Passionaries Serving in New Orleans: Shiloh Baptist Church, Wilmington, Del.

In this 10th anniversary year of hurricanes Katrina and Rita’s destruction of the Gulf Coast, American Baptist Home Mission Societies (ABHMS) presents “Passionaries Serving in New Orleans,” a series about the volunteers and residents who have been faithfully rebuilding New Orleans’ Lower 9th Ward through “Home Mission: ‘Til the Work is Done.”

Front: Zakiya Minkah of Shiloh Baptist Church and Warrenetta Banks, volunteer manager, Lower 9th Ward Center for Sustainable Engagement & Development
Back: Victoria Goff, American Baptist Home Mission Societies national coordinator, Volunteer Ministries; Percy McNeil and Jordan Duckett, both of Shiloh

Mission outreach to New Orleans’ Lower 9th Ward is an intergenerational effort at Shiloh Baptist Church, Wilmington, Del. For the past two years, parishioners ranging in age from 12 to 65 have served during American Baptist Home Mission Societies’ “Home Mission: ’Til the Work is Done.” And they’ll do it all again this August.

Junior usher Jordan Duckett, 14, feels strongly about returning to the Gulf Coast to help with restoration of all kinds—from buildings to human beings.

“I feel it’s important,” she says, “because I can help others get their lives and houses back together.”

Stressing that Jesus should be honored not only in word but also in deed, 65-year-old Zakiya Minkah says that she has served by cutting grass, painting home exteriors, weeding gardens and performing clerical duties.

“We are to help take care of God’s people. So, it’s my desire to serve where there’s a need,” she says. “I can see the progress in New Orleans, and I want to continue for as long as there is
a need.”

Indeed, the need remains, 10 years after the hurricanes wrought havoc in New Orleans. And American Baptists, like those at Shiloh, will continue to return to the Lower 9th Ward for as long as it takes to achieve full restoration.

“The needs in New Orleans were still great, although the cameras and news agencies were gone,” says Percival (“Percy”) McNeil, deacon and leader of Shiloh’s Missions Outreach Ministry. “God has blessed us to be a blessing whenever and wherever we are made aware of a need. We were made aware of the needs of the people in New Orleans and decided to be a blessing to the people there.”

Additional information about and registration for “Home Mission: ’Til the Work is Done” and other volunteer mission opportunities are available online or by contacting Victoria Goff, ABHMS national coordinator, Volunteer Ministries, at victoria.goff@abhms.org, 1-800-222-3872, x2449, or 610-768-2449.