Almost four years after Hurricane Katrina brought New Orleans to its knees on Aug. 29, 2005, Southern Baptists continue to spend a week or so in the Big Easy, volunteering their time and skills to rebuild or refurbish homes devastated by the deadly storm.
Operation NOAH Rebuild volunteer Andy King, who is skilled at finishing drywall, is one of more than 25,000 Southern Baptist volunteers who have helped rebuild homes in New Orleans.But the number of Baptists who are volunteering is no longer enough.
Since May 1, 2006, under “Operation NOAH Rebuild” – a cooperative ministry of the Louisiana Baptist Convention, the Baptist Association of Greater New Orleans and the SBC’s North American Mission Board – more than 25,000 Southern Baptist volunteers have assisted in rebuilding 1,801 flood-damaged homes. These volunteers represent some 1,530 SBC churches from every state convention in the U.S., including Alaska and Hawaii. Operation NOAH also has assisted in the recovery of 32 churches and 15 other ministry centers or schools damaged by Katrina.
While an agreement has been reached to transition the day-to-day management of Operation NOAH to the Baptist association, the North American Mission Board has committed to extend its support of the ministry until year’s end, said Mickey Caison, NAMB’s team leader for adult volunteer mobilization.
Caison said 70 more homes remain in the Operation NOAH pipeline for reconstruction or renovation, and “we want to complete every one of them.”
“Some of the folks we still want to help have not received any assistance at all from their insurance companies or the federal government, and are the folks who’ve fallen through the cracks,” Caison said.
But as NAMB’s time for involvement ticks down, Operation NOAH is not seeing the number of skilled volunteers the program needs to finish work on the 70 remaining homes, Caison said.
“We desperately need Southern Baptists who are skilled as drywall workers, plumbers, electricians, framing carpenters and finishing carpenters to volunteer to help us,” he said. “We can house up to 145 volunteers a week, but we’re not averaging 145 a week. We only had 66 volunteers during May.” Caison said volunteers are housed in a volunteer “village” at Hopeview Baptist Church in nearby St. Bernard Parish.
David Maxwell, a pastor serving as coordinator for Operation NOAH Rebuild, echoed Caison, adding that “we want to do quality work for these last 70 houses – the same quality anyone would want for their own home. You just can’t do that with unskilled labor.” – NAMB