Updated: Baptists serve hurricane victims on multiple fronts

EDITOR’S NOTE: This article originally was posted Oct. 12. It was edited Oct. 13 to include updated information.

Baptists are providing disaster relief to people affected by Hurricane Matthew on multiple fronts—in Haiti, Cuba and the southeastern United States.

Ernie and Sharon Rice, missionaries to Haiti appointed by First Baptist Church in Stockdale, South Central Baptist Area and the Baptist General Convention of Texas, reported the western half of Haiti received the brunt of the hurricane.

The storm slammed western Haiti with 145-mile-per-hour winds and torrential rains, leaving an estimated 1.4 million people in need of assistance and claiming 1,000 lives.

Ernie Rice from First Baptist Church in Stockdale tells an official how to maintain a water purification system at the national police headquarters in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, in this 2014 file photo. “We were thankful here in Port-au-Prince the storm was not as bad as first predicted,” Sharon Rice wrote in an Oct. 6 email. “Our neighbors to the west, however, did get a significant blow from the hurricane, as I am sure you have heard and seen on the TV and Internet.”

‘A total loss’

Ernie Rice journeyed to the west to assess needs and check on the pastors of four churches with whom he works.

“As I traveled just west on National Highway 2, the first evidence of wind damage was just east of Leoganne,” Rice wrote. “Leaves, limbs and whole trees were on the road and in the neighborhoods. The banana orchards, sugar cane fields and row crops were flattened and a total loss. Rocks and boulders were on the roads where landslides had occurred.

“The heaviest damage from the storm, by far, is from the rain and flooding. The highway, in places, had huge piles of soil where runoff from the mountains had washed over the road leaving the dirt. I found the Route 2 bridge just east of Petit Goave washed away. Until this crossing is repaired, there is no truck access to the western part of the island where the brunt of the storm was felt.”

He delivered sacks of rice and beans and tanks of propane to the pastors of the Good Samaritan Project and Croix Hillaire Baptist Church. Both are providing shelter in their churches, along with the pastor of the Mourn Tapion congregation.

“Remy (pastor of the Croix Hillaire congregation) met us at the washed-out river crossing and hand-carried the supplies across,” Rice wrote.

The lives of the poor in Haiti were precarious before the hurricane hit, he noted.

“These kinds of events interrupt their ability to feed themselves and create an immediate and urgent need for food,” he wrote.

Rice pointed to three priority needs:

• Food and the fuel to cook it. Staples of the Haitian diet are in good supply in Port au Prince, where a 25-pound bag of rice costs $17 and a comparable-sized sack of beans costs $31, he noted.
• Cleaning and hygiene supplies. Bleach, laundry soap, toothpaste and bath soap also are readily available for purchase in Port au Prince, he said.
• Personal water filtration devices. Rice already has about 500 ceramic water filters from Texas Baptist Men, suitable for a two-bucket drip filtration system, but he needs the buckets. A pair of plastic buckets in Port au Prince costs $5.50, he noted.

Texas Baptists’ disaster recovery ministry receives contributions for Haiti and wires the funds to Rice. Checks earmarked “Haiti Relief” can be sent to Texas Baptists, Attn.: Marla Bearden, 7557 Rambler Rd., Suite 1200, Dallas, TX 75231.

TBM and CBF provide for Haiti

TBM sent crates filled with baby formula and baby-care supplies to Haiti, along with a custom water pump that operates by solar panel. The supplies will benefit Three Angels Children’s Relief, a ministry that serves orphans and at-risk families in Haiti.

Cooperative Baptist Fellowship Global Missions reported Oct. 6 that field worker Jenny Jenkins, who serves in Grand Goâve, Haiti, was safe. Jenkins spent 36 hours waiting out the storm at her house and mission center, where the roof flooded and caused water damage to the rooms and beds. She has worked in Haiti since 2008 and was instrumental in CBF relief efforts in the aftermath of the deadly 2010 earthquake.

Jenkins will serve as a point person for CBF relief work in Haiti after the hurricane, said Becky Smith, the Fellowship’s area coordinator of mission teams for the Americas region.

“With Jenny’s local medical and community development work already in place, along with her network of Haitian Baptist colleagues, we have a wonderful system of support on the ground on which to base relief work,” Smith said.

Baptist Global Response focuses on Cuba

Since multiple aid organizations already were in place in Haiti before the storm hit, Baptist Global Response, the Southern Baptist Convention’s international relief and development agency, will focus primarily on eastern Cuba.

“We already have people on the ground who have received disaster relief training, and we have an established network of Cuban partners and churches that can help distribute aid efficiently,” said Jeff Palmer, executive director of Baptist Global Response.

Baptist Global Response will focus primarily on water, sanitation, hygiene, other health issues, food security and shelter, said Patrick Melancon, director of disaster response and training for the agency.

TBM sends water filters to Cuba

A nine-member team that included representatives from TBM, First Baptist Church of Woodway in Waco and other partner agencies left the United States Oct. 12 bound for Holguin, Cuba, to deliver 110 portable water filtration systems to a particularly hard-hit area around Baracoa.

TBM provided 50 of the filters, each capable of purifying about 50 gallons per day. The crew also will deliver tarps, medicine, food and other supplies.

The team had hoped to deliver, install and train Cuban Baptists how to operate three large high-capacity water purification units for community use. TBM provided two of the units, and North Carolina Baptists provided the third.

However, each system consists of two components, one weighing 99 pounds and the other weighing 143 pounds, and commercial airlines the team was using for the trip to Cuba would not allow any single item weighing more than 100 pounds. So, the crew began exploring alternate ways to transport the large units to Cuba.

L.M. Dyson, a layman at First Baptist Church of Woodway, made arrangements for the high-volume water purification units to be flown to Cuba by a different commercial carrier. They were due to arrive Oct. 14. 

Dyson, who served 35 years on the faculty of the Hankhamer School of Business at Baylor University, has traveled to Cuba more than 40 times since 1999, working in partnership with Cuban Baptists and often with TBM to send shipping containers filled with ministry supplies. His son, Peter, is a member of the team will work in the Baracoa area.

The Southern Baptist Convention’s International Mission Board and Florida Baptists allocated $47,000 to purchase food in-country and transport it to areas where needs are greatest.

‘They will have to start from zero’

Eddy Gonzalez, president of Cuba’s Eastern Baptist Theological Seminary, helped deliver initial provisions to Baracoa and surrounding towns in the immediate aftermath of the hurricane.

“What we saw was painful to see,” he wrote in an email. About 90 percent of the homes in the area were destroyed or seriously damaged, and large areas lacked electrical service.

“On every side, the crops were destroyed. The yucca, malanga, coffee and cacao that are the substantial crops for these people were totally destroyed. They will have to start from zero.”

Churches in the region, along with a Baptist encampment, seminary and home for retired pastors, provided shelter for people displaced by the hurricane. In the area around Maisi, some people sought shelter in caves when the storm hit.

Storm swipes Florida and South Carolina, slams North Carolina

Meanwhile, in the southeastern United States, Southern Baptist disaster relief volunteers from multiple states served in Florida, South Carolina and North Carolina.

Initially, when Hurricane Matthew was expected to directly hit Florida, TBM mobilized volunteers to serve there, with the intention of supporting a Mississippi Baptist team to increase serving capability.

However, when the storm changed course, TBM was placed on standby for possible deployment to North Carolina.

TBM also sent three chainsaw crews and skid-steer to First Baptist Church in Palm Coast, Fla., and a large truck filled with insulated food containers to North Carolina. The American Red Cross was experiencing a shortage in insulated containers since they were covering such a large area. TBM also will help Baptists in Kansas/Nebraska transport a mobile laundry unit to North Carolina.

To contribute to TBM disaster relief, click here or send a check designated “disaster relief” to Texas Baptist Men, 5351 Catron, Dallas 75227.