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The rescuers, who have been driving themselves from sunup far into the night, face their task exhausted and with their nerves on edge. But they persevere. "When these people come onto the boat and hug me," Caffin says, "I feel like I am being hugged by Christ."

The rescuers are scrounging for gas, because lives can be counted by the number of gallons on hand. "Each full gas of tank in the boat is 20 to 25 lives that are rescued," Caffin calculates.

The big picture
The Southern Baptists are a presence to contend with in the South, and that is a good thing this week. With a strong and long-established presence in the region, have set up disaster stations up and down the Gulf Coast. Their disaster relief effort is a marvel of efficiency, timetables, trucks, mobile ham radio centers, and mass production of meals. Their equipment gleams and their people are fresh and beaming due to a constant rotation of teams of volunteers bringing order to chaos. CT visited Southern Baptist centers in Mobile, Alabama, Biloxi and Pascagoula, Mississippi, and Hammond, Louisiana.

As the third-largest relief organization in North America, the Southern Baptists' North American Mission Board works closely with the Red Cross and the Salvation Army

By Wednesday, two days after the hurricane, the namb had 1,000 volunteers preparing meals, operating two Red Cross kitchens and two kitchens for the Salvation Army.

Burton says Southern Baptist churches are the main means through which the Convention will provide relief. Those that are relatively undamaged will provide shelter both for the hurricane refugees, as well as for relief workers.

Tony Carnes is senior news writer for Christianity Today.

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September (Web-only) 2005, Vol. 49