For the 400-member “Carolina Mission Team” in New Orleans recently – Operation NOAH Rebuild’s largest group of volunteers ever – changing the world might not seem so tall an order.
Catie Costa of Lexington paints a house in New Orleans that was repaired by volunteers.“Sometimes kids don’t think they can change the world until they have the opportunity to be a part of something bigger than they’ve ever imagined,” said Jeff Gray, youth minister at Willow Ridge Church of Lexington, S.C., one of nine churches from the Carolinas represented on the trip.
Embracing a project as big as the team itself, the group worked with NOAH, the North American Mission Board partnership with Louisiana Baptists to rebuild homes and share the gospel in New Orleans. The team tackled dozens of work orders, taking on everything from painting to roofing.
“The group from the Carolinas did a tremendous amount of work for our homeowners this week,” said Steve Gahagan, NOAH construction manager originally from Greenwood. His wife Dianne serves as office manager. “The Carolinians came prepared with field supervisors, runners and the skills needed for the task.”
Under the banner of “Carolina Mission Team” for the first time, the team worked together under the leadership of L.E. Williamson, minister of students and students’ families at First Baptist Church, Mauldin. He has led several groups that have involved several hundred students.
The key is relationship, Williamson said. With 32 years of ministry experience, including 18 years at Mauldin, Williamson has known most of his students literally all of their lives. Youth ministers from four of the churches – First Baptist and New Hope from Hickory, N.C.; First Baptist, Mooresville, N.C.; and First Baptist, Newberry, S.C. – were part of Williamson’s ministry as youth.
“Kids grow to trust you when they see you practice your faith in front of them,” Williamson said. “It’s fulfilling to help them mold their lives and sell out to God.”
Other South Carolina churches involved in the team were First Baptist and West Side Baptist of Simpsonville and First Baptist, Laurens.
While the team almost single-handedly filled to capacity NOAH’s “Volunteer Village” – the housing unit at the World Trade Center in downtown New Orleans – Williamson said their focus was not on numbers.
Curt Shaw of Mauldin works on a NOAH project as part of a 400-member team from the Carolinas.“This is about helping these kids become the leaders that God can use for the next 30 or 40 years,” said Williamson. “We are totally about growing closer to God and sharing the faith.”
Glenn Oubre, a Willow Ridge youth leader who came to faith in Christ as an adult through the influence of a Christian employer, said that his desire was to help youth transition to adulthood with their faith intact. Oubre said the trip was building faith.
“It’s powerful for a kid to see other youth who are passionate about their faith,” said Oubre.
In New Orleans, where NOAH mobilized more than 10,000 volunteers in its first year to rebuild homes and share the gospel, the city is taking notice of Southern Baptists.
Betsey Holmes, 15, from First Baptist Church, Laurens, said a man on the street in downtown New Orleans noticed their shirts and asked if they were a mission team. When the group said yes, he gave them a “thumbs up” to show his approval.
“The people know that we didn’t have to come, but that we wanted to,” said Holmes. “This shows them what Jesus can do.”
“Before the 2005 hurricanes ravaged the Louisiana Gulf shoreline, the people in this region never gave Southern Baptists a thought,” said John Yeats, Louisiana Baptist Convention director of communications and SBC recording secretary. “Now Southern Baptists are known as the people of compassion who know how to get the job done.”
The trip provided an opportunity for students “to live outside their normal lives” and be a part of something making a national and even global impact, Gray said. With the world’s eye on New Orleans, God is “rebuilding lives and pouring out his grace through others.”
After an evangelism team led a homeowner to faith in Christ at their work site, Jan Stanley, a youth leader at First Baptist, Mauldin, said her team was energized to work harder and share the gospel with the neighbors, even those who were unresponsive.
Scott Hall, youth sponsor from First Mauldin, reminded his crew that God will use their interests to reach others. “We may never see the results of what we do here,” said Hall. “But we’ve done what we were called to do.”
For information on how to help rebuild New Orleans, contact Operation NOAH (New Orleans Area Homes) Rebuild, sponsored by the North American Mission Board, toll-free at 1-877-934-0808.