“What happened affected us all,” said Pastor Jean Louissaint, whose church is comprised largely of Haitian-Americans. Louissaint waited several prayer-filled days to hear news of his parents, who live in the United States but were visiting their native Haiti during the earthquake. He still hasn’t spoken to them directly, but has heard through relatives that his family is safe.

During their first Sunday morning service after the earthquake, Louissaint and his congregation, many who lost family members, lifted up their devastated home country and its people in prayer.

“We focused on the fact that God is God, and sometimes we do not understand why disaster happens, but God knows why,” he said. “He is still our refuge.”

That assurance also has sustained Franco Valdemar, a Chicago pastor who landed in Haiti half an hour before the earthquake. Valdemar and his wife Carole lead Hope for Haitian American Youth and Elderly, a ministry that supports a school for children and a training center for pastors in Haiti. He was visiting the country to plan for summer ministry projects and to check on progress of a building that will house a new children’s program. Now, his wife said, he’s committed to do whatever he can amidst suffering like he’s never seen before.

“It’s God’s plan for him to be there to give the people support.”

In the days following the earthquake, Haiti received an outpouring of prayers, resources, and people wanting to help. Financial giving is the most effective way individuals and churches can help, said Jack Shelby, IBSA disaster relief coordinator.

“Right now, even in-kind donations of food, clothing, etc. are not practical,” Shelby said. Officials are encouraging churches not to organize clothing or food drives, since many of Haiti’s delivery and distribution systems are totally inoperable. 

“It is much more practical to make financial contributions which can be used to purchase food and other supplies in Haiti, thus alleviating logistical problems and helping the local economy get back on its feet at the same time.”

Southern Baptist disaster relief officials are keeping Shelby and other state coordinators updated on aid efforts through daily conference calls. One week after the earthquake, an assessment team of leaders from the North American Mission Board, International Mission Board and Baptist Global Response (IMB’s partner in international humanitarian relief) traveled to Haiti to plan for a long-term response.

Currently, traveling to Haiti to help is strongly discouraged, Shelby explained, due to severe shortages of water, food and transportation. Security is a major concern, and most volunteers wouldn’t be prepared for the devastation they would encounter. Shelby urges people to stay home, donate to relief agencies, receive training, and be ready when the time comes.

State disaster relief volunteers currently are on standby, although Shelby said Illinois disaster relief teams could be deployed for rebuilding and repair within the next few months. They also will be involved in evangelism and church planting efforts. When called to go, volunteers will be working in a country whose infrastructure was extremely fragile to begin with, said IBSA missions awareness director Mark Emerson, who has served on five missions teams to Haiti.

“It’s not just hunger,” Emerson said of the poverty in which many Haitians lived even before the earthquake. “There are minimal government services, police protection and medical care.”

“Haiti needs prayers right now,” Louissaint said, urging Illinois Baptists to respond by interceding for people in the country as well as those in the United States mourning lost loved ones. He is steadfast in his belief that God will provide comfort for his congregation and for Haiti.

“Sometimes there are things we are unable to take care of, many things, but God is able.”

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- A joint disaster assessment team was sent to Haiti, comprised of personnel from the IMB, North American Mission Board, Baptist Global Response and the Florida Baptist Convention, which has longtime ministry ties to Haiti. 

After spending nearly a week in Haiti the team met with Baptist disaster relief officials Tuesday, Jan. 26, in Miami to begin drafting a comprehensive response plan to the earthquake.

The assessment teams have been at work “identifying volunteer housing, food supply, logistics, transportation, how we get into the country, how we move about the country, how we move our supplies, how we warehouse,” said Mickey Caison, adult volunteer mobilization team leader for the North American Mission Board.

“We should be able to say this is what we’re going to do, how the state DR teams will plug in, and how we're going do things. It will probably be 10-14 days out before we start sending in general teams. Certain specialized teams now on standby may go in earlier,” Caison said.

Food and water distribution, recovery and rebuild, water purification, communications, chaplains with cross-cultural training and interpreters who speak Creole likely will be top priorities, Caison said, noting that traditional DR feeding units probably will not be deployed in Haiti.

“From our experience over the last several years in Florida, we’ve learned that it’s sometimes better to give locals access to a bulk food distribution and let the ladies of the house prepare and cook the food the way they normally do,” he said.

In addition to the Florida convention, which has had a 15-year partnership with Haiti Baptists, medical teams from Arkansas and North Carolina Baptists are on the ground in Haiti treating earthquake victims.

- Florida Baptists have developed contingency plans to house 100 Haiti orphans at the convention’s Lake Yale Conference Center campus in Leesburg under the care of the Florida Baptist Children’s Homes. The Haitian children are expected to remain at the center for five months.

The convention’s church and community ministries personnel, headed by Marcus Johnson, also are developing action plans to assist in the receiving, processing and re-settlement of other Haitian refugees.

Florida Baptists will partner with Alabama Baptists to provide water, disposable diapers and lightweight blankets for the incoming Haitian children. 

- The IMB has asked IMB missionaries to the Dominican Republic to set the majority of their other work aside and focus on the Haiti response.

After initial relief efforts, teams of IMB missionaries and Dominican Baptists are preparing to travel to the disaster zone Jan. 21 to deliver more relief supplies and offer counseling to quake victims and relief workers. Several IMB missionary counselors in the Americas traveled to the Dominican Republic to train teams in post-trauma counseling and plan to accompany the teams to Haiti.

As teams prepare to enter Haiti for this stage of relief efforts, IMB missionaries and their Dominican Baptist partners continue delivering water, food and medicine to help injured Haitians streaming across the border into the Dominican Republic. They also are providing water and food to exhausted relief workers there.

The IMB currently has five missionaries assigned to work with Haitians – Mark and Peggy Rutledge, Sam and Delores York and Dawn Goodwin. Collectively, these missionary families have more than 50 years of experience living and working in Haiti.

- Southern Baptist workers anticipate spending at least $2 million on relief and rebuilding projects in earthquake-ravaged Haiti over the coming months, International Mission Board trustees were told during their Jan. 18-19 meeting in Rockville, Va.

“We’ve already released an initial $150,000, but anticipate over the coming months appropriating at least $2 million for projects in Haiti,” Scott Holste, associate vice president for global strategy.

As relief projects get under way, Southern Baptist volunteers will be recruited to work alongside Haitian Baptists and others, Holste said. Longer-term education and microenterprise efforts also are being planned to help Haitians get back to work.

Compiled from Baptist Press reports by Lisa Sergent, associate editor.

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Disaster has a way of bringing out whatever is inside us.  It reveals who we are, and asks what we can offer to help.  And so for Christians, regardless of our specializations, this Haitian earthquake asks us, because of our faith and values, for the same things that Hurricane Katrina, or the Southern Illinois ice storms, or the Tsunami of 2004 asked of us.  

- Will we pray?  While many speak of prayer during times of large-scale disaster, those of us who truly know God personally through Jesus Christ have a unique and powerful responsibility.  For some, “prayer” simply amounts to empathetic thoughts or well wishes toward the victims of disaster.  But those of us whose lives are literally inhabited by the Spirit of God have a supernatural power available to us in prayer.  Even if our words or emotions can’t adequately grieve the death of 200,000 or the homelessness of 1.5 million, the Holy Spirit who indwells us can groan our intercession to God.  

- Will we give?  I’ve been amazed at how easy it has become to donate money in the immediate wake of a disaster, and by how many avenues there are.  From ten-dollar text donations to multi-million dollar telethons, it should encourage us that so many are so generous so quickly.  But as Christians we again have a unique responsibility.  We are not just donors, we are stewards, and we should give with spiritual discernment and spiritual objectives.  I’m really glad for all those who donate to secular relief organizations and for the provision of the physical necessities of medical supplies and food.  But my giving has gone and will go through my church to the Southern Baptist relief channels I know carry the gospel along with their physical relief efforts.  

- Will we prepare to go?  One of the surprising things I learned during my eight years at the North American Mission Board was that every major disaster is complicated by the well-intentioned but problematic presence of untrained volunteers.  “I’m here, what can I do?” may sound like a welcome offer in the church kitchen, but in the aftermath of a huge natural disaster it’s just one more problem to solve.  I’m so grateful that our Illinois Disaster Relief ministry already has more than 2,000 trained volunteers, and that training events for new volunteers are already planned in May for both Southern and Northern Illinois (for more information call Linda Darden at (217) 391-3137 or e-mail lindadarden@IBSA.org).  Many of us can prepare to go to Haiti, and all of us can help someone else prepare to go.  The question again is simply, will we?

But there is one more response to disaster that we should all consider, whether or not we make our way to the earthquake zone.  You see, earthquakes and hurricanes are not the only natural disasters, and the rescue of the perishing is not just needed in Haiti.  Right here in Illinois, right in our own communities, the disaster of sin is wreaking tragic results on its victims every day.  Oh that we would learn to respond to that disaster with the same urgency.  

Just this morning I watched a news report of a woman who was trapped in rubble by the quake.  Undiscovered for twelve days, she cried out alone, in apparently hopeless isolation.  

But someone who loved her kept looking, and then found her.  He marshaled others to the scene, where they first delivered life-giving water, then labored for three hours to release her from her bondage, and would-be tomb.  As they finally pulled her from the darkness into the light, she gratefully sang a song of praise to God through tears of relief and joy.  And I thought to myself, if we could only learn to see those perishing in sin the same way, perhaps our willingness to rush them the Gospel would be just as heroic.

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The earthquake came as subterranean plates shifted six miles under the surface of the earth.  But no one saw a quake of this magnitude coming. Orphanages, churches, markets, homes and government buildings all collapsed. Civil government has virtually ceased to function. Without power, communication has been cut off and rescue efforts seriously hampered.

Estimates of the death toll range as high as the hundreds of thousands. The Western Hemisphere’s most impoverished nation has experienced a catastrophe that appears almost apocalyptic.

Does God hate Haiti? That is the conclusion reached by many, who point to the earthquake as a sign of God's direct and observable judgment.

God does judge the nations – all of them – and God will judge the nations. His judgment is perfect and his justice is sure. He rules over all the nations and His sovereign will is demonstrated in the rising and falling of nations and empires and peoples. Every molecule of matter obeys His command, and the earthquakes reveal His reign – as do the tides of relief and assistance flowing into Haiti right now.

A faithful Christian cannot accept the claim that God is a bystander in world events. The Bible clearly claims the sovereign rule of God over all His creation, all of the time. We have no right to claim that God was surprised by the earthquake in Haiti, or to allow that God could not have prevented it from happening.

God’s rule over creation involves both direct and indirect acts, but His rule is constant. The universe, even after the consequences of the Fall, still demonstrates the character of God in all its dimensions, objects and occurrences. And yet, we have no right to claim that we know why a disaster like the earthquake in Haiti happened at just that place and at just that moment.

The arrogance of human presumption is a real and present danger. We can trace the effects of a drunk driver to a car accident, but we cannot trace the effects of voodoo to an earthquake – at least not so directly. Will God judge Haiti for its spiritual darkness? Of course. Is the judgment of God something we can claim to understand in this sense – in the present? No, we are not given that knowledge. Jesus Himself warned his disciples against this kind of presumption.

Why did no earthquake shake Nazi Germany? Why did no tsunami swallow up the killing fields of Cambodia? Why did Hurricane Katrina destroy far more evangelical churches than casinos? Why do so many murderous dictators live to old age while many missionaries die young?

Does God hate Haiti? God hates sin, and will punish both individual sinners and nations. But that means that every individual and every nation will be found guilty when measured by the standard of God’s perfect righteousness. God does hate sin, but if God merely hated Haiti, there would be no missionaries there; there would be no aid streaming to the nation; there would be no rescue efforts – there would be no hope.

The cross of Christ declares that Jesus loves Haiti – and the Haitian people are the objects of His love. Christ would have us show the Haitian nation His love, and share His Gospel. In the midst of this unspeakable tragedy, Christ would have us rush to aid the suffering people of Haiti, and rush to tell the Haitian people of His love, His cross, and salvation in His name alone.

Everything about the tragedy in Haiti points to our need for redemption. This tragedy may lead to a new openness to the Gospel among the Haitian people. That will be to the glory of God. In the meantime, Christ's people must do everything we can to alleviate the suffering, bind up the wounded, and comfort the grieving. If Christ’s people are called to do this, how can we say God hates Haiti?

If you have any doubts about this, take your Bible and turn to John 3:16. “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” That is God’s message to Haiti.

R. Albert Mohler Jr. is president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky. This column first appeared at AlbertMohler.com.

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VBS plays a large role in many Illinois Baptist churches’ evangelistic outreach efforts making the training important. “VBS continues to be the leading ministry resulting in professions of faith in Christ followed by baptism,” said Dale Davenport, IBSA Education and Leadership Ministries director.  In 2007, the last year with statistics available, Illinois Baptist churches recorded 684 professions of faith in Christ from 212 reporting churches as a result of VBS.

The Saddle Ridge Ranch Bible study curriculum takes cowboys and cowgirls to snowcapped peaks and wide open spaces, and focuses on real questions kids ask: "Who am I? Does God care about me? What is God's plan for me? How can I be like Jesus?"  The theme’s scripture verse is James 1:5: "Now if any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives to all generously and without criticizing, and it will be given to him" (HCSB).

The theme is attracting a lot of interest among Illinois Baptist churches, according to Davenport. “There seems to be a lot of excitement about Saddle Ridge Ranch, especially in our central and southern Illinois churches where several people have horses,” he said.

The clinics will also cover the Club VBS resource, a cross-country adventure from the nation's capital to Southern California on Route 254, which can be offered as a shorter duration VBS or midweek Bible study. Route 254 is an updated version of the popular Ramblin' Road Trip VBS theme.

The six free Illinois VBS Training Clinic regions, dates and locations are:

 

- Northern, March 6, First Southern Baptist Church, Waukegan

- Mid-southern, March 6, Logan Street Baptist Church, Mt.Vernon

- Central, March 20, Tabernacle Baptist Church, Decatur

- Southern, March 20, Second Baptist Church, Marion,

- West central, March 27, Dayton Avenue Baptist Church, Peoria

-  Chicagoland, April 10, Broadview Missionary Baptist Church, Broadview

The clinics provide VBS leaders with information about the themes along with ideas, inspiration and more. Training will be offered in several areas including preschool, children (first through fourth grades), VBX (children fifth and six grades), youth, pastors and directors, music and crafts, and recreation.  Mission rotations will be available at the Mt.Vernon, Decatur, Peoria and Broadview locations.  Special needs classes training will be available at the Mt.Vernon, Marion, Peoria and Broadview locations only.

Clinics at all locations begin on Saturday morning at 8:30 a.m., end at 1:30 p.m. and include a light lunch. Register online at IBSA.org by clicking on VBS Clinics under Quick Links. Advance registration is preferred; however, walk-in registration will be available. For more information call Cathy Waters at (217) 391-3124 or cathywaters@IBSA.org.

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Bethel Baptist’s Senior Pastor Tim Lewis, who knew Smith for some 20 years, told The Alton Telegraph, “He was an All-American young man and will be sorely missed. … He was a really fine young man, a real bright kid; he was just enthusiastic about life.”

More than 600 people gathered for his funeral, including Illinois Governor Pat Quinn, which was held at Bethel Baptist Jan. 11. Many others stood outside the church holding signs expressing their love for Smith and support for his grieving family. An estimated 1,500 people attended his visitation the day before.

Five hundred flags marked the route to the Glen Carbon, Ill. cemetery where Smith was laid to rest with full military honors.

He is survived by his wife Tiffany (Finley), infant daughter Chloe Lynn, parents Gary and Paula Smith, and brother, Air Force Staff Sergeant Gary Ryan Smith.

Memorials may be made to the Chloe Lynn Smith Fund in care of Bethel Baptist Church, 7775 Collinsville Rd., Troy, IL 62294.
 

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“When I came on staff at IBSA I wanted to bring the forums back,” he shared. “I wanted to give youth ministers the opportunity to talk about the issues they are dealing with and to help them develop networks among themselves.”

The forums will feature informal round-table discussions concerning current trends, issues and personal struggles facing youth ministers. They are free and will include lunch and a learning resource. The forums will begin at 9 a.m. and last until 2 p.m. All paid and volunteer youth ministers and leaders are encouraged to attend.

Medford has scheduled four regional forums in 2010.  The first forum will be held March 5 at Logan Street Baptist Church in Mt. Vernon.  Medford is seeking host churches for the May 21 Champaign/Urbana and August 13 Marion events. He asks churches interested in hosting the events to contact him at (217) 391-3135 or grantmedford@IBSA.org. A fourth forum will be held October 15 in Springfield at the IBSA Building.

For more information about the forums, contact Medford at (217) 391-3135 or e-mail grantmedford@IBSA.org.

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March
Vacation Bible School Clinic: 2010 VBS Clinics are scheduled from 8:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m.  Dates for the following regions are as follows.  Mid-Southern – March 6 Logan Street Baptist Church, Mt. Vernon; Northern – March 6 First So. Baptist Church, Waukegan;  Central – March 20 Tabernacle Baptist Church, Decatur; Southern – March 20 Second Baptist Church, Marion; West Central – March 27 Dayton Avenue Baptist Church, Peoria. For more information, contact Cathy Waters, (217) 391-3124, cathywaters@IBSA.org.

Mississippi River Ministries Substance Abuse and Recovery Ministries Training: March 25, 8:30 a.m. - 4 p.m., First Baptist Church, 1101 N. Main St., Sikeston, MO.  Learn how to begin or strengthen your ministry to those struggling with substance abuse. Cost is $15 per person by March 1, $20 after, includes lunch and conference materials. IBSA is a Mississippi River Ministries partner. For more information e-mail jonjamison@hotmail.com, or call (515) 244-1701.

April
Vacation Bible School Clinic: Chicago area - April 10, 8:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m., Broadview Missionary Baptist Church, Broadview.  For more information, contact Cathy Waters, (217) 391-3124, cathywaters@IBSA.org.

IBSA Mission Vision Trip: April 12-24 – Macedonia, Albania, and Kosovo.  Trip is to catch a vision of what God is doing in the Balkans and how Illinois Baptists can partner with IMB.  Approximate costs: traveling from the U.S., $1,219; in-country costs $750 to cover food, lodging, transportation, translation. Contact: Don & Ruth Stuckey, IBSA Mission Strategy Coordinators for the European Peoples, (618) 729-3866 or donstuckey@frontiernet.net.
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