[StBernard] 3 hurricane-stricken churches gain hope from Builders for Christ

[Westley Annis]

3 hurricane-stricken churches gain hope from Builders for Christ 
By Karen L. Willoughby 
Feb 28, 2007 

 
CHALMETTE, La. (BP)--"We desperately need to find 800 new friends," said
Lawrence Corley, founder of Builders for Christ and project manager for the
rebuilding of First Baptist Church in Chalmette, La.

Otherwise, Corley said, "[W]e may have taken on more than we can do" unless
additional volunteers step forward to help restore the Chalmette church
along with Northshore Baptist Church in Slidell and the Church Without Walls
in Lafayette -- each heavily damaged by Hurricane Katrina's onslaught in
August 2005.

"We don't believe for a minute that these three churches will have the
personnel and resources to finish their building if we aren't able to,"
Corley said. "They're still repairing their homes or so burdened by the
ministry needs in the community that they can't stop to become contractors
when we're gone, so we must have new people to join in this effort and
complete the task God has given us."

Corley, founder of Builders for Christ, an Alabama-based Southern Baptist
organization, noted, "The unique character of our group is that we are
organized to blend as many as 100 different congregations participating in
two or three church building projects a year in a cohesive, productive
church building effort."

Both men and women volunteers are needed, skilled and unskilled, for
weeklong work assignments to start in late May and continue through
mid-August.

Toward that end, the organization will host people from more than 60
churches across the United States in planning meetings March 10 at
Northshore in Slidell, March 24 at First Baptist Church in Chalmette and
March 31 at the Church Without Walls in Lafayette.

Representatives from other interested churches are welcome to attend any of
the sessions, which are geared to help everyone be on the same logistical
page, said Corley, who can be contacted at lcorley at ctsmarchitects.com.

For those unable to attend, Corley said, "It is important that those who are
interested in these projects at least contact the coordinators. It is best
to send a construction and a logistics representative to the meeting so you
can get detailed information. However, in any event, contact the project
coordinator so your group will be prepared for and properly coordinated with
the others."

The other coordinators are Earl Rhyne, at ltksfs at aol.com, for the Northshore
church and Allan Ivemeyer, at ivemeyerallan at hotmail.com, for the Church
Without Walls.

At First Baptist Chalmette, which has plans for a 23,000-square-foot
building, at least 150 volunteers a week are needed. In all, First Baptist
needs about 50 churches to help.

Northshore Slidell needs about 30 churches; Church Without Walls in
Lafayette, about 20 churches.

"I have a list of 250 tasks; for example -- install roof trusses," Corley
said. "Over the course of 13 weeks, every team will take a specific task a
week."

Housing will be arranged by the host churches and cooking is done on-site.

"We generally eat together and build Christian fellowship," Corley said. "We
have a time of instruction each day -- safety talks, task for the day --
then prayer, and testimonies from the local congregation."

Corley, a church architect by profession, added, "It's time to rebuild the
churches since the churches have worked so faithfully in disaster relief, so
the harvest can be reaped from such a witness as was made by the disaster
relief teams.

"We have come to deeply love the people in these three churches," Corley
continued. "They have been faithful; they have been steadfast. They have
hoped and prayed for the day to come when they could have their churches
back, but what we have noticed is that they've lost so much and waited so
long that they've lost hope -- even though they've not lost their faith. In
that setting, we come to let them know that Jesus understands their loss and
we want to be His servants to restore their hope."
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