NEW ORLEANS – Samaritan’s Purse provided a gift of hope and joy to the children of New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary March 10 – a new playground.

Each year Samaritan’s Purse, led by Franklin Graham, gives Christmas gifts to children around the world through Operation Christmas Child. Love and concern for children has been a hallmark of Graham’s organization for many years. This same love and concern for children continued in the Gulf Coast region following Hurricane Katrina.

After Katrina hit, Graham wanted to do something special for the children affected by the storm. His plan – bring hope and joy to the children of New Orleans by building five new playgrounds in the metro area. (Click here to see a related story about the new Samaritan's Purse playground in Gretna, La.)

“We feel this is a little thing just to show the community that life is coming back and that kids are important,” Graham said about building playgrounds in the city. “It’s just a little investment in the kids.”

“If anything it’s a symbol … a symbol of hope for the kids,” he continued. “As the community comes back to new life … New Orleans will be changed, it will be different in the years and months ahead … a playground, a little thing like this can be an encouragement to many people.”

Graham said that with so much destruction and devastation still present in the city, the playgrounds will give hurting children the “opportunity to be children again.” While the children play, he believes healing will begin.

Because of the many Baptists involved in rebuilding of the city, officials at Samaritan’s Purse wanted to build one of the playgrounds at NOBTS. Seminary officials were overjoyed and agreed to have the equipment placed near the Farnsworth Apartments – a 24-apartment building for students with children.

“With Baptists supplying volunteers for our work teams and our long-term relationship, we thought it would be great to build a small playground [at the seminary],” said Barry Hall, associate director of projects for Samaritan’s Purse.

The playground was constructed over a two-week period by volunteers from Kids Around the World, a Rockford, Ill.-based Christian organization that installs playground equipment as a ministry. Samaritan’s Purse provided funding for the equipment and Kids Around the World provided the construction expertise.

Many of the Kids Around the World volunteers are certified playground equipment installers. Because of this certification, the equipment supplier, GameTime, is able to honor the warranties on the new playgrounds.

“We’ve done most of our projects internationally – going to places where the children, for one reason or another, have lost some hope and lost some joy,” said Kids Around the World President Jim Rosene. Because of the devastation, the New Orleans area fit well with their mission.

Rosene said when the hurricane hit, the group wanted to provide hope for children of the Gulf Coast region. Kids Around the World, Rosene said, wanted to “show the love of Christ to the children.”

“Through all of those bad things [brought on by the storm], good things happen,” he said. “It has given the opportunity for many Christians to show the love of the church to the community.”

Volunteers from Kids Around the World, Samaritan’s Purse volunteers and students for Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary completed the project March 10 -- one day before Graham’s two-day “Celebration of Hope” event in the city. They worked through wind gusts of over 40 miles per hour and blowing sand March 9 to complete the job.

The site includes a bright red, yellow and blue play piece with three slides and multiple climbing areas. Two new swing sets are placed on a large rubber-padded play area. Four benches for parents surround the play area. Kids Around the World even installed two picnic tables and a flag pole near the play area. The site will be a perfect spot for families to meet and fellowship.

“We are extremely grateful to Samaritan's Purse and Kids Around the World for their generous donation of the brand new, state of the art playground for kids aged 5-12,” said NOBTS Dean of Students Craig Price. “The new playground will be a tremendous blessing to our returning families.”

“Our Seminary has had a close connection to the ministry of Samaritan's Purse through our participation in Operation Christmas Child,” Price continued. “We are delighted with their support of our student families.”

Kids Around the World recently completed a playground at Mel Ott Park in Gretna and one in hurricane-ravished Waveland, Miss. The group will return to Louisiana in late April to build a playground near a FEMA trailer park in Baton Rouge.

Samaritan’s Purse staff members and volunteers are currently restoring and repainting a playground in the Algiers section of New Orleans. The group is also negotiating with city and parish officials to find locations for three additional New Orleans-area playgrounds.

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For more information about Samaritan’s Purse, visit www.samaritanspurse.org. Information about Kids Around the World may be found at www.kidsaroundtheworld.com.