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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The other day, Mark Morice, a hero of the storm–a resident of Uptown New Orleans who had commandeered a neighbor’s unused boat and rescued perhaps a hundred stranded citizens after Katrina’s floods–learned that he is being sued by the boatowner for not returning it. The owner said he didn’t mind Morice borrowing his boat and is glad he saved those lives, but he should have returned it to his house where he got it. The hero admitted that he left it elsewhere, but only so other people could use it to continue the rescue operation. The boat disappeared, the insurance company paid off, but a lot less than the boat was worth, and so the owner is suing the hero for $12,000. Residents are coming out of the woodwork to berate the boatowner who should have been honored that his dumb boat did something more worthwhile than haul his worthless carcass off to the lake on weekends.

A day or so later, the letters to the editors sounded off on this matter. One fellow said his name is almost identical to the boat-owner’s lawyer’s name, which had been listed in the paper, and his phone has rung off with mean-spirited callers which is pointless because he himself supports the hero’s actions. Someone else wrote that the owner at least got some compensation for his boat which is more than most people who did not have their boats–or even their homes–insured.

Police arrested Bryan Perrilloux, 20, of Reserve (a suburb a few miles upriver), late Monday night. He had walked down Airline Highway to LaPlace in the middle of the night and broken into a closed convenience store. Six minutes after he broke the plate glass window the cops showed up. They were probably surprised to find he was not robbing the store. He said he just had a craving for some pastries. His bond has been set at $15,000.

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This morning the pastors were in great spirits. “I’m still glowing from last night,” one said, referring to the wonderful prayer rally at the First Baptist Church of New Orleans. Fred Luter was being congratulated on his incredible sermon. David Crosby was also basking in compliments for putting together that outstanding program.

At the beginning of the morning session, I told the pastors, “I’m going to list five biblical men. Tell me the characteristic that comes to your mind about each one.” Moses, Samuel, Noah, Daniel, and Job. Courageous and faithful, bold, prayerful, and persevering were mentioned. I said, “Turn to Jeremiah 15:1. God names the two best prayer intercessors He knows: Moses and Samuel. The question is why?”

We thought of the way Moses stood between Israel and God and refused to turn loose of either. And how Samuel (whose name means “Heard by God”) told Israel, “God forbid that I sin against the Lord by ceasing to pray for you” (I Samuel 12:23).

Next, I asked them to go to Ezekiel 14:14. God names the three most righteous men He can think of (and He ought to know them all!)–Noah, Daniel, and Job. In words reminiscent of Abraham interceding for Sodom and Gomorrah in Genesis 18, God warns His people that when He sends judgment, it does not matter who is within their walls. “Even if Noah, Daniel, and Job were there, they could only deliver themselves and no one else!” He says.

Five of the greatest people God knows, each one worth meditating upon.

Our guests almost outnumbered the regulars. (Total attendance: 48) From the Louisiana Baptist Convention, we welcomed David and Patti Hankins, Wayne Jenkins, Mike Canady, Gibbie McMillan, and Ed Jelks. From the North American Mission Board, we recognized Jim Burton, Bill Taylor, and Richard Leach. The Baptist Message was represented by Managing Editor Karen Willoughby, who brought stacks of copies of this week’s “Katrina” issue.

David Hankins (Executive Director, LBC): I have three things to say to you: thank you; we know it’s not over; and we’re with you for the long haul. (Since I had given the pastors a sermon starter earlier, David gave one also. “How do we move on from here?” Philippians 3:12-14 1. Formulate a healthy perspective 2. forget a hurtful past. 3. find a heavenly purpose. 4. focus on a hearty performance.)

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Let me say it officially here: we appreciate the nation’s turning its eyes in our direction for these few hours this week. Every news program on television seemed to be doing recaps on Katrina-land today. We appreciate it. Mostly. But as with the rest of the nation, this is one anniversary we’re glad to get behind us.

Someone said, “The President is coming to a church service tonight. It might be ours,” referring to the Prayer Rally at the First Baptist Church of New Orleans Tuesday night at 7 pm. It wasn’t, but that’s all right too. The nature of meetings change when the president is there, and honestly, our meeting tonight did not need him. It needed nothing. What we had was two power-packed hours of praise and prayer, of rejoicing and loving. I don’t know when I’ve been more blessed.

The day started too early for me. I knew Scott and Lorri on FamilyNet Radio’s early morning talk show would be calling at 7:05 for a half-hour interview, so–groan–I woke up at 4 o’clock and could not get back to sleep. So, I did some Bible study and other things, some exercises and then my usual walk/prayer-time on the levee, then a shower and it was time for their phone call.

I spent a couple of hours in the office this morning, then drove to the seminary to get in on the last of their disaster relief training for students and faculty before the 11 am worship service. I stood in back of the Leavell Chapel and marveled at what I saw–nearly a thousand young adults crowding the building, adorned in the obligatory yellow t-shirt, taking in this training before fanning out into the community for some of the hardest work any of them will ever do, gutting out houses. During the worship service which followed, Jay Adkins and Byron Townsend shared their Katrina testimonies–both were spectacular–and I told a couple of stories illustrating how God not only knew this hurricane was coming but had put certain people in place in preparation. After the service, the students ate a lunch provided by the Louisiana Baptist Convention’s Disaster Relief team, on the front lawn.

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Our friends in the Arkansas Baptist State Convention footed the bill for our full-color, full-page ad in the Tuesday, August 29, 2006, “Katrina Anniversary” edition of the Times-Picayune. Here’s the ad, everything except the two color snapshots toward the bottom from Keith Manuel’s photography.

AN ANNIVERSARY LOVE-NOTE FROM THE 85 SOUTHERN BAPTIST CHURCHES OF METRO NEW ORLEANS

You know us. We’re the Baptist church in your neighborhood–like Williams Boulevard Baptist Church in Kenner at Interstate 10, Riverside Church on Jefferson Highway, West St. Charles in Boutte, and Celebration Church on Transcontinental. We’re El Camino Iglesia and El Buen Pastor Iglesia in Metairie, the Vietnamese Baptist Church in Gretna, and the Korean Agape Church in Marrero. In New Olreans, we are Edgewater Church on Paris Avenue, New Salem in the Ninth Ward, and Franklin Avenue, now worshiping with First Baptist Church on Canal Boulevard. We are Grace on North Rampart, Oak Park on Kabel, and Horeb Spanish on Bellemeade. We are Port Sulphur Church downriver in Plaquemines Parish, and in St. Bernard, we’re Poydras and Delacroix Hope Baptist churches, and the coalition church meeting at Chalmette High School. Before Katrina, we counted 140 of our churches large and small in the metro area. At the moment, that number is 85.

We are the yellow-shirted “Disaster Relief” volunteers you saw for months after Katrina–running chainsaws, gutting out houses, handing out food and water, preparing and serving literally millions of hot meals throughout the area. Our people arrived from every state in the union to assist New Orleans, serving under the leadership of our own Louisiana Baptist Convention (www.lbc.org).

We are Arkansas, Missouri, Nebraska, Georgia, Kentucky, and Louisiana red-shirted “Builders for Christ,” reconstructing houses throughout the metro area (www.namb.net/bbuilders).

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In Monday’s Times-Picayune, FBC-NO pastor David Crosby wrote an op-ed column under this title. Here it is in its entirety:

Not too long ago, a well-intentioned fellow from somewhere else began to tell me what he thought we should do to return our city to “normal.” I stopped listening immediately.

Processing the encounter later, I realized that I have reached my limit on helpful suggestions from well-meaning advisers. Outsiders may not realize how familiar residents of New Orleans are with our own failures–before and since the storm. This list is crafted to help family members and friends avoid blunders that can kill a conversation or incite civil unrest. I’ve heard all of these questions and comments in one form or another over the last few months.

“Hey, why don’t you guys clean up this mess?”

We’re working as hard as we can. The implication that we have not been working is an insult and does not recognize the amazing expenditure of energy and time and resources in the flood zone this past year. I calculate that if every barge and train and sea-going vessel that visits the Port of New Orleans were to haul nothing but debris, it would take 18 months to clean up the destruction of our city. And that’s if the debris were all neatly packaged and ready for containers. Just the ruined mattresses, lined up, would stretch from here to Chicago.

We’ve made a lot of progress in the first year. We fight the discouragement of knowing that we have just begun. This is going to take years.

“When my neighbor’s roof sprung a leak, we all pitched in and fixed it.”

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Not long after Katrina, Pastor Dennis Watson had the idea of calling together pastors of all denominations to work together for the rebuilding of this city. He started with a handful of the mega-church pastors and got them behind it. Thus was born the Pastors Coalition, a group of some 200 ministers of all stripes. Among other things, they sponsored the Billy/Franklin Graham Crusade in March, and they are co-sponsoring the Prayer Rally Tuesday night at the First Baptist Church.

Sunday, they took out a full page in the Times Picayune. At the bottom are the photos of most of the people on the Tuesday night program. Here is the ad.

“WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE?”

One year ago, our lives were changed forever. Pulled from our homes and ripped from everything precious and dear, we struggled in a murky abyss seeking stability and solace. We discovered that the unknown was much bigger than the known.

A few days after the storm, a number of local ministers and pastors gathered to seek God’s face both for comfort and direction. They did not meet as Baptists, Charismatics, Methodists, Pentecostals, or by any denominational title. Nor did they meet as African-Americans, Asians, Caucasians, or Hispanics. They gathered as brothers and sisters and as servants who love this community.

Out of that gathering came an exceptional display of outreach, benevolence and aid, all delivered without the tethers of bureaucratic red tape. Swift acts of compassion and care were delivered through the channels of the institution equipped to do it best…the church! The church of Jesus Christ stepped forward and became the leaders in bringing help, hope and healing to the people of our city and region.

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