Embracing Sacrifice: An Overview Of The Volunteer Organizations That Are Rebuilding New Orleans Homes And Bringing The Gospel To Life -- By: Marilyn Stewart

Journal: Journal for Baptist Theology & Ministry
Volume: JBTM 04:1 (Spring 2007)
Article: Embracing Sacrifice: An Overview Of The Volunteer Organizations That Are Rebuilding New Orleans Homes And Bringing The Gospel To Life
Author: Marilyn Stewart


Embracing Sacrifice: An Overview Of The Volunteer Organizations That Are Rebuilding New Orleans Homes And Bringing The Gospel To Life

Marilyn Stewart

Louisiana Baptist Convention
Communications team correspondent

“Embrace Sacrifice”

As a Louisiana Baptist Convention Communications team correspondent covering the Baptist volunteer operation in New Orleans, I have had the privilege of watching the operation from the unique vantage point of both an outsider reporting on its progress and an insider, a resident of the city that is the beneficiary of the extraordinary diligence of thousands of volunteers.

News of the levee breaks that flooded New Orleans reached my family, as it did so many, the day after Katrina made landfall. Looking back, I can see that for some time afterwards we did not fully comprehend the loss to our community, our church family and to us personally. Perhaps even now, the long-term, far-reaching effects of Katrina have not been calculated. But, because my husband is a faculty member of New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and the faculty home in which we live belongs to the seminary, we were spared the tedious and daunting task that so many New Orleans homeowners have endured. These losses are the reason the work that Southern Baptist organizations are doing in New Orleans is so very important.

Recently, a volunteer team from Spring Hills Baptist Church in Granville, Ohio explained to me the meaning of the black rubbery wristbands they each wore. The “embrace sacrifice” marking on the wristband was the theme they had adopted for the week as a reminder that they were in a special place at a special time and were called to emulate Christ’s sacrifice. Team members, even the youngest, had a sense of the urgent and opportune moment we have before us to present the gospel in a tangible way to New Orleans. As I have watched those at all levels of the relief, recovery and rebuilding effort who are devoting extraordinary resources and energy to this project, I am hard-pressed to think of a slogan that better describes the spirit and demonstration of kinship I have witnessed in my fellow Southern Baptists who have come to this city’s aid.

While this article presents an overview of the Southern Baptist organizations that are leading the way in rebuilding New Orleans, the story would be incomplete without a sense of the personal commitment of each administrator, manager and volunteer who is implementing the plan. Those in leadership positions, many of them without pay, have all come at some personal sacrifice, putting careers on hold and leaving senior positions of employment and families to take on temporary employment. When the job is finished, these men and women will find themselves back in ...

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