On June 1, Hartzell Mt. Zion United Methodist Church was filled with children and adults singing, clapping, laughing and praising the Lord on First Sunday.

Almost 20 years ago, some of the same people were worshipping in lawn chairs outside after Hurricane Katrina sent a 30-foot wall of water from Lake Pontchartrain and three surrounding rivers over Slidell in August 2005.

The sanctuary was flooded with over 6 feet of water and everything inside was destroyed.

In 2005, the Rev. Ernest Scott told his outdoor congregation, “You look so dear to me. Feel the gentle breeze of our God. He sends the wind and the rain, but he still sends a gentle breeze.”

The Rev. Tiffanie Postell, the current pastor, said the faithful members of the church are the sons and daughters and grandchildren and great grandchildren of the two churches — Hartzell Methodist Episcopal Church (erected in 1899) and Mt. Zion Methodist Episcopal Church (organized in 1882) — that merged in 1967.

In the days leading up to worship on Sunday, the church was busy with more than 70 children of all ages and dozens of volunteers having fun in vacation Bible school.

Shelli Butler Parlow was busy getting people to the right places as a “volunteer floater.” She was in Slidell when Katrina hit.

After returning home, she said first you check on your family and your property. “Then you say, ‘God, what is next?’ The first reaction of this church family is ‘How can I help?’

“Coming back it was whatever you can imagine,” she said. “The bayou had just spilled into buildings, houses. There was mud and trees, fish, snakes — I think a few places might have had alligators. It looked like everything just got picked up and floated around.”

Latonya Alfred, who was serving as one of the vacation Bible school leaders, said she’s been a member of this church since she was a young child.

“I was in my 20s during Hurricane Katrina and I had just recently got a pet cat and a new car. I was ready to evacuate but not without my cat and my car,” she said, laughing. “I was not frightened because I was alive. Things can be fixed, but we didn’t lose any life. That was a blessing.”

Charles Alfred, chairman of the board of trustees then and now, shakes his head, remembering the whole church interior had just been renovated a few months before the storm.

“We never thought we would have another storm like Camille in 1969. But we didn’t have the water in that storm that was in this one.”

After the renovations, the church planned to build a family center next.

“This church is pretty remarkable,” Charles said. “We were able to help families of each member of the church with donations a little at a time.”

He recalled how United Methodist churches and other denominations sent teams from everywhere to help.

“There was a Baptist church out of Tennessee that came up one morning and wanted to talk to me. The pastor said, ‘We want to really put your church back together like it was.’ That was around 10 a.m. and by 11 a.m. they were bringing in material and starting to work.”

Postell was a member of Ben Hill United Methodist Church in Atlanta at the time. She remembers the church collecting cases of water to send to Slidell.

“I didn’t know then I would ever live in Louisiana. At that time, I was a biologist for the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) in Atlanta.”

Churches came from all over, Charles Alfred said.

“I have a pair of shoes that came out of one of the trucks from California. Brand new pair of shoes still in the box,” he said, laughing. “I call them my Katrina shoes.”

Julius Smith, 84, said he was born and raised in Slidell.

“Hurricane Katrina was one of the most devastating events in my lifetime,” he said.

Most of his family evacuated except for a sister who was having back trouble and a brother who stayed to care for his mother’s house with his wife and grandchild, Smith said.

“He was standing at the front door waiting for the water to rise when he heard a great rushing of water coming through the woods.” The water was from the three rivers around Slidell and Lake Pontchartrain.

“My brother walked through the water with his grandchild on his back and his wife by the arm to get to his sister’s house next door, which was two stories high.”

Smith said he has had a beautiful life. “I had a beautiful wife, she lived to be 72. Twin daughters and six wonderful grandchildren.

“I prayed when I was 45 that I would live to be 68, the age my father was when he died. God gave me some bonus years. I am a satisfied old man now.”

Cynthia Alfred Logan and Atha Estelle Harrison Brown sat down after the June 1 service to reminisce about those days after Katrina.

Logan was moving back to her new home in Slidell on Aug. 19, 2005. The moving truck people were in a hurry to move everything in the house, she remembers.

Logan and her family evacuated to Alabama.

“We came back to four trees on our house,” she said.

Brown had moved back from California to Slidell and built a new home in 2004.

As all the family gathered to evacuate, she remembers her grandson saying, “Nana, before we leave, let’s pray. Let’s talk to God first.

“When we came back, the only thing we had lost was the screen on the back door,” she said, laughing softly. “God has just blessed us so much.

“Children brought up in church — that was our saving grace.”

Gilbert is a freelance writer in Nashville, Tenn., who covered the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina for UM News in 2005.

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