I drove back to New Orleans Wednesday from Monroe and reflected on what we had done and not done this week.

All of us from the storm-damaged section of the state were grateful for the attention given our situation on the program. Sometimes it was videos on the large screens in which our pastors talked. At other times, convention leaders gave their reports. Pastor David Crosby of New Orleans’ First Baptist Church made an eloquent appeal for the convention to stay with us for a long time to come.

There was politics (there WERE politics? I’m not sure) at the convention, as there always are. But I’ve been so out of the loop. Someone asked who I was voting for as president of the state convention and I didn’t even know who was running. We’ve not received any third class mail down here since August, and that rules out our state Baptist paper. It is available on-line and I keep trying to remember to look it up. Our Baptist Message is a terrific paper, and surely worthy of our attention.

Lynn Clayton was honored as he retires from editing the Baptist Message after about a hundred years. Well, almost. He’s truly one of a kind, and I have treasured our relationship which began in 1979 when Lynn’s pastor, John Alley of Calvary, Alexandria, and I were serving on a committee for the Foreign Mission Board (now called the International Mission Board). The Internal Revenue Service was calling for all U.S. missionaries serving overseas to pay income tax here in the states as well as in the countries where they were serving. This would impose a financial burden on the FMB of at least another million dollars a year. So, John and Lynn and I descended on Washington, D.C., and started calling on senators. We literally pounded the pavement. Louisiana Senator Russell Long gave us the support we needed and introduced the bill which we then lobbied for, calling Southern Baptists around the country and asking them to contact their senators. When it passed, the IRS was made to go stand in the corner (so to speak), and ever since a million dollars a year of the Lord’s money has gone to something other than taxes. Lynn Clayton was a great help. I’ve loved the man ever since.

I mentioned previously that one big attraction for these conventions is the fellowship, that is, people finding old and new friends and visiting. My wife calls it gossip, but we know better. Well, I must have been fellowshiping Monday night, because they tell me I missed it. A pastor on the Northshore (i.e., above Lake Pontchartrain) reported to the convention that he and his church were left out of the post-Katrina ministries, that they got nothing, and thus he called for a committee to study how this ministry was done and the money allocated. The fact that the motion failed overwhelmingly is significant, but the fact that the complaint was registered at all is puzzling to a lot of people. Several have told me how this particular pastor was one of the first to be ministered to, getting a check for $2,000 from the LBC, having volunteers minister in his church, etc. Something doesn’t add up.

They asked me to pray the opening prayer at the Tuesday morning session. After President Philip Robertson announced the death of our friend Adrian Rogers of Memphis and called for prayer for Genny Jeffries of Chalmette who just had brain surgery, I added one more request. “As you pray for the areas affected by the hurricanes, and in particular, for New Orleans, may I ask you to pray big. Ask for the great thing from God.” I gave them this little line from John Newton:

Thou art coming to a King;

Large petitions with thee bring.

For His grace and power are such,

None can ever ask too much.

The heart of my prayer was: “While some debate whether the hurricanes are the judgment of God, we thank you for the people who refused to play those games, but opened their cities and homes and churches and received our citizens into their hearts. We thank you that they showed them the hospitality of the Lord and in many cases introduced them to the Savior. A great number of them will be giving thanks in eternity, not for a hurricane, but for those who were faithful and Christlike in the storm.” I ended with this request: “We pray that as this city is rebuilt, that it shall become such a center of love and peace, such an example of righteousness and faith, that people in other cities will behold it and begin to pray, ‘If this is the judgment of God, then Lord, judge our city, also. Judge us, too, O Lord.'”

An incredible trio from Nashville provided special music at each session. “No Other Name” they call themselves. Something rather strange happened.

I sat in the back of the church and thrilled to their singing, particularly being stunned by their unique blend. Where is the girl’s voice, I wondered. Was she being overshadowed by the two guys? Then I found it. She was a low alto, and her voice was as deep and as strong as theirs. When she stepped up to the front for a solo, you could have scraped me off the rug, I was so stunned. What a voice. Strong, powerful, unusual. And…

When I arrived home late Wednesday afternoon, I had an e-mail from Laura Erlanson at the Baptist Press office in Nashville. She handles my cartoons on their website (www.bpnews.net and click on “the lighter side”) and sometimes calls to say she’s running low and I need to send more. But not this time…

“Joe, I missed you. After you prayed the opening prayer and our group sang, I tried to find you, etc.” And that’s when it dawned on me. That stunning singer in “No Other Name” was Laura. I met her in Nashville this summer at the Southern Baptist Convention, and even drew her picture. In fact, I drew her office’s Christmas card last winter and drew her too, of course. But did not recognize her this week at our meeting. (I blamed it on katrina-fatigue.) I have been kicking myself ever since. But she has forgiven me, I think, and is sending me a CD.

We’ve posted some pictures of churches devastated by Katrina on my website. Go to www.joemckeever.com and on the right side, click on “cartoons by joe mckeever,” then click on “katrina.” We had hundreds of photos, but these are the worst and most dramatic. They’re all in St. Bernard and Plaquemines parishes, the worst hit area. And yes, the horse in the tree picture is there. Ed Jelks labeled the photo and called it a mule. I say it was a horse. We both agree that it’s dead.

You’ll also find the Nehemiah cartoons next to Katrina’s photos. Please call this to your pastor’s attention. Throughout the winter, our ministers will be teaching and preaching through this incredible Old Testament book, and many will want to use these ‘toons. Some will put them on power point or transparencies, and some will print them onto posters or handouts. Use them any way you can with my blessing.

I stayed on the cell phone all 5 hours of the drive home, and something occurred to me. Some Christian school is about to receive a large check in the mail from a Christian brother in a northern state and they won’t know why. It’s because his pastor called me and said, “Tell me the name of one of your schools that was hurt in the storm; we have some money to send.” And I thought how often this process must repeat itself. Churches and schools will receive what to them are surprise gifts from people they never heard of. But it’s because someone else said, “Send it to them; they can use it.”

How blessed we are. And how grateful. I told someone today that the case of the brother on the Northshore who felt left out from the gifts and the ministries concerns me, because there is no question in my mind that when all this is said and done, someone will step up and say, “No one told me this money was available. You didn’t give any to me.” But the only thing I know to do is plow ahead, doing the best you can.

It may not be very spiritual, but my philosophy is: if it’s worth doing at all, it’s worth doing poorly. So, we ahead, doing the best we can.

Again, thank you for praying for us. If you can join our PRAYER WALK FOR NEW ORLEANS this Saturday, November 19, 10 am to 3 pm, from Williams Boulevard Baptist Church in Kenner, we would love to have you. If not, and if you remember to pray for us at that time, we will appreciate it.