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.”

Sunday, Jeff said to me, “The fellow walked in smoking a cigarette. One of the youth said, ‘You’re the paid staff, Jeff. You have to break the news to him.’ I walked over to tell him he couldn’t smoke in here. Just then, he reached under his sweater and pulled out a 9 .mm pistol and shot me twice. He emptied two guns in the foyer, then reloaded and stepped into the sanctuary. That’s where he killed most of the victims.”

Seven in all, and wounded seven more. A youth band was playing on the stage, unaware of the tragedy being acted out in front of them. The murderer threw a pipe bomb toward the front of the church. Fortunately, it hit a wall and the force of the blast went upward. The powder was enough to kill everyone in the room, they said.

Dr. Meredith had just returned home from burying his elderly mother. “We’re going to have to deal with our grief,” he told his family. But that evening, a reporter called him at home to ask about the church shooting. That was the first he had heard. His life changed forever that evening. He quickly found out he had no time for his own grief.

I recall seeing Pastor Al on television the next day, and remarking to Margaret, “Good. He’s articulate and a man of deep faith.” Everything he said was powerful and faithful, a wonderful witness to the nation. He had to look at the videos later to see what he had said. He was up all that night, comforting families, dealing with grief, speaking with the media.

I said, “Didn’t someone write a book about it?” Yes. Would you like a copy? “I’d love one. And can we get it signed by some of the people the book deals with?”

After the Sunday services, Jeff Laster handed me a shopping bag with several copies of the book, three of them written in by members who figured in the story, either as gunshot victims or parents of young people who were killed. One book for me, one each for my sons, who will be fascinated by this story of tragedy and triumph, and a few to give away. Also included was a video on the tragedy, narrated by Richard Thomas, “John Boy” of the Waltons. (The book is “Night of Tragedy; Dawning of Light” by Dan R. Crawford, published in 1999 by Shaw.)

After the bloody carpet was removed from the sanctuary floor, a teenager wrote on the bare concrete: “Satan, you picked on the wrong church!”

Wedgwood is one of those rare churches I would drive a hundred miles to just to be a part of it. Each of their two morning services must have had 700 in attendance, the people were enthusiastic and friendly, the music was warm and uplifting, Pastor Al’s worship leadership is natural and positive. Today, they were receiving pledges for their LOFJ offering. “We don’t have a lot of extra money lying around,” the pastor explained. “So, instead of receiving a Christmas offering for international missions, we ask our people to make a commitment to give a few dollars a week throughout the year, over and above their regular gifts, to go to missions. We give a large portion to the International Mission Board, the North American Mission Board, to state missions, and to several local projects. And we fund our people going on direct mission trips.”

In the last five years, Wedgwood members have given over $1.2 million through the LOFJ, and with that, they have sent over 500 members on mission trips to six of the seven continents. This church does not talk about evangelism; they do it.

Scott and Jennifer Smith call themselves “Wedgies.” That’s anyone who ever belonged to Wedgwood Baptist Church in Fort Worth. “Once a Wedgie, always a Wedgie,” they say. They joined the church some years back while studying at the nearby Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. These days, Scott pastors Highland Baptist Church in Metairie, adopted by Wedgwood through the NAMB adopt-a-church program. Pastor Al and Associate Pastor Jeff have already been over here with some of their people, working to help rebuild our city.

“Look closely at the wall board here,” Jeff Laster said. “It’s been repaired, but the hole has sunk in a little. This is one of the bullet holes. Over there you can see a couple more.” A memorial in front of the entrance way was dedicated to the seven killed and the seven wounded in the church.

Triumph out of tragedy. It seems so much like a metaphor for our own situation in New Orleans. The tragedy is all around us. A young fire captain became a Katrina victim on Friday, when his truck was responding to a call and collided with some other vehicles at a dark intersection in east New Orleans. His dying act was to call on his cell phone for assistance for the others who had been injured. Tragedy keeps rearing its ugly head on every side.

Yet, we are believing God for His triumph in our dark time. I said to the members of Wedgwood, “Pray for us, and pray big! Please don’t send up a measly little ‘God bless New Orleans’ prayer. Pray, ‘Lord, do a mighty thing in that city. Satan has had it long enough. Take it back, Lord. You rebuild it.’ It will not be necessary for you to go into details telling God how to rebuild it. He knows the plans He has for us. Just claim it, and stay with us for a long time to come.”

Sunday morning, Al said, “Did you sleep all right, Joe?” I fibbed and said, “Sure. Great.” Then, after reflecting a minute, said, “Do you think the waitress might have given us regular coffee instead of decaf last night? I specifically asked for decaf.” He smiled and said, “I woke up two or three times in the night myself. I think you’re right.” That explains the sleeplessness. Caffeine.

Now to explain it for all the other nights.