Keeping The Faith

President Bush has declared Friday, Sept. 16, a national day of prayer and remembrance for victims of Hurricane Katrina.

Flanked by his Cabinet at the White House, Bush said that in difficult times, Americans always "have come together in prayer to heal and ask for strength for the tasks ahead."

The president urged Americans to call upon God, "with confidence in His purpose, with hope for a brighter future, and with the humility to ask God to keep us strong so that we can better serve our brothers and sisters in need."

"God gives the strength. It's through his power we'll carry on," Brian Upshaw, the senior associate pastor for the First Baptist Church in Gulfport, Miss., tells The Early Show co-anchor Harry Smith.

In front of his destroyed church along with the Truitt family and Hughes family, he says God has a purpose. "We're not sure what it is or asking the why question. For the bible tells the Lord gives and the Lord takes away, but blessed be the name of the Lord."

And thought there are many memories of weddings and babies being baptized in that building, one parishioner says they are just memories. "We have our church family still and very happy about that," she says.

Pastor Upshaw notes, "The future of this church is to serve God, glorify Jesus Christ. As tragic as this is, we have to take this as an opportunity to minister to other people and show the love of Christ through this."

And there is much hope. Though one parishioner points out the congregation may not go back to that building in the future, they will always have a "body of Christ to go back to."

For now, pastor Upshaw says they are meeting at a mission church his congregation planted a year ago.

"They invited us to use their facility," he says, "We worship there and Gulfport High School auditorium this week, and worshipping every day through service."