By Mickey Noah
ALPHARETTA, Ga. – A veteran, five-man Southern Baptist Disaster Relief (SBDR) assessment team is en route to Haiti to personally survey the massive death and devastation caused by last week’s 7.0 earthquake that centered on the poverty-stricken country’s capital of Port-au-Prince.
The team will fly into Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic and attempt to charter a small plane to fly them into Port-au-Prince, whose airport has only one operational landing strip, now clogged by the number of military and private aircraft flying in daily with manpower and supplies.
“You can’t even leave the ground in the U.S. unless you have a landing time and a manifest of top-priority material and supplies,” according to Mickey Caison, adult volunteer mobilization team leader for the North American Mission Board in Alpharetta, Ga.
Caison said that if the team cannot arrange for a connecting flight to Port-au-Prince, they would begin the arduous, seven-hour, 160-mile road trip from Santo Domingo through the mountains to Port-au-Prince.
The SBDR assessment team is made up of Bruce Poss, national disaster relief coordinator for NAMB; Jim Brown, director of Baptist Global Response; Coy Webb, state disaster relief director for the Kentucky Baptist Convention; Don Gann, state disaster relief director for the Mississippi Baptist Convention; and Dr. Ralph Shealy, a South Carolina medical doctor. On Tuesday, they will link up with Fritz Wilson, state DR director for the Florida Baptist Convention and Craig Culbreth, partnership missions director for the Florida convention.
Poss, who’s just completed his first year with the NAMB disaster relief team, says he’s “a little nervous but I know I’m where God wants me to be and doing what God wants me to do. And that’s a good place to be. I don’t go there alone, but with God’s purpose.
“I realize it’s dangerous there,” said Poss, referring to security concerns in Haiti, as evidenced by reported roaming mobs of looters with machetes and those simply frustrated by the lack of food, water and medical care – plus the inability to recover and bury the thousands of dead.
“Right now, it’s very chaotic and violence is still on the increase. While more and more military are arriving by the day, we don’t want to send our volunteers into a place that’s not secure.”
Poss, who worked at Ground Zero in New York City and remembers the unforgettable stench of death following 9/11, is sure he’ll witness first-hand similar horrors in Haiti.
“You have to be careful where you allow your eyes to focus,” he said from experience. “We know there will be some bad scenes but if we can avoid looking at those, we can focus on the mission and keep those images out of our minds.”
The five-man assessment team – along with Wilson and Culbreth -- are scheduled to spend this week in Haiti, returning to Miami on Jan. 25. Back in Miami, they will be joined by Caison and others to report their findings and map out a long-term strategy for a comprehensive Southern Baptist response to the earthquake, which has killed an estimated 200,000 people.
“Even still in Miami, we hope to set some stuff into motion with the state disaster relief teams,” Poss said, “because by then, the event will be almost two weeks old.”
Much like the Southern Baptist Convention’s response to Hurricane Katrina in 2005, the response to the Haiti earthquake will be a long-term commitment, according to both Caison and Poss.
“We’re not going to go in, do a few things, cook a few meals, take a few pictures and come back out,” said Poss. “Katrina was in 2005 and four years later, we’re still involved. This will be a long-term commitment to the people of Haiti.
Caison said Southern Baptists will be ministering to earthquake victims in Haiti for years to come. In fact, the Florida Baptist Convention has been ministering there for the last 15-20 years. Some 10 percent of Haitians are Baptists.
Once the overall strategy for Haiti is developed, Caison said in another 60-90 days, there will be even more requests for resources to assist the poor nation.
“Southern Baptists need to be patient,” suggests Caison. “We’re going to be there a long time. And we’ll be developing volunteer teams and projects to respond to needs.”
But right now, Caison said once the initial response plan is established, only fully trained, experienced, disaster relief volunteers need apply for service in Haiti.
“Initially, volunteers must be in extremely good health because there will be hardship. We don’t know what types of living conditions will exist for the time being. Volunteers must also pay their own way.
“As we transition to longer term operations, more state missions teams – as identified by the state conventions – will be needed. People interested in volunteering eventually need to be contacting their state conventions,” Caison said.
Caison said the Southern Baptist DR team is also maintaining close contact with its partners in the Christian Response Coalition, a group including SBC DR, Samaritans’ Purse, Operation Blessing, the United Methodist Church, The Salvation Army, World Vision and Habitat for Humanity.
“We’re talking with each other on a daily conference call to learn what’s being accomplished, what they’re seeing and where the other teams are. We just want to make sure the gaps are being filled and needs are being met.”
Caison said the main thing Southern Baptists can do right now is to pray and give.
“We need to be in prayer for the earthquake victims and their families, and the believers in Haiti who are ministering to the survivors,” he said. “Plus, we need for Southern Baptists to donate.”
You may help financially by contributing through the following Southern Baptist organizations:
CANADIANS: Canadian National Baptist Convention - Make cheques payable to CNBC
(note: for Haiti earthquake relief) Send cheques to:
CNBC:
100 Convention Way
Cochrane, AB T4C 2G2
IN USA: North American Mission Board Disaster Relief Fund
Click on the yellow Disaster Relief button on the far right to be taken directly to a donation form.
Contributors can also send checks to
North American Mission Board,
P.O. Box 116543
Atlanta, GA 30368-6543
or call toll-free 866-407-6262.