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 listen, to the
point that my husband Ben and I didn’t even know there was a storm
coming into the Gulf.
Throughout the next few months, giving God thanks was often the last
thing on our minds but God kept bringing this scripture to the
forefront of my heart and mind. This passage encourages us
each to do our part and to gently encourage stragglers. We
witnessed firsthand as Southern Baptists all over our convention began
to do whatever was needed, no matter how small the task. Not only
did we work together in rescue, gut out, and rebuild. We lifted up the
exhausted and pulled them to their feet and learned to be patient,
attentive and careful when we began to get on each others nerves. The
biggest lessons I learned were to be cheerful, no matter what, and to
pray all the time. My world as I knew it was gone and being cheerful
was difficult. Laughter seemed to appear in the most unusual times and
places just when we needed it most. I thank God for a sense of humor,
and for teaching us that laughter is good medicine.
I only have a few memories of our city 40 years ago as we
rebounded from the effects of hurricane Betsy, but the ones I have are
clear. My first memory was of the black cow that stood high on a pole
outside Teddy’s Grill in Gentilly just across from my childhood
home. I spent a lot of hours throughout my life at Teddy’s and
this cow was one of the first things I needed to see after we were able
to get into the Gentilly area. Less than one week after Katrina
hit I was able to drive through my childhood neighborhood to see the
house I grew up in and the church that held so many memories. Both of
these were destroyed, but the cow stood tall and proud. God used
that black cow to reassure me that all would be okay and that He was
still in control of all things. Today that neighborhood, just
blocks from the Seminary, is gradually coming back and God is using His
people to do that.
The greatest lessons I have learned from this passage and from this
storm are not to suppress the Spirit, and to embrace each other with a
holy embrace. Believe it or not, the people of New Orleans are huggers,
so this comes pretty natural, but we all get so involved in our daily
lives that we fail to see God’s Spirit at work in the everyday things.
Because of Katrina, I have learned not to overlook those divine moments
God provides each day.
One of those moments took place at the Walgreens in Houma the
week following the storm. Mr. George was trying to get his
medicine without his ID, Medicaid card, or money because there had not
been time to retrieve them when he was rescued from his rooftop in
Chalmette. As we helped purchase his medicines we found out
his wife, Ophelia was missing. She had been a patient at one of the
hospitals in New Orleans East at the time of the evacuation and he
didn’t know where she had been taken.
The next week, God sent a nurse from that hospital to the store where
our daughter worked in Baton Rouge. Pieces cames together, and we were
able to tell Mr. George a Christian family had taken in Mrs. Ophelia in
Atlanta, where she had been evacuated to, and a local businessman
provided his private plane to bring Mr. George to Atlanta. Within two
weeks they were back together and being taken care of by their new
family, and God let us be a part of it all!
Verse 21 of this passage provides instructions to check out everything
and keep only what is good – again a bit of God’s humor as many of us
cleaned out our flooded homes. Like Paul, I ask you to keep praying for
us as we continue to learn our Katrina lessons and give thanks to God
for everything He has done.