Rise Up!: The Miracles and Men of Katrina

By Connie Marie Harris

The never before told true story of a group of multi-racial, multi-denominational pastors in a Katrina-ravaged New Orleans. Not unlike Old Testament times, odds were stacked against them in such an impossible way that the outcome would seem completely hopeless and utter defeat inevitable were it not for God. With division so deep within Gods church in the Crescent City, it could have easily sunk to its death in the flood waters, but when God appeared inevitable defeat became certain victory. Ordinary people began to accomplish extraordinary things. Miracles became common place and hope was restored. God had not forgotten The City That Care Forgot.

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: Apr 28, 2016
• ISBN: 9781512740042

Connie Marie Harris

Connie Marie Harris is an ordained elder in the Presbyterian Church, serving in her youth as a Eucharistic Lay Minister for the Catholic Church. Supporting global missions has defined much of her adult life with Project Mercy in Yetebon, Ethiopia and YWAM Battambang, Cambodia serving as her portals to the miraculous for decades. Connie served as Director of her Church Mission Board raising awareness and support for missions on a local, national and global level as well as working extensively within her community chairing events to support various Christian ministries. Recognized as an outstanding leader in both her church and her community, Connie has long strived to reach the marginalized and most vulnerable for Jesus. A 2008 mission trip broke her heart for New Orleans and now, as a uniquely gifted writer, she brings to life the incredible and miraculous work of God in the Crescent City.

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Copyright © 2016 Connie Marie Harris.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

Scripture quotations taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, Copyright © 1996, 2004. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.

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ISBN: 978-1-5127-4005-9 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-5127-4006-6 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-5127-4004-2 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2016906806

WestBow Press rev. date: 04/28/2016

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Dedication

Chapter One A Daughter's Love

Chapter Two Mr. President: We Need Help

Chapter Three Unprecedented

Chapter Four Words Of Hope

Chapter Five False Hope

Chapter Six Real Hope

Chapter Seven Believing And Obedient Hearts Inquire Within

Chapter Eight Snakes In The Lower Ninth

Chapter Nine Heartbreak In Lakeview

Chapter Ten I Chose To Stay

Chapter Eleven Pastor Dennis Watson

Chapter Twelve The Sock Pastor

Chapter Thirteen Red Beans And Rice Monday

Chapter Fourteen PTSD

Chapter Fifteen One More Thing Led To One More Thing

Chapter Sixteen Literary Test Results

Chapter Seventeen One Ordinary Man

Chapter Eighteen A Broken Heart

Chapter Nineteen Jesus Cared

New Chapter Twenty They Held Everything In Common

Chapter Twenty-One Unity

New Chapter Twenty Two A Christian Army

Chapter Twenty Three The City Of God

Questions And Commentary

DEDICATION

This book is dedicated to my family. There is never a day that goes by that I do not thank God for each one of you. You are my miracles, my best friends, my reasons for laughing and the reasons I have known love. You keep me young and always thankful to a God so full of love and grace that He has allowed me to share this life with you. I am forever grateful and you will be forever loved.

CHAPTER ONE

A DAUGHTER'S LOVE

Anna knew her Dad well. She knew he would not leave his home much less evacuate from the city despite warnings that a Category 5 hurricane was headed right for him. It was not uncommon to hear him tell people that he never had and never would evacuate for a hurricane. Growing up in New Orleans, Anna normally shared his laze-e-fare demeanor about hurricanes but, in August 2005 she could not shake a persistent sense of dread. She knew she needed to leave the city with her husband and two small children before the storm hit and she was more than just a little worried about leaving her Dad behind.

Anna awoke in the early morning hours of August 28, 2005 determined to head for shelter in Lafayette and determined not to leave without her Dad. He was more than just her Dad. He was her friend, her spiritual mentor and even her pastor; the beloved Grandpa she wanted her boys to love and look up to just like she had her entire life. Anna knew how much her Dad loved her two boys. He loved to joke with people that grandchildren were the great reward that God gives you for not killing your own children. She would use that love to get her Dad out of harm's way.

Pastor Dennis Watson may owe his life to his daughter's persistence in getting him out of the city and away from the oncoming storm. He would later share that the day Katrina hit he was in Lafayette. He recalled only too well that he had long said he would never evacuate for a hurricane, but his daughter and son-in-law had come to him with his two little grandsons and told him they weren't leaving if he didn't leave. He just couldn't imagine those two little boys having to swim out. One was just a tiny baby. He couldn't risk them . . .

The levees broke, the city flooded and Dennis Watson sat that night in Lafayette feeling lower than he had ever felt before. It seemed as if everything he had prayed for, dreamed for, hoped for, worked for was gone in one day. As the television broadcast image after image of broken levies giving way to rushing waters, he watched in horror as the floodwaters claimed the city he loved and inundated his beloved Celebration Church. That night Dennis went to bed more depressed, more discouraged than he had ever been in his life. He had experienced a lot of tragedy in his life. His father died at an early age. His brother-in-law was killed. He knew what it meant to grieve. But the shock of seeing a city that he loved devastated and depopulated before his very eyes made him feel utterly helpless. He could do nothing but watch it happen. It was more grief than he had ever born before and the weight of it was crushing.

Long before the first light of morning, Dennis began trying to reach those he knew who had stayed behind. His feelings of helplessness spiraled from bad to worse as he realized his cell phone had no service. The cell phone towers were down in the whole region, including Lafayette, which left Dennis with no way to communicate with anyone. There was no way to see if others were safe and they couldn't see if he was safe. First sitting then pacing then sitting again all in excruciating silence, the torment in waiting was overwhelming with no idea of what had happened to his staff or the people of Celebration. Mercifully at 6:33 that morning his cell phone rang. Instead of any one of a number of people Dennis anticipated would be on the other end, it was instead his friend Pastor Harold Weitsz from Johannesburg, South Africa. Hundreds of people were trying to reach Pastor Dennis Watson that morning, but this pastor from all the way around the world, pastor of the third largest church in South Africa, was the only one who was able to get in touch with him. With downed cell phone towers, no other phone calls made it through to Dennis Watson's cell phone. That was more than just incredible, it was miraculous! The South African pastor's words were God's words and they needed to reach the ears and the heart of this devastated pastor from New Orleans:

Dennis, my son, I know you are devastated, but rise up man of God, for what you perceive to be your day of devastation is actually the destiny that God has called you to. I have been on my knees and my face these eight or nine hours praying for you, your family, your church and your city, and the Lord has revealed to me that while this is indeed a great tragedy, out of this tragedy will come the greatest opportunity your nation has ever had to see a major city experience spiritual transformation. Rise up man of God!

Remember no other calls made it through to Dennis Watson's cell phone. For him, that call was indeed the Lord speaking to him and it helped him out of his depression. He knew he had to return to New Orleans and help people find help, hope and healing through Christ. No matter how hard it was to see the devastated and depopulated city, God was doing something much greater than Celebration Church. He was giving Dennis and others the opportunity to see a city transformed by the power of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

A pastor from 7,000 miles away, a citizen of another country, calls a pastor from New Orleans who is falling into what promised to be a deep depression at just the right moment in order to lift him up and give him hope. God's way is always miraculous!

CHAPTER TWO

MR. PRESIDENT: WE NEED HELP

On Friday, August 26, 2005, Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco declared a State of Emergency. The next day Governor Haley Barbour would follow suit declaring a state of emergency in Mississippi. As Katrina received an upgrade to a Category 3 storm, Governor Blanco told President Bush:

I have determined that this incident is of such severity and magnitude that effective response is beyond the capabilities of the State and affected local governments, and that supplementary Federal assistance is necessary to save lives, protect property, public health, and safety, or to lessen or avert the threat of a disaster. (Times Picayune)

A statement issued out of the White House late that same day reported that a Federal Emergency had been declared and the Department of Homeland Security and the Federal Emergency Management Association had been authorized to identify, mobilize, and provide at its discretion, equipment and resources necessary to alleviate the impacts of the emergency.

On Sunday, August 28, as Katrina was upgraded again, this time to a Category 5 hurricane, The Lafayette Daily Advertiser warned:

Forecasters feared Sunday afternoon that storm-driven waters will lap over the New Orleans levees when monster Hurricane Katrina pushes past the Crescent City tomorrow.

Mayor Ray Nagin, flanked by Governor Kathleen Blanco and other state and city officials, issued the first-ever mandatory evacuation of New Orleans:

I wish I had better news, but we're facing the storm most of us have feared. This is very serious. This is going to be an unprecedented event. (Times Picayune)

At 4:00 p.m. on August 28, 2005, the National Weather Service issued a special hurricane warning:

In the event of a category 4 or 5 hit, most of the area will be uninhabitable for weeks, perhaps longer . . . At least one-half of well-constructed homes will have roof and wall failure. All gabled roofs will fail, leaving those homes severely damaged or destroyed. ... Power outages will last for weeks. ... Water shortages will make human suffering incredible by modern standards.

National Hurricane Center Director Max Mayfield warned:

This is a category 5 hurricane, very similar to Hurricane Andrew in the maximum intensity, but there's a big difference. This hurricane is much larger than Andrew ever was. I also want to make absolutely clear to everyone that the greatest potential for large loss of lives is still in the coastal areas from the storm surge. ... I don't think anyone can tell you with any confidence right now whether the levees will be topped or not, but there's obviously a very very grave concern.

Approximately 30,000 evacuees gathered at the Superdome with enough food for 36 hours, at the same time that the Louisiana National Guard was requesting 700 buses from FEMA for evacuations. They would receive only 100.

In the early morning hours of Monday, August 29 Hurricane Katrina made landfall as a Category 3 hurricane. By 7:30 a.m. CDT, the Bush administration had been notified of the levee breach. At 8:00 a.m. Mayor Nagin reported that water was flowing over the levee:

I've gotten reports this morning that there is already water coming over some of the levee systems. In the lower ninth ward, we've had one of our pumping stations stop operating, so we will have significant flooding, it is just a matter of how much. (Times Picayune)

At 11:13 a.m. the White House circulated an internal memorandum advising of the levee breach in the 9th ward and significant flooding in that area of the city. The Times-Picayune announced yet another levee was breached:

A large section of the vital 17th Street Canal levee, where it connects to the brand new 'hurricane proof' Old Hammond Highway Bridge, gave way late Monday morning in Bucktown after Katrina's fiercest winds were well north.

Governor Blanco sent word to President Bush in the late evening hours of August 29:

Mr. President, we need your help. We need everything you've got.

By the next day, the Associated Press was reporting out-of-control mass looting and severe shortages of security. The French Quarter had been attacked. Councilwoman Jackie Clarkson told the AP:

We're using exhausted, scarce police to control looting when they should be used for search and rescue while we still have people on rooftops.

There seemed to be no end in sight to the unfolding horrors. The Los Angeles Times revealed on September 1, 2005 that tens of thousands were trapped in the Superdome as conditions deteriorated:

A 2-year-old girl slept in a pool of urine. Crack vials littered a restroom. There were blood stained walls next to vending machines smashed by teenagers. By Wednesday, it had degenerated into horror. ... At least two people, including a child, have been raped. At least three people have died, including one man who jumped 50 feet to his death, saying he had nothing left to live for. There is no sanitation. The stench is overwhelming.

That as Reuters was reporting 80,000 were believed stranded in New Orleans. Former Mayor Sidney Barthelemy urged President Bush to send more troops.

A couple of miles from the Superdome, the Convention Center was becoming its own show of horrors:

With 3,000 or more evacuees stranded at the convention center and no apparent contingency plan or authority to deal with them --- collecting a body was no one's priority. ... Some had been at the convention center since Tuesday morning but had received no food, water or instructions. (Times Picayune)

Mayor Nagin reached out again that afternoon, saying:

This is a desperate SOS. Right now we are out of resources at the convention center and don't anticipate enough buses. We need buses. Currently the convention center is unsanitary and