RICHMOND—In the early morning hours when most in the surrounding community was still sleeping, 10 members of North Run Baptist Church in Richmond departed on a 21-hour Impact NOW! trip to Port Sulphur, La., in lower Plaquemines Parish. Among the 10 were two high school students and four college-age students.
Port Sulphur and the surrounding parish were largely destroyed on that Monday morning, Aug. 29, 2005, when Hurricane Katrina ripped through the Gulf of Mexico, devastating communities in Mississippi and Louisiana. Today, reconstruction efforts continue.
Homeowner Comella Williams and crew youth leader Margaret Taylor of North Run Baptist Church in Richmond take a brief break after working on the hardwood floor in Williams' bedroom.
Impact NOW!, sponsored by the Virginia Baptist Mission Board, brought approximately 110 volunteers to Port Sulphur the week of June 21-28; approximately 70 members of this group were youth ages 23 and younger.
Taylor Smith, a rising high school senior and daughter of North Run Baptist's youth minister, is grateful for this “eye-opening” experience. Smith was surprised the area was still so devastated.
“It is hard to describe. There are houses which are still boarded up and have writing on them. It seems like the hurricane was not that long ago,” Smith said. “You see [reports] on TV, in the news and in the newspaper, but it does not affect you as much unless you see it in person—you see how it affects the people and how they are in need.”
Smith and her crew, Jacks of All Trades, worked on Comella Williams's house. Williams was in the process of building a new house when the hurricane struck. “Her house was two weeks away from being finished,” Smith said.
The crew's task was to lay hardwood floors in Williams's house. Williams, who lives in a FEMA trailer a few feet from the home-building site, worked side-by-side with her crew or several days.
“It was awesome to see who we were building the house for and the impact we were having,” Smith said. “[Williams] had such a great spirit about her. She was so thankful and so willing to work right alongside with us. We were teaching her and it was just awesome to see the joy on her face.”
Other Impact NOW! crews worked framing houses, installing drywall and insulation, mudding walls, and painting interiors and exteriors of homes. Other volunteers led area children in Bible study. During this week of Impact NOW! eight churches from across Virginia responded to the needs of the lower Plaquemines Parish community.
“Our mission for this trip was to respond to the needs of the people in the field; specifically the need was home rebuilding in partnership with the Committee for Plaquemines Recovery,” Dean Miller, missions learning coordinator for the VBMB, stated. Miller is the state coordinator for all Impact mission projects.
With assistance from the Baptist Association of Greater New Orleans, the VBMB adopted the area of lower Plaquemines Parish and committed to rebuilding efforts.
When Hurricane Katrina swept through the region, “lower Plaquemines Parish was basically Ground Zero,” commented Terry Raines, coordinator for mobile mission and disaster relief with the VBMB.
“The hurricane flood waters went over the Gulf levees and pushed across the land, continuing over the river levee and then exiting back out the same way,” Raines said. “There was very little to repair because [most of] it was gone. I estimate that 95 percent of the buildings were destroyed beyond repair. There was not anything there to repair. Houses were lifted off foundations and moved in middle of streets.”
According to Raines, he estimates the majority of the population lives in FEMA trailers, while the remainder live in mobile modular homes. The commitment of the VBMB is to build “stick-built” homes for this community. In mid-2006, rebuilding efforts began, starting with the Port Sulphur Baptist Church facility. Since Jan. 2008, home-building efforts on new houses have been underway in lower Plaquemines Parish.
Raines said he is grateful for the Impact NOW! rebuilding efforts, but emphasizes the Impact NOW! week “is a special moment in a bigger story.”
Taylor Smith, devotion leader for Jacks of All Trades, shares the first devotion of the week along the levee of the Mississippi River in Boothville, La., in lower Plaquemines Parish. The crew installed hardwood floors in Comella Williams' home, which is about 100 yards from the levee.
Through the efforts of the American Red Cross, The Salvation Army and others, CPR received $1.7 million in grant money to help rebuild their devastated area. This money, according to Raines, is designated for the rebuilding of 34 houses over the course of two years, with each house receiving $50,000. Virginia Baptists have contributed an additional $2.1 million to four areas in Mississippi and three areas in Louisiana, including Plaquemines Parish.
Currently there are four short-term missionaries, called Venturers, serving in the area. Raines estimates close to 1,500 Virginia Baptist volunteers have traveled to the Gulf region in restoration, reconstruction and rebuilding efforts since the region reopened. Approximately 30 Virginia Baptist disaster relief volunteers travel each week to Port Sulphur to continue those efforts.
Smith is comforted by the fact there will be other Virginia Baptists coming down to continue her crew's efforts. She is also thankful for the memorable moment she experienced when Williams slept in her house for the first time. “[Williams] was taking a quick nap. I can remember her waking up and she said, ‘Now I can tell Rick I slept in my house for the first time.' We got to be there for that,” Smith said.
“The most outstanding thing I've learned is that God has a purpose for us in being in a certain place in a certain time,” Smith said. “Even if we did not realize it that week, so many lives were affected. We brought so much joy to them…this is their home; this is a great testament to their lives.”