SBC Partners With Promise Keepers to Aid Hurricane Katrina Victims
by Allie Martin
March 29, 2006
(AgapePress) - - Volunteers from the largest evangelical denomination in the United States have made a long-term commitment to help rebuild homes and churches in Louisiana that were destroyed or damaged by Hurricane Katrina, and an international Christian men's organization has pledged its aid as well. The North American Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) has announced a five-million dollar, two-year rebuilding effort called Project NOAH, or "New Orleans Area Hope." The project will use volunteers from SBC churches to rebuild 1,000 homes and 20 churches in the targeted region.
Dr. Bob Reccord, president of the North American Mission Board (NAMB), says project leaders will work with pastors and other church leaders in the New Orleans area to get input on priorities and ministry opportunities.
"We will be looking to the people who are on the ground, who have been working with this from the beginning, so we don't rush in and say, 'Oh, well, here's what we think we'll do,'" Record explains. "We're asking the people on the ground who are native there to direct us [as to] where are the greatest needs, where can we help most, and we will respond to that kind of direction."
Disaster relief teams from the SBC have prepared more than 14 million meals for Hurricane Katrina survivors as well as other groups' emergency workers. The NAMB president says among the ongoing needs in the disaster relief and recovery effort, besides equipment and supplies, is the need for people to "spell" those who have been involved in the Hurricane Katrina response for some time now.
"There is an issue called compassion fatigue that happens, where people are giving and giving and giving and giving, and they just get worn out," Reccord says. "So they have to have fresh reserve supplies and fresh people to come in behind them and give them a break."
The Southern Baptist leader says men who attend Promise Keepers conferences this summer will be briefed on the needs and conditions in hurricane-ravaged areas. Last week the international Christian men's ministry announced that it would partner with NAMB to give men opportunities to help those affected by the hurricane.
"So we're looking at people from both Southern Baptist life and Promise Keeper life who can come down and give a helping hand, give a break, and do it in waves," Reccord says. Although Hurricane Katrina hit nearly seven months ago, he notes, devastation is still widespread along the Louisiana and Mississippi coastal areas, and many opportunities to help still exist.
Allie Martin, a regular contributor to AgapePress, is a reporter for American Family Radio News, which can be heard online.
