People I care about...

I have been getting reports about New Orleans friends. Some I didn't even realize were in harm's way until it was all said and done! I just thought I'd post a little about them. The information is first-hand when it can be, and if not, it's from reliable sources. It's just a random mix of NOBTS friends and Lafayette friends.

Allen, Judi, Aaron, and Sarah Jackson are in Baton Rouge, LA. I spoke with Allen briefly on Saturday. He's interim pastoring at Crosspoint Baptist Church on Airline, so they are staying there for the time being. He was saying that they may not be able to live on campus until maybe January.

Byron and Cindy Townsend's son Ethan was born in New Orleans on the Saturday before the hurricane, so they weren't able to evacuate. I originally heard that they were part of the Superdome hoorah, but by reading the NOBTS forum thread, it appears that they were at Lakeside Hospital until they were evacuated. From there they went to Houston. Here is a post that Byron made on a blog written by joe kennedy that I stumbled across yesterday:

joe,i am typing with one hand because i am holding ethan with the other. i love this boy. we are safe in houston with cindy's parents. i will be going to ATL on tues to our north georgia campus. new orleans will be rebuilt somehow. this is not the first time natural disaster strikes. nobts will be back as well. check nobts.edu sometime on friday.peace, bro. good word on the blog. -byron.ethan's dad 08.31.05 - 10:53 pm

I spoke to Jeff Audirsch last Monday night and he'd evacuated to north Louisiana. Jeff is a PhD student and serves as the Art Director in the PR office at NOBTS.

Tammy (Dempsey) and Rick Lopez evacuated to Opelousas, LA. Tammy works for William Carey College office on the Seminary campus. Rick works for the Seminary. Here is part of an email that Della forwarded to me from Tam:

We are so blessed to have such wonderful friends. We aren't making any decisions about stepping out beyond this moment. We did talk about the possibility of another Seminary, Golden Gate perhaps?? I am still unable to get in touch with anyone from Hattiesburg. All 3 campuses of William Carey were hit hard. I do not know if I will have a job or if perhaps they will allow me to come work in Hattiesburg , it is all unknown. Everything is up in the air right now. I wish I could be with you now. Know that we love you and are wishing we were together

we are fine, so many others were hurt much harder and so many have no place to go. I realized today that I lost the home of my present and of my past...its weird. We just heard our friends from the Seminary were rescued today...PRAISE GOD! Stuff is replaceable...ok so i have to revisit Alaska, Thailand, Burma, and Indonesia...I won't complain about that....I get to start a new purse collection or better yet we get to live a life of simplicity. Thanks for your prayers, we covet them
love to all...pray for the people of New Orleans to have a REAL relationship with Jesus...if that's right, everythingelse will be too.
love you
tam and Rick

I can't find it now, because I looked at several of the links on Joe Kennedy's blog, but one of his friends reported that Leah Brown (a current Seminary student and a fellow ULL/BSU alum) was working at Tulane Medical Center (she's a nurse) during the storm. Apparently she was stuck on a parking garage for a while, but she's been rescued and evacuated.

I heard that Holly Arceneaux (ULL/BSU alum as well) is in Lafayette. She was living in New Orleans and I believe she also works for Tulane Medical Center.

Kent and Jessica Caperton (again, ULL/BSU alums and Kent is currently a NOBTS undergrad student) evacuated to her family's house in Zachary, LA. You can keep up with them by way of Jessica's blog: http://jessicasbigideas.blogspot.com. (Kent has one too, but you can get to it by way of Jessica's.)

John Ringo (little brother to Dave Ringo--ULL/BSU alum; former FBC Lafayette youth) lives in New Orleans and works for Bobby Jindal. He was in Las Vegas, NV, on business when the hurricane hit.

James and Shera Thiele left New Orleans on Saturday morning. He's been posting pretty regularly on his website, but he posted this on his myspace account:

Sunday, August 28, 2005
Thanks to everyone who has been emailing and text messaging. On a whim, Shera and I decided to escape early and left New Orleans Saturday morning to make the 11 hour drive to visit her parents. We have the rabbit and Shera's best friend with us. Keep praying for our friends who have decided to stay behind. It's gonna get big ugly in the big easy.We will continue to post updates at www.jamestealy.com so please check there often.

Quite randomly, I heard from Sarah Barnett (ok, I can't remember how to spell her last name!) earlier today because she added me as a friend on her myspace account. I emailed a quick, "hey what are you doing adding me as a friend when your city was just submerged." comment and she responded with this...this blows my mind!

Beth Heinze!! Haha, it's been a roller coaster ride the past few days. My family and I stayed in New Orleans and rode out the storm at the Hotel Monteleone in the Quarter...we didn't get out until Wednesday afternoon, and barely at that. We came very close to not making it at all...it's a crazy story I promise to tell you sometime. I'm safe and sound (and homeless) in Houston for now, but Loyola's worked out a co-op with other Jesuit universities around the country. I'm trying to get into Fordham right now (in the Bronx), and if it works out, I'll be up there by Thursday. It's all a whirlwind right now, but I'm keeping up so far! Thanks for the offer of the apartment...if Fordham doesn't work out, I just might take you up on that! I promise to be much better about keeping in touch...especially now that you've given me all of your information except your social security number :) xoxo, Sarah

Some sites for more info on NOBTS/New Orleans ppl:

WWL forum for NOBTS

NOBTS family blog and the official NOBTS website

FBCNO family blog and the official FBCNO website

I'll post more as I continue to hear. I've still heard no word on Brigham and Robin Young or any of the ppl of FBC Gulfport, so if you're in contact with any of those people, I'd love a word about them! Fortunately, it seems like people are ok--and PEOPLE are the important part in the equation.