Thursday, I ran into Jeffery Friend in the lounge of the seminary’s Hardin Student Center. Wife Stephanie is working at the Lifeway Christian Store just on the other side of the glass, and he seemed to be studying. “I’m working with Jeff Box at Suburban Baptist Church,” he said. East New Orleans. Chef Menteur Highway. “Three blocks away, the flooding started,” he said.

They alternate preaching and leading in the worship services. “We both are used to running the show,” he smiled, “so it’s a learning experience for each of us.” Two pastors, an African-American and an Anglo, leading a damaged church in its rebuilding and restoration. Big task.

What percentage of people in that area have not even touched their homes yet? “Maybe 60 percent.” Lots of FEMA trailers? “All over the place.” Suburban is running 50 or so in attendance. “None of them attended this church before the storm. They’re all new.” A few are members of Jeffery’s flooded church, Hopeview in St. Bernard Parish, who drive in from out of the area.

In the Lifeway Christian Store, manager Brantley quickly agreed to my request to set the stack of cards on “How to Pray for New Orleans” by the cash register for customers to take. He led me into the back of the store where he has stacks of books ready to give to our pastors. “Lifeway sent these to professors who lost their libraries,” he said, “and these were left over.” I assured him if he will bring them to Oak Park Baptist Church next Wednesday at 10 am, not one of those books will be left behind. Many of our pastors lost their libraries and are eager to build new ones.

Recently when talking with New Salem’s Warren Jones, I asked what all the volunteer groups coming to his church were doing. “Rebuilding this church, working in the neighborhood,” he said. I said, “Where are you living?” In a little room near the church, his family still in Texas. I said, “Warren, ask the next group to work on your house. Believe me, friend, these good folks will count it a privilege to bring back your home. They will do it like they were building Jesus’ home.” And they are.

A good group of volunteers from the FBC of Wichita Falls, Texas, were hard at work today hanging sheetrock in his home, a block off Morrison in East New Orleans. They have power in the neighborhood, too, although most houses are far from being candidates for having it restored. Driving down the pastor’s street, I slowed down and took note. One FEMA trailer in two blocks. Every house deserted. The grass knee high and mostly weeds. Some houses standing wide open, garage doors up, windows removed, doors non-existent. Nothing to steal, as everything has been gutted. And that scene is repeated block after block after block.

Even after they restore the Jones home, who would want to live in that desolate neighborhood? Pray for Pastor Warren and his family. Whatever decision they make is going to be tough.

At the Baptist Crossroads Project on Alvar Street, mixed groups of adults and older youth were sweating profusely as they worked on the Habitat homes. My guess is that 20 or 25 houses are at some stage of construction. Someone said this week that the project will not be complete by the appointed date of mid-August. Meaning all forty homes will not be finished. But since the Lord is sending volunteers all the time, we’ll keep working.

Pastor David Crosby said the other day that when this project is over we will more than likely start on another hundred Habitat homes. Two years ago when the Holy Spirit gave David this vision and a group was pulled together to make it a reality, finding the funding was a big issue. No longer. The Baptist Community Ministries foundation stepped up and made us a challenge gift of one half the total cost if we would raise the balance. After Katrina when it became obvious that the need was going to be tremendous and our financial resources limited, the Habitat organization itself provided the remaining half. That same arrangement will continue with the next segment of homes built.

A word here about the Baptist Community Ministries foundation. Some years ago, perhaps 10 or 15, the Baptist Hospital on Napoleon Street was sold for a truckload of money. The administrator and board of the hospital established this foundation to channel that money into local projects and works that minister to people, particularly to social and health needs. Hospital administrator Byron Harrell moved over to become the executive-director of the foundation and remains so to this day. David Crosby and I have met with a committee of the board and it is one impressive group. I was pleasantly surprised to find they do not just dole out money and wish it godspeed. Their board–made up of highly professional Christian men and women, from various denominations–serves without pay, and requires a great deal in the way of studies, background information, and justification before they invest God’s money in a venture. Then they monitor the projects to see if they are doing what was promised. In a case or two over the years, they have demanded and received their money back.

The federal government should ask the Baptist Community Ministries for guidance and advice. We’re so grateful for their existence, for their kindnesses, and for their integrity. And glad to have “Baptist” in their name.

Chip Saunders is a local attorney whom I met two years ago when he represented a group of church members in an intrachurch conflict, to which I was invited as an observer. Recently he sent us a letter to the editor which he wrote on June 29 but which was never run. He was concerned about the lawsuit former residents of local public housing are filing against HANO and HUD to be allowed to move back into these developments. I mentioned it here in passing, in particular a comment from one lady that she has a right to live in public housing and another woman who was identified as a 30 or 40 year resident of the complex. Chip writes:

“I am appalled. Regarding the story about a suit being filed over public housing…a former chairman of HANO, Mr. Endesha Juakali, is quoted as stating the current public housing protest won’t end soon, nor will it be happy. Per your story, he said, “If we’re unhappy, we’re going to make the whole city unhappy. We’re going to disrupt this whole city. We’re going to run the tourists away.”

“Aside from the self-defeating outcome of such a strategy in damaging the city’s already fragile tourist atmosphere, this is criminal activity and Mr. Juakali should know that….He wants, and is inciting others, to enter upon the property of the projects, though they are lawfully closed, and also ‘disrupt’ the city. This constitutes at the very least a conspiracy….”

“Enough, Mr. Juakali. You are nothing less than an officious firebrand, intent on breaking the law and causing others to do so….As a former public official, such incitements by you are truly appalling. Shame on you.”

I’ve mentioned Hope Ferguson here before. She writes books and articles under the name of Hope Winters, is an expert in great demand on the subject of libraries, especially church libraries, and is committed to helping us build and rebuild them in New Orleans area churches. A few days ago, she and husband Dr. Jerry Ferguson were in town for the convention of the American Library Association where she spoke. Here is some of her report of that meeting.

“We had a quick trip to New Orleans. We left on Sunday and I spoke to the Fellowship of Christian Librarians Monday morning. I had lots of butterflies because I’m not accustomed to speaking to professional librarians, information specialists, and publishers. But, they were gracious and after my speech, many expressed that they felt more confident about volunteering in their church libraries given they could do so on a small scale, without a budget, without a space, or as consultants.”

“I had sign-up sheets conveniently placed on the tables. And we gathered 19 more names and email addresses from folks who want to be informed and possibly help out with the effort to start and restart church libraries in New Orleans.”

“Jerry and I spent the rest of the day Monday walking and lugging stuff around the massive Convention Center. It was eye candy for a book lover, but not too much was of use to us (the religious publishers were few and far between, except for the Muslim publishers which I saw at almost every turn!). Would you believe the Muslims were giving away copies of the Quran!! Jerry is a Gideon and when he saw that, he looked high and low for someone giving away Bibles, to no avail. I think he has a torch lit under him after realizing that. I was stunned to see what the Muslims had on their tables–the deceptive ‘Jesus as Prophet’ was placed at the center of one of their tables. I had to look twice at ‘Akbar and His Donkey’ because it looked exactly like some of the children’s books in our library. The hair on the back of my neck stood up when I saw: ‘How Muslims Really Feel About Terrorism,” free decadent chocolate to lure the unsuspecting into the booths, gorgeous ‘Sacred Texts,’ etc.

“Anyway, we tried. Most exhibitors are quick to give out catalogs and order forms, but little else of value, barring the occasional canvas bag, pen, or notepad.”

“There were 3 representatives from Moody Publishers in attendance at my speech Monday morning. They pledged to send their exhibit books to my home address to be given away in the fall at the New Orleans area church library training conference. Two boxes of books from Moody Publishers arrived at my doorstep here in Natchitoches just a couple of hours ago, all 63 of them! I plan to take them to our church library and pay extra to have them pre-processed to bring with me to New Orleans. It takes a while to pre-process 63 books!”

Jerry and Hope’s plan was to return to the convention on Tuesday to receive exhibit books appropriate for church libraries, but they received a call about a death in the family and had to leave. Hope adds, “We did plant seeds everywhere we went and gathered tons of information. I hope to be back in touch with lots of those contacts asking for assistance in the fall. They all seemed to be so generous in helping the public and school libraries!”

Thank you, Hope. You are a champion for our people and we deeply appreciate you and Jerry.

When I was in one of the upper elementary grades at that little three room school in Affinity, West Virginia–we’re talking late 1940s here–the teacher lined us up against the wall for a spelling bee. I was excited. I loved those things. I always did well. This time, to my utter shock, I lasted maybe 2 rounds. The word that sat me down was one I uttered at least daily. I knew that word. I knew how to spell it. Surely the book was wrong.

“Library,” the teacher said. I smiled and dutifully intoned, “Libary: L-I-B-A-R-Y. Libary.” Wrong, she said, have a seat.

I spelled it exactly as I pronounced it. To this day, when I type it, that first “r” gets omitted and I have to go back and insert it.

Hope Ferguson and I have something in common: we both work on libraries.