loaves and two fishes whose lunch fed a crowd of more than 5,000 learned that lesson the same way Jack and Joanna Robinson did; their efforts fed about 30 volunteer disaster relief workers for two and a half weeks after Hurricane Rita. Jack Robinson, a member of an associational disaster relief chainsaw crew, had been home only two days from doing disaster relief work after Katrina when he and his wife had to evacuate as Hurricane Rita approached the southwest quadrant of the state. As the name implies Westlake is just west of Lake Charles; it was whipped by Rita’s eastern side as the storm moved inland. Most people evacuated, but some, mostly emergency personnel and volunteers, stayed or came back soon after. The Robinsons, members at Bellview Baptist Westlake, returned home on Saturday to find Rita had laid waste to their hometown. Westlake was without electricity for two and a half weeks, but the Robinsons – armed with a generator, a 38-foot motor … [Read more...]
Overview: It feels good to minister
Southern Baptists in La., despite their own damages, modeled Christ in the midst of the storm. SOUTHWEST LOUISIANA – Rita was the second hurricane to hit this section of the state last September. Churches responded eagerly early in the month with the opportunity to help the hundreds of thousands of people who poured out of Greater New Orleans in advance of and after Katrina. That’s another story, however, to be told in the Oct. 19 issue of the Message. Rita raced ashore just east of Sabine Pass, Texas, about midnight on Sept. 24, 2005. Some people report sustained winds of more than 100 mph that lasted six hours – throughout a night darkened even more by the lack of electricity. Like Katrina’s breached levees, Rita also sent an aftershot: Tidal surges that exceeded 20 feet in some places across a 150-mile stretch of Southwest Louisiana, devastating many communities and churches and affecting the region as far north as northern Sabine Parish, which is north of Alexandria, even. See the center spread for photos. In this issue we’ll look at some of the stories. Not all. Dozens of churches and thousands of people were affected by Rita. This issue is a representative look at what Southern … [Read more...]
Small blessings grow in importance
He knows us fully, with all our faults, even the ones we hide from ourselves, and He still chooses to love us. HORNBECK--The day after Hurricane Rita hit our small town, my husband and I decided to wait out the coming days without electricity at my parents’ house with a whole host of other relatives, where we could cook, eat, and clean communally. By day two without electricity, the pleasant gusts of wind the storm had left behind had disappeared, leaving humidity, heat, and mosquitoes in their wake. We were hot, sweaty, dirty, and temperamental. On more than one occasion I found myself snapping at someone or saying something downright mean. I was shocked at my behavior. Was my Christian life so precarious that it rested on my personal comfort? As a family we struggled to find enough ice – and gasoline to go get ice – to get us through. Personally, I struggled with selfishness and a tendency to blame others, including my loved ones, for all our troubles, little though they were compared to the plight of many who were much less fortunate. Time alone to pray, meditate, read Scripture and get my mind wrapped around my circumstances seemed out of the question. Everyone needed … [Read more...]
First Cameron meets in tent
One of six churches along the Gulf Coast in Cameron Parish, First Cameron struggles to rebuild so that it can become a center for serving its community. First Baptist Church of Cameron is one of six Baptist churches along the Gulf Coast in Cameron Parish. One, Johnson Bayou Baptist, has been repaired. Oak Grove Baptist is nearly done. First Baptist Grand Chenier is totally gone and may not be rebuilt. Ebenezer and Macedonia Baptist churches are washed away. No other churches in lower Cameron Parish are operating at this time. First Baptist Cameron, located in the parish seat, hoped to be functional early in the recovery in order to be a center for relief efforts and a beacon of hope for those who have lost so much. In this we have partially succeeded, in that we have been having a worship service each Sunday since April. However, the hope of being able to be a center for meeting people’s needs has not materialized, since we do not have a finished space or the manpower to accomplish this alone. We can get furniture for those in need, but with remodeling about to begin, it would not be prudent to do this at this time. There are many unchurched people living here … [Read more...]
God sends piano, pastor, parsonage
Washed away after Hurricane Rita, 83-year-old Oak Grove Baptist Church is determined to rebuild. Again. OAK GROVE – Washed away after Rita hit last year, 83 year-old Oak Grove Baptist Church is determined to rebuild. Again. In June, 1957, Hurricane Audrey claimed the lives of 10 church members, as well as the parsonage and the church building. Judy Rutherford, member at Oak Grove, lived through that storm. After Audrey, the church chose to rebuild, a path they chose again last February. Because of access restrictions, until January they hadn’t seen the way it looked: as if the hurricane had eaten into the church and its metal fellowship hall. “The roof over the fellowship hall was intact, and that’s what allowed them to [get around new regulations and] rebuild,” said Judy’s mother-in-law Olive Rutherford. The worship center was razed and a fellowship hall built in its place; the fellowship hall was rebuilt into the worship center. The worst part of the hurricane is that her younger son isn’t moving home; he’s decided to stay in Lake Charles. “He gets hurt when he comes and sees nothing left,” she said. God has taught her patience through the hurricanes she’s endured, the church matron said. “When I … [Read more...]
Beauregard churches pull together
Despite Rita winds vicious enough to drive rain through the brick walls at Dry Creek Baptist Church, pastor Don Hunt chose to ride the storm out with evacuees. DRY CREEK – When Hurricane Rita threatened his community in late September 2005, Don Hunt had planned to evacuate to Pineville. But when evacuees asked him to open Dry Creek Baptist Church, then-pastor Hunt knew his only option was to ride out the storm with them in the building. About 35 evacuees joined him. “It was pretty scary riding out the storm that night, especially when the walls began vibrating and rain began seeping through the lower walls of the section of the building that the hurricane damaged,” said Hunt, who became Beauregard Baptist Association director of missions last November. “Thankfully, we were able to move the evacuees to shelters in Pineville, Alexandria and other locations the next day. This was an experience I’ll never forget.” The metal canopy over Dry Creek Baptist’s drive-through blew off in the wind and the rain was blowing in sideways hard enough to come through the church’s brick walls. “I was sleeping on a mat in my office, rolled over and my arm was in water,” Hunt said. “We … [Read more...]
Storm blurs denominational lines
The Bargeman Memorial Church of God in Christ, a predominantly African American Church of Cameron, La., began worshipping in the fellowship hall at Maplewood First Baptist, a predominantly white church in Sulphur, after Hurricane Rita destroyed the Bargeman Memorial building last year. SULPHUR – The Bargeman Memorial Church of God in Christ, a predominantly African American Church of Cameron, La., began worshipping in the fellowship hall at Maplewood First Baptist, a predominantly white church in Sulphur, after Hurricane Rita destroyed the Bargeman Memorial building last year. “This church family has been a spiritual blessing and an inspiration to my ministry,” said Charles Porter, pastor of Bargeman Memorial, which has relocated to Sulphur permanently and is in the process of locating property here to purchase. “As long as they’re here, we want them to use the property as their own,” said Ronnie Burke, pastor of Maplewood First. On Sunday mornings, Maplewood First meets in the auditorium while Bargeman meets in the fellowship hall. Bargeman members also meet on Tuesdays and Fridays for their weekly programs. “Our programs are running side by side. But there are times when they need the … [Read more...]
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