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PORT ARTHUR, Texas?”Lord, bless every piece of bread, every bowl of beans, every sandwich, every bottle of water given in the name of Jesus,” Bobby Welch prayed as he huddled with Southern Baptist Disaster Relief volunteers.
The theme was familiar among the Baptist “yellow shirt” volunteers who’ve been around Welch since hurricanes Katrina and Rita hit the Gulf Coast states: Baptists giving out bottled water, sandwiches and beanie-weanies are giving holy gifts because they are given in Jesus’ name.
The Southern Baptist Convention president and Daytona Beach, Fla., pastor joined Morris Chapman, SBC Executive Committee president and chief executive officer, and three members of the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention staff in touring Rita-ravaged Southeast Texas.
The group made eight stops during a 10-hour trek across a geographic area that spanned from Port Arthur as far north as Jasper, 70 miles from the coast.
Coastal areas and a large swath of rural Southeast Texas have been without electricity for more than a week due to Rita’s toll on power lines and equipment. Estimates given on local radio stations were that some regions could be without electricity for a month or longer.
At a K-Mart parking lot near Port Arthur, Welch, Chapman, the SBTC’s Deron Biles and Texas Baptist Builders consultant Steve Carr greeted local pastors and SBTC Disaster Relief volunteers, introducing themselves and encouraging the volunteers with prayer and words of thanks.
One displaced man who had passed through the food line in Port Arthur asked Welch to sign a devotional Bible for a friend who has AIDS. Welch wrote a note as SBTC Disaster Relief State Director Bill Davenport and another volunteer listened to the man’s story.
Dustin Guidry, pastor of Ridgewood Baptist Church in Port Arthur, which housed several dozen SBTC Disaster Relief workers in its gym, told Welch and Chapman his church suffered some wind and water damage, but the church’s school is his biggest concern.
“We’ve got 130 kids that attend the school,” Guidry said. “Hopefully, a week after everybody gets back in to Port Arthur we can have classes again.”
Like most Texas Gulf Coast residents, Guidry and his wife are staying with family temporarily.
“Our staff is all over. We’ve got one in Dallas, one in Lubbock.”
Up the road in Silsbee, about 40 miles north of Port Arthur, the group stopped at Woodrow Baptist Church, home to a small, pastorless congregation, none of whom were found at the church.
But the open doors hinted that air was being circulated to hasten drying out a facility that suffered wind and rain damage inside and out. The podium and choir loft was filled with cabinets, desks, office supplies and Sunday School materials. The red carpet was littered with scattered leaves and other debris. A crimson worship banner hung proudly over the choir loft.
Welch wrote a note on a large sheet of paper, each member of the group signed it, and he left it in the auditorium for someone to find.
“This is the Southern Baptist Convention ? right here,” Welch said as he and Chapman stood near the altar of the approximately 20-by-60-foot auditorium that was lit only by the sunlight from the open west door and several small windows.
The group left another note at Genesis Baptist Church, near Buna, Texas, where damage included a sheared-off steeple.
In nearby Kirbyville, Texas, an evening thanksgiving rally featuring Welch drew about 100 people from the community on the grounds of the First Baptist Church, which has helped feed and distribute ice to 1,000-1,500 people a day from the town and from outlying areas.
Preaching from the bed of a pick-up truck near the church, Welch opened 1 Corinthians 15 and spoke of God’s love despite dire circumstances, using a storm-battered doll he found along the Mississippi coast as an object lesson for disasters.
The doll, Welch explained, had a tear just below one knee and what appeared to be a receipt and part of the New Testament matted to its hair.
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