March 18, 2002

Disaster-relief fund will help finance
new church near NYC's Ground Zero
___By Steve DeVane
___North Carolina Biblical Recorder
___NEW YORK--A Baptist church will rise up from near the site of the destroyed World Trade Center, funded in part by more than $500,000 donated for disaster relief.
___The Southern Baptist North American Mission Board, the Metropolitan New York Baptist Association and the Baptist Convention of New York have adopted the plan for the church.
___It calls for 15 percent of more than $3.4 million donated for disaster relief following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks to be used to start the church.
___The decision was made after NAMB talked with New York Baptist officials about needs in the area, NAMB spokesman Marty King said. "What we know is the people in New York said, 'What we need is a long-term presence,'" he reported. "That comes primarily from churches."
___A plan has not been developed for how the money will be spent, King said, noting it could be used to start more than one church and could be used over several years.
___Owners of an apartment complex that was cleaned by Baptist volunteers have offered to let Southern Baptists use an apartment for a Bible study to help start the church, he said.
___Money collected for disaster relief following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks will be distributed according to an allocation plan called "Enduring Hope: Disbursing Disaster Relief Donations with Integrity and Impact," Baptist Press reported. The plan calls for 59 percent of the money to go to "victim benevolence and counseling ministry" and 41 percent to be used for the long-term "ongoing response ministry."
___The funds for victims include 40 percent for "financial assistance through Southern Baptist churches and associations" in New York, Boston and Washington, D.C., as well as to New York residents who lost their jobs because of the disaster. Twelve percent will fund a "resident chaplain" in New York, and 7 percent will assist state and local partners in funding traditional Southern Baptist Disaster Relief efforts of feeding, childcare, apartment cleanup and similar ministries.
___The ongoing response ministry fund allocates 26 percent of the total for securing a "strategically located center" to house volunteers working in the area in coming years. The other 15 percent will be used for church-starting.
___A task force that has been studying the issue since late September recommended the plan. The document has been submitted to state conventions as a possible model for disbursement of their own relief funds set up in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks.
___NAMB received about 2,800 gifts totaling about $2 million for disaster relief, King said. The other $1.4 million was given to the Baptist groups in New York.
___The gifts were designated in different ways, he added. NAMB officials talked with "a couple of dozen" donors about the intended use of the gifts, he said.
___"They felt like they had an understanding of what the intent of the donors were," he said.
___NAMB officials talked with Baptist officials near the Pentagon, who said the military was handling relief efforts there, King said. NAMB discussions with New York Baptists led to the allocation plan, he noted.

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