Helping Haiti...

the people of Haiti were hit with a magnitude 7.0 earthquake this week. Our TSC relief efforts will be to give to Baptist Global Response. The money given there will be used to aid Haiti through Florida Baptists who are receiving the assignment to go. Once it is clear what Haiti will need, Southern Baptists will be as always one of the first groups in. If you would like to help, go to either gobgr.org (Baptist Global Response) or to www.imb.org/main (International Mission Board).

The article below from the IMB website explains who is going, and the latest on how the funded relief efforts will occur:

Southern Baptists are mobilizing to assess disaster relief needs after the largest earthquake in more than 200 years rocked Haiti the evening of Jan. 12. The initial Southern Baptist disaster relief effort will be led by Florida Baptists, who have had ministry relationships in Haiti for more than 20 years and currently have six staff members who live and work in the country, said Jim Brown, U.S. director for Baptist Global Response, a Southern Baptist relief and development organization. The International Mission Board does not have long-term personnel stationed in the country.

Initial funding for the relief effort will be provided by the IMB’s disaster relief fund. You can contribute to the relief effort at gobgr.org. The North American Mission Board’s disaster relief office is organizing an emergency consultation with state disaster relief directors to coordinate response to the catastrophe, Brown said.

Disaster relief teams in Mississippi and Kentucky are on standby for immediate response. An assessment team is being organized by Baptist Global Response, IMB, NAMB and state convention disaster relief directors to enter the country as soon as possible, Brown said. They will work with Haitian Baptists to identify immediate needs that must be addressed and will draft mid- and long-term plans for an ongoing relief effort.