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MAKING PROGRESS James Holt, a junior at Colorado State University  in Fort Collins, pauses from his work to assess the condition of a home damaged by floods following Hurricane Katrina.  Holt was one of many students from Colorado who spent their Spring Break repairing homes in New Orleans in conjunction with Operation NOAH Rebuild. 

Army of volunteers sets renovation record in New Orleans

By Marilyn Stewart, Louisiana Baptist Convention

NEW ORLEANS (BP) -- While many of their peers were seekign sunny beaches for spring break, nearly 1,000 high school and college students from across the U.S. devoted their mid-term vacations to help New Orleans residents take additional steps of recovery from 2005's Hurricane Katrina.

Students from Colordo were among the teams serving through Operation NOAH (New Orleans Areah Homes) Rebuild, an initiative to repair or rebuild 1,000 homes and 20 churces in 12 months.

Some volunteers came from as far away as Alaska.

NOAHH leaders reported that March was the most productive month so far since the effort began, estimating 5,000 people served during the month.

The Southern Baptist North American Mission Board (NAMB), Louisiana Baptist Convention, Greater New Orleans Baptist Association, Arkansas Baptist Builders and Salvation Army are among members of the NOAH partnership.  Many individual congregations also help coordinate the effort.

"In terms of man-hours of labor, our volunteers produced the equivalent of well over a half million dollars' worth of work" in March, Steve Gahagan, NOAH construction manager, said.  "It was an incredibly productive month."

NOAH volunteers hung more than 1,500 sheets of dry wall in March and worked on a record number of roofing, electrical and plumbing jobs.

Travis Scruggs, known as the "disaster pastor" of First Baptist Church of New Orleans, said the 1,600 volunteers in their charge were 10 times the number of volunteers in February.

NOAH office manager Dianne Ghagan reported that the ministry managed nearly 2,400 of the 5,000 volunteers in March, more than twice the number for February.

The 301 work worders the teams completed represent 116 New Orleans homes, seven churches, two ministry centers and five omes of local pastors.  Many volunteers have served multiple times in New Orleans.

Schools as presitigious as Yale, Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology were represented according to Jackie James, project coordinator for the Arkansas Baptist Builders' New Orleans project in tandem with the Kansas/Nebraska Builders.  "Many of the non-Christian students said this was the most amazing trip they had ever been on."

James said his organization -- which usually focuses on rebuilding -- took on atypical work orders to make full use of approximately 1,000 volunteers managed through the two-state partnership.

"For (March), anything the homeowner needed done, we did -- mowing and yard work, gutting, roofing, drywall, electrical -- anything," James said.  "We gutted more homes i the last two weeks than we did in all of 2006."

The Kansas/Nebraska Builders provide the eletrical expertise for the partnership.  This includes 15 teams with a total of 154 workers and all the supplies they needed -- including 40 ladders.

Several state Baptist conventions, including Colorado, have "adopted" sections of New Orleans on which to focus their volunteer efforts.

"We are so appreciative of the tremendous numbers of young people, both high school and college, that have spent their spring breaks gutting omes, mowing, rebuilding homes and building Kingdom relationships," said Freddie Arnold, church planter and association missioanry for the Baptist Association of Greater New Orleans (BAGNO).  "We from BAGNO and the Louisiana Baptist Convention express our deep gratitude to them."

NAMB estimates that work will continue year-round through August 2008.  For information on Operation NOAH Rebuild, visit www.operationnoah.net, call (318) 792-7353 or e-mail stacey.billger@lbc.org.

With reporting by Matt Carson of the Southern Baptist North American Mission Board