On the first anniversary of the storm (August 29, 2006) NOBTS had a special day of remembrance. Following a special chapel service was held to commemorate the disaster hundreds of members of the NOBTS family went out to do clean up work in the Gentilly and Lakeview areas surrounding the campus. Special speakers in the chapel service that day were Joe McKeever (Director of Missions for the Baptist Association of Greater New Orleans), Jay Adkins (a seminary student, pastor), and Byron Townsend (another student, worship leader at a local church, and employee of the seminary). Jay is our older son and I have had the pleasure of meeting Joe and Byron on several occasions. Their stories are interesting.
The story, from Baptist Press, that follows tells of the activities of that first anniversary and chapel service, and it recounts parts of the testimonies of these three men. I will share the BP story with you in its entirety:
Seminarians share Katrina stories to aid in N.O. healing
By: Michael McCormack
Visit www.bpnews.net for the latest news from Baptist Press!For each person affected by Hurricane Katrina,
NEW ORLEANS (BP)--
there is a story. And healing comes in the telling.
Members of the New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary family were
ready to listen to the stories of people throughout New Orleans on Aug. 29, the
first anniversary of Hurricane Katrina’s landfall.
Disaster relief training offered to the seminary family on that
anniversary morning highlighted the importance of showing compassion during a
crisis by listening to a person’s story. Ways to identify a person suffering
from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder also were relayed in the training.
But perhaps the best preparation for the afternoon of ministry
throughout the city came during a time of worship and remembrance in the
seminary’s Leavell Chapel. During the service, students were able to experience
the healing power of telling their stories with one another and then offering
those memories up to God.
“Those who experienced Katrina can testify to God’s providence,” Ken Taylor, professor of missions, said. “Even those who don’t
know Him are beginning to see that providence, and they will see it in some of
you today.”
Three people told part of their stories to those gathered for the
service. Each was different, but every story declared God’s providence,
provision and protection. The first person to share his story was Joe
McKeever, director of missions for the Baptist Association of Greater
New Orleans.
“Right after we returned from the evacuation late last September,
I noticed that in New Orleans at almost every intersection someone had printed
up a Scripture verse on these little signs,” McKeever said. “It was Jeremiah
29:11 -– ‘For I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans for your
welfare and not your calamity, plans to give you a future and a hope.’”
To
get to the associational office, McKeever drives down Elysian Fields Avenue, a
street that for a long time, he said, had little or no activity on it.
“One day I was driving in and the tears were coming,” he said. “I
had this conversation with the Lord: ‘Lord, it’s not that Walgreen’s that’s
closed, and it’s not the Burger King that’s closed. It’s not this house or that
house. It’s just the whole thing, and I don’t know what to do for them.’ And God
spoke back to my heart and said, ‘This is not about you. It’s about Me.’
“I
can’t tell you how liberating that was,” McKeever said.
The second person who shared his story from the storm was Jay Adkins, an NOBTS student and pastor of the New Orleans-area
First Baptist Church of Westwego. He said he usually rode out storms on the
second floor of the church’s education building but he had promised his wife he
would evacuate for a Category 4 or 5 storm. On Sunday, Aug. 28, early in the
morning, Adkins’ wife called him to report that the storm had become a Category
5. Later that day, he and the youth minister of the church evacuated to Eunice,
La. But they weren’t there long.
The storm came and the levees broke on
Monday, and Adkins and the youth minister came back to New Orleans on Thursday.
From the time they entered Orleans Parish that Thursday, God’s provision was
evident.
Adkins found a police officer who told him how to get back into
the parish by going through the least amount of checkpoints. When they made it
to the church, they discovered that the only working telephone in the area was a
rarely used phone in the fellowship hall of the church. For the next few hours,
Atkins worked to get a call out to anyone who could help.
“I called the
North American Mission Board and said, ‘I’m Jay and I’m in New Orleans. If you
can get us some food, we can probably feed a lot of people,’” Adkins recounted.
In the end, NAMB sent two mobile kitchens from Georgia, and through those
kitchens, thousands of first responders were fed.
“We were able to get the first food to West Jefferson Hospital, to the
police, fire and EMS workers, to nursing homes and other neighbors, and to the
National Guard people who were in the Superdome,” Adkins said. “It’s amazing
what God has done to open doors.”
Byron Townsend’s story, like Adkins’, testified
to God’s provision and His protection. Townsend and his wife Cynthia had their
first child just days before Hurricane Katrina came ashore. The provision came
on Tuesday when Cynthia, their newborn Ethan and Cynthia’s parents were
preparing to evacuate from Tulane Lakeside Hospital in Jefferson Parish.
The
Townsends’ nurse, Lynette, needed to get to Houston where her family had
evacuated before the storm. She asked Townsend for a ride. Townsend liked the
idea of having a private nurse ride with his family to Houston.
“Lynette, get in the car!” Townsend recalled as his response.
The family and Lynette evacuated, but Townsend stayed at the hospital
to help in whatever way he could. There, he said little concrete information was
known about the conditions of the city. Eventually, rumors began spreading that
the levees were going to break in Jefferson Parish and flood the area where he
was. Tension at the hospital was high.
“I said, ‘Lord, You’ve provided thus far. I know You can get me out of
here,’” he said.
Townsend got into his Toyota Camry and made his way to the
interstate. But between him and the ramp onto the interstate was a dip in the
road where the water was deep, and there in the low place a woman’s car had
stalled in the floodwater. As he prayed for strength and wisdom, he was able to
push the flooded car out of the way and drive his car through the water and out
the other side. Though the water came up over the hood, Townsend made it not
only out of the water but all the way to Houston safely.
“I had church in the car,” he recounted.
Immediately following the testimonies, NOBTS professor Preston Nix led students in a time of prayer that started with
each student sharing his or her toughest, most painful memory from Katrina.
Then, he prompted each person to share the most tremendous thing God did through
the storm. Afterward, in prayer, they offered those tough memories and the
tremendous memories to God.
Nix said the first anniversary of Hurricane Katrina served as a
transition. It was a transition for the city of New Orleans from the first,
devastating year of recovery to the years-long rebuilding effort. For NOBTS, it
served as the launching point for the seminary’s concerted efforts to
participate in the rebuilding of the city. As the group went out into the city
to gut a neighbor’s house or prayer walk a devastated street, the volunteers
were ready to offer God’s comfort and love since that same comfort and love had
been extended to them earlier that day.
Copyright (c) 2006 Southern Baptist Convention, Baptist Press. Visit www.bpnews.net. BP News
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