Al and Kay Meredith picked me up at D-FW airport Saturday afternoon. They’ve been pastoring Wedgwood Baptist Church something like 18 years, as I recall. “We have a birthday celebration to attend tonight. We’ll drop you at the hotel, then I’ll be back later for a cup of coffee with you,” Al said. On the way to the Holiday Inn South in Fort Worth, I picked the story out of him.

“I know Wedgwood is the church that had the shooting a few years back. You were in all the news stories. But I don’t recall the details. Tell me what happened.”

“It was 1999,” he said. “This fellow was mentally unbalanced and just drove to our church that Wednesday night. From where he lived, he had to drive by several other churches to get to ours. As far as we know, he had no connection with our church. This wasn’t someone we had failed in some way and a guilt we had to deal with. As bad as it was, this made the healing easier.”

“Jeff Laster is our minister of adults. He’ll pick you up for church tomorrow morning and take you back to the airport. He was shot by the gunman in the foyer of the church. The youth were having their ‘Saw You at the Pole’ meeting in the sanctuary that night, and several churches were participating with them. So we had a number of unfamiliar faces in the church. This fellow just walked in and started shooting.”

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Once in a while something happens that lets you know the prayers a friend is sending up are being heard. Such an event occurred Thursday morning.

A fellow named Bob called, wanting to talk over a personal situation, saying he had been praying about it and felt the Lord wanted him to contact me. We chatted for a half hour and resolved the issue as much as we could. At one point, I apologized for the hammering in the background. “Workers are all over my house, installing a new roof.” An hour later, Bob showed up at my door. “Do you mind if I check on the roofers, to make sure they’re doing it right?” Mind? I was honored. Others had said owners need to keep an eye on roof workers so they’ll not cut corners, but I was not sure what to watch for.

A few minutes later, Bob stepped inside and said, “They’re tar-papering over some damaged decking.” The plywood covering the roof had taken water, perhaps before the storm, and had weakened in some places. We placed a call to the contractor who arrived two minutes later, heard Bob’s concerns, and ordered his workers to strip the felt off and check the condition of the decking. Later, Bob returned and pointed out that the air vents had rusted and needed replacing. I’m not sure how much the contractor valued my friend’s interference, but he certainly saved the day for me.

Great timing. A friend I had not seen in six months calls just in time to hear the roofers working, then comes over to make sure they’re doing their job. Thank you, Lord.

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When the hurricane hit New Orleans on Monday, August 29, the main damage my home experienced was the roof. Shingles were blown up and down our street and some of the underlying tarpaper was torn off. Rain poured in, which did not help the interior of my home. Not a lot of damage, but some. While we were in evacuation, a friend nailed blue plastic tarp over much of our rooftop to protect it from rain. Rain that, fortunately, did not come for two months. But when it did come, it arrived with a vengeance. It tore the thin plastic to shreds. One night last week I was enjoying the sound of the rain outside. “Just like old times,” I thought. Then a sobering thought hit. “Hey–we don’t want rain!” I checked the kitchen and sure enough, streams of water were entering through the ceiling. Margaret and I manned the bucket brigade and laid out towels and mopped up. Fortunately the hard rain was short-lived. Next day, I went looking for a contractor; we need a new roof.

Today, Wednesday, the roofers arrived. A half-dozen were crawling over the housetop all afternoon. The job is supposed to take two days. My insurance company is impressing me with their thoughtfulness. I called them last week with a complaint. “The adjuster was here on October 29. He said we would receive a copy of his recommendations within four weeks, and a check one week later. But we can’t wait. The rain is worsening the situation. I need a roof now. The roofing companies, however, want one-third down and the rest on completion.” The claims person said he had not even received the paperwork from the adjuster. “That’s about par,” he said. Bad news. Then, good news. “I tell you what I can do,” he said. “Back in early September, we sent you a half months’ living expenses. I’m going to send you a check for the rest of September and all of October.” Really? Will it count against the insurance check you’ll be sending later? “Not at all. This is free and clear.” The amount of this preliminary check is two-thirds of what I need to re-roof the house. We can do this now. Breathing easier now. (Today, as I write this, the paperwork arrived from the adjuster. His recommendation is much more generous than what I had expected. Good news is so uplifting!)

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When I was growing up on the Alabama farm, we would come in from the fields at noon and eat like we had never seen food before. When the last of the bowls were clean, invariably someone could be heard to sigh, “I feel like everyone in the world has eaten now.”

That’s a real syndrome. When you’re satisfied, it’s easy to forget those still in need. The opposite seems to apply also: when you’re in severe need, you tend not to notice others in worse shape than you. Case in point: Pass Christian, Mississippi.

Monday morning’s Times-Picayune highlighted this little town not far inside the Mississippi line from Louisiana and the site of Gulf Shore Baptist Assembly, a wonderful retreat on the beach which we use as much as the Mississippians do. According to the paper, Pass Christian was wiped out by Katrina and still lies there pretty much untouched. “Mississippi coast remains a wreck,” said the headline. No lots are cleared, the stench is everywhere, and displaced citizens shiver inside their tent cities. Mayor Billy McDonald, working out of a trailer, does not expect the word ‘recovery’ to roll off his lips for many months. Few people had insurance, fewer have jobs, there is no money, there’s precious little hope.

So, where is FEMA? In the weeks following Katrina, while New Orleanians were griping about the lapses of this government emergency response organization, all we heard was how pleased our neighbors in Mississippi were with Mike Brown and his team. No more. According to U.S. Representative Gene Taylor, “FEMA could mess up a one-car funeral.” “The federal response, from highways to housing to trailers, is completely unacceptable,” he said.

A reminder to us in New Orleans that our misery is wide-spread, the needs are all around us, and there is plenty of work left for all.

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In the days and weeks after the full effect of Katrina was being realized, my mailbox was swamped with people responding to my articles. “How can we help?” “Where can we send money?” “We’re praying for you.”

Tuesday, November 29, will make three full months since the hurricane slammed into our part of the Gulf Coast, and two realities have now set in. One, nothing has changed, and two, everything has changed. Nothing has changed: the city is still devastated, still sitting there in darkness for the most part, Congress still debating what to do about the levee system, the mayor and governor still running around looking for a handle to start the rebuilding. Everything has changed: people in the rest of the country are moving on. A friend from Missouri said the other day, “They think it’s all over down here.”

It ain’t over. Not by a long shot, not for a long, long time.

I need to get word to my friends: the situation with New Orleans and our area is really really bad, and it’s not going to get fixed for a long time. If you tire easily, you will soon start clicking us off. As I expect many have. Responses from readers to my weekly articles are drying up. It’s totally understandable; it’s a bad sign of what’s to come.

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There’s so much happening every day, it’s hard to monitor it all. I find myself amazed and impressed at the newspaper and other media outlets covering it all. Of course, they have large teams to pull it off. People send emails telling me they keep up with what’s happening in New Orleans through my website. I hate to tell them (and don’t) that what I cover is just a smidgen of the reality.

The state legislature just finished their special session up in Baton Rouge. They did a lot of great things, and in typically partisan fashion, pulled some boners.

Starting in January 2007, any building in the state that suffered 51 percent or more damage as a result of these two hurricanes must be rebuilt according to a new stricter state-wide code.

The state has just taken over 102 of the 117 public schools in Orleans Parish, with the state board determining which ones reopen and how they will be run. Critics pointed out that since the hurricane, not one public school in the entire parish has been re-started. This is a special-interest-riddled school system that had degenerated into the worst in the state. The infighting on the parish school board was comic-book-ludicrous over the past few years. This system has nowhere to go but up. Thanks to our governor, Kathleen Blanco, for sticking by her guns on this, even when some New Orleans legislators accused her of racism.

Anyone who buys in Louisiana on the dates of December 16-17-18 will not have to pay the four percent sales tax. The idea is to give the citizens a break, while encouraging businesses.

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Six pastors from our now-out-of-business churches in St. Bernard Parish met for the first time since Katrina Tuesday morning, and they had lots of company. In addition to James “Boogie” Melerine of Delcroix-Hope, John Jeffries of FBC-Chalmette, John Galey of Poydras, David Howard of FBC-Arabi, Jeffrey Friend of Hopeview-Violet, and Paul Gregoire of St. Bernard-Chalmette, we had Dr. Danny Decker of the Missouri Baptist Convention, and Mike Canady and Larry Badon of the Louisiana Baptist Convention. Michael Raymond from Taylor Memorial church in the 9th ward was there, along with Freddie Arnold and me from the association, and our host pastor, Keith Manuel.

Keith has been interviewing people and writing for the Baptist Press, in these nearly-three months since Katrina. He bought a great camera and taught himself to take his own pictures. Anytime you go to www.bpnews.net and see a news item about the New Orleans area, check to see if it’s from Keith. He is a multi-talented pastor. You ought to hear him play the guitar.

Going to www.bpnews.net is a great idea. Do it once a day to keep up with what’s going on everywhere, not only down here in the swamps.

A brief synopsis of what the pastors shared….

Boogie Melerine is living in Florida. “We can’t find any of the pieces of our church or my home down on the island. I’m staying up here in a little trailer and right now, we’re having church in a deacon’s home. We’ve met for four Sundays and had attendance of 10, 10, 17, and 19. Before the storm, we were running 25. I don’t know if we had flood insurance. We had merged with the little church at Alluvial City and were planning to merge with Reggio, then we were going to sell out and buy some land inside the levee protection area.”

Everyone laughed. The levees didn’t hold; there was no protection.

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Today, Sunday, we welcomed the bravest man in America to New Orleans. Pastor Le Ngoc Thuong has moved here from California to become pastor of the Viet Nam Baptist Church. Others are moving out, but this courageous brother is moving in. He is inheriting a fine, active congregation. When I arrived for their morning service, I found I was in the order of worship to bring a “short message.” Like I’m capable of that. And, with a translator, the length is automatically doubled. But I managed to keep it to 10 minutes, and directed them to Acts 20:28 where the pastor is told to guard himself first of all, even before ministering to the congregation. After all, I told Pastor Le, if you lose your health, you’ve lost your ministry. If you lose your spiritual life, you have no ministry. If you lose your marriage, you have no ministry. So, take care of yourself first of all, then you’ll be able to take care of the church of God.

The odd thing is how many church members think they come before the pastor’s family, his spiritual life, or his own health. Not all, thank the Lord. God has blessed me with wise church leaders through the years who knew to support me in taking care of first things first so I would be able to take care of them and the church to the fullest.

James Carson is director of missions up in Winnsboro, LA. Saturday, he said something I thought you would find fascinating…

“While training mudout teams, I came across this Scripture that jumped out at me as a background for what we do with our mudout disaster relief unit. In Leviticus 14:33-48, God gave Moses and Aaron the laws for cleaning leprous houses, meaning homes and buildings where mildew and mold had set in. The priest was instructed to do the same thing we do with our mudout units.”

Brother James then, being a good Baptist preacher, comes up with a three-point sermon on this text. (1) The Plague. v. 33-35 He compares this with the plague of sin which affects us all. (2) The Prescription. v. 35-45 He tells how the units disinfect and decontaminate the houses after stripping them, comparing it to God’s remedy for our sin problem, the cross of Calvary. (3) The Provision. v. 48 Just as only the priest can declare the leprous houses clean, we can be declared cleansed of our sin only by the blood of Jesus.

Well, friend, as we say, “That will preach.” Thank you.

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First, I need to tell you about Wayne Jenkins. Wayne leads the Department of Evangelism for the Louisiana Baptist Convention and he practices when he preaches. Last night he walked through the French Quarter witnessing and handing out leaflets telling people how to know Christ as Savior. He met so many Spanish people, he pulled a stack of tracts in their language out of his car and handed out a couple of hundred before the evening ended.

Wayne is making our New Orleans area pastors a deal we shouldn’t refuse. The annual “Louisiana Evangelism Conference” is scheduled for the First Baptist Church of LaFayette January 23 and 24, and Wayne wants to pay our way. He says, “We are providing pastors and staff and spouses in the hurricane affected areas with a $275 scholarship. This should provide two nights lodging, your meals and gas.” To get in on this, our ministers need to sign up now since registration is limited and on a first come, first served basis. You will want to FAX Wayne’s office (318) 445 0055 or call his administrative assistant (her name is Syd) at 1-800-622-6549. He needs to know your name, your spouse’s name, your church, address, phone, and e-mail address. You will receive a voucher in January, so you may make your own reservation and get yourself there. An incredible slate of inspiring speakers has been lined up.

Wayne conceived the idea for the PRAYER WALK for New Orleans which we held today, and he did all the work on it. All we had to do was show up…and take a walk. Nearly 200 of us gathered at Williams Boulevard Baptist Church this Saturday morning, including Dr. David and Patti Hankins from our LBC office in Alexandria, and Rick Shepherd and his wife from the Florida Baptist Convention office in Jacksonville, and a number of church prayer teams from throughout Louisiana. About a dozen of our local churches sent leaders to invite prayer walkers into their neighborhoods. By the time we got underway at 10:05 am, everyone present was wearing a black t-shirt with gold lettering, “Pray New Orleans,” with a fleur de lis on the front. Wayne provided tracts for us to hand out and miniature notebooks to record impressions, prayer requests we picked up from people we met, as well as experiences to remember.

We’ll be having another prayer walk before long, and this time we’ll get into the needier sections of New Orleans. The mold count is so high and the debris so widespread, we felt it would be unsafe to send people walking those streets.

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After returning to the city, one of my tasks is going through the newspapers to see what I’ve missed. I mean, other than a men’s magazine naming Jennifer Aniston (is that her name? I’m so culturally hip) its “man of the year.”

ABOUT OUR SCHOOL SYSTEMS

To my amazement, the St. Bernard Parish public schools has reopened. The people who live in this parish are now virtually all residing in FEMA trailers, I understand, but to re-establish some kind of normalcy and to send a signal for others to come on back and get to work rebuilding the neighborhoods, the school board opened the St. Bernard Unified School. It meets in trailers and runs on generators and had 330 students the first day.

Meanwhile, New Orleans became the only public school system in the region that has not opened any of its schools since Katrina, even though several of their campuses in Uptown and across the river in Algiers had no damage. Out west in Jefferson Parish, the attendance is about 80 percent of what it was pre-Katrina. The Christian schools are all in crisis, if I’m any judge. Our First Baptist (Kenner) Christian School is running half the 300 students they had at their peak a couple of years ago. The church met Wednesday night to discuss what to do, and yes, considered the nuclear option of closing it down after 20 years, but decided to stay the course for a while longer. A church in South Carolina has sent some money to help, plus they have some insurance money coming that should buy temporary relief.

REBUILDING THE CITY AND WHAT WE ARE DISCOVERING

The contractor assigned to bring the Superdome back to speed says he’s finding materials and labor pricier than he had thought and the cost is going to be in the neighborhood of $200 million. That’s some neighborhood. The dome cost about $75 million to erect, as I recall. This being Louisiana, the original estimate was about half that. Those were 1970 dollars which were larger and stronger than the ones in our billfolds today, although we did not know it at the time.

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