Submerged by Ike, churches prove resilient

Taking a break from scraping out mud and stacking flooded furniture, mementos and drywall in their front yards, hundreds of resilient Southern Baptists gathered for Sunday morning worship services across Southeast Texas only a week after Hurricane Ike devastated the area and caused massive flooding.

During his assessment of the region, Jim Richards, executive director of the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention, visited several churches in Orange County to offer encouragement and a promise of support.

“Words fail me. There is nothing that I can say that can comfort, encourage or strengthen you,” Richards said to the churches. “That is something that only the Holy Spirit can do in your life, but he does it through the Word of God.”

Richards read Romans 8:31-39, reminding the congregations of the constant presence of the Lord during trials, and prayed for each congregation.

Richards told the churches that they are not alone or forgotten in their time of need.

“I just wanted to let you know that across this state 2,100 SBTC churches are praying for you and supporting you and thinking of you this morning,” he said. “I want to thank you for your faithfulness.
How awesome it is for you to be here this morning and to see you in attendance and worshipping the Lord through the difficulties you personally face.”

Due to flooded sanctuaries, churches improvised and met in cleaned-out gymnasiums, stripped-down sanctuaries, and even in church parking lots. Richards visited three of these displaced churches: Liberty Baptist in Bridge City, First Baptist in Bridge City and Cove Baptist in Orange.

Bill Collier, pastor of Liberty Baptist, said meeting so soon after the hurricane was important because “people had physical, personal contact with one another.” The small church, whose sanctuary was flooded with nearly three feet of water, used e-mail and cell phones to inform members about the Sunday morning worship service in the church parking lot. Similar to an old-fashioned family reunion, more than 40 members arrived with lawn chairs and embraced one another in genuine fellowship.

“I think Jim Richards coming down was encouraging for our people,” Collier said. “We are Southern Baptists, and we are part of the Cooperative Program, and they’re actually seeing part of the Cooperative Program firsthand. They now have a better idea of what cooperation is about.”

Collier, whose house was flooded by more than five feet of water, expressed optimism about the circumstances and how his church can minister in the midst of their own recovery.

“We’ve had a pretty hard blow to our community, to our own homes and to our church, but we’re going to make it,” Collier said. “As our church gets more organized and gets more resources coming in, we can become a distribution center for material needs. We’re going to be hands-on people, helping people clean out their homes. We’re going to be part of meeting spiritual and emotional needs of people.

“In every case, it will be an opportunity for evangelism, not so much in programs but on a daily basis as we go about helping people out, praying for them and letting them know our hope is in Christ. I think this will be the church’s finest hour because it is an opportunity for us, as we go through tragedy, to demonstrate the character of Christ to our community.”

Richards also visited First Baptist Church of Vidor. The church is coordinating the disaster relief efforts in the region for the North American Mission Board and the Golden Triangle Baptist Association (GTBA), which it also performed in 2005 in the aftermath of Hurricane Rita.

Richards commended the church for their sacrificial giving and service, noting, “There are those who speak of donor fatigue; I don’t believe First Baptist Church of Vidor has donor fatigue.”

The GTBA is looking for groups and churches to adopt congregations that were damaged by the hurricane, many of which do not have full-time pastors to guide them through the rebuilding. First Baptist Vidor has taken the lead on this, adopting Liberty Baptist in Bridge City and offering them physical, financial and spiritual support during the restoration process.