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By Gary D. Myers
NEW ORLEANS – New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary alumnus and current trustee Mitch Hamilton saw his beloved seminary campus at its worst when he helped students, professors and staff members sift through their belongings following Hurricane Katrina.
“My memories are all in black and white … they are all gray with cloudy skies … [and everything] is covered with a gray sludge,” Hamilton said of those five difficult days on campus.
That was October 2005 – just five weeks after levee failure inundated the campus with water. During a recent trip to campus in April, Hamilton encounter a renewed campus, filled with new life and hope.
“There is green grass, the grayness of the sludge is gone and the buildings are being rebuilt,” he said.
Hamilton recalled walking up and down the gray streets back in October. Everywhere he turned he saw the broken pieces of homes and personal items – ruined family pictures and broken toys. His time there was heart wrenching.
“Now, as they have cleaned and restored, instead of seeing disaster, you see hope,” Hamilton said. “It’s exciting. You do not get any sense that anyone is looking backwards … there’s not any gloom, there’s not any despair.
“This has been an encouraging visit for me,” he continued.
Thanks to the diligent work of seminary contractor Mike Moskau
and his workers, along with close to 1,000 Southern Baptist
volunteers, the campus transformation has been dramatic. The role
of Southern Baptist volunteers in the restoration progress cannot
be overstated. According to Moskau, these volunteers have saved the
seminary up to $3 million in labor costs.
While Moskau’s crews have gutted and reconstructed the flooded
first floors of seminary housing and repaired roofs throughout
campus, volunteers have cleaned and restored second and third floor
apartments. The volunteers, including a large group of students
from Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, have also installed
much of the new sod on campus.
The front block, which includes the seminary’s main academic
buildings, has been open since January. New landscaping and grass
have since been installed on the front block giving it a finished
look. The first round of repairs to Leavell Chapel will be complete
by spring graduation service on May 13.
Buildings on the second block of campus have been completely restored. Staff members and administrators are now living in DeMent, Crutcher and Lipsey Apartments. In the next few weeks, new sod will be installed near these apartment buildings.
The first ten faculty homes located along Seminary Place, the
Manor Apartments, Courtyard Apartments and StaffVillage are also
nearing completion. Sodding around these buildings is
complete.
The remaining faculty homes and student apartments are on schedule
to open at various times during the summer. The campus will be
fully operational by August.
During his recent trip to campus, Hamilton impressed to see new construction on campus.
“We are not just restoring buildings,” Hamilton said. “We are building new ones.”
The new construction is an addition to the Nelson L. Price Center for Urban Missions and two new faculty homes. The PriceCenter addition was scheduled to begin in September 2005. Hurricane Katrina put the project on hold. Construction on the addition will began in May.
Hamilton said the addition to the mission center tells him that the vision of the seminary is still centered on being a witness for Christ in the city of New Orleans. Since the Price Center opened in 2002, the building has served as a dorm and chapel for thousands of MissionLab volunteers.
Hamilton believes that the hurricane has opened many opportunities for the seminary family and MissionLab volunteers to reach out to the city with the Gospel. It is a sentiment shared by many Baptist leaders in the region.
There are no more “black and white” memories of campus for Hamilton. He said after this recent visit all his memories are in color and his heart is filled with hope.
“I’ll leave with great enthusiasm … it’s a color picture,” he said.
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