Baptists respond to Haiti earthquake

Haiti

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FALLS CHURCH, Va. (ABP) — Baptist World Aid has pledged $20,000 in emergency funds for earthquake-stricken Haiti, the head of the relief-and-development arm of the Baptist World Alliance said Jan. 13.

BWAid director Paul Montacute said grants of $10,000 each were committed to the Baptist Convention of Haiti, a group of 110 churches and 82,000 members established in 1964, and the Haiti Baptist Mission, a network of 330 churches and schools founded in 1943.

Montacute said BWAid will be launching an appeal for additional funds and expected to have more information later in the day.

Nancy and Steve James, field personnel jointly appointed to Haiti by the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship and American Baptist Churches USA, were in the United States when the 7.0 magnitude quake hit on the evening of Jan. 12. American Baptist International Ministries said the couple were driving from a conference in North Carolina to Florida and planned to catch a Missionary Flights International flight into Haiti on Jan. 14.

The James live about 100 miles from the earthquake epicenter near the capital city of Port-au-Prince. A friend watching their house said there did not appear to by any major damage nearby. That's a far different scene from Port-au-Prince, where most government buildings and a hospital were reported destroyed in the worst earthquake to strike Haiti in 200 years.

The Red Cross estimated that 3 million people were affected by the earthquake, roughly one in three Haitians.

 

–Bob Allen is senior writer for Associated Baptist Press.

 


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