The bright and colorful walls inside the Baptist Friendship House just a few blocks from the French Quarter in New Orleans reflect an atmosphere of hope – hope in Christ, who is proclaimed daily here, as well the hope that exudes from Kay Bennett, the director of the ministry.
Barbara McCormick, left, a trustee of the North American Mission Board and member of First Baptist Church, Clover, N.C., visits with New Orleans Friendship House missionary Deshannan Paddock, center. Also pictured is NAMB trustee Peggy Ballou, a member of Central Baptist Church in Corbin, Ky., and her husband Sam.That hope is in stark contrast with the misery Bennett’s clients have endured before showing up at the ministry. Most are mothers who have been so abused by spouses or boyfriends that they must seek refuge and protection. They arrive with their young children and just a few belongings.
Bennett and her staff welcome them, give them lodging if there’s room and then start the process of helping them back on their feet so they can provide for their family. It’s a task that has become more difficult and time-consuming since Hurricane Katrina.
“We provide literacy training, GED preparation, computer skills, life skills, job readiness training,” Bennett said. “Before Katrina, we had a five-to-six month transition time for most women. Now it is closer to a year.”
Housing is much more expensive since the hurricane – on average $1,200-$1,500 a month for a two-bedroom apartment. Childcare – a necessity for a woman who must work to provide for her family – runs $1,000 a month even with government assistance.
Bennett, a NAMB missionary, and her team gave trustees and some staff a tour of their facility Oct. 6 and shared the highlights of what goes on there. Trustees also visited the Carver Baptist Center, another ministry where missionaries bring the hope of Christ to inner-city New Orleans.
“We want to train them in a way so they will share their faith when they go home,” said Larry Miguez, director of the Carver Center.
“It was thrilling to see God at work through faithful Southern Baptists in the New Orleans ministries we visited,” said Reva Daniel, a NAMB trustee and member of Morrison Heights Baptist Church in Clinton, Miss. “As a trustee who spends much time dealing with administrative issues and looking at the big picture, it’s encouraging to zoom in on the specific mission points and see the picture up close where lives are changed by God’s grace as he uses dedicated Southern Baptists to pray, give and go.”
After visiting the ministry centers, trustees visited homes restored through the ministry of Operation NOAH (New Orleans Area Home) Rebuild. To date, more than 23,000 Southern Baptists have given days or weeks to help gut-out and rebuild homes damaged by Hurricane Katrina. They’ve helped 1,800 homeowners and seen 403 professions of faith in the process. That doesn’t even include the thousands who were helped in the weeks after the storm when Southern Baptists prepared more than 14 million meals and helped homeowners with immediate needs.
Trustees concluded their tour of New Orleans with a prayer ride through a nearly vacant section of the Lower Ninth Ward. This area – where hundreds were killed when a nearby levee wall failed – saw almost complete destruction after the flood. Three years later, a handful of original homes remain, but in most cases the only reminder of what once stood are foundations being overtaken by weeds on now-vacant lots, a few bearing crosses and other signs of remembrance.