8A THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
NEWS
THURSDAY, MARCH 2, 2006
Lent begins
Manan True/KANSAN
Father James Sanchez, Associate Chaplain of St. Lawrence Catholic Campus Center, places ashes on Roepark senior Miranda Spinis forehead Wednesday morning for Ash Wednesday Mass. Ash Wednesday is the first day of Lent, which ends on Easter Sunday. Spini said Ash Wednesday was important because it reminded her of the sacrifice Christ made for her and the world.
Church relocates after devastation
HURRICANE KATRINA
escape a Kansas prison in a pet crate.
ATHENS, Tenn. — A dog trainer said she had always been a law-abiding citizen and still couldn't explain why she helped a convicted murderer
"I haven't even figured it all out yet," a teary-eved Toby Young said Monday in a jailhouse interview with The Daily Post-Athenian newspaper.
LAW Woman doesn't know why she helped convict
"My whole life, I've always done good things. Ive never
JONATHAN LANDRUM JR.
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
DECATUR, Ga. — Hurricane Katrina brought grief and loss to Zelda Richard and her family. It even drove them from their New Orleans home. But after they evacuated to Georgia, their local church followed.
"We lost some of our friends, family and everything we cherished," Richard said. "Church was the one thing that made us feel connected and gave us a sense of home."
Greater St. Stephen Full Gospel Baptist Church was a major congregation in New Orleans with 20,000 members at three locations. The largest was destroyed in Katrina's floodwaters, while the others sustained minor damage.
With many in his flock not planning to move back, Bishop Paul Morton decided to come to them. He's opened a permanent church in suburban Atlanta to serve the spiritual needs of those who have found a new life hundreds of miles from their once-flooded homes.
"We wanted to be one church in two cities." Morton said.
Richard, who attended the church in New Orleans that was destroyed, said she's been revived by the camaraderie at the Decatur church - one of the main reasons why she is staying in Georgia.
The church's staff traveled with Morton in the days and weeks following Katrina to Baton Rouge, Houston, Dallas, Memphis and Atlanta to minister to evacuees. As his two remaining churches in New
"Every giving person helped out more than they'll ever know," said Raymond Steib, first assistant pastor of the ministry.
About 2,000 people packed the new church for its first service on Jan. 29, and hundreds more were turned away because there just wasn't enough room. In just four weeks, the church's registered membership grew to 1,000. They join a ministry with up to 5,000 members attending services again at Morton's two remaining churches in New Orleans, which reopened in November.
Orleans were being repaired, Morton preached at his brother James' church in Decatur, east of Atlanta.
"For us to have this church here, it was almost like a touch of home," she said. "It was almost like a baby finding their mother. It's the one thing I can
The six family members shared two oxygen masks as they endured the toxic atmosphere in New Orleans for two days before they were able to leave. When the masks began to malfunction, they started to lose hope. But Richard said they formed a circle and prayed.
Morton said he had no plans to start a new church outside New Orleans, but eventually felt compelled to lay down roots somewhere where he could help evacuates. Under the same name of his ministry in New Orleans, Greater St. Stephen Full Gospel Baptist Church opened its doors in an abandoned strip mall in Decatur.
hold on to and remember all the good things, instead of the bad."
Richard, 43, evacuated with her two teenage daughters, sister, niece and 85-year-old mother, Mary Watson. The family didn't leave because Watson couldn't travel under doctors orders.
"We thought we were going to die," said Richard, whose family was held up on the top floor of a New Orleans hotel during the flood. "The building was shaking and the water was up to the fourth floor. So we prayed and that brought us through."
"Two hurricanes in one lifetime is enough," she said.
Watson lived through Hurricane Betsy in 1965 but said the aftermath of Katrina was much more disturbing. The family traveled through nine hotels before finally landing the Atlanta area.
Now helping as accountant at the church, Richard said the experience resonated with her when Morton preached soon after the storm about the importance of faith in desperate situations: "If you lose hope, then you can't make it," he said.
even had a speeding ticket — well, no, I had one speeding ticket "Young said.
Young, 47, waived extradition Monday, but a dispatcher at the McMinn County jail said Young was still in custody Tuesday.
The Associated Press
Whistle-blowing case dismissed by judge
WICHITA — A federal court has dismissed much of a whistle-blower lawsuit which claimed that commercial and military planes built by The Boeing Co. contain "bogus
parts," but kept the lawsuit alive on allegations that the company retaliated against the employees.
In an order made public Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Wesley Brown said he was dismissing parts of the case because the plaintiffs were
not specific enough in their allegations that Boeing defrauded the U.S. government.
But the judge allowed them to amend and refile the complaint within 15 days.
The Associated Press
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