Florida Baptists Urged to Assemble "Buckets of Hope" for Hungry Haitian Families  

The joint Southern Baptist task force coordinating the Southern Baptist response to the January 12 Haiti earthquake is asking Florida Baptists, as well as all Southern Baptists, to assemble and send "Buckets of Hope" to become personally involved in helping and feeding Haitian families and their children.

 

The group set March 15 as the deadline for the relief containers to be collected in their local Baptist association and readied for transport to Hialeah and immediate shipment to the island nation. 

 

For approximately $30 an individual Baptist can purchase the materials and assemble a "Bucket of Hope." In addition Baptists are asked to include a $10 cash contribution, placed in an envelope and attached to the lid of the bucket, to offset the cost of transporting the relief buckets to Haiti.

 

The "Bucket of Hope" consists of a plastic five-gallon white bucket with handle and lid packed with selected foodstuffs. The bucket, which should be purchased new and unused, can be purchased at such retailers as Wal-Mart, Lowe's or Home Depot. The specified pre-packaged food items include: rice, cooking oil, black beans, flour, sugar, spaghetti noodles and peanut butter.  Even after Haitians use the food products, the bucket will serve multiple uses for a family in their everyday lives. Additional details about the "Buckets of Hope" attached and are posted on the Convention's website www.flbaptist.org. A video demonstrating the packing of the bucket is expected to be posted on the Convention website by early next week. 

 

 

The rest here is an update on FBC involvement and plans for Haiti
 

Other plans to respond to Haiti's urgent, intermediate and long-term needs were addressed at the task force meeting by assessment teams that had just returned from the quake-ravaged nation along with representatives from the Florida Baptist Convention, North American Mission Board, International Mission Board, Baptist Global Response and other Southern Baptist disaster relief representatives.

The group wrestled with logistical arrangements and how to send mission teams and respond to needs in a country where transportation and in-country support (housing, food, water, etc) for teams is extremely difficult.  Access to airports and shipping docks remains highly restricted, the teams reported.

The group decided the next step will be to send four "strategically-selected" medical teams traveling through the Dominican Republic to Haiti next week along with two representatives from the Florida Baptist Convention. The Florida staff will continue to make arrangements for trained disaster relief teams to travel in and out of the country.  One of the strategic medical teams scheduled to depart February 3 will include medical personnel who are members of First Baptist Church, Jacksonville.

Another meeting to discuss the logistics of getting additional response teams into Haiti will be held in Atlanta on Feb. 11-12, the group decided. "Once we get the mechanisms in place, we will have numbers of teams in there, week in and week out," said Mickey Caison, who directs disaster relief coordination for the North American Mission Board.

The group acknowledged that Southern Baptists are passionate about responding to the immediate needs in Haiti and urged patience as they try to solve logistical nightmares. In the meanwhile, Baptists can continue to pray, give financial support and participate in the "Buckets of Hope" ministry.

The disaster relief workers also sought to communicate to Southern Baptists that the response will be long-term in helping Haitians rebuild their lives and communities. "Other relief agencies in Haiti are running a 100-yard dash; we are running a marathon," said Fritz Wilson, disaster relief director for the Florida Baptist Convention.