wfn.org | $1 Million Requested By Haitian Baptists For Earthquake Recovery

[Worldwide Faith News <wfn@igc.org>]

> American Baptist News Service (ABNS)

$1 Million Requested By Haitian Baptists For Earthquake Recovery

Contributions totaling $254,000 in relief funds have been received by
International Ministries (IM) in the wake of the destruction caused by
the January 12 earthquake that devastated Port-au-Prince and the
surrounding area.  A draft proposal identifying $1 million for
immediate and medium-term needs has been received from IM?s partner,
the Convention of Baptists in Haiti (CBH).

The proposal included a summary of the extensive damage.  Of the more
than 21 Baptist churches in the convention, 11 church buildings were
damaged and at least four were completely destroyed.  Two pastors died
in the earthquake along with 29 other church members.  More than 400
congregants were injured.  Among convention congregations, 438 homes
were destroyed and 673 were damaged.

The CBH proposal outlined an immediate three-part action plan that
calls for contributions to be allocated for distributing mattresses,
tarps and other shelter necessities (50%), providing food for families
(48%) and establishing a medical clinic and providing basic personal
hygiene items (2%).

Dr. Emmanuel Pierre, general secretary of the CBH, expressed
appreciation for initial assistance: ?Thank you very much for the
funds from IM and special thanks for the clean water system you sent
via Dr. Vic Gordon.?  Dr. Gordon, a pastor from Ohio and former IM
board member, visits Haiti regularly to teach at the Christian
University of Northern Haiti.

IM missionary Steve James, M.D. and Scott Hunter of the Cooperative
Baptist Fellowship are working with the CBH to refine the action plan
and continue to identify needs among the Haitian churches.  A plan for
the longer-term rebuilding phase will be developed in the coming months.

Kristy Engel, a pediatric nurse practitioner and IM missionary in the
Dominican Republic (DR), continues each week to lead rotating
volunteer medical teams from La Romana, DR to Port-au-Prince. These
teams, composed of volunteers from the U.S. as well as Dominican
physicians and volunteers, are providing medical care to victims
housed in tent cities.  In one such city, a single team treated nearly
1,000 patients during just one four-day rotation period.

Some of these teams have been composed of more than 75 people.  Ketly
and Vital Pierre, who serve as IM missionaries in Nicaragua, and
Adalia Schellinger-Gutiérrez, M.D., an IM missionary in Mexico, have
been among members of those groups.  ?Over the next several weeks,?
Engel reports, ?we still need doctors and physician assistants to help
fill the needs of our medical clinics.  If you are able to assist in
those areas, please send an email to BIMvolunteers@abc-usa.org to register. ?

IM missionary Madeline Flores-López has remained in the DR. She and
her Dominican colleagues are continuing to provide shelter and medical
care to quake victims being brought to the Contreras Hospital in Santo
Domingo. They also have been giving each earthquake victim a "duffle
bag" where they can put their personal things like soap, clothes,
medicines, etc. Flores-López says, ?They came with nothing, now they
can take a least a bag and clothes with it? ? a reminder of God?s love
being shown by God?s people.

Dr. Stephen James, an IM medical doctor, recently visited the larger
medical institutions in the north of Haiti to assess the response to
earthquake patients that are being transferred by the hundreds from
Port-au-Prince.  He and his wife, Nancy, a registered nurse, have been
serving as IM missionaries in Haiti for more then 20 years.  They
recently observed, ?It is rare to find someone in Haiti today who has
not lost a family member in the earthquake.  We who have been in Haiti
for many years have witnessed terrible tragedies.  Yet this present
disaster has shaken all of us in the scope and breadth of pain for so
many.  Still there are signs of God working through His people in
Haiti, like a Haitian doctor in the slums of Port-au-Prince serving by
himself for long hours with few supplies or a Haitian nurse caring for
the wounded next to a demolished clinic a few miles from the epicenter.?

Emergency donations continue to be needed. Donors can give through the
IM website: www.internationalministries.org/items/80, or by check to:
?OGHS ? Haiti Earthquake Relief? and mailed to: International
Ministries, P.O. Box 851, Valley Forge, PA 19482-0851. Support can
also be given by American Baptists through their church by making
checks payable to the church with ?One Great Hour of Sharing ? Haiti
Earthquake Relief? written in the memo section. These gifts will be
sent from the church through the American Baptist region and then to
International Ministries.

A new tax relief law allows people who contribute to Haiti earthquake
relief by March 1, 2010 to take a tax deduction for the contribution
on their 2009 tax return. This means donors can receive an immediate
tax benefit, rather than having to wait until they file next year?s
return. Donors may deduct these contributions on either their 2009 or
2010 returns, but not both. See:
www.irs.gov/newsroom/article/0,,id=218645,00.html?portlet=7

The ten people arrested for alleged child trafficking in Haiti are not
members of churches affiliated with American Baptist Churches USA or
with International Ministries. Some media sources have labeled these
individuals as ?American Baptists.? While the people involved are
Baptists from the United States, they are not related to ABCUSA or IM.

American Baptist Churches is one of the most diverse Christian
denominations today, with 5,500 local congregations comprised of 1.3
million members, across the United States and Puerto Rico, all engaged
in God?s mission around the world.

> posted @ Monday, February 08, 2010 10:07 AM