Southern Baptist mission to rebuild Big Easy houses

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Southern Baptist volunteers plan to rebuild more than 1,000 houses in New Orleans that were damaged by Hurricane Katrina last August.

The North American Mission Board, which is the mission agency of the Southern Baptist Convention, is planning a $10 million reconstruction project called Project NOAH -- New Orleans Area Hope. It will rely on volunteers to rebuild damaged houses, as well as 20 battered Baptist churches, during the next two years. Work is expected to get under way by the end of next month.

"We'll be putting on a lot of new roofs and installing a lot of exterior siding. There will be houses that have to be totally repainted, and flood damage inside that has to be repaired," said the Rev. Robert E. "Bob" Reccord, NAMB president and chief executive officer. "We'll be looking to the people who live right there to determine where the help is needed."

Members of the evangelical men's group Promise Keepers will assist.

"We're hoping for a minimum of 52,000 volunteers" between the two groups, Mr. Reccord said.

The work will resemble those of the international relief group Samaritan's Purse, headed by the Rev. Franklin Graham. Samaritan's Purse has contributed $25 million to the area's rebuilding effort.

"So far, we have worked on 7,139 homes, with help from 5,571 volunteers," Samaritan's Purse spokesman Jeremy Blume said yesterday.

Also, the Lutheran Church is sponsoring a volunteer program called "What a Relief," where more than 1,000 college students will spend their spring break helping the area rebuild.

Project NOAH is earmarking $5 million for the rehabilitation of houses and churches in New Orleans. The gift, Mr. Reccord said, is part of the $22 million that Southern Baptists -- the nation's largest non-Catholic denomination -- contributed in the aftermath of back-to-back Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, which ravaged the Gulf states.

NAMB immediately sent half of the funds raised to the state Baptist conventions in areas hardest-hit.