GULFPORT, Miss. (BP) — The people of First Baptist Church are very familiar with what it feels like to have your world swept away.

In 2005, Hurricane Katrina took a hard right in the Gulf and barreled north, eventually making landfall along Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. Extensive flooding killed many and left slabs where homes once stood. The destruction came at a level that deserves documentaries and commemorative articles, even two decades later.

Chuck Register was the pastor at First Baptist Church in Gulfport. Any other time, the church’s location caused oohs and ahhs, with the Gulf of Mexico close enough that you could reach it with a 9-iron.

But on that night of Aug. 29, waves ripped away the lower walls of the sanctuary and other buildings, leaving a skeleton.

“In those early days, a lot of people were dealing with shock,” Register told Baptist Press. “Everyone was still in evacuation mode, staying with relatives somewhere else.”

That shock eventually gave way to stress.

“Husbands and fathers were assessing damage and trying to begin the cleanup, so a lot of that time was ministering to them as they were trying to figure out their lives. A lot of them lost their home, a car, their job. Many of those businesses either didn’t reopen or moved elsewhere, so it was all a lot for them to take in.”

The homes of First Baptist staff members sustained mild damage. Strategy meetings were held in Register’s front yard with meals cooked by his wife over a camp stove. They ministered by splitting up sections of the city.

It was one church doing what it could in the moment. But in addition to local congregations, Southern Baptists would soon descend on the region en masse.

From Aug. 29 through the following March, nearly 21,000 volunteers from 41 state Baptist conventions came to the area. Another 26,000 volunteers would become part of Operation NOAH (New Orleans Area Homes) Rebuild from March 2006 to April 2009. It would, by far, become the largest response by Southern Baptist Disaster Relief (SBDR).

First Baptist Gulfport became a command center for North Carolina Baptists. For two-and-a-half years, some 40,000 volunteers from that state came to the area.

“They built over 700 homes. It was a significant operation,” said Register, who left in 2009 to serve North Carolina Baptists in various missions leadership roles for 14 years before retiring.

Two of those volunteers, Eddie and Martha Williams, became residents as the North Carolina couple quit their jobs and moved to the area. For nearly three years, they helped coordinate the North Carolina response and funding to rebuild.

Last year, Hurricane Helene’s devastation included the Williams’ town of Spruce Pine, N.C.

“We immediately began by taking an offering,” said Jimmy Stewart, First Baptist Gulfport’s current pastor.

That offering was assisted by decisions made years earlier. A great deal of discussion followed Katrina about rebuilding in the original location or further inland. Ultimately, the church voted to move away from the coast and sold the land to the city. Eventually, the space became home to the Mississippi Aquarium.

Proceeds from that sale went toward paying off debt and banking the rest, out of which $500,000 was set aside as a thanksgiving offering and earmarked for future missions needs. Financial gifts were given to the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina, Southern Baptist Disaster Relief and Mississippi Baptist Disaster Relief.

There was also $100,000 in matching funds set aside to help other churches that may face a similar disaster to Katrina, which brings things back to last year.

Matching funds from many years ago joined the offering taken right after Helene passed through. Both resulted in a $90,000 check to the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina, $20,000 to a church in the western part of the state and $10,000 to Berry Chapel in Spruce Pine, where the Williamses are members.

Those funds helped reconfigure the former Deyton Elementary School in Mitchell County, where Spruce Pine is located, into a permanent headquarters for North Carolina Baptists on Mission. Teams from First Baptist have already been there, with more trips scheduled.

Now retirees, Eddie and Martha continued to serve with North Carolina Baptist missions. They will return to Gulfport next weekend as a gesture of gratitude, put up in a condo on the beach by First Baptist, as they visit and share memories.

The cooperative spirit of both groups doesn’t surprise Register one bit.

“I’m so grateful to First Baptist for returning ministry for ministry,” he said. “That’s the nature of Christian people in southern Mississippi. It’s the nature of that congregation. I appreciate it because it’s easy to turn a page, get on with your life and forget what happened 20 years ago. Eddie and Martha are two of my closest friends.”

It’s hard to tell how long the recovery will take in North Carolina. But there are lessons Stewart said First Baptist members can share.

“The emotional scars remain,” he said. “We’ve been tested through the flood and the wind. But as a result of that, we’re stronger.”

(EDITOR’S NOTE — Scott Barkley is chief national correspondent for Baptist Press.)