When you don’t go to the office, but stay at home and work from the computer and telephone, then hop in your car and meet with people all over town, it frequently feels like Saturday. Since we have not worked in our associational offices since the last Friday in August, most days have seemed like Saturday.

This Saturday–oops–Thursday morning, I had an interesting e-mail from a lady I’ve never met, but who has read these articles for several years and occasionally replies. She went to dinner Wednesday night with a group of Girl Scout mothers, even though she has only sons. “Of the ten present,” she wrote, “I knew only three.” When the meal was served, she blurted out automatically, “Shall we say grace?” Silence prevailed, and then a couple of women said, “Good idea.” So she did. That little event turned the conversation to religious matters. What church do you belong to? they wanted to know. She said she was a “closet Catholic,” meaning a former Baptist married to a Catholic and sending her children to a Catholic school because of a promise she made to her husband. After a bit, two of the women present identified themselves as new in the area and trying to find a church. She recommended they visit her old church, the Baptist church where a good friend of ours pastors. Her note said, “I promised to go to church with them Sunday to help them find it and make the adjustment.”

I called the pastor and shared this with him. He’ll be watching for them this Sunday.

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This will be about as far as I know how to go in answering the questions about the hurricanes, tornadoes, and other tragedies God allows into the lives of His beloved. At the conclusion, we’ll be glad to receive further input and comments from readers (on our website), particularly insights from Scripture.

Here are some questions we ought to ask when tragedies come, alongwith questions we ought not to be asking.

1. NOT ‘WHY ME?’ BUT ‘WHY NOT ME?’

A year ago, I was diagnosed with cancer, and under the tongue, of all places. If you want to hurt a preacher, that’s the place. The day we drove home from the oral surgeon’s office after receiving the report of the biopsy, I thought, “Cancer doesn’t happen to me. Cancer happens to other people.” That’s how it had been for forty years of ministry. People all around me suffered with cancer and my job was to minister to them. But now, it had become my turn to experience what they had endured.

Asking “why me?” seems to indicate I think I’m better than others. “Why not me?” is the better approach. People far better than I, godlier, smarter, holier, better in every respect, have battled this dreaded disease, some successfully, some not. Did I think I was to be excused from this kind of suffering? Doesn’t the Bible say, “It is through much tribulation that we enter the Kingdom”? (Acts 14:22) Our Lord said, “In this world you will have tribulation, but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33)

Perhaps the Lord wants His people to pass through the same suffering as others in order to demonstrate the difference His presence can make. The Lord lets His disciples be arrested and thrown into jail in order to have the gospel preached in court. (Matthew 10:18) The authorities in the throneroom or courtroom might never darken the door of a church or accept the invitation to a revival meeting or read a gospel tract. Someone is going to have to be arrested and put on trial in their presence, then tell his story. In the telling of the disciple’s story, in making his defense, the truth about Jesus comes out. That is precisely what happened when Paul stood before Caesar, making his case. It was an awful experience in a hundred ways, especially when the other disciples found more pressing matters to attend to that day. Paul stood alone, but, as He said, “Nevertheless, the Lord stood with me. And He strengthened me, in order that the proclamation (of the gospel) might be fully made through me, and that all the Gentiles might hear.” (II Timothy 4:17)

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For Katrina Relief, to assist ministers, churches, and church members whose lives were devastated by the hurricane. Send contributions to:

NEW ORLEANS ASSISTANCE

c/o Louisiana Baptist Foundation

P. O. Box 311

Alexandria LA 71309

To help in the rebuilding of churches, send your contribution to:

REBUILDING NEW ORLEANS

c/o Louisiana Baptist Foundation

P. O. Box 311

Alexandria LA 71309

I wondered what kind of turnout we would have at our weekly pastors’ meeting at First Baptist-LaPlace since our Christmas banquet was just Monday night. But 40 or more of our ministers showed up, including several for the first time and perhaps a dozen wives, also for the first time. We roped off the rear of the sanctuary, forcing everyone to sit closer to the front in order to hear one another. Today, the primary speakers were the ministers and their wives themselves.

“How has life for you changed since the hurricane?” I asked, adding that this is not about the church, but your personal situation, your family. I wrote down the responses.

Jose: “We’re eating a lot of fast food. We’re in a lot of churches these days, a different one each week. Expecting to get a FEMA trailer soon, and then we can cook for ourselves.”

Lionel: “My wife cooks great ribs. But none since the storm. We go to a lot of churches, but no church means as much as your own. We’re all separated. My sons are in New Mexico and Houston, and my wife is back and forth between here and Atlanta, where she’s working. It’s tough.”

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Monday morning, for the first time since the hurricane, I heard from David Arceneaux, pastor of the ill-fated Gentilly Baptist Church. Perhaps no storm-related church photo has been more circulated than the interior of that lovely church, with its shredded pews and upturned furniture, the result of high, polluted, and long-lasting floodwaters. “I’m standing in front of the church waiting on the insurance adjuster,” he said. I said, “I’ll be there in an hour.”

I had a check from the Louisiana Baptist Convention to give to the Gentilly church, a part of the “adopt-a-church program.” When I arrived, the adjuster was just leaving. I heard him call to the pastor, “God bless you.” After we hugged, David said, “That man was really something. We went through the building and you could tell he was really moved. At the end, he said, ‘Pastor, I want to make a contribution to the church.’ Would you believe he wrote a personal check to the church for $2,000.”

A few hours later, David Arceneaux stood before our ministers’ banquet and related his story of riding out the storm with his family in their East New Orleans home, then fleeing to the second floor when the levees broke and the water rushed in. “I talked the family into staying,” he admitted. They were rescued by helicopter. An insurance agent himself, he said, “My job is in jeopardy. After all, I don’t have any customers. They’ve all lost their homes and can’t come back. So, the company has put a lot of us on notice.”

Around noon, I heard from Warren Jones, pastor of the New Salem Baptist Church in New Orleans, for the first time. “I’m in Grapevine, Texas,” he said. “I’ve been worshiping with the First Baptist Church over here.” I told him I had a check from the LBC for his church, as well as some cash which the Arkansas Baptist Convention sent. I could hear the smile in his voice. I stamped the envelopes and dropped them in the mail chute an hour later. Warren is coming back to start working on restoring his church. They’ve been adopted too, and a group has already been here and started on his buildings.

Monday night, the First Baptist Church of Covington, located on the north side of Lake Pontchartrain, hosted the annual Christmas Banquet for the ministers and spouses of our New Orleans association. Normally, we might draw 75 people for this. This time, we had nearly 175. “We want to do this for you,” said Pastor Waylon Bailey. But the real power behind the occasion, the one who conceived it and made it happen, was Waylon’s wife Martha. She has worked tirelessly for weeks making this banquet a reality and a blessing and an encouragement to our people. Tonight she told one story in particular that resonated with everyone present.

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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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