Sunday, Aug. 29, 2010, marks five years since Hurricane Katrina hit the U.S. Gulf Coast. This week we remember this major U.S. disaster – the sadness and destruction, the survivors, the responders, and the lives changed.

Volunteers work on a house in Lacombe, La.

CBF disaster response coordinator Charles Ray says Fellowship Baptists are generous people – often investing their time and financial resources to help others in need. In the five years since Katrina, thousands of Fellowship Baptists have responded along the Gulf Coast, helping in a variety of ways.

After the storm, Roy Peterson and Robert Sproles were like many people watching the media coverage of Katrina. But what made them different is that they got in a car and drove to the Gulf Coast to help. On the first trip – only 11 days after the storm – they went as far as Hattiesburg, Miss., where they cleaned up debris, cut fallen trees, and helped in any other way they could. Over the next few years, they would make several trips to different areas of the Gulf Coast with their church CBF partner Second Baptist in Little Rock, Ark. “A trip will give you an experience you will never forget,” Roy said.

There were other volunteers, too, like retired Dr. Drayton Sanders, a member of CBF partner First Baptist Church in Dalton, Ga., who spent five days in Louisiana providing medical treatment for evacuees. Members of CBF partner First Baptist Church in Pensacola, Fla., spent weeks in Gulfport, Miss., distributing food, water, ice, toiletries, diapers and clothing to people to who lost everything. CBF-endorsed chaplains helped, too. Endorsee Stan Campbell ministered to U.S. military personnel who were deployed for Gulf Coast cleanup.

From their parking lot, University Baptist Church in Hattiesburg, Miss., distributed much-needed supplies in the days following Katrina

CBF partner churches also responded. University Baptist in Hattiesburg, Miss., turned their parking lot into a supply distribution center after the storm. In Lacombe, La., University Baptist Church from nearby Baton Rouge helped two women restore their homes.  First Baptist Church in Asheville, N.C., did the same thing for other Lacombe residents. After the renovations were complete, members from both churches said the Lacombe families had been embraced by their church families. Hundreds of other CBF partner churches served as temporary shelters, collected much-needed supplies, and saw God work through them in profound ways.

As responder Don Savoie experienced, seeing lives changed can have a way of changing your own life. He traveled more than 2,000 miles from Canada to volunteer for five weeks in Louisiana, serving alongside Fellowship volunteers. Savoie was not a Christian, but, “You can’t live with Christians and people who are dedicated to Christ day in and day out and not get a sense of something,” he said.  Because of this volunteer experience, Savoie became a Christian, and that next Easter, he and his wife were baptized at a church in Nova Scotia.

Throughout the last five years of Katrina response, Fellowship Baptists have seen and experienced how the presence of Christ can change hearts, lives and entire communities.

Other Katrina blog entries:
• Remembering the Sadness, the Destruction and Survival
• Responders See Change
• Recovery in Alabama and Mississippi
• Recovery in Louisiana
• How the Fellowship Changed