Helping Haiti through Vacation Bible School

Southern Baptists are mobilizing to assess disaster relief needs after the largest earthquake in more than 200 years rocked Haiti the evening of Jan. 12.
The initial Southern Baptist disaster relief effort will be led by Florida Baptists, who have had ministry relationships in Haiti for more than 20 years and currently have six staff members who live and work in the country, said Jim Brown, U.S. director for Baptist Global Response (BGR), a Southern Baptist relief and development organization. The International Mission Board does not have long-term personnel stationed in the country.
Initial funding for the relief effort will be provided by the IMB’s disaster relief fund which operates on a “dollar in, dollar out” basis, which means that 100% of the money donated is used to provide disaster relief. Contributions to the relief effort can be made online at gobgr.org.
Apart from donating to the disaster relief effort via gobgr.org, you can help greatly by joining in focused prayer for Haiti’s 9 million people, more than 80 percent of whom live below the poverty line, said David Brown, who with his wife, Jo, directs BGR work in the Americas.  (To see the full article, go to https://www.imb.org/main/news/details.asp?StoryID=8281&LanguageID=1709.)
The Saddle Ridge Ranch missions rotation recommends a mission action project in partnership with Baptist Global Response (BGR) to provide In-Home Care Kits for AIDS patients in Sub-Saharan Africa.  In light of the huge need in Haiti, your church might consider giving an offering to BGR’s Haiti Earthquake Relief Fund.
As the situation in Haiti changes, I’m sure there will be other opportunities to give and serve through your Vacation Bible School this summer. We’ll do our best to keep you linked to Christian organizations that are working in this devastated area.
Resources:
Lifeway’s Haiti Response page: www.lifeway.com/haiti
International Mission Board site: www.imb.org
Baptist Global Response site: www.gobgr.org
Florida Baptist Convention site:  www.flbaptist.org
Free Sunday School lesson about responding to natural disasters: https://www.lifeway.com/fileclick/?id=8346