March 3, 1999
Boats & goats strategic to
Baptist relief work in Honduras
___By Ken Camp
___Texas Baptist Communications
___DENTON--Boats and goats for Honduras will be occupying the minds of Texas Baptist Men for the immediate future, and they're looking for help.
___During the next 12 months, Texas Baptist Men hopes to enlist 400 volunteers to do agricultural development, medical missions and construction projects in northern Honduras.
___"We're no longer in the crisis mode of offering short-term disaster relief in Honduras," said Executive Director Jim Furger-son. "Now we're in it for the long haul, helping to rebuild a country."
___Last year, when Hurricane Mitch devastated Honduras and Nicaragua, Texas Baptist Men led in disaster relief ministries, coordinating the delivery of 23 planeloads of food in 10 days. Once the need for immediate relief subsided, the organization made a two-year commitment to help with recovery in Honduras.
___Already, a soil scientist with the organization's Veterinary/ Agricultural Fellowship has been enlisted to analyze farmland swamped by saltwater during the hurricane and recommend ways to reclaim the land.
___Volunteers with the Medical/ Dental Fellowship plan to equip a donated clinic in Honduras. The Fire and Rescue Fellowship will conduct training for a Honduran coastal island that is beginning an EMS program.
___A Challenger team will work in Honduras during the summer of 2000, helping to remap and survey a very primitive, inaccessible area. As they go to remote villages, they will show the "Jesus" film dubbed into the Meskito Indian language.
___During a Feb. 19-20 meeting, the Texas Baptist Men executive board approved a proposal that the 1999 Royal Ambassador Congress offering be designated for "boats and goats" for Honduras, a country where the transportation infrastructure was ruined and half of the small animal livestock owned by families were killed by the hurricane.
___Specifically, the men hope to provide at least six motorboats that can be used in navigable rivers for the rebuilding effort and missionary efforts, and they hope to provide about 1,000 goats as breeding stock.
___To facilitate that effort and future agricultural development projects, the board accepted the gift of a 320-acre ranch southwest of San Antonio, made available from a benefactor through the Texas Baptist Missions Foundation.
___During the board meeting, volunteers stepped forward agreeing to build a ranch house and fence the property, and a volunteer with background in ranch management already has agreed to live on-site.
___Longtime Texas Baptist Men staff member John LaNoue announced at the board meeting his plans to retire March 31.
___At the recommendation of its personnel committee, the board approved an organizational restructuring and named Don Gibson to the newly created post of associate executive director.
___ Gibson, 61, resigned his position as engineering manager with Houston-based Hudson Products Corp. in 1982 to serve as a Mission Service Corps volunteer, working with Texas Baptist Men as lay ministries coordinator. He joined the paid staff in 1987 as director of lay ministries.
___His new role will grant Gibson decision-making authority in the executive director's absence.
___John Bullock, state director of RAs and Challengers, becomes director of children and youth missions and ministries under the newly approved structure.
___Another position, director of adult men missions and ministries, will be filled at a later date.Frontpage / Contents/ Masthead / Why We're Here / Links / Archive / E-mail us/ SUBSCRIBE!