People who’ve been to New Orleans to help and some headed this way shortly read this blog to keep up with the local situation. Which makes me want to say two things: 1) what you read here is a tiny sliver of the way things are here. Sorry. So much is going on all the time. And 2) I try to sift through everything and report the most important.

The headline in Monday morning’s paper reads, “Need for house gutting seems endless in N.O.” I’ve reported here that Steve Gahagan and Tim Agee of NAMB’s Operation NOAH Rebuild are no longer taking requests for house gutting. They say we have a backlog of hundreds and finishing them with volunteers will take months. Steve adds, “We don’t want to promise something we don’t do. If we agree to gut your house, we want to be faithful.”

Stephen Bradberry of a community activist organization called ACORN was on radio recently offering their free house-gutting services. Since then, they have received a thousand requests, on top of the thousand or so homes already on their waiting list. A thousand homes is a full year’s work, he said. But they’re still accepting applications.

Reporter Valerie Faciane writes, “Phones are ringing at other agencies offering the same services, but many have had to close their waiting lists for lack of volunteers, raising the specter that ruined housing is going to be a feature of the New Orleans landscape for some time to come.”

Bradberry says he is convinced that a lot of displaced residents learned for the first time by his radio broadcast that the city had imposed an August 29 deadline for homeowners to start the process of rebuilding their homes or risk having them demolished.

At the moment, volunteers are almost non-existent in the city. The United Methodist agency here has gutted 185 homes and has 994 on a waiting list, but does not have a single volunteer scheduled for September. They say at the current rate, completing the houses on their list would take 3 to 4 years. The good news is that 20 volunteer teams have signed up from October through December. More are needed.

A spokesman for Operation Blessing, the relief agency of Pat Robertson’s Virginia Beach ministry, blames mainstream media for distorting the situation on the Gulf Coast. People throughout America think no progress is being made because the media does not report the success stories. Some are led to believe people in the affected areas do not deserve help because they’re not helping themselves.

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Some of the leaders of the Arkansas Baptist State Convention are in town this week, I hear. Executive Director Emil Turner and DR leader Darwin Bacon have been some of New Orleans’ best friends over the past year. I regret not being around to welcome them. (see below)

“All the King’s Men” is the title of the Robert Penn Warren prize-winning novel of a couple of generations ago based loosely, we’re told, on the life and career of Louisiana’s Huey P. Long who was gunned down in our state capitol in 1935. Saturday night, a premiere of the new movie based on that book was staged at Tulane University’s McAlister Auditorium. Crowds lined the streets and cheered Sean Penn, Kate Winslet, Jude Law, James Gandolfini, and New Orleans’ own Patricia Clarkson whose mother Jacqueline Clarkson served as a New Orleans Council member until being defeated this year.

A few years back, Louisiana figured out some things it could do to make movie-making here easier and cheaper, so we’ve had a steady influx of Hollywood folks ever since. One day this week I noticed an item in the newspaper that a new Rob Lowe film is needing extras and citizens are invited to apply.

I suppose this is a good thing. Depends on the movie, I guess. Movie-makers hire locals and stay in hotels and eat in restaurants and that puts money into our economy which can use all the help it can get. On the other hand, this may not be the best time to remind the nation of Louisiana’s tradition of political deal-making and money-grabbing as held true in the Huey P. Long era. As a teenager, I read a magazine article which called Long the only dictator America has ever had.

Drive around the New Orleans area and one thing that hits you is the loss of trees, one of the most distinctive aspects of this city for generations. They’re still here, but certainly not in the profusion we formerly enjoyed. The storm destroyed thousands of trees, then those that survived became victims of overzealous utility workers who disfigured them clearing out rights of way for the powerlines. (Eventually, the government had to step in and order this abuse to stop.) In some cases, homeowners decided the trees in their yard would be detriments in the case of another hurricane, so had them cut down.

Sunday’s Times-Picayune has tree professionals and forestry activists calling for the community to get busy protecting our trees by putting new regulations into place and adopting a zero-tolerance policy regarding tree-maiming. This should be a critical area of recovery, we’re told.

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We expected the attendance at Wednesday’s pastors meeting to be down since some 15 of us were attending the “Standing Strong in the Storms of Life” retreat in Mobile. Freddie and Elaine Arnold drove to the retreat Tuesday but there they were in our meeting this morning, along with Alberto and Romy Rivera, all of whom had driven the nearly three hours from Mobile in time for our ten o’clock beginning. We started the meeting with 20 present and soon had about twice that number.

Freddie reported on the retreat and announced that he and I will be out some this fall, attending state conventions and associations to encourage volunteers to come help rebuild this city. The final figures on Ridgecrest on the River: 289 registered, all of whom gave glowing evaluations on the conferences they attended. He urged churches to turn in their Annual Church Profiles, which is the means of our association and the denomination knowing attendance numbers, varieties of ministries, and names of leaders of our churches.

Alberto Rivera: We now have a great opportunity for church planting in this region. We held a Bible study in an apartment complex Saturday where lots of Mexican workers are living. If you have an apartment complex or hotel near your church, look for an entrance to begin reaching the residents. Do a windshield survey of your neighborhood. Drive around and see who lives there and what they are doing. Find people we can target as a focus group.

Alberto continues to promote the October 5-6 “Vision Tour.” Outside pastors and potential church starters will join us on the tour of neighborhoods needing new churches. On Thursday, October 5, we’ll cover Baton Rouge, Denham Springs, Hammond, and the area north of Lake Pontchartrain. On Friday the 6th, we’ll begin in Slidell and move into the New Orleans area. We need some local pastors to be hosts and consider co-sponsoring new churches. Contact Alberto in our associational office.

Linda Williams: In November, I’ll be speaking to a group of pastors’ wives in Oklahoma who want to minister to the wives here. I’m asking the pastors to get me information on their wives, preferably a short bio and a photo. The Oklahomans will pray for them and occasionally write them notes of encouragement.

Joe Williams: Any pastors interested in the ministry fatigue workshops, contact me. We can hold them on a Sunday or any convenient day. We just finished one (“Preparing for Storms in a Post-Katrina World”) for the members of Edgewater Baptist Church, and have another scheduled for the community this Sunday. The last date for possible workshops will be November 5. You need to allow 3 hours.

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One of the ways I know when the Lord is working overtime to get a message across to me is when He sends the same word by different means.

I’ve mentioned here about the time some months ago when I was driving to our associational offices along Elysian Fields Avenue and began to weep. I said, “Lord, it’s not just that drug store or that fast food place. It’s not this house or that house. It’s the whole thing. It’s just so overwhelming, and I don’t know what to do about it.” At that moment the Lord spoke to my heart: “This is not about you. It’s about me.”

I cannot put into words how liberating that was.

I mentioned here that last Saturday, Dr. Gary Frost of New York City brought a message to our conference at First Baptist Church-New Orleans entitled, “It Ain’t About You.” The very same point the Lord has been emphasizing to me.

Then Monday night, it came again. Dr. Wayne Barber, pastor of Albuquerque’s Hoffmantown Baptist Church, was bringing a Bible study to a group of our Gulf Coast pastors and spouses at the Riverview Plaza Hotel in Mobile. About 15 couples from our New Orleans association accepted the invitation for two nights, three days, and I went over for the first 24 hours. Tuesday, Freddie Arnold drove over and took my room and I returned home. I’ve known Wayne since he and I were staffers at neighboring churches in Jackson, Mississippi, in the early 1970s. He’s as fine as they come. We share one other thing in common. We both write (and I draw) for Pulpit Helps magazine, a pastors’ monthly, whose parent company, AMG International, co-sponsored this retreat.

Wayne took his text from Galatians 2:20. “I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live. Yet not I, but Christ liveth in me. And the life I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me.”

“You can’t, but He can,” Wayne told the ministers and wives, most of whom had lost their churches and homes in Katrina, and are facing mammoth tasks of rebuilding homes, restoring churches, and reviving their communities. “You can’t, but He can–because He lives in you,” he said. “We lose heart and quit when we lose our focus.” The exact point Gary Frost made repeatedly Saturday.

We hear you, Heavenly Father. Loud and clear.

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Oops. Didn’t mean to do that.

Sunday morning very early I left the house and drove 200 miles to a church where I was to preach. Originally, they’d asked me to bring a message for their senior adult emphasis this weekend, but they called during the week to say everything had changed. The pastor resigned abruptly last Sunday and an unknown number of members were leaving with him–some church leaders too–to begin a new church, and the congregation was in a turmoil. They still wanted me to preach today but not on the senior adult theme.

I was glad to do so. One of the benefits of having gone through a lot of trouble in the last couple of churches I’ve served is that I’ve learned some things to say to congregations and church leaders who are hurting. The only people I know who would willingly volunteer to speak to a church in crisis like this is a veteran preacher. At such times you know beyond a doubt you are called by God.

I left early enough to leave myself a little wiggle room in case I had car trouble. That’s why I arrived in their city 45 minutes early. So, I pulled into a nearby hotel parking lot, the same inn where my wife and I stayed just two months ago when I spoke at another church in the area. They have a spacious lobby where a guy wearing a white shirt and tie can collapse in a comfortable chair for 15 minutes without appearing out of place or being questioned. That’s when I noticed the families coming in.

A small crowd was congregating in a conference room toward the rear of the lobby. This was obviously a church service. I sat there resting, my body still throbbing from over 3 hours on the interstate highway, and heard the pastor welcoming the people. He thanked this one and that one and then named someone I know who had made the arrangements for this location. That’s when I knew.

I had happened onto the first meeting of the group that was leaving the church where I would be preaching in half an hour. For no reason I can identify, I felt extremely uncomfortable and immensely out of place. Hoping no one recognized me, I got up and walked out and drove to the church.

And, wouldn’t you know, we had an incredible worship service. Three or four hundred people were present, the youth minister baptized a teenager, and the service throbbed with life. A large number of beautiful, alert teenagers occupied the first three center pews. No one introduced me, so I did it myself. I walked to the pulpit and said, “Good morning. I’m your new pastor. The bishop sent me.” They laughed–as I was hoping they would. “Oh that it were that easy,” I told them.

As usual, I began by giving a brief report on New Orleans and asked for their prayers for the rebuilding of this troubled city.

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The bad news is that Vince Marinello has been arrested and charged with murdering his wife.

A week or so ago, 45-year-old Mary Elizabeth Marinello was gunned down in front of her counselor’s office from which she had just emerged. Witnesses said a scruffy-looking bearded guy on a bike shot her twice in the face in what seemed to be a botched attempt at robbery and sped away. Not so quick, said the investigators.

Vince–a grade B local celebrity from his decades on New Orleans’ radio and TV as a sportscaster–claimed to have been in Jackson, Mississippi, viewing the Saints’ preseason game. Witnesses attest to that.

They were going through a messy divorce. Vince is 69 years old and they were married just two years ago after a quick and torrid romance. Later, Mary Elizabeth found out his divorce from wife number two was not final when they married and she was seeking an annulment. They were fighting over the big house in Harahan. Sheriff’s deputies had been out recently.

In arresting Vince, the sheriff’s office says all sorts of helpful people have come forward. A French Quarter guy who runs a costume shop says Vince bought a mustache from him recently. A gun shop dealer says Vince brought in a gun of the kind that killed his wife to be test fired, then bought the kind of ammo that the medical examiner says did the foul deed. Parking lot cameras record the murderer pacing the lot waiting for Mary Elizabeth to come out of the building, and witnesses saw the culprit ride off on a bike for two blocks, then stow it in the trunk of a white car and speed away. Marinello owns a white Taurus. Then, Vince’s Jackson friends came forward to admit he was late arriving at the Saints’ game that same evening. Finally, in raiding his FEMA trailer–yes, he had one too–the sheriff’s investigators found a list. A list of all the things he would have to do in order to kill his wife and get by with it.

I suppose, like Congressman Jefferson and O. J. Simpson and Whatsisname Peterson, he can provide a good explanation for all these coincidences.

The latest Reader’s Digest has a little article on dumb crooks. We enjoy reading those sometimes to remind ourselves that the bad guys in this world are not all rocket scientists. It would appear that Vince Marinello will make the dumb crooks hall of fame when this is all over. The sheriff’s office has him locked up and under suicide watch.

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Our pastors meeting at Good Shepherd Church started early when Pastor Michael Chance of New Jersey came by bringing doughnuts. He and some family members own the Southern Maid Donut Shop in Hammond, and as a native of this area, Michael was down to see the city and encourage our pastors. During his seminary years, he belonged to FBC Belle Chasse and was a staffer at Parkview Church. I’ll tell you one of his stories at the end of this report.

Freddie Arnold reported in after his and Elaine’s Alaskan cruise last week. A great trip, once in a lifetime, and from the motion sickness Elaine suffered, once will probably suffice. Freddie urged pastors to get their people to our Ridgecrest on the River taking place this Saturday at FBC-NO, with New York City’s Gary Frost as featured speaker. Presently, only 195 have registered, about a third of the registration in previous pre-Katrina years, and about half of what we need to break even this year.

Freddie reported that we are encountering people rebuilding their homes without adequately treating the wood with mold killer. In some cases, the houses have had to be stripped again so the studs could be treated. We have BoraCare at the associational offices, provided by one of our many friends who has agreed to continue providing it as long as needed.

Global Maritime sent word that they need volunteers, particularly on the days the cruise ships come into port. The volunteer base has decreased. Ann and Steve Corbin, MSC volunteers, work with Philip Vandercook in this ministry, and are living in a trailer located at the FBC of St. Rose.

Congressman Bobby Jindal is working with our Operation NOAH Rebuild folks on some permit issues (electrical, plumbing, etc). State Senator Julie Quinn is doing likewise on the state level. Steve Gahagan reports that our volunteer numbers are down this month but October is looking good. We’re still taking requests for homes to be rebuilt, but no more for gutting out (the deadline for this was August 29). Our volunteers are still doing gut-outs until our back-list is exhausted. We still have a lot of people waiting, and we don’t want to disappoint them. We’ve received about a hundred requests for rebuild.

We promoted the Katrina Retreat being offered our pastors by AMG International, Hoffmantown BC of Albuquerque, and FBC of Long Beach, Mississippi. To be held next Monday-Wednesday at the Riverview Plaza Hotel in Mobile. Several signed up today. (Pastors, call me!)

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Dave Walker, who writes on the entertainment industry for the Times-Picayune, this week is devoting four columns to the anchors of the Big-3 networks, plus Shepard Smith of Fox. Tuesday was Katie Couric. Wednesday–today–was Brian Williams. You don’t have to read far to see why this man Williams is so appreciated in our city.

Anchor for the NBC Nightly News since Tom Brokaw retired, Brian Williams was in New Orleans during and after Katrina. Ever since, he has almost single-handedly kept New Orleans and the Gulf Coast before the American people. For his troubles, he has received accolades from us and barbs from critics.

Just after completing the one-year anniversary of Katrina broadcast last Tuesday evening, he told Walker, “I’ve just gotten off the air, and there’s no question that if I check my computer, I’ll have a number of people already writing to complain, using very blunt language, promising not to watch anymore, saying, ‘I’m going to a network that isn’t Katrina-obsessed.'” Williams said, “I counter that by saying, ‘If you were in that Dome with that nice guy who was in charge of special-needs patients, if you saw what we saw in that Dome’–it’s almost as if we wear a tatto visible only to other members of our sect.”

He adds, “It welded me to this story and this city.”

Katrina fatigue assumes many manifestations. Those who live here under the oppression of a lethargic city government and amid neighborhoods that have died and need drastic help, we have one brand of Katrina fatigue. Those who work night and day gutting out houses and rebuilding them, sleeping on cots and eating whatever is handy, they have their unique strain of this fatigue. But the kind Brian Williams encounters is the carping, belly-aching, groaning of viewers who are tired of watching more scenes from our neighborhoods, more interviews with our politicians, and more in-their-own-words from our hurting, frustrated residents.

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August 29, 2006

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A year ago today, Labor Day 2005, one week exactly after the landing of Hurricane Katrina, 80 percent of New Orleans proper was still flooded, workers were still rescuing people, and the city was still shut down. The western half of the metro area, Jefferson Parish, was allowing residents to enter for a few hours to check on their property and pick up a few things for the lengthy evacuation. They had to be out by 6 pm.

Neil and Julie drove all night from North Mississippi where we had all landed and got in line on U.S. 51 just north of LaPlace in order to be among the first to re-enter. They ended up sitting for hours in a long line of traffic, then about daybreak the police removed the barriers and everyone began to move. I came in on Wednesday of that week for a few hours. No electricity anywhere, trees down everywhere, and a few neighbors who had stayed through the ordeal reflecting shell-shock on their faces.

Today, Monday, some residents are at work on their houses, some are having cookouts, some are out of town visiting mom and dad, and a few are involved in community celebrations. Mostly, things are quiet. Hardly a wave is stirring in the eastern Caribbean. We like it that way.

For three days next week–September 11-13–some friends of ours are staging a retreat for pastors and spouses of our worst-damaged churches. AMG International of Chattanooga, the missionary organization that publishes Pulpit Helps magazine, a monthly that has run my articles and cartoons for an entire generation, is working with Hoffmantown Baptist Church of Albuquerque and the First Baptist Church of Long Beach, Mississippi, in hosting a free recovery session at a hotel in Mobile. I’ve sent out an e-mail to our affected pastors locally (those with internet capability). If you know of someone this description fits (pastor of either destroyed or severely damaged churches), have them contact me if they’ve not received the invitation.

When John Barry speaks about the levee system, rivers, and wetlands of this area, pay attention. No one knows it better than he. “Rising Tide” was his history of the Mississippi River flood of 1927, a best-seller some 5 years ago, but more than that, the book recounted the ups and downs of attempts to control this great waterway over the centuries. Barry is Distinguished Visiting Scholar at the Center for Bioenvironmental Research at Tulane and Xavier Universities.

An article John Barry published recently in USA Today was reprinted in Monday’s Times-Picayune. “Expensive, But Worth It: Years of man-made mistakes must be fixed to save New Orleans” is the lead. Briefly, Barry says the situation in our city is the result of three factors which benefited the rest of the nation but doomed New Orleans.

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