Two of our senior champions are honored in Sunday’s Times-Picayune.

In the section where they run old photos each week–sort of, “Do you remember this?”–Bob Vetter’s 1945 high school picture shows him in his football uniform. He was a star for Holy Cross High School as they won all kinds of championships. Bob attended LSU, then worked for his grandfather’s lumber company in St. Bernard Parish, and then in 1949, joined the Marines and fought in Korea where he was awarded the Purple Heart. Here’s the account, as told by his daughter, Lisa….

“My dad was a forward observer for a heavy mortar company. He had to go beyond the front lines and radio back to the Marines where the enemy was set up. He had to carry a 45 pound radio and his gear, which weighed 60 pounds. A Korean soldier spotted him and shot him in the back. He started rolling down a hill and landed in a foxhole, which actually saved his life. His fellow Marines found him and took him back to the base where they (medical personnel) operated on him in a tent that had a mud floor.”

He survived and came home and now owns and runs Vetter Lumber Company. He is also–and this is why I’m telling the story–the associate pastor of Poydras Baptist Church and one super nice guy. Still as handsome at 78 years as he was as a teenager.

Bill Rogers has half a page devoted just to him in the paper. The absolutely lovely photo has him standing, hands in pockets, grinning big, looking this way. “Peoples Health” is sponsoring the selection of a senior adult from time to time as their Champion. Here’s the ad….

“In October 2005 at the age of 75, William Rogers, pastor of Grace Baptist Church, coordinated an international network of volunteers to help rebuild his Katrina-ravaged Bywater community. In collaboration with the Louisiana Baptist Convention and Assistant Pastor Charlie Dale, Rogers toiled 12 hours a day, seven days a week through countless phone calls and emails in search of volunteers.”

“The effort was successful and ‘Brother Bill’ was soon arranging travel, housing and work schedules for scores of volunteers arriving from all over the country–and as far away as Japan. With tools, supplies and truckloads of sheetrock, the volunteers helped repair his church, revive the inundated area and along with it, the spirit and hope of the community.”

“Having evacuated to upstate New York for Hurricane Katrina, William Rogers was told there were many reasons not to return to New Orleans. After all, he was safe and comfortable at his son’s house. His family and friends urged him to remain there. And at the age of 75, he had already provided more than three decades of caring to his community.”

“However, holding on to what is safe and comfortable is not what Brother Bill is all about. In fact, this former med student turned urban missionary also completed his dissertation and earned a doctorate degree in ministry in 2006.” (Actually, he gets it this Friday in Louisville, Kentucky.)

“Life experience can provide us with many things as we get older…important things like knowledge, wisdom, and self-awareness. It can also provide the realization of purpose–our reason for living. Common sense told William Rogers to stay in New York. Self-realization compelled his return to the Bywater community.”

“William E. Rogers…Peoples Health Champion.”

A note at the bottom says, “Join us as we recognize William E. Rogers at today’s Saints game. www.peopleshealth.com.”

The limo picked Bill and his 16-year-old grandson up this morning and brought them to the game where they are being honored precisely as I write this, during half-time.

Good stuff. Great people. It’s always in order to “give honor to whom honor is due.” That’s Romans 13:7.

On the way to Poydras this morning for their 10:30 am worship service, I stopped at Chalmette High School where John Jeffries and Paul Gregoire were greeting worshipers and preparing for their service. We prayed together, I shook hands with a number of people, and then heard of the plans to rebuild FBC Chalmette. Paul Gregoire says the fate of his St. Bernard Baptist Church is still undecided. Murphy Refinery, across the street from the church, is undecided on how much money to pay them for the vast damages incurred by the spillage of oil during the post-Katrina flood. On the way out the door, I met a relative.

Lawrence Corley is married to Lillian, who is “almost” my wife’s cousin, from Birmingham. Long story, another time. Lawrence is with CTSM Architects, Inc. of Birmingham, and working with Baptist Builders who will be erecting the new building at FBC Chalmette. He’s hoping and so are we that we will have Hopeview Baptist Church of Violet, just down the road a mile or two, ready to house volunteers who will be coming to do the heavy lifting.

Driving through Chalmette and points south on the way to Poydras, the recovery progress is spotty. A service station here is open, a grocery there, but then entire shopping centers are boarded up. FEMA trailers all over the place, and lots of traffic. Boats still upended in canals exactly where they were the first time we took this drive a few weeks after the hurricane. Vacant lots where houses and businesses have been demolished, and plenty of structures that appear to be slated for the bulldozer.

Poydras Baptist Church is still meeting in their fellowship hall, but the sanctuary is looking more and more like it’s supposed to. “A team from Mississippi is coming to work on the sanctuary on January 7,” Pastor John Galey said. Their former youth minister is bringing them, and will soon be rejoining the church staff.

Of the fifty or so worshipers this morning, around 10 families indicated they are still living in FEMA trailers. One lady said, “I am until they demolish my house and we can build a new one.” She went on to tell how, when they fled the hurricane, they evacuated into a state park in north Alabama and ended up staying there 6 months. Her husband worked for St. Bernard Parish but slept in the office, so there was no place for her, so she and the family stayed put. “He would come on weekends when he could,” she said.

When they first evacuated into the park, she learned later, someone had put out the word in the community that “These folks are from New Orleans, so keep your doors locked.” She noticed how suspicious the locals looked at them, and how unfriendly they were. “But we just waved and smiled and in time, they loosened up. That’s when someone told us what they had been told. We laughed and said, ‘We aren’t from New Orleans. We never go into New Orleans. We’re scared down there, too!!”

“Does anyone have a praise report,” John Galey said in the service. He had plenty of responders. “I still have a home and my family.” “When we think of where we were this time last year, we have so much to be thankful for.” “This whole area is coming back. Amen.” One man told how his boss let him off work to visit a man in the hospital, a fellow who had always been hostile to a Christian witness. “But he prayed with us to invite Christ into his life.” And a woman who will be baptized next Sunday told of the death of a family member and how they invited her to give the eulogy at the funeral.

“We have several truckloads of furniture coming in here before Christmas,” John told his church. “The Stardust Casino in Las Vegas has just been bought by a man who is doing a total remodeling, and he’s giving away all the furniture to people affected by the hurricane on the Gulf Coast. We’re told that hotel was just remodeled 13 months ago, so it should be like new.” John spoke of the plans for organizing the giveaway, of possibly needing a police officer to control the flow of traffic, and of the opportunity for a witness this provides.

“First Baptist Church of Gonzales where Jim Law is pastor has just sent us a check for $2,000.” That got a round of amens. “We’re having a business meeting this Saturday to make decisions on flooring, tile, colors, etc.” I was tempted, but squelched the urge, to give John a tongue-in-cheek reminder of what he said the last time I was in this very fellowship hall during the first worship service held there after the storm. He told the people that this crisis had forever changed who they were as a church. “No more will we spend 30 minutes in a church business meeting deciding whether to spend 15 cents a month on call waiting.”

My sermon was on Proverbs 3:5-6, everyone’s favorite text. The outline is simple: There are two commands, a positive (“Trust in the Lord”) and a negative (“Lean not unto thine own understanding”), and a consequence (“He shall direct thy paths”).

Everyone has his favorite parts of a sermon but mine was this from II Chronicles 25:2. We’re told that King Amaziah “did right in the sight of the Lord, but not with a whole heart.” Interesting way of putting it. Read the brief story of his life and you quickly come upon his misdeeds. After defeating Israel’s enemy and making short work of them, he then did the stupidest thing: he kept the idols of the people he’d just beaten, took them home, and worshiped them. What was he thinking? They obviously did those people no good and did not protect them from Amaziah, yet here he is worshiping them.

Know anyone who does right in the sight of God, yet “not with a whole heart”? I do. Sometimes in my life, I’ve been the culprit. Doing right, but with this little corner, this closet, kept back from him, which ended up being a snare. The result is that I do some truly stupid things.

One more “favorite part” of that sermon. Proverbs 3:5-6 calls on God’s people to trust and obey Him. The question is “why?” Outsiders criticize our faith as showing a “needy” God who sits in heaven, belly-aching because no one is worshiping Him. That’s not the case at all. Worship is for us. Last night, I walked through Deuteronomy and counted nine times where God tells Israel that the reason they are to obey Him is “so that it may go well with you.” (Deut. 4:40; 5:16,19,33; 6:3,18; 12:25,28; and 22:7)

God’s commands are laws of the universe in the same way gravity is a law. We can deny it and try to ignore it, but we still have to deal with the fact. Learn it, obey it, and work with it and we only benefit.

Speaking of champions…

Right after the November elections, we mentioned something here about Carol Shea-Porter who has just been elected U.S.Representative from New Hampshire. Now, she’s a Democrat, which figures into this story. Recently, when she met with her new boss, Speaker-of-the-House-elect Nancy Pelosi, she pressed her for continued federal help for Katrina victims. Shea-Porter has been down here working as a volunteer and she knows the desperate plight of this area. Well, the Union Leader newspaper wrote, “Some New Hampshire Republicans couldn’t help but notice a Nov. 17 article in The Times-Picayune of New Orleans in which Shea-Porter urged Pelosi to do all she could to aid hurricane victims.” Unnamed Republicans were criticizing her desire to help Gulf Coast victims, saying that was “admirable,” but “what about the 1st district of New Hampshire?” The Times-Picayune says Sunday that the Republicans are obviously starting the 2008 congressional campaign a mite early.

Thanks to all who care, all who pray, all who give, and all who come to help. For information on places to work and to stay in our city, go to www.joemckeever.com and click on the picture of the house on the right side.