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A medical team, including Steve James (an IM missionary doctor) and dedicated volunteers from Haiti and N.C., uses available materials to create splints for a victim of the January 12 earthquake.
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.
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.