Miami Baptists stand by as South Florida prepares for influx of Haitian refugees

BREAKING NEWS

Jan 21, 2010
By CAROLYN NICHOLS
Newswriter

Related Coverage:

Hope for Haiti

MIAMI (FBW)-The earthquake that came close to leveling Haiti’s capital city of Port-au-Prince Jan. 12 may spur a tide of refugees to Florida that could rival the 125,000 Cubans who came to the Sunshine State during the 1980 Mariel Boat Lift.

“Our people want them all,” Miami Baptist Association Director of Missions Gary Johnson told Florida Baptist Witness, even while recognizing the challenge of caring for 100,000 newcomers.

While other areas of the nation may initially take in the refugees, many may return to South Florida where relatives already reside, he said.

Until they arrive, churches in the Miami association – especially Haitian congregations – still await word on the status of family members and of ministries that they sponsor in Haiti. According to Johnson, many of the Miami Haitian congregations sponsor orphanages or schools in their homeland.

In Miami Baptist Association, where more than 100 Haitian congregations are counted among its 300 churches, money offerings for Haiti are being paired with collections of food, water, medical supplies and tents.

Scott Nelson, director of Haitian ministries for the Miami association, has named churches in the city as drop-off sites for goods to be transported to Haiti: Bethel Evangelical Baptist, Memorial Highway Baptist, Stanton Memorial Baptist, Christ Fellowship, Miami Baptist and Emmanuel Haitian Baptist.

Nelson was taken to an emergency room Jan. 18 with a stress-related heart condition, Johnson said, but the collection of relief supplies continues.

“The desire to help is fantastic, however the way is still difficult. Pray that the bottleneck will soon open and supplies will arrive to those in need,” Nelson told the Witness Jan. 15. A list of goods needed and collection points are available on the association website at www.miami-baptistassociation.org.

Jacques Joseph, associate pastor of Emmanuel Haitian Baptist, said his Miami congregation is “filling the house” with goods to go to their homeland. Several families in the church lost family members in the earthquake, and they are consoling each other, he said.

Stanton Memorial Baptist Church in Miami sponsored feeding ministries in Haiti before the earthquake, and is planning to send church members again to the island nation from which 80 percent of its congregation came to the U.S. According to Pastor Bill Hagewood, a medical team from the congregation is “on stand-by” waiting for clearance to travel to minister to the injured. The team includes nurses trained in trauma who speak Creole, he said.

A link on the Miami Baptist Association website to a website for the Quisqueya Christian School in Port-au-Prince lists the school as a possible distribution center for relief. Their site says the K-12 school, which enrolls just over 200 students, is utilizing the chapel as a temporary hospital/surgery room and that they have set up a trauma center on their basketball court.

The soccer field is the temporary living area for some of the school's staff and national workers and a playground has been turned into living quarters for orphaned children from the community.

"The situation in Haiti at this time makes it impossible to function as a school," the website reported Jan. 20. According to Johnson, Quisqueya is one of dozens of schools and orphanages supported by individuals and churches in the association.

The Miami association's website also reports Baptist church members in Haiti have been involved in search and rescue and in facilitating media and communication efforts.

"We are all in this together," the website reads. "This type of effort crosses all races, languages and religions. We want to encourage everyone to take their part in helping our Haitian friends and families."

Related Coverage:

Hope for Haiti

Email this Article Print this page

Login ID:
Password:	Forgot password?