Medical teams to lead Haiti response

Medical teams to lead Haiti response
Jan. 26, 2010
By Barbara Denman

HIALEAH, Fla. (BP)–The joint Southern Baptist response to the Jan. 12 Haiti earthquake will launch in the coming week with four “strategically selected” medical teams, leaders of the Southern Baptist Disaster Relief Network decided Jan. 26 at the Florida Urban Impact Center in Hialeah, Fla.

Plans to respond to the urgent, intermediate and long-term needs in Haiti were addressed by assessment teams that had just returned from the quake-ravaged nation, along with representatives from Baptist Global Response, the Southern Baptist international and North American mission boards, the Florida Baptist Convention and other Southern Baptist disaster relief representatives.

The group wrestled with logistical arrangements and how to send mission teams and respond to needs in a country where transportation and in-country support for teams is practically impossible. Access to airports and shipping docks are extremely restricted, the teams reported.

“At this point, all we can sleep safely in Prince-au-Prince is 55,” said Cecil Seagle, director of the mission division of the Florida Baptist Convention.

The group decided the next step will be to send four “strategically selected” medical teams through the Dominican Republic to Haiti next week, along with two representatives from the Florida Baptist Convention, who will continue to make arrangements for trained disaster relief teams to travel in and out of the country.

Another meeting to discuss the logistics of getting additional response teams into Haiti will be held Feb. 11-12 in Atlanta, the group decided.

“Once we get the mechanisms in place, we will have numbers of teams in there, week in and week out,” said Mickey Caison, who directs disaster operations for the North American Mission Board.

“One of the things I am very excited about is that the four entities came together around Southern Baptist disaster relief to develop plans to respond to the disaster in Haiti,” Caison added. “I believe God is going to do something very good through all of us working together in Haiti. Through it all our efforts will be touching lives, changing lives and giving hope. Our purpose is to carry the message of hope found in Jesus Christ.”

The group acknowledged that Southern Baptists are passionate about responding to the immediate needs in Haiti.

The group hoped to reassure Southern Baptists that the response in Haiti will be long-term, but in the meantime they can minister to Haitians in their own communities and pray for people in Haiti, who are afraid to return to homes that are still standing because of the danger posed by aftershocks.

The group pled for patience as they try to solve logistical nightmares.

Southern Baptists will be asked to purchase and contribute “Buckets of Hope” to send to Haitian families – five-gallon buckets packed with rice, cooking oil, black beans, flour, sugar, spaghetti noodles and peanut butter. Even after Haitians use the supplies, the bucket can serve multiple uses for a family.

While Southern Baptists will mobilize to meet urgent needs, they also will be very focused on long-term assistance to help Haitians rebuild their lives and communities.

“Other relief agencies in Haiti are running a 100-yard dash; we are running a marathon,” said Fritz Wilson, disaster relief director for the Florida Baptist Convention.

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Barbara Denman is director of communications for the Florida Baptist Convention (www.flbaptist.org).

A downloadable bulletin insert raising awareness about relief needs in Haiti is available at gobgr.org.

To donate to BGR’s Haiti disaster response fund, click here.

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