RISE UP!

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 kids 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 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 levies 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 flood waters 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 8 or 9 hours praying for you, your family, your church, and your city, and the Lord has revealed to me 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 7000 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 and give him hope. God’s way is always miraculous!