Friday Addition

Revival in Jena

On Sept. 20 of last year, more than 20,000 people from across the nation gathered in small Jena, La., to protest an outbreak of racial tensions at the local high school, exposing old feelings of racism and hate. On Feb. 17, Midway Baptist Church in Jena began a revival meeting. It caught fire and swept through the small community. The Holy Spirit came into the hearts and souls of hundreds who attended over the course of the series of meetings that lasted nine weeks.

Hurricanes Gustav and Ike

Proving once again that it’s not always New Orleans, Hurricane Gustav roared north from Grand Isle, past Houma and Lafayette on north into Grant Parish. And let us not forget Baton Rouge!

Southern Baptist Disaster Relief feeding units were first on the scene, followed closely by chain saw units. New this year: assessment teams to determine the priority of work orders.

Top priority, of course: people. Sometimes the best help that can be given is a listening ear and a gentle, “oh, no,” as a tale of woe is shared.

Ike followed Gustav, pummeling areas just now recovering from 2005’s Rita, such as Holly Beach, Cameron, Grand Isle. But everywhere that trouble goes, Southern Baptist Disaster Relief is close at hand.

Louisiana Ag Missions

Our world is filled with hungry and hurting people, and upwards of 25,000 children die from hunger or hunger-related causes every single day. People who have adequate food have many problems, but those who have no food have only one problem.

Louisiana Baptist Agricultural Missions Fellowship invites people who care about the hungry in the United States and around the world to join together in building awareness of not only what needs to be done but also how best to get it done, in such a way that the the people being helped learn self-sustaining agricultural methods and techniques.

The ag missions group has chosen to concentrate its efforts with the Zapotec Indians of southern Mexico, where a gift of $125 will provide for an egg incubation for a family, and $200, a rabbit project for a family.

Christian Governor

What drives Louisiana’s Governor Bobby Jindal? By all accounts it’s his Christian faith, his wife Supriya and their three children, and the calling of God for him to serve in the public realm.

Born six months after his parents immigrated to Louisiana from India, he converted from his parent’s Hindu faith as a college student after a Southern Baptist friend “intent on converting the world, first introduced me to Christianity by telling me ‘you and your parents are going to hell,’” Jindal wrote in a 1993 article in America magazine, a Catholic publication.

In the photo above, Louisiana Chief Justice Pascal Calogero administers the oath of office to governor-elect Bobby Jindal (The highlight of a summer mission trip by members of the University of Louisiana Monroe Baptist Collegiate Ministry was the baptism of a 97-year-old witch doctor, who made a public profession of faith in front of her entire village. Jeremy Babb of Monroe and Tyler Boyd of Katy, Texas, witnessed to the witch doctor and helped lead her to Jesus Christ. enter) who is flanked by his wife Supriya Jindal, right, holding the Jindal’s well-used family Bible.

Recovery Continues

It was three years before Franklin Avenue Baptist Church (above) returned home after its structure was devastated by Hurricane Katrina, but when more than 4,000 people swarmed the structure on re-opening day, they found it looked exactly the same. For Willie Walker, pastor of Noah’s Ark Baptist Church (below) it was all brand new. His church had been selected by Extreme Makeover and was done in a week.000 people swarmed the structure on re-opening day, they found it looked exactly the same.

Special Baptism

The highlight of a summer mission trip by members of the University of Louisiana Monroe Baptist Collegiate Ministry was the baptism of a 97-year-old witch doctor, who made a public profession of faith in front of her entire village. Jeremy Babb of Monroe and Tyler Boyd of Katy, Texas, witnessed to the witch doctor and helped lead her to Jesus Christ.

Christian Soldiers

All across Louisiana – all across the United States – there are thousands of Southern Baptists serving in our armed services or who have served in Iraq and Afghanistan as part of the global war on terror. Their only protection is a thin layer of body armor and a shield of prayers and love from their family and friends.

A Child at Christmas

Samuel hangs an ornament on the tree at Grace Cottage. “Christmas is a wonderful time for our children at the Children’s Home,” said Darrell Washam, LBCH’s director of public relations and development. “For many of our children, it’s a special time they’ve never experienced before.”

As the 2009 year begins, let’s look for the good around us.

Anna Lee