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Said Southall, the displaced pastor of a remnant flock-in-exile: "They need to see the fearless leader. They need to see some human sign that God has not abandoned them when they need him most."

Southall is more than a theologian and counselor. In a time of overwhelming need he has become a housing broker, relief expert and red-tape cutter. Politically active before the storm, Southall has dozens of contacts in public life—people to be called upon to help secure a permit or speed up an application for relief. "You can't preach and teach until you've met their needs," he said.

Lomax has been back to his wrecked St. Mark's four times, each time encountering parishioners.

Officials estimate that every one of the 27,000 homes in St. Bernard will have to be bulldozed. Boats sit on roofs. Cars are upended on their noses, their rear wheels snagged on rooflines. The homes' interiors are a dark, unrecognizable chaos of overturned furniture, foul muck and sometimes poisonous snakes.

"It's always the same," Lomax said. "They burst into tears. They came back for something—anything—but they can't find even the pictures of the kids."

On one recent visit, Lomax retrieved a few personal items—a checkbook, car payment book, pictures of his late father for his 91-year-old mother, who lost everything in the Lakeview neighborhood.

Then he drove slowly up and down the streets lined with what used to be homes. Sometimes he encountered a couple standing empty-handed in front of a house. Sometimes he knew them, sometimes not. He'd stop and chat for a moment. "I'm sorry," he said. "God bless you."

"A priest is available to his people, but the biggest challenge for us today is finding our people," he said. "We're working out of our cars, our homes, our PDAs," said the David Crosby, referring to personal electronic devices that store names and telephone numbers. Crosby spends two to three hours a day on the Internet, reaching out to members of his First Baptist Church of New Orleans as they slowly populate a Web site, logging in with their location, contact information and stories.

In the month since evacuating before Katrina, Crosby said he's slept in 11 bedrooms in four Southern states. He has held prayer services for strangers in motel meeting rooms, evacuation shelters and borrowed churches.

He encourages his scattered flock electronically. "I'm sending out mass e-mails on a regular basis, to give them hope and strength for the journey," he said. "I tell them we're anchored in Christ, not our possessions, and that he will remain faithful to us. He will not abandon us."

Never have they been more challenged, they say. "Their homes are gone, their businesses swamped. They wonder what the future holds," Crosby said.

Bruce Nolan is the religion writer for The Times-Picayune in New Orleans.

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October (Web-only) 2005, Vol. 49