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Kentucky Baptists Make Possible New Houses in Haiti
12/06/2011
LOUISVILLE – Nearly two years after an earthquake devastated Haiti, Kentucky Baptists have given an additional $15,000 to build houses for displaced residents.
According to Coy Webb, director of the Kentucky Baptist Convention’s Baptist Men on Missions Department, a gift of $15,371 from Kentucky Baptists was given to Rebuild Haiti, a cooperative effort of Baptists in the United States and Haiti to build homes for 6,200 families by the end of 2013.
Webb said about $2,500 is needed to build one house, meaning that with this latest gift, Kentucky Baptists have made possible six additional homes for Haitians.
In addition to the new houses, the rebuild project has helped Haiti’s lagging economy by putting people to work and purchasing building materials.
Kentucky Baptists have now given a total of $641,171 to help Haitians recover from the Jan. 12, 2010 disaster that claimed the lives of hundreds of thousands of people.
“Kentucky Baptist sent over 25 teams, gave hundreds of thousands of dollars for relief and rebuild, and collected almost 10,000 Buckets of Hope for survivors,” Webb said.
Disaster relief volunteers provided emergency communications and helped assess needs in the first days after the quake. Other teams followed that provided emergency medical care and helped with clean-up and reconstruction efforts.
Buckets of Hope was a national Southern Baptist effort to provide food staples packed in plastic five-gallon buckets. One bucket of rice, cooking oil, flour and other items was enough to feed a family of four for one week.
In addition to the practical help, Kentucky Baptists helped spiritually by supporting the ministries of Haitian Christians and sharing the gospel as they served.
“I am most glad that we could share a role in the greatest spiritual awakening in Haitian history that has resulted in hundreds of thousands of people professing faith in Christ and over 250 new church plants,” Webb added.
Kentucky Baptist Disaster Relief provides an array of services to people in crisis such as food service, basic clean-up and recovery, communications, child care, laundry and hot showers, and chaplaincy support. Training for new and current volunteers is set for Jan. 20-21 and Feb. 3-4. For details, visit www.kybaptist.org/dr.
The Kentucky Baptist Convention is a cooperative missions and ministry organization made up of nearly 2.400 autonomous Baptist churches in Kentucky. A variety of state and worldwide ministries are coordinated through its administrative offices in Louisville, including: missions work, disaster relief, ministry training and support, church development, evangelism and more. For more, find us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter.
Dannah Prather, Marketing and Media Relations Associate
