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Hurricane victim knew volunteers were sent by God

By Marilyn Stewart

NEW ORLEANS—“I had no idea that people would come so far, spend their own money and give up their time at work and with their families to do something like this for me,” New Orleans resident, Jerry Queen said.

Queens home was destroyed by Hurricane Katrina in 2005. As she held up a photo album filled with pictures of the volunteers who transformed her gutted shell of a house into a home, she said, “This is so my grandchildren will never, ever forget … I want them to remember that God was in the plan.”

For 14 months, without resources to rebuild, Queen’s gutted home sat in limbo. Friends advised her to give up and not return, but her heart was in New Orleans.

Queen sought the Lord’s guidance and made up her mind to accept God’s answer, praying, “Father, whatever your will is, may it be my pleasure.”

An acquaintance who had noticed the house sitting empty had encouraged her to to call Gentilly Baptist Church, in New Orleans.

“From the moment we met Jerry, you could see life slowly returning to her. From then on, she was beaming,” Jackie James, New Orleans project coordinator for the Arkansas Baptist Builders said.

As teams continued to roll in, first from Canada, then Arkansas, Louisiana, Texas, Kansas and Tennessee, Queen knew that the volunteers mobilized were sent from God.

When Queen showed up at her home to greet the first team, she was overcome with emotion when she learned that the five-member team had come all the way from Canada.

“These people are for real,” Queen said. “They didn’t come just to see what was going on in the city, they came to help.”

“From all across North America, Southern Baptists have come to the storm ravaged area and have impacted the landscape and the culture for the cause of Christ,” John L. Yeats, director of communications for the Louisiana Baptist Convention said.

Team member Tisha Murvihill, a professional harpist with the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra, said, “It was truly amazing to see God bring hope back into Jerry’s life while we were there.”

“I was willing to do just about anything for Jerry,” Murvihill added, quipping that she crawled through spider webs in the rafters but [because of her profession] stopped short of holding the grounding rod while a team member hammered it in place.

“When you obey God’s nudging and help others you receive back more than you ever anticipate,” Murvihill said.

While the photo album that Queen readily pulls out for visitors to her home tells the story in pictures of her recovery from Katrina, the volunteers carry images in their hearts that will never be erased.

“I will never forget our last day together,” Paul Nelson, of Cochrane, Alberta said. “She said if we could only know what she had been through, we would know how grateful she is.”

Marilyn Stewart is a correspondent for the Louisiana Baptist Convention Communications Team.