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| New Orleans’ Suffering Continues, Kentucky Baptists Needed |
| Release Date: 02/20/2007 |
 NEW ORLEANS – For Steve Gomez, the displacement of Hurricane Katrina is almost over.
The pastor of Faith in Prayer Missionary Baptist Church here, Gomez was a substitute schoolteacher and mental health nurse when he ended up in the Louisiana Superdome with 12 patients in his care during the vicious hurricane last August. The ensuing days saw him and his family evacuated to Houston where they lived for seven months before making their way back to New Orleans to stay in the home of his mother-in-law.
The Gomez’s own home was a wreck after standing for weeks in water that got as high as eight feet. Since returning, Gomez, 48, has worked to start a business as a hardwood floor installer, pastor his church (now meeting in the home of one of the members) and begin repairing his house.
But thanks to the work of a nine-man team of volunteers from Piner Baptist Church in Morning View, Ky., the day of moving back home is almost here. Gomez was hopeful that because of the work of the Piner crew, moving day might come as early as this week – a full three months sooner than what he was anticipating if he had to complete all repairs himself.
“I’m tickled pink. I couldn’t wait to get back here,” Gomez said of his reaction to the call that the group was on its way. “These people have shown tremendous concern. It’s something beyond imagination.”
The team was one of three Kentucky Baptist groups on work sites in New Orleans during a recent week as part of Operation NOAH (New Orleans Area Homes) Rebuild, the Southern Baptist effort to help rebuild homes, lives and churches in the devastated city. Groups from Lone Oak First Baptist Church in Paducah and the Pulaski Baptist Association were also working on homes that same week.
 Operation NOAH Rebuild, developed by the Baptist Association of Greater New Orleans, the Louisiana Baptist Convention and the Southern Baptist North American Mission Board, divides the New Orleans area into 27 zones with churches, associations and state/regional conventions from across the country partnering to work in specific zones.
The Kentucky Baptist Convention and the Baptist Convention of New England are working in Zone 4, which encompasses the southeastern edge of Lake Pontchartrain that sustained some of the heaviest damage when levees broke in the wake of the Category 5 hurricane.
Dianne Gahagan, the Operation NOAH Rebuild office manager, said the goal is for Southern Baptists is to rehabilitate 1,000 homes and 20 churches by August, 2008. The Salvation Army and Promise Keepers are also participating in the effort.
“You might be surprised to drive through New Orleans and to see the devastation in some of the homes,” Gahagan said.
She said that while the downtown and tourist areas are back in operation, there are wide swaths of residential areas that still look much as they did when the floodwaters first receded. Homes continue to stand empty by the hundreds and many of the city’s residents have not returned.
One of the prime signs that a homeowner has actually returned to the city to rehabilitate a house continues to be a small white Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) trailer parked in the front yard.
“You get down here and start looking around and you go ‘it is only the tip of the iceberg,” said B.J. Donahue, a volunteer with the Piner group. “We didn’t imagine that we’d get down here a year and a half later and see entire neighborhoods like this – some even still needing to be gutted to start the process.”
“Zone 4 is one of the harder hit areas,” he added. “We have bit off a lot.”
KBC Baptist Men on Mission Director Randy Foster said he’s hoping to see the same kind of sustained response from Kentucky Baptists in New Orleans that they exhibited in Mississippi following Katrina and Hurricane Rita. Hundreds of Kentucky volunteers worked in disaster relief and recovery efforts there during the nine months immediately following the storms.
Gahagan said NAMB is seeking 500 volunteers each week in order to achieve the goal.
She said groups can perform a variety of tasks that range from construction jobs like roofing, installing drywall and painting to office work and handling telephones. Groups to lead evangelistic efforts such as prayerwalking, backyard Bible clubs and block parties are also needed.
Volunteers are housed in a “volunteer village” on three floors of the World Trade Center in New Orleans’ downtown area along the Mississippi River. Southern Baptist Disaster Relief workers prepare and serve breakfast and supper and also provide sack lunches for groups to take to their work sites.
Volunteer groups pay just $20 per person per day for housing and meals, Gahagan said.
Supplies for the construction work – from drywall to insulation to paint – are handled through a warehouse in what was the sanctuary of a Baptist church before Katrina hit. All projects have are pre-screened and approved by Operation NOAH Rebuild’s construction coordinators before groups arrive.
Donahue said the setup is ideal for church and youth mission trips.
“You can’t beat the fact that, one, the Southern Baptist Convention is heading it up so we don’t have to do the thinking. Number two, they provide all the materials on site for us. We don’t have to go out and buy anything,” he said. “Number three, they provide housing. Number four, they provide three meals a day. And they do all of that for 20 bucks a night.”
Donahue said one of the greatest parts about the trip though was seeing the smile of Steve Gomez and hearing him encouraging his “A-team” as they installed drywall together.
“It’s really neat to help a pastor get his house back in order so he can be about the business of leading a church,” he said.
Gomez couldn’t agree more.
“They are very instrumental in demonstrating what Noah did and what Nehemiah did – that is rebuilding the walls,” Gomez said.
For more information about Operation NOAH Rebuild or to express interest in participating, visit www.operationnoah.net or call 877-934-0808 (toll-free) or (504) 362-4604.
Release prepared by Robert Reeves, KBC Communications |
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