Month: September 2005

Army of first-time Baptist volunteers man frontlines for Louisiana evacuees

BATON ROUGE, La.?An army of SBTC volunteers, many of them rookie Disaster Relief workers, have prepared and served more than 300,000 meals in points between Baton Rouge and New Orleans since the week of Hurricane Katrina.

In partnership with the Texas Salvation Army, the SBTC plans to send rotating 60-member teams to Baton Rouge over the coming months on a weekly basis. In addition, SBTC chainsaw units are helping in outlying areas. The SBTC’s mud-out units and Texas Baptist Builders may be activated in the coming months on the damaged campus of New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary.

The Texas Salvation Army’s (TSA) 53-foot mobile feeding kitchen with a convoy of 20 TSA canteen units and about 60 SBTC Disaster Relief volunteers was one of the first units into Baton Rouge, having waited out the storm in Beaumont, Texas Aug. 29.

Expecting to offer 25,000 meals per day, the TSA mobile kitchen unit fed 35,000 people the first full day of operation. Led by SBTC Disaster Relief Director Bill Davenport, the group soon moved toward New Orleans where holed-up residents of the French Quarter received their first meals after the storm subsided. Others moved into suburbs like Kenner where the staff of two hospitals arrived late Thursday for a meal.

Meanwhile, back in Texas, Southern Baptist churches that had no previous experience in Disaster Relief were pleading for the training that is necessary to serve in Red Cross and Salvation Army units. On Saturday following the storm, the 60 Texans registered for training swelled to 163, packing an SBTC conference room.

Though traditionally many DR volunteers are retired, this early group included an architect, meter reader, well driller, physical therapist, secretaries and many more?most of them under the age of 50 with no previous experience in Southern Baptist missions work.

Thirty of that group agreed to head out the next day to Baton Rouge, joining 30 more already assigned from existing SBTC units.

Among the first-timers was Ben White, who trained Sept. 4 and boarded a truck Sept. 5 in a caravan of six from Prestonwood Baptist Church who headed for Baton Rouge. White is an 82-year-old World War II veteran and retired engineer who in decades past led construction projects such as the Alfred P. Murrah federal building and the upper portions of Texas Stadium.

On Sept. 8, White rolled out of his cot at 3:30 a.m. with most of the other volunteers and headed for the command center 15 minutes away to begin preparing for another day of serving the displaced.

Others included Randy and Denette Sellers, also of Prestonwood, who showed up for training unsure of what they were getting into. Less then 24 hours later they too had volunteered and were headed for Baton Rouge.

Kelly Kendrick, a member of Galloway Avenue Baptist Church, another first-timer, went despite struggling health. While there, he received a voice mail telling him he had been moved up on a list of prospective liver transplant recipients because of his medical condition.

A nurse from the Austin area brought her teenage daughter, whom she homeschools.

The first groups into Baton Rouge slept on the floor at the crowded local Salvation Army church where they shared one shower.

Later in the week, Parkview Baptist Church in Baton Rouge provided an annex building with cots, blankets and pillows for the SBTC contingent. Volunteers from the church even collected laundry and returned it clean for the weary workers.

On one occasion a local chef treated them to jambalaya.

As a lifelong resident of Louisiana until a little over 10 years ago, SBTC Executive Director Jim Richards seized the opportunity to encourage churches to take in evacuees or assist with their transition.

“My seminary is damaged and under water. Many of my pastor friends and their congregations are scattered by the hurricane. Even more disturbing are thousands upon thousands who are homeless, destitute and lacking the basics in human hygiene,” he said.

He praised the thousands of Disaster Relief volunteers trained by SBTC who are on the front lines in Louisiana and Texas me

DR volunteers share their thoughts on serving displaced in Louisiana

Southern Baptist Texan correspondent Tim McKeown worked with SBTC Disaster Relief in Baton Rouge Sept. 4-11. The following are some of the many stories of how God worked through the SBTC “yellow shirts.”

Based in Baton Rouge, I had been ready to go to New Orleans all week. So on the last day of deployment, Saturday, we were scheduled to go. That day, however, the food preparation was delayed and we were one of the last food canteen trucks to leave. On the way out, our canteen broke down and we had to return to the distribution site. One other canteen was available, but we had to wait on the food and by then the traffic to New Orleans was horrible.

I had been on mission trips enough to see that when things are going the worst, that’s usually when God acts the greatest. I got on the phone and called a Wal-Mart Supercenter and told them we had food to distribute–it was obvious we weren’t going to make it to New Orleans. The manager gave us permission to set up a site there, right off of Highway 10, where a lot of the people who were leaving New Orleans were stopping.

With me were three Salvation Army volunteers, including one man who set up a sound system, brought out his trumpet and played New Orleans-style gospel music. “We are here to not just tell you Jesus loves you, we want to show you Jesus loves you,” he repeatedly said.

When we couldn’t get to New Orleans, God brought New Orleans to us.

I asked two college-aged men who stopped for hot dogs and water a little about themselves and then asked them if they had a personal relationship with Jesus. Both said no, but wanted to hear more. One of them was a son of an Episcopal priest and I told him that God doesn’t have grandchildren, only children and that he couldn’t go to heaven on his father’s coattails. Both of them prayed aloud to receive Christ. I was able to give them a tract explaining the way of salvation and what they had done.

Then just a few minutes later, a woman who could barely walk and who apparently had received some recent medical care, and her son, walked up and asked if we could drive her to a downtown Baton Rouge shelter, where she was supposed to catch the last bus out at 6:30. After two bystanders turned down our requests to help the woman, I did something I’ve never done: I told the lady for us to pray for an angel to come.

That’s what I said and what I prayed. As soon as I said “Amen” and opened my eyes (no exaggeration), there was a taxi pulling right up to where we were. She hadn’t called him and I hadn’t. God did. He was the only cabbie I saw during the entire day at Wal-Mart. I told her, “He’s your angel, but I want to help,” and paid her $11 cab fare. When she and her son got in the cab, I gave her a tract and for the first time, her son smiled.

–Tim McKeown

I gave a lady a cold Dr. Pepper and she just praised God she had a cold Dr. Pepper. She had not had anything cold since the storm went through. There are people down there who are not going to leave (downtown New Orleans). Some of them act like they didn’t know there was a hurricane.

I’m a pretty new grandfather and it was the kids that got me—and there are children down there. When we went in and brought food, we brightened their days. The law enforcement people are not sleeping at all and if they do, it’s on the floor in the Sheraton hotel. They just got air-conditioning last night. When we gave soldiers cold water or food, their demeanor would improve dramatically.

We went in right behind John Walsh (of the “America’s Most Wanted” television show). We were in St. Bernard’s parish and the soldiers and officers were getting pictures made with John Walsh—a hero of most law enforcement officers. A few minutes later, we’re passing out food and John Walsh walks over and said he wanted to have his picture made with us.

–George Yarger

A waitress we met a Applebee’s told us she was from Metairie (near New Orleans) and had lost everything. She had contacted and Applebee’s in Atlanta that was going to give her a job.

She said, “I’ve got five children and need to be in Atlanta and don’t have any gas money.” I told her, “Ma’am I don’t know where you could get that, but let me think about this for a second.” I said, “Can we pray for you at least, so that this can be taken care of.” We stood at the table and prayed and this was while she was still trying to wait on other tables.

There were these two women—Mary Kay reps who have their meeting every week at Applebee’s –who saw us praying and told us they were touched. They helped out, and then I noticed another family praying over their food. I went over and said, “Let me tell you a story about your server.” They were able to help out too.

By the end of our meal, she had all of her needs met. She went through Applebee’s almost shouting, saying, “Praise the Lord, I’ve got my help. God is good!”

The other thing is that she has a 3-year old child who lived in a special home because he has spina bifida and she doesn’t know where he’s at, but she said she is trusting in the Lord that he is safe.

–Monica Collier

So many of the people are just so traumatized, they don’t know how to do what they normally would do. I had a lady come up to me with a baby in the stroller whose legs were getting red and sunburned. I said something to her about her little girl getting so warm, and she said, “Yes, I’m going to get her out of the.” She stood there I don’t know how much longer. I had gotten busy serving food and went back there and she was still in the sun. It was as if she couldn’t function.

–Sonia

There were several lines that came together at the canteen, and when two of the lines came together, two of the families looked at each other and they were old friends who had thought the other family was probably dead because of the storm and flooding. There were hugging and laughing and crying and screaming and carrying on because they had found their friends.

—Darryl Cason

We went to Algiers, La., where there was 500 firefighters. They people there told us, “We don’t know where they are, so go find them and feed them.” It was humorous. God had his hand in it. We went down there, turned a corner and found the base camp for firefighters. Three hundred of them were in from New York and 500 from Chicago—without a kitchen. We ended at 11:30 p.m. and thought our day was over. We stopped and got gas and saw a guy who was homeless from the storm but who hadn’t gone to a shelter. We got to share Christ and pray with him. It was a good day. We found four sandwiches we didn’t know we had; we thought we had been cleaned out by the firefighters, but we had stashed them back in the refrigerator.

–Robert Modesett and Glenn Young

There are tow different attitudes. There are some who are thankful for their lives and families and our help. Others are not happy, asking for not just food, but mayonnaise with it. They blame God. They probably weren’t happy before the storm and aren’t happy now.

–Glenn Young

We were at a state welfare center and got a call on the radio: “We have 400 people here who don’t have food. Can you come help us?” We were already helping there and saw 800-1,000 people around this building who had been there since six o’clock in the morning. It was now supper time. For the next hour (after serving all the food), we just picked up trash and had an opportunity to help. Whenever you ae down so low, you don’t know where else to go and we were able to help those people. We said, “We can’t leave them like this.”

—Norman Flowers

SBTC Disaster Relief moves to Texas

LA PLACE, La.–After 24 days of operations in Louisiana, the Southern Baptist of Texas Convention Disaster Relief has suspended its meal operations to New Orleans and surrounding areas in order to minister to the victims of Hurricane Rita.

“We will be transferring the operations of meal preparation over to local Baptist churches to work under the leadership of the Salvation Army,” said Bill Davenport, Director of Disaster Relief and on-site commander.

During the three weeks of ministry of disaster relief ministry, dozens of salvations were recorded, hundreds of gospel tracts and Bibles were distributed and thousands of prayers were lifted up for victims.

In all, nearly 1.1 million meals were served to survivors, rescue workers, soldiers and police from Aug. 31 through Sept. 23 at shelters, food stamp lines, neighborhoods and military posts from Baton Rouge to New Orleans.

Specifically, a total of 11,100 tracts and 1200 Bibles were distributed, 45 professions of faith were made and more than 300 volunteers came to serve in Disaster Relief in the New Orleans area under Southern Baptists of Texas Convention.

“We want to give our heartfelt appreciation to the First Baptist Church of La Place and Parkview Baptist Church in Baton Rouge. We also thank the Church of the Highlands and members from nine other churches which helped us make about more than a quarter of a million sandwiches. The sandwich brigade has been successful and something we will continue in Texas.

“The volunteers were the cream of the crop. Their focus was solely on the Lord and serving the Lord. I believe we’ve had an impact on Louisiana and also on the Salvation Army. We have gotten the people.”

As Davenport was taking down the signs of Salvation Army and SBTC ministering together, he was asked how he felt about leaving the disaster relief in Louisiana. Looking out over the compound, Davenport said, “I’d love to be leaving…but for a different reason.”

Disaster Relief for Hurricane Rita is tentatively set up for College Station as of Sept. 22, where Davenport again will be the on-site commander.

Texas leaders discover widespread damage in Rita’s trail

JASPER, TX?Fifty miles north of Beaumont in Jasper County,

members of First Baptist Church of Kirbyville were busy passing out water and ice to fellow townspeople who were all in the same predicament: No electricity and no water.

“We’re living ‘old school,'” said Robert Fuller, a member of First Baptist, Kirbyville. The church did not suffer serious damage, he said, but winds knocked out power and damaged homes around the town, Fuller said. “I’ve got a big pine that should have hit our house,” he added.

Fuller said he was making use of his generator, though he said he was expecting to be without power for possibly a month.

The towns of Jasper, Kirbyville, and Silsbee, in deep Southeast Texas, were hard hit by Rita’s winds. Early attempts to reach churches in the area were mostly unsuccessful since phone lines were down and some roads were blocked.

Wind damage was reported as far away as Tyler, Texas, nearly 220 miles north of the Gulf Coast and on the western edge of the storm.

Winds from Rita tore a large portion of a stucco façade from the four-year-old worship center at Friendly Baptist Church in Tyler, which had to cancel Sunday services because church officials were concerned about the building’s safety, said Pastor Dale Perry.

“It tore the west gables off completely and exposed all of the roof and air conditioning duct work and steelwork,” Perry said. “We were really fortunate that we did not have water damage. When Rita passed by, it was strongest from north to south. On the west side of the building it just peeled of like a banana.” Friendly had earlier voted to postpone a planned building note campaign to allow a focus on providing assistance to Katrina victims.

Edwin Crank, president of Jacksonville College, a two-year school affiliated with the SBTC, said about 120 on-campus students waited out the storm without power for much of the Saturday when Rita hit, but the campus was spared serious damage. Jacksonville is about 30 miles south of Tyler in East Texas.

“We just had a couple of broken windows,” Crank said. “Our electricity went off and we were without power for 14 hours. The campus is full of broken limbs and twigs but other than that, everything is just fine. “We were just thankful for the Lord’s hand on us through the process,” he added.

A SBTC staff contingent covered much of East Texas Sept. 26-27, visiting several dozen churches in Rita’s path, said Deron Biles, SBTC Minister/Church Relations director.

City Groves was hit hard, along with Woodville, Bridge City and Silsbee,” Biles said, estimating that nine in 10 buildings were damaged in those small towns.

Rick Warren, SBC leaders speak to displaced pastors

BATON ROUGE, La.?Taking his cue from the Old Testament prophet Nehemiah, California pastor Rick Warren told several hundred pastors, pastors’ wives and church staff members displaced by Hurricane Katrina that “rebuilding the city is always harder than building the city. The same is true of lives.”

The hurricane victims, who lost church property, homes and sometimes both, gathered at Florida Boulevard Baptist Church in Baton Rouge Tuesday afternoon and evening to hear Warren, a best-selling author and pastor of Saddleback Church in Southern California, SBC President Bobby Welch and other national and state Baptist leaders.

Florida Boulevard, with a membership of 2,000, has become one of the central relief points in a city whose population has swelled by an estimated 250,000 people in the last week as evacuees have crowded shelters, hotels and homes.

Warren told the crowd that there are three stages following disasters: the rescue stage, the resuming stage, and the rebuilding and relocation stage?the longest and most difficult part, he said. “And that my friends, is the duty of the church.”

Warren said in Nehemiah 2:17-18 that Nehemiah cites the devastation of Jerusalem, saying, “Let us rid ourselves of this shame and rebuild.”

“God loves to bring good out of bad,” Warren said. “He loves to turn crucifixions into resurrections. Every obstacle is an opportunity. Every problem has potential. Every crisis is an opportunity for ministry. Every hurt God wants to use for his glory.”

With more than 1 million people displaced, the long-term solution is churches reaching out with maximum effort and giving hope to hopeless people.

Warren, who arrived after visiting Houston, Memphis, Tenn., and Jackson, Miss., said, “Every single person I talked to didn’t know where every member of their family was. ? You can go weeks without food. You can go days without water, you can go a few minutes without air. But you can’t go one second without hope. You gotta have hope to cope. And that’s what our job is?to build hope.”

Warren echoed Welch’s earlier comments to the crowd that during a tragedy people’s hearts are often open to the gospel.

“During the next 90 days, people are going to be more open to the gospel than in years,” said Warren, adding that God uses trials to soften hearts. “It is God’s responsibility to make people receptive; it is our responsibility to sow the seed.”

Warren said the answer to questions about God’s purpose in tragedies are unknowable on earth. But the “what question”?what churches should do?is knowable from Jesus’ life.

In three years of ministry, Jesus planted a church, equipped leaders and assisted the poor, Warren said.

“Jesus came to preach the gospel to the poor,” said Warren, . “I don’t know about you, but for a long time I had blinders on about this. I went to a Baptist college and two seminaries and it wasn’t un

Arlington pastor: Homosexual’s sin not equivalent to my skin

JASPER, Texas?”To compare civil rights with the gay rights movement is demeaning, racist and insulting,” Dwight McKissic told a Jasper gathering Aug. 29.

“To compare civil rights with gay rights is to compare my skin with the homosexual’s sin,” said McKissic, pastor of Arlington’s Cornerstone Baptist Church and a principal organizer of the “Not On My Watch Coalition,” a group of black pastors and leaders opposed to government-approved homosexual unions,

The Jasper gathering, organized by Southern Baptist pastor Charles Burchett of Kirbyville, was at the non-denominational Harvest Way Church and drew a multi-ethnic crowd from several Baptist and Pentecostal denominations. McKissic spoke in Port Arthur Aug. 28 and in Jasper and Beaumont the next day.

McKissic said the 21st century is dividing people by morality the way the 20th century often divided people by skin color.

“My friends, you might not realize it, but we’re in a spiritual war. We’re in a fight for the soul of America. Particularly, we’re in a fight for the soul of black America because many black people and civil rights leaders are buying into this false, unbiblical concept that you can compare civil rights to gay rights. I’m absolutely convinced that this discussion is going to divide the wheat from the tares. We’re going to find out who’s standing on the Lord’s side as we struggle for the next year or two as to how we’re going to define marriage in America.”

McKissic said he has former homosexuals in his congregation and that the church should evangelize and disciple all people.

Amid fatherless homes, teenage rebellion and other social ills, “same-sex marriage could be the knockout blow,” McKissic said.

“The problem with the gay rights movement is that moral authority is not on their side.” Further, the civil rights movement was based in constitutionally guaranteed freedoms that were wrongfully denied while the homosexual “marriage” issue is based on civil anarchy, McKissic contended. He said the abolitionist movement and the women’s suffrage movement prevailed because they, unlike the homosexual rights movement, were rooted in moral authority and truth.

McKissic said he was warned by Ann Cools, a member of the Canadian parliament and its only black senator, “If it can happen in Canada, it could very easily happen here if we don’t come together.”

“Right now we can read passages such as Romans 1 and Leviticus 18 and other texts dealing with homosexuality without any fear of repercussion or reprisals or punishment,” McKissic said. “But in Canada pastors can be arrested for simply reading what the Bible says about homosexuality.”

“If (homosexual marriage) is approved by our government, it pits government against God. It pits government against the word of God. It pits government against Sunday School teachers teaching on Sunday that thou shall not lie as a man with a man as if he were a woman. And then on Monday school they will learn that it’s OK with a textbook that will endorse it.”

Origins debate a struggle for hearts and souls

A cartoon by Pulitzer-prize winner Steve Benson was indicative of the venom spewed at President Bush last month for saying public school students should hear both sides of the intelligent design-evolution debate.

Within hours, editorial writers and educators were throwing dirty bombs his way, hoping to inflict enough damage to make the whole intelligent design movement disappear from the radar screens of the masses.

The scornful cartoon was especially telling: A hairy, ape-like Bush is sitting crisscross on a barstool in the middle of a classroom, surrounded by students. Beside him, a female teacher is using him as exhibit A, proclaiming to students: “Pay attention class. You’re looking at living proof that life has evolved from lower forms — and that it hasn’t involved any sort of intelligent design.”

The teacher holds a book titled “Actual Science.” Bush, meanwhile, sits on a book titled “Biblical Creationism,” and he wears a shirt bearing the words, “Uncurious George W.”

Absurd, yes, but Steve Benson is only spouting the party line, which says that macro-evolution (amphibians transitioning into dry critters, for example) is as valid as gravity and ridicules loudly anyone who differs.

At war are two worldviews?one governed by biblical truth and the other governed by a materialist philosophy that views ethics as a social convention pliable for different eras and societal needs. At stake, in large part, is the cultural direction of a technologically advanced civilization.

Materialism (sometimes called naturalism) is the belief that physical reality is all that exists; the notion of a Designer who cannot be physically accounted for is rejected.

The spiritual dimensions of the debate are evident in the apparent blindness of the news media, which swallows anything the scientific establishment feeds them.

The Week, an international news digest, provided the following from a Dublin paper: “For the president to pretend human origins are an open question forces us to question his judgment?even if we didn’t already.” A Hamburg, Germany newspaper, Die Zeit, asked how America got so backward, pointing to the Scopes Trial of 1925 and the American South to explain the rise of ID as an alternative theory to evolution. Never mind that the earliest ID proponents arose from places like the University of Chicago and Berkeley.

In frustration to a growing audience for ID theorists such as William Dembski and Michael Behe, some ID opponents?either dishonestly or out of paranoia?are suggesting that it is a veiled attempt to sneak Genesis creationism into public classrooms.

For the record, public school teachers should not be exegeting Genesis?for the kids’ sake. Those students should know, however, the best arguments modern evolutionary theory can muster?and the best arguments against it. Education should entail the pursuit of truth, after all.

But the truth seems not in the best interest of materialism. In this case, the truth has cultural and ethical ramifications that may impede man-centered, utilitarian “progress.”

An August 23 New York Times article related a question posed to a panel of Nobel laureate scientists at City College of New York: “Can you be a good scientist and believe in God?”

“No!” replied chemist Herbert A. Hauptman, the Times reported. Hauptman offered that belief in God “is damaging to the well-being of the human race.” The article noted, thankfully, that the audience gave lukewarm reception to Hauptman’s view.

But what Hauptman suggests is that moralistic religion restricts science and culture from establishing its own ethical boundaries. Without such boundaries, researchers may freely explo

It’s tough being famous

It was like seeing a train wreck in slow motion. I was watching “Nightline” in 1980 (seminary days) and evangelist James Robison was debating pop scientist Carl Sagan on evolution. Robison is an amazing communicator and knows some Bible but he was unprepared to debate scientific theory with the winsome Mr. Sagan. It’s fair to ask what James Robison was thinking when he accepted the invitation.

In June of this year, Joel Osteen of Houston’s Lakewood Church told Larry King that his ministry of encouragement means that he doesn’t focus on the consequences of unbelief. His desire to make people feel good seemed to be at the expense of biblical truth. By his own admission, he heard from a lot of people after that interview and clarified his position regarding the exclusivity of Christ as the means to salvation. Additionally, he explained that he was confused and intimidated during the interview and didn’t say some things he very much believed. It was a convincing and humble apology.

In late August, evangelist Pat Robertson told his “700 Club” television audience that someone, particularly our own military special operators, should “take out” the president of Venezuela. He later, not so convincingly, claimed that “take out” doesn’t exactly mean assassinate. He also apologized for the distress this comment, made in passing during his news digest, caused.

Everybody trips over his tongue. We all say things that we wish we hadn’t said, even if we believe them to be true. Preachers are not immune to that and we shouldn’t expect them to be ? but, prominent people thought by many to represent evangelical Christianity have a severe responsibility for what they say publicly. Celebrity is seductive, interviewers are often cagey, and all of us have opinions better left unsaid. Maybe preachers are not cut out to be famous for anything but the gospel. Maybe gifted communicators are prey to the temptation to talk too much.

That’s no excuse, really. Everyone has an area of some competence, whether it’s a hobby, experience, or profession. It is obvious to others when a person speaks authoritatively and when he is saying too much. Most of us also tend to extend our moral authority beyond its reasonable limit. Preachers may expand the authority of their pulpits to a pet economic or social theory and expect immunity from criticism. A chemistry professor may try, by intimidation, to extend the mantel of his PhD. over politics or marriage counseling. These are misuses of what moral authority we might have. For every area of competence and calling, there are scores of issues before which we are all laymen.

As I said, James Robison is not a scientist. He embarrassed us all by pretending to be one for that evening. His biblical arguments meant nothing to Carl Sagan, Ted Koppel and to most of the audience?especially not when the subject is scientific.

The Larry King interview with Joel Osteen indicates that theology is outside Mr. Osteen’s area of expertise. Maybe he should just refuse interview questions with theological ramifications. That sounds odd for a preacher but that response is indicated by this preacher’s performance. It’s also possible that he doesn’t speak well off the top of his head. There’s nothing wrong with that. He should stay off Larry King, though. We must not let ego or marketing pressure tempt us to try things we can’t do responsibly.

Similarly, Pat Robertson might not be much of a pundit?at least not regarding foreign policy. The fact that this was a passing comment rather than a major policy statement is of little consequence. This is not the first time Mr. Robertson has made strange statements that embarrassed other evangelicals. He should stick to his calling rather than squandering his authority by commenting on everything. This remark was self-indulgent and harmful to us all.

That’s the point. Do what you do with confidence and do what you don’t know with caution and humility. We all have to do work we are less equipped to handle; the secret is to know when you are operating as a novice. Our egos will always try to lead us into places we should not go.

None of us is called to be everything. If the gospel is our calling, it should be our message. When, for example, Southern Seminary President Al Mohler appears on a news program, the subject has some moral or religious connotation. So does his message; he consistently preaches the gospel throughout his arguments. He doesn’t mistake himself for a physician, military strategist, or biologist, and neither does his audience doubt the content of his calling and message.

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FIRST PERSON: SBTC churches can be ‘Churches of Refuge’ for those displaced by Katrina

Being a lifelong resident of Louisiana until a little over 10 years ago, I am heartbroken over the Katrina disaster. New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary, my seminary, is damaged and under water. Many of my pastor friends had their congregations scattered by the hurricane. Even more disturbing are thousands upon thousands who are homeless, destitute and lacking the basics in human hygiene.

Over 100 Southern Baptists of Texas Convention Disaster Relief volunteers were on the ground within hours of the storm. Some of them in peril of life distributed food and comforted the suffering. Over 40 calls an hour for the first few days came through the SBTC switchboard. Over 30,000 Texans came forward for SBTC disaster relief training and thousands of the Southern Baptist volunteers hit the field immediately. This relief effort will be ongoing for months. There will be no quick fix.

Franklin Graham mentioned the possibility of churches adopting at least one family. This is one way we can be a caring witness for Jesus and be a good citizen too. “Houses of Hope” (Psalm 46:1) can help alleviate human suffering and provide love in Jesus’ name. Thousands of people could be ministered to through this effort. Please contact our office by e-mail (sbtexas@sbtexas.com) or call toll-free 1-877-953-7282 to participate as one of the “Houses of Hope.”

The mystique of New Orleans may never be the same. By the grace of God, maybe we can see lives that will never be the same because we share Jesus with them.

FONDOS PARA EL ALIVIO DEL HURACÁN KATRINA

Si desea contribuir financieramente para ayudar a aquellos que han sido desplazados y devastados por el Huracán Katrina, la Convención de los Bautistas del Sur de Texas está recogiendo fondos para este propósito.

Puede mandar sus cheques o giros postales a:

Hurricane Relief (El Alivio del Huracán)

Southern Baptists of Texas Convention

P.O. Box 1988

Grapevine, Texas 76099

Cien por ciento de estos fondos serán enviados a áreas afectadas por Katrina.

¡SE NECESITAN VOLUNTARIOS!

Solamente voluntarios que han sido capacitados y certificados pueden trabajar con nuestras unidades. Sesiones de capacitación se organizarán en áreas como se vayan necesitando. Por favor llame si tiene un grupo de 15 o más personas y se organizará una sesión de capacitación para ellos. Llame a Cindy Davenport al 817-552-2500.

CASAS DE ESPERANZA

“?fui forastero y me recogistéis” (Mateo 25:35)

La más grande oportunidad en nuestras vidas ahora está ante nosotros. Nunca jamás hemos visto el tipo de devastación que estamos viendo del Huracán Katrina. Tampoco jamás hemos tenido la oportunidad para ¡ser como nunca la Iglesia con un corazón de compasión!

En los primeros tiempos de la iglesia, la plaga negra devastó a Roma y mucha de la población. Los paganos romanos tiraban a sus niñitos enfermos a la calle para que se murieran. Muchos huyeron de la ciudad. Pero los cristianos, no. Se quedaron y tomaron a los niños de personas desconocidas y los cuidaron y murieron con ellos. Aun escritores no cristianos de esa era comentaron sobre su maravilloso amor. Por causa de esto el evangelio se esparció como fuego. ¡Oremos para que esto suceda otra vez!

¿Podría esto ser un despertamiento para América que nos lleve a una avivamiento nacional? Ha ocurrido antes. Quizás el Señor esperará hasta ver si cuidaremos de los más pequeños.

Por medio de las Casas de Esperanza, individuos e iglesias pueden proveer casas temporales para las víctimas del Huracán Katrina.