“Just another day at the office” has taken on a whole new meaning for several Texas Southern Baptists who are using their ordinary vocations to provide extraordinary aid to the victims of Hurricane Katrina.
Glenn Freeman of Grand Prairie is using his 30-plus years of military experience on the frontlines of Katrina’s destruction: New Orleans. According to his wife, Toni, her husband has served in the United States Air Force and the Air National Guard. He was activated by the Guard and sent to New Orleans where he is helping to set up a tent city in the ravaged community. Due to the destruction, communication with Freeman is sparse, but his duties might be expanded to include search and rescue and recovery operations.
Freeman, who works for Sprint, was called to serve for a year in Fort Worth following the 9/11 attacks and has been struck by what he’s seen in New Orleans, his wife said. “He e-mailed and said it was like being in a whole other country.”
Ben Peterson of Keller might have felt like he was in another country as he tried to fulfill his duties as a prime medical supply vendor following the hurricane. Peterson’s territory includes Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama?all affected by the storm. In addition, the regional distribution facility near Lake Ponchartrain was knocked out of commission. “We had to redirect all of our products,” Peterson said.
While many of the hospitals he services in New Orleans were closed, other hospitals in the region were overflowing with casualties and had a great need for medical supplies. “It was unbelievable. We were struggling from our inventory to try to get product to the hospitals,” Peterson said. Also, communication breakdowns complicated the efforts. “We had a hard time getting in contact with hospitals,” he said.
Peterson was so engrossed in trying to make sure hospitals had what they needed that he didn’t realize the scope of Katrina’s destruction for several days.
“I had been so busy. My focus had been on what I was trying to do,” Peterson said. “I reached a point last week and I stopped and watched TV. It broke my heart. It was gut-wrenching.”
The distribution center Peterson uses is now fully operational again.
But while structures are being repaired, it will be some time before the lives of the hurricane victims are back to normal again. Working through school districts across Texas, many children will begin to rebuild by going back to school.
At Grand Prairie Independent School District, Southern Baptist Patty Busby serves as secretary to the superintendent, helping to welcome 146 children of evacuees. GPISD is not only enrolling students in school, but is also helping provide assistance in the form of food, clothing, and housing.
“It’s just part of my job,” Busby said. “We are working with all our school principals and social workers and the superintendent to get everyone on the same page.” The superintendent is also working to get the city of Grand Prairie on board with the relief effort. “We are trying to get these kids into a stable environment.”
Busby said the district is working with families to make sure students have a place to learn even if it means making exceptions to the norm. For instance, one apartment complex that is housing victims is split between two different schools.
“We are trying to let them go to other schools even outside the boundary,” Busby said. “We don’t want schools to be overcrowded.”
Workers have also heard incredible stories of how people are surviving after Katrina, according to Busby. She had a report of one family with 78 people living under one roof. Of the 78, more than 25 were school-aged children.
Despite the overwhelming numbers and the increased workload, Busby believes this effort is her responsibility.
“As a Christian, there was no question I would be participating,” Busby said. “If we felt inside about what Christ did for us like we do when we see the pictures on TV, there would be no question that we would share our faith. It’s not just a Christian obligation. It’s a moral obligation.”
Lynn Cunningham of Grapevine is trying to fulfill her Christian obligation each day as a transitio
HOUSTON?The multitude that included Christians, Jews, Muslims and others won’t be wearing yellow shirts with “Southern Baptists of Texas Convention” on them, but the SBTC trained them just the same.
Some of the 32,000 people who filled Second Baptist Church in Houston Sept. 3-5 to be trained in relief operations for Katrina evacuees were Baptists, but many were not even Christians?an oddity, maybe a first, in a Southern Baptist church.
Gibbie McMillan, the SBTC’s missions services coordinator over Disaster Relief work, in several sessions led a church auditorium full of volunteers through much of the typical disaster relief “yellow cap” training.
Included was 5-10 minutes of Scripture-based teaching, said SBTC Communications Director Gary Ledbetter, who attended the sessions.
“Gibbie’s presentation was not denominational but included a clear, New Testament foundation for doing various kinds of relief ministries,” Ledbetter said. “It was a clear reminder to non-Christians in the training of our unique motivation.
“These volunteers represent a broad spectrum of denominations and religions,”
The tens of thousands of sympathetic Houston area volunteers were processed quickly, many of them in place by Sept. 6, sharing a meal of chicken and rice pilaf before manning the feeding units.
After being appointed incident commander in Houston, McMillan began training volunteers offering to help at the Astrodome and downtown convention center. When displaced people were moved from New Orleans’ Superdome to Houston, the Astrodome space quickly filled to capacity.
The George R. Brown Convention Center provided overflow space under the direction of a coalition of faith-based groups.
Operation Compassion drew so many people to the training at Second Baptist Church of Houston that every route for a mile away required traffic direction by police. When the huge church lot was filled, volunteers parked at area grocery stores, restaurants and even a liquor store, walking several blocks to the training site.
Although only Southern Baptists can join SBTC Disaster Relief units and wear their official yellow shirts, a shrouded Muslim woman with a Middle Eastern accent found her way to the meeting. She joined hundreds of other Muslims training to serve with their faith group.
Training held on Saturday of the Labor Day weekend attracted 1,000 volunteers, growing tenfold on Sunday and to 20,000 on Monday. Crowds were so large that overflow seating was utilized at the Houston megachurch and the large number turned away remained for an improptu session added afterward.
Though dominated by Baptists, the 131 faith-based organizations included Catholics, Methodists, Presbyterians, charismatics, Pentecostals, Church of God, Episcopalians, Lutherans, Disciples of Christ, Quakers and Mennonites. Other religions represented included Jews, Mormons, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Buddhists, Bahai and Muslims.
By Sept. 6, the 32,000 volunteers in Houston had assumed responsibility for supplying 240 volunteers for each meal shift at the convention center for the next month. Churches in the Houston area are contributing millions of dollars to cover the cost while mobilizing members to volunteer their time.
The command center coordinated placement of neatly arranged beds, a color-coded shower schedule and a vast array of services functioning when the first group of evacuees arrived.
Led by Second Baptist Church of Houston, pastor Ed Young Sr. told those gathered that a Southern Baptist minister would be praying in the name of Jesus. He invited volunteers from other faiths to understand why this was appropriate in a Christian church.
“In this church we will pray in our way,” he explained, inviting others to approach God in regard to their own convictions.
Young said Houstonians understand the impact of a flood of great magnitude, referring to the 2001 devastation that put much of metropolitan Houston underwater. He called the fact that tens of thousands came together from so many faith-based
DALLAS?Instead of blaming or judging those involved in relief efforts for Hurricane Katrina victims, Criswell College President Jerry Johnson instructed students and faculty to assume the attitude of Moses and Aaron?to stand between the living and the dead. In a Sept. 8 chapel address where volunteers were commissioned to serve in New Orleans, Baton Rouge and Dallas, Johnson reminded that murmuring, complaining and rebellion brought death, according to Scripture.
“We are prone to this today. That is why I am always for the pastor, I am always for the policeman, I am always for the president. They are authorities that God has placed over us in our lives. We need to get under the authority that God has put over us, and not be murmuring and complaining and blaming them. We need to understand theologically that what brings death is sin and sin is rebellion against God and his authority and those authorities he has placed over us.”
As 40 Criswell College students and professors prepared to travel by specially chartered bus to assist with disaster relief efforts, Johnson called on students to urgently “stand between the living and the dead” with prayer and the atoning message of the gospel.
“When the plague comes and when the blame game begins, God’s people must stand between the living and the dead,” he told the 40 students and faculty joining the efforts of Southern Baptist of Texas Convention (SBTC) Disaster Relief units assigned to work alongside the Salvation Army and Red Cross relief efforts in Louisiana.
“We ought to seize this opportunity. This is an effective door that has opened if we believe in the providence and the sovereignty of God. He means to bring glory to himself and he means to bring the gospel to the people. He means to save people and he means to use you and me to do it. We need to be urgent. Now is the time.”
Johnson’s message underscored the active role the Dallas school has taken in response to Hurricane Katrina. On Sept. 6, the Criswell College volunteers received necessary “yellow hat” training from SBTC to allow them to enter and assist in relief areas. On Sept. 7, about 150 Criswell students and professors went to three Salvation Army disaster relief sites to minister to hurricane victims, including those inside Reunion Arena. Meanwhile, Criswell College students have given over $800 for disaster relief, and college radio station KCBI has raised over $37,000 that will be sent to the North American Mission Board disaster relief fund.
“There are two things happening in that region,” Johnson said of the stricken Gulf Coast. “People there are gospel hardened. Many people in Mississippi are Baptists, but they are backslidden or lost. Many are members of Baptist churches, but they are lost. In New Orleans there is a dearth of the gospel. Now those people have come out. They have been flushed out among us, and we have an opportunity to share with them. We don’t have to go to New Orleans; they are right here among us. They are out of their comfort zone.”
Johnson took as his text Numbers 16:41-50, where the Israelites complained against Moses and Aaron, just after those involved in Korah’s rebellion were destroyed when the earth opened up and closed over them.
“There was an earthquake?a natural disaster. The earth opened up and swallowed a bunch of people. It was something that God did in judgment. Actively God judged the people. Then in this passage we read that the people began to complain and the blame game began. They blamed Moses. They said, ‘Moses, you killed the people?the people of the Lord!'”
Johnson noted that other biblical passages, such as the description in John 8 of the man born blind, the story of the fall of the tower of Siloam in Luke 13, and the struggles of Job, show that not all disaster is a judgment on sin. Likewise, Johnson refused to join with those would claim that Katrina is part of God’s judgment on America.
Insisting that he does not know the mind of God regarding the hurricane’s purpose, Johnson noted a range of biblical options:
?A direct act of judgment through natural disaster for sin such as is found in the passage he cited or the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah;
?Part of living on a sinful earth when there is a holy God.
Somewhere in the range from this general curse on the earth, to a direct act of judgment for a situation, these kinds of events fall,” Johnson concluded.
He observed that the first response of Moses and Aaron was not to figure out God’s purposes, but instead to pray.
BATON ROUGE, La.?An army of SBTC volunteers, many of them rookie Disaster Relief workers, have prepared and served more than 300,000 meals in points between Baton Rouge and New Orleans since the week of Hurricane Katrina.
In partnership with the Texas Salvation Army, the SBTC plans to send rotating 60-member teams to Baton Rouge over the coming months on a weekly basis. In addition, SBTC chainsaw units are helping in outlying areas. The SBTC’s mud-out units and Texas Baptist Builders may be activated in the coming months on the damaged campus of New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary.
The Texas Salvation Army’s (TSA) 53-foot mobile feeding kitchen with a convoy of 20 TSA canteen units and about 60 SBTC Disaster Relief volunteers was one of the first units into Baton Rouge, having waited out the storm in Beaumont, Texas Aug. 29.
Expecting to offer 25,000 meals per day, the TSA mobile kitchen unit fed 35,000 people the first full day of operation. Led by SBTC Disaster Relief Director Bill Davenport, the group soon moved toward New Orleans where holed-up residents of the French Quarter received their first meals after the storm subsided. Others moved into suburbs like Kenner where the staff of two hospitals arrived late Thursday for a meal.
Meanwhile, back in Texas, Southern Baptist churches that had no previous experience in Disaster Relief were pleading for the training that is necessary to serve in Red Cross and Salvation Army units. On Saturday following the storm, the 60 Texans registered for training swelled to 163, packing an SBTC conference room.
Though traditionally many DR volunteers are retired, this early group included an architect, meter reader, well driller, physical therapist, secretaries and many more?most of them under the age of 50 with no previous experience in Southern Baptist missions work.
Thirty of that group agreed to head out the next day to Baton Rouge, joining 30 more already assigned from existing SBTC units.
Among the first-timers was Ben White, who trained Sept. 4 and boarded a truck Sept. 5 in a caravan of six from Prestonwood Baptist Church who headed for Baton Rouge. White is an 82-year-old World War II veteran and retired engineer who in decades past led construction projects such as the Alfred P. Murrah federal building and the upper portions of Texas Stadium.
On Sept. 8, White rolled out of his cot at 3:30 a.m. with most of the other volunteers and headed for the command center 15 minutes away to begin preparing for another day of serving the displaced.
Others included Randy and Denette Sellers, also of Prestonwood, who showed up for training unsure of what they were getting into. Less then 24 hours later they too had volunteered and were headed for Baton Rouge.
Kelly Kendrick, a member of Galloway Avenue Baptist Church, another first-timer, went despite struggling health. While there, he received a voice mail telling him he had been moved up on a list of prospective liver transplant recipients because of his medical condition.
A nurse from the Austin area brought her teenage daughter, whom she homeschools.
The first groups into Baton Rouge slept on the floor at the crowded local Salvation Army church where they shared one shower.
Later in the week, Parkview Baptist Church in Baton Rouge provided an annex building with cots, blankets and pillows for the SBTC contingent. Volunteers from the church even collected laundry and returned it clean for the weary workers.
On one occasion a local chef treated them to jambalaya.
As a lifelong resident of Louisiana until a little over 10 years ago, SBTC Executive Director Jim Richards seized the opportunity to encourage churches to take in evacuees or assist with their transition.
“My seminary is damaged and under water. Many of my pastor friends and their congregations are scattered by the hurricane. Even more disturbing are thousands upon thousands who are homeless, destitute and lacking the basics in human hygiene,” he said.
He praised the thousands of Disaster Relief volunteers trained by SBTC who are on the front lines in Louisiana and Texas me
BATON ROUGE, La.?Taking his cue from the Old Testament prophet Nehemiah, California pastor Rick Warren told several hundred pastors, pastors’ wives and church staff members displaced by Hurricane Katrina that “rebuilding the city is always harder than building the city. The same is true of lives.”
The hurricane victims, who lost church property, homes and sometimes both, gathered at Florida Boulevard Baptist Church in Baton Rouge Tuesday afternoon and evening to hear Warren, a best-selling author and pastor of Saddleback Church in Southern California, SBC President Bobby Welch and other national and state Baptist leaders.
Florida Boulevard, with a membership of 2,000, has become one of the central relief points in a city whose population has swelled by an estimated 250,000 people in the last week as evacuees have crowded shelters, hotels and homes.
Warren told the crowd that there are three stages following disasters: the rescue stage, the resuming stage, and the rebuilding and relocation stage?the longest and most difficult part, he said. “And that my friends, is the duty of the church.”
Warren said in Nehemiah 2:17-18 that Nehemiah cites the devastation of Jerusalem, saying, “Let us rid ourselves of this shame and rebuild.”
“God loves to bring good out of bad,” Warren said. “He loves to turn crucifixions into resurrections. Every obstacle is an opportunity. Every problem has potential. Every crisis is an opportunity for ministry. Every hurt God wants to use for his glory.”
With more than 1 million people displaced, the long-term solution is churches reaching out with maximum effort and giving hope to hopeless people.
Warren, who arrived after visiting Houston, Memphis, Tenn., and Jackson, Miss., said, “Every single person I talked to didn’t know where every member of their family was. ? You can go weeks without food. You can go days without water, you can go a few minutes without air. But you can’t go one second without hope. You gotta have hope to cope. And that’s what our job is?to build hope.”
Warren echoed Welch’s earlier comments to the crowd that during a tragedy people’s hearts are often open to the gospel.
“During the next 90 days, people are going to be more open to the gospel than in years,” said Warren, adding that God uses trials to soften hearts. “It is God’s responsibility to make people receptive; it is our responsibility to sow the seed.”
Warren said the answer to questions about God’s purpose in tragedies are unknowable on earth. But the “what question”?what churches should do?is knowable from Jesus’ life.
In three years of ministry, Jesus planted a church, equipped leaders and assisted the poor, Warren said.
“Jesus came to preach the gospel to the poor,” said Warren, . “I don’t know about you, but for a long time I had blinders on about this. I went to a Baptist college and two seminaries and it wasn’t un
JASPER, Texas?”To compare civil rights with the gay rights movement is demeaning, racist and insulting,” Dwight McKissic told a Jasper gathering Aug. 29.
“To compare civil rights with gay rights is to compare my skin with the homosexual’s sin,” said McKissic, pastor of Arlington’s Cornerstone Baptist Church and a principal organizer of the “Not On My Watch Coalition,” a group of black pastors and leaders opposed to government-approved homosexual unions,
The Jasper gathering, organized by Southern Baptist pastor Charles Burchett of Kirbyville, was at the non-denominational Harvest Way Church and drew a multi-ethnic crowd from several Baptist and Pentecostal denominations. McKissic spoke in Port Arthur Aug. 28 and in Jasper and Beaumont the next day.
McKissic said the 21st century is dividing people by morality the way the 20th century often divided people by skin color.
“My friends, you might not realize it, but we’re in a spiritual war. We’re in a fight for the soul of America. Particularly, we’re in a fight for the soul of black America because many black people and civil rights leaders are buying into this false, unbiblical concept that you can compare civil rights to gay rights. I’m absolutely convinced that this discussion is going to divide the wheat from the tares. We’re going to find out who’s standing on the Lord’s side as we struggle for the next year or two as to how we’re going to define marriage in America.”
McKissic said he has former homosexuals in his congregation and that the church should evangelize and disciple all people.
Amid fatherless homes, teenage rebellion and other social ills, “same-sex marriage could be the knockout blow,” McKissic said.
“The problem with the gay rights movement is that moral authority is not on their side.” Further, the civil rights movement was based in constitutionally guaranteed freedoms that were wrongfully denied while the homosexual “marriage” issue is based on civil anarchy, McKissic contended. He said the abolitionist movement and the women’s suffrage movement prevailed because they, unlike the homosexual rights movement, were rooted in moral authority and truth.
McKissic said he was warned by Ann Cools, a member of the Canadian parliament and its only black senator, “If it can happen in Canada, it could very easily happen here if we don’t come together.”
“Right now we can read passages such as Romans 1 and Leviticus 18 and other texts dealing with homosexuality without any fear of repercussion or reprisals or punishment,” McKissic said. “But in Canada pastors can be arrested for simply reading what the Bible says about homosexuality.”
“If (homosexual marriage) is approved by our government, it pits government against God. It pits government against the word of God. It pits government against Sunday School teachers teaching on Sunday that thou shall not lie as a man with a man as if he were a woman. And then on Monday school they will learn that it’s OK with a textbook that will endorse it.”
A cartoon by Pulitzer-prize winner Steve Benson was indicative of the venom spewed at President Bush last month for saying public school students should hear both sides of the intelligent design-evolution debate.
Within hours, editorial writers and educators were throwing dirty bombs his way, hoping to inflict enough damage to make the whole intelligent design movement disappear from the radar screens of the masses.
The scornful cartoon was especially telling: A hairy, ape-like Bush is sitting crisscross on a barstool in the middle of a classroom, surrounded by students. Beside him, a female teacher is using him as exhibit A, proclaiming to students: “Pay attention class. You’re looking at living proof that life has evolved from lower forms — and that it hasn’t involved any sort of intelligent design.”
The teacher holds a book titled “Actual Science.” Bush, meanwhile, sits on a book titled “Biblical Creationism,” and he wears a shirt bearing the words, “Uncurious George W.”
Absurd, yes, but Steve Benson is only spouting the party line, which says that macro-evolution (amphibians transitioning into dry critters, for example) is as valid as gravity and ridicules loudly anyone who differs.
At war are two worldviews?one governed by biblical truth and the other governed by a materialist philosophy that views ethics as a social convention pliable for different eras and societal needs. At stake, in large part, is the cultural direction of a technologically advanced civilization.
Materialism (sometimes called naturalism) is the belief that physical reality is all that exists; the notion of a Designer who cannot be physically accounted for is rejected.
The spiritual dimensions of the debate are evident in the apparent blindness of the news media, which swallows anything the scientific establishment feeds them.
The Week, an international news digest, provided the following from a Dublin paper: “For the president to pretend human origins are an open question forces us to question his judgment?even if we didn’t already.” A Hamburg, Germany newspaper, Die Zeit, asked how America got so backward, pointing to the Scopes Trial of 1925 and the American South to explain the rise of ID as an alternative theory to evolution. Never mind that the earliest ID proponents arose from places like the University of Chicago and Berkeley.
In frustration to a growing audience for ID theorists such as William Dembski and Michael Behe, some ID opponents?either dishonestly or out of paranoia?are suggesting that it is a veiled attempt to sneak Genesis creationism into public classrooms.
For the record, public school teachers should not be exegeting Genesis?for the kids’ sake. Those students should know, however, the best arguments modern evolutionary theory can muster?and the best arguments against it. Education should entail the pursuit of truth, after all.
But the truth seems not in the best interest of materialism. In this case, the truth has cultural and ethical ramifications that may impede man-centered, utilitarian “progress.”
An August 23 New York Times article related a question posed to a panel of Nobel laureate scientists at City College of New York: “Can you be a good scientist and believe in God?”
“No!” replied chemist Herbert A. Hauptman, the Times reported. Hauptman offered that belief in God “is damaging to the well-being of the human race.” The article noted, thankfully, that the audience gave lukewarm reception to Hauptman’s view.
But what Hauptman suggests is that moralistic religion restricts science and culture from establishing its own ethical boundaries. Without such boundaries, researchers may freely explo
It was like seeing a train wreck in slow motion. I was watching “Nightline” in 1980 (seminary days) and evangelist James Robison was debating pop scientist Carl Sagan on evolution. Robison is an amazing communicator and knows some Bible but he was unprepared to debate scientific theory with the winsome Mr. Sagan. It’s fair to ask what James Robison was thinking when he accepted the invitation.
In June of this year, Joel Osteen of Houston’s Lakewood Church told Larry King that his ministry of encouragement means that he doesn’t focus on the consequences of unbelief. His desire to make people feel good seemed to be at the expense of biblical truth. By his own admission, he heard from a lot of people after that interview and clarified his position regarding the exclusivity of Christ as the means to salvation. Additionally, he explained that he was confused and intimidated during the interview and didn’t say some things he very much believed. It was a convincing and humble apology.
In late August, evangelist Pat Robertson told his “700 Club” television audience that someone, particularly our own military special operators, should “take out” the president of Venezuela. He later, not so convincingly, claimed that “take out” doesn’t exactly mean assassinate. He also apologized for the distress this comment, made in passing during his news digest, caused.
Everybody trips over his tongue. We all say things that we wish we hadn’t said, even if we believe them to be true. Preachers are not immune to that and we shouldn’t expect them to be ? but, prominent people thought by many to represent evangelical Christianity have a severe responsibility for what they say publicly. Celebrity is seductive, interviewers are often cagey, and all of us have opinions better left unsaid. Maybe preachers are not cut out to be famous for anything but the gospel. Maybe gifted communicators are prey to the temptation to talk too much.
That’s no excuse, really. Everyone has an area of some competence, whether it’s a hobby, experience, or profession. It is obvious to others when a person speaks authoritatively and when he is saying too much. Most of us also tend to extend our moral authority beyond its reasonable limit. Preachers may expand the authority of their pulpits to a pet economic or social theory and expect immunity from criticism. A chemistry professor may try, by intimidation, to extend the mantel of his PhD. over politics or marriage counseling. These are misuses of what moral authority we might have. For every area of competence and calling, there are scores of issues before which we are all laymen.
As I said, James Robison is not a scientist. He embarrassed us all by pretending to be one for that evening. His biblical arguments meant nothing to Carl Sagan, Ted Koppel and to most of the audience?especially not when the subject is scientific.
The Larry King interview with Joel Osteen indicates that theology is outside Mr. Osteen’s area of expertise. Maybe he should just refuse interview questions with theological ramifications. That sounds odd for a preacher but that response is indicated by this preacher’s performance. It’s also possible that he doesn’t speak well off the top of his head. There’s nothing wrong with that. He should stay off Larry King, though. We must not let ego or marketing pressure tempt us to try things we can’t do responsibly.
Similarly, Pat Robertson might not be much of a pundit?at least not regarding foreign policy. The fact that this was a passing comment rather than a major policy statement is of little consequence. This is not the first time Mr. Robertson has made strange statements that embarrassed other evangelicals. He should stick to his calling rather than squandering his authority by commenting on everything. This remark was self-indulgent and harmful to us all.
That’s the point. Do what you do with confidence and do what you don’t know with caution and humility. We all have to do work we are less equipped to handle; the secret is to know when you are operating as a novice. Our egos will always try to lead us into places we should not go.
None of us is called to be everything. If the gospel is our calling, it should be our message. When, for example, Southern Seminary President Al Mohler appears on a news program, the subject has some moral or religious connotation. So does his message; he consistently preaches the gospel throughout his arguments. He doesn’t mistake himself for a physician, military strategist, or biologist, and neither does his audience doubt the content of his calling and message.
Being a lifelong resident of Louisiana until a little over 10 years ago, I am heartbroken over the Katrina disaster. New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary, my seminary, is damaged and under water. Many of my pastor friends had their congregations scattered by the hurricane. Even more disturbing are thousands upon thousands who are homeless, destitute and lacking the basics in human hygiene.
Over 100 Southern Baptists of Texas Convention Disaster Relief volunteers were on the ground within hours of the storm. Some of them in peril of life distributed food and comforted the suffering. Over 40 calls an hour for the first few days came through the SBTC switchboard. Over 30,000 Texans came forward for SBTC disaster relief training and thousands of the Southern Baptist volunteers hit the field immediately. This relief effort will be ongoing for months. There will be no quick fix.
Franklin Graham mentioned the possibility of churches adopting at least one family. This is one way we can be a caring witness for Jesus and be a good citizen too. “Houses of Hope” (Psalm 46:1) can help alleviate human suffering and provide love in Jesus’ name. Thousands of people could be ministered to through this effort. Please contact our office by e-mail (sbtexas@sbtexas.com) or call toll-free 1-877-953-7282 to participate as one of the “Houses of Hope.”
The mystique of New Orleans may never be the same. By the grace of God, maybe we can see lives that will never be the same because we share Jesus with them.
Si desea contribuir financieramente para ayudar a aquellos que han sido desplazados y devastados por el Huracán Katrina, la Convención de los Bautistas del Sur de Texas está recogiendo fondos para este propósito.
Puede mandar sus cheques o giros postales a:
Hurricane Relief (El Alivio del Huracán)
Southern Baptists of Texas Convention
P.O. Box 1988
Grapevine, Texas 76099
Cien por ciento de estos fondos serán enviados a áreas afectadas por Katrina.
¡SE NECESITAN VOLUNTARIOS!
Solamente voluntarios que han sido capacitados y certificados pueden trabajar con nuestras unidades. Sesiones de capacitación se organizarán en áreas como se vayan necesitando. Por favor llame si tiene un grupo de 15 o más personas y se organizará una sesión de capacitación para ellos. Llame a Cindy Davenport al 817-552-2500.
CASAS DE ESPERANZA
“?fui forastero y me recogistéis” (Mateo 25:35)
La más grande oportunidad en nuestras vidas ahora está ante nosotros. Nunca jamás hemos visto el tipo de devastación que estamos viendo del Huracán Katrina. Tampoco jamás hemos tenido la oportunidad para ¡ser como nunca la Iglesia con un corazón de compasión!
En los primeros tiempos de la iglesia, la plaga negra devastó a Roma y mucha de la población. Los paganos romanos tiraban a sus niñitos enfermos a la calle para que se murieran. Muchos huyeron de la ciudad. Pero los cristianos, no. Se quedaron y tomaron a los niños de personas desconocidas y los cuidaron y murieron con ellos. Aun escritores no cristianos de esa era comentaron sobre su maravilloso amor. Por causa de esto el evangelio se esparció como fuego. ¡Oremos para que esto suceda otra vez!
¿Podría esto ser un despertamiento para América que nos lleve a una avivamiento nacional? Ha ocurrido antes. Quizás el Señor esperará hasta ver si cuidaremos de los más pequeños.
Por medio de las Casas de Esperanza, individuos e iglesias pueden proveer casas temporales para las víctimas del Huracán Katrina.
Los miembros de su iglesia pueden trabajar juntos para alquilar un apartamento o casa para los evacuados.
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