MESSAGE FROM DR. JOHN SULLIVAN, Executive Director-Treasurer, Florida Baptist Convention
RE: Responding to Haiti Earthquake
Staff of the Florida Baptist Convention is diligently working on a response effort to assist the people of Haiti who were affected by the 7.3 earthquake that shook the impoverished island nation on Tuesday, January 12, 2010.
We are calling upon all Florida Baptists to remember in prayer the people of Haiti who were suffering even before this latest disaster struck. Also please be in prayer for the 890 Baptist churches affiliated with the Florida Baptist State Convention and their nearly 60,000 members who have directly been affected by this natural disaster.
Secondly, the Florida Baptist Convention's response efforts will require financial resources to secure foodstuffs and humanitarian assistance. Florida Baptists and their churches can contribute directly to the Florida Baptist Convention. Every dollar donated will be used solely for this purpose. At this time we can only accept financial resources.
Those gifts-earmarked for disaster relief--can be sent to the Florida Baptist Convention at 1230 Hendricks Avenue, Jacksonville, Florida, 32207. Additionally, individuals can make contributions through the Convention's website:
www.flbaptist.org .
The Florida Baptist Convention has an assessment team that is ready to go into Haiti just as soon as transportation can be arranged. The team will determine where foodstuffs and other commodities can be shipped, stored and distributed. Then the team will assess damage to Convention-owned property and the churches that comprise the Confraternite Missionaire Baptiste d' Haiti (CMBH).
The Florida Baptist Convention, which has had a 15-year missions partnership with Haitian Baptists, employs six native Haitian missionaries who are expected to provide information on the needs to which the Florida Baptist Convention can respond. No other Southern Baptist entity has missionary personnel in the country or the experience in responding to disaster relief in Haiti as had the Florida Baptist Convention.
Updates on the Convention's response efforts in Haiti will be posted on the website:
www.flbaptist.org .