Baptist Blitz Build Baton Rouge, Louisiana April 23-28, 2007

D.A.R.T. page

What a privilege it was to have been a part of 600 volunteers that participated in the Baptist Blitz Build 2007 in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Baptists from all over the U.S. and Canada partnered together with Habitat for Humanity to build twelve homes in two weeks for Hurricane Katrina victims, most of which evacuated from New Orleans with no home to go back to.

The week began with a couple of ceremonial events on the foundation slab of one of the six homes in the two block area we were assigned to just north of downtown. The Executive Director of the Baton Rouge Habitat for Humanity welcomed everyone and introduced staff and homeowners. Dr. Roy Medley, Executive Minister of the American Baptist Churches USA was introduced and offered a prayer of blessing for the homeowners and the volunteers and the work they were to do. Dr. Daniel Vestal, Coordinator for Cooperative Baptist Fellowship then led in a ceremonial washing of the hands of the volunteers as a sign of blessing the hands that will do the work.

Each future homeowner of a Habitat home must log a certain number of hours volunteering on home builds prior to their own. Then, as their’s is being constructed, they must work alongside of the volunteer builders. Mr. Wifred Stewart is the future homeowner of the house that I participated in building on Osceola Street. He lost his home in the Ninth Ward in New Orleans. He is a retired gentleman whose daughter and her family now live in Baton Rouge thanks to Habitat for Humanity and this new home will allow him to live near his family.

Steve Holm from Louisville, Kentucky was our House Leader. Steve participates regularly with the Louisville Habitat as do a number of other volunteers on our site and a couple more. Some of the volunteers were very experienced in builds, but most were like me, mere novices.

The first three days I worked alongside Daniel Vestal, John Daughtery Coordinator for CBF of Louisiana and Laura Cadena from CBF Dallas. It was so good to be representatives of the CBF family working with American Baptists, Progressive Baptists, National Baptists and Canadian Baptists. I met folks from Seattle, St. Louis, Erie, Pennsylvania, Indiana, and Texas.

After having Mr. Stewart “drive a ceremonial first nail,” we got busy raising the walls. The house comes delivered prefabricated and numbered. The slab foundation is laid and the House Leader begins to direct placing the numbered walls in their respective positions on the slab. By lunchtime we had the exterior and interior walls up and secured. The roof trusses were more of a challenge as us novices with varying strengths hoisted and guided these pieces onto the framed house as the “more experienced” set them in place and secured them.

Roof sheeting, windows and doors, siding, sealants and insulation all were accomplished by willing laborers with very little instruction. It was wonderful to observe man and woman, weak and strong all pitching in to build the house. Whatever obstacles came, they were quickly handled and accomplished.

The last day of my participation, Friday, the team took to putting the vinyl siding, soffit and fascia onto the house. One task that we all tried to avoid, however, was tar paper on the roof. Being there was no other willing or capable volunteers, Tom Ott from Louisville and I began to tackle this arduous task. The harsh angle of the roof and the steady bending over to bang nails (or fingers) proved too much for this aging body. Both Tom and I moaned and groaned, all the while noticing that no one was volunteering to give us a break. So, we gave ourselves regular breaks off of the roof in order to straighten the back and relieve the ankles and knees of undue pressure. What may have been a half day task for more seasoned workers, ended up lasting the whole day for us.

Although very sore and parts aching that never ached before, I returned home to Orlando, Florida with a sense of fulfillment. I had been a part of something much bigger than me and my “normal” life of ministry with Christians and churches. Carla Wynn with CBF News helped me to realize that in a way, this week was a “final chapter” on my Hurricane Katrina experience. Soon after Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast in September, 2005, I was dispatched to Hattiesburg, Mississippi as part of a team from CBF to offer assistance to University Baptist Church. Spending most of eighteen days in Hattiesburg, I saw damaged property and hurting people. Participating in the Baptist Blitz Build in Baton Rouge gave to me another opportunity to help those still reeling from the affects of such a deadly and destructive storm.