c. 2007 Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly

NEW ORLEANS _ Pastor R.C. Blakes has two flocks in two different cities. On Sunday mornings here, services are packed at his New Home Family Worship Center, which is working to get all of its ministry programs up and running two years after Hurricane Katrina.

His other church is 300 miles away, in Houston, where hundreds of his former parishioners relocated. Earlier this month, he broke ground on a new church there to minister to their spiritual needs.

“A lot of them are struggling with the loss of their culture. Even though many of them have been able to assimilate into that culture there, it’s not New Orleans, and I see a lot of times that they are grieving for what they know to be home,” Blakes told Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly.

For now, Blakes commutes back and forth twice a week. It’s taking a personal toll, he said, but he feels both congregations need him right now.

“There’ve been a lot of things that I have preached prior to Katrina that I’ve actually had to live, and I’ve found that it’s harder to live than it than it is to preach it, and one of the great lessons that I’ve learned is that we have to totally depend on God,” he said.

And so it goes as hurricane-devastated churches struggle to rebuild and rebound _ but not always in New Orleans.

New Orleans native Pastor E.J. Scott had a thriving Baptist church until Katrina hit. Now he hosts a daily radio show praying for people who call in with requests, and a fledgling church 500 miles away in Dallas.

“Two days after the storm … is when God spoke to me and told me to start another church (in Dallas),” he said.

Scott and his wife Dee fled New Orleans just before Katrina and came to Dallas to stay with a friend. They eventually connected with Gaston Oaks Baptist Church, a predominantly white congregation that wanted to help victims of Katrina.

Gaston Oaks is supporting Scott as he launches the Temple of New Life Baptist Church, which currently holds services on Gaston Oaks’ second floor. Temple of New Life already has a small core group of members, including other evacuees from the Gulf Coast.

Scott says God has given him an ambitious vision for the future, including a school, nursing home, apartment building and even a car wash to generate income. Still, he says it was difficult leaving behind the church he started in New Orleans.

“You cannot believe the emotions, emotional rollercoaster that we were on,” he said.

Back in New Orleans, his old church, Shiloh Christian Fellowship Baptist Church, has a new pastor, but the building remains boarded up. Many church members are upset that Scott didn’t return.

“Those that were very close to us have kind of disowned us, so to speak,” Scott said. “And we understand that. Because of the hurt. They probably feel forsaken.” He said if he didn’t believe God had other plans for him, he would have returned to rebuild.

About 60 percent of the pre-Katrina population has returned to New Orleans, but in the devastated Lower Ninth Ward, only a small percentage of residents are back, and only a fraction of damaged churches have been rebuilt.

One, St. Paul Church of God in Christ, was deluged by nearly nine feet of water. Now it stands as an oasis in area dominated by deserted houses and overgrown bulldozed lots.

The church was rebuilt by volunteers with a faith-based relief group called God’s Pit Crew. Pastor Ernest Dison said the restored church is a testimony to what compassionate generosity can accomplish.

But money is tight. Only about 60 of his 250 members have returned. Few of them have regular jobs or receive post-Katrina government aid. Tithes and offerings are sparse, and the church isn’t getting outside contributions.

“Salary? Well now. Well now,” Dison said. “I’m going right along with the church. We do what we have to do to make it, so that’s a great challenge for us.”

Still, Dison said he wants St. Paul’s to be a beacon of hope for the entire Lower Ninth Ward, and reopen its drug rehab center, feeding program and school of theology.

“We’re going to continue to do exactly what we feel we’ve been called to do by God,” he said. “We’re going to witness Christ, we’re going to serve people, we’re going to rebuild and we’re going to be a positive in the midst of crime, in the midst of drugs, and these services that this church offers, they will continue.”

The Rev. J.C. Profit of Stronger Hope Baptist Church said he believes churches can provide a much needed spiritual foundation for successfully rebuilding neighborhoods.

“In every community, people look to … the church,” he said. “Three agencies _ home, school, and church _ they work together. So it’s very vital that our churches come back.”

But Profit is still trying to get back into the church where he’s been pastor for 42 years. Just as the congregation was making some progress, vandals stole the copper pipes from the newly repaired restrooms.

The vandalism caused an additional $40,000 in damage to the church. Still, Profit hopes to move in later this fall, if they can pay the bill.

“We ran out of money some time ago,” he said. “But I move by faith. Started off by faith because I knew what the contractor said it would take to put our church back, (that) we didn’t have that. Even with the insurance, we didn’t have it. But God will provide.”

KRE/LF END LAWTON950 words

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