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.

“I went into the local supermarket,” she said, “looking for something to get for the gift bags we have prepared for you. While I was staring at the fruit, a man said, ‘Can I help you?’ I said, ‘Are you the manager?’ He said, ‘I’m the district manager. Do you need a job?'” (Every business in this part of the world is looking to hire.) Martha said, “No, but you’re the one I want to talk to.” She told him that she was preparing gift bags for the ministers and their spouses from Baptist churches throughout the New Orleans area, and asked if he would like to participate. He would. In fact, he would donate one pound bags of shelled pecans.

When the store manager protested that the cost would be exorbitant for perhaps 75 bags, the district manager assured him it would be all right. “Let me tell you why I want to do this,” he said. He told a tale that has become familiar by now to all of us. His home, just inside Mississippi, was flooded and the local Baptist church took them in and fed them and looked after them. “My church was locked up and my priest was nowhere to be found,” he said. When the crisis had ended and they were returning home, he pointed out the Baptist church to his wife and said, “Honey, there is our new church home.” He told Martha Bailey, “I’ve been looking for a way to say thanks to the Baptists.”

If the Covington folks were trying to bless and encourage our ministers and their families, they succeeded in spades. There must have been 50 of their leaders present to welcome us and serve us. The dinner was gourmet quality and worthy of any restaurant in New Orleans. We had planned our own program, consisting of three brothers from Crossroads Community Church who played Christmas music and led us in carols, then testimonies from some of our ministers: Arceneaux, Greg Hand from Vieux Carre’, Jay Adkins from Westwego, and Keith Manuel from Calvary. Ministers’ conference president Lee Rutledge, pastor of Crossroads, presided. Toward the end of the program, some people circulated among the tables distributing envelopes with cash for every minister present. Waylon Bailey named the churches that had contributed generously to enable this. Lastly, the fabled gift bags were distributed.

Inside each bag was some great candy, a gift certificate for a honey baked ham, some Avon products, a mug and packet of coffee, a movie ticket–and a bag of shelled pecans. The good news in our family is my son Neil loves to bake pecan pies. Since I love to eat them, we have what is known as a symbiotic relationship.

There was a lot of hugging at the dinner, some laughter, great fellowship, sweet friendship. Scott Smith used both vans from Highland Baptist Church to transport eleven of our group. The fellowship coming and going across the 26-mile causeway may have been the best part of the evening for some. I admitted the obvious to our people, “We have not been competitors. We have been strangers to one another. So many of us have not known the others. We must not ever let that happen again.”

We’ve made a start now. We invited the spouses to join us at our Wednesday pastors’ gathering at First Baptist LaPlace this week and next, December 7 and 14. Then, we will skip the 21st and the 28th for the holidays.

I told Martha Bailey, “Our people will glow from this event for the next week.” Encouragement does that for a body.

WHAT DISCOURAGEMENT LOOKS LIKE

Pastor David and Janet Crosby of First Baptist-New Orleans rode with us to the banquet. Crossing the lake, he told how a contractor had called on him Monday afternoon. “He was from out of state, here with a lot of his people, wanting to help us rebuild the city. But he’s discouraged and ready to go home.” The culprit is the red tape, the barriers and hurdles erected by various governmental agencies around here ostensibly to protect the city, but in effect to make it difficult to do business here. “Unless something is done quick,” the man told David, “I guarantee you that 75% of the workers are going to be pulling out of this city and going home. It’s not worth it.”

David said, “It’s been this way as long as anyone can remember. A contractor needs all kinds of licenses from the city, the parish, the state, from levee boards, community organizations, you name it. Each one protecting his turf. It’s one of the reasons new businesses hesitate to locate here.” Sign a contract for a job and the fine print says you must hire so many local people or subcontract a portion to local companies. Often they do little or nothing except receive a slice of the financial pie, David said.

What did you tell him, I asked. “As soon as he left, I contacted the mayor’s office and the parish president and the governor’s office and told them. I’ve been asked to write an op-ed piece for the Times-Picayune; I may write about this.” I hope he does.

Tuesday morning’s paper tells of a joint effort by two major national home-builders to erect 20,000 new homes in the area. They have bought up a tract of land in Jefferson Parish near the West Bank community of Avondale and have plans to build 3,000 new homes on that site, complete with shopping areas and parks. A spokesman said, “We’re talking a new city.”

The local authorities–swimmy-headed over the kind of investment and hope this brings–began to think of the red tape that must be dealt with. Monday a leader with the homebuilders met with Governor Kathleen Blanco to ask for her help. “What normally takes three months, we need done in weeks,” he said.

We don’t disagree with that. We just hope once the leadership finds how to cut that tape, they’ll hand the scissors to the thousands of out-of-town workers who could use a little encouragement if they’re to stay here and help us.

Tuesday morning, the temperature outside hovered in the mid-30s. A local television news show had its remote facilities in a park where construction workers shivered inside tents. Say all you want to about the big money these people can possibly make here. They’re earning every penny of it. I just want to encourage them to stay here for the duration.