Baptist Global Response

Southern Baptists are assessing relief needs in the aftermath of a strong earthquake in southwestern Pakistan that killed at least 150 people in the pre-dawn hours of Oct. 29.

Thousands of homes were destroyed or buried by landslides that also have blocked roads, according to news reports out of the region. Pakistan’s government is using helicopters to ferry troops and medical teams into the quake zone.

Many survivors will be faced with near-freezing nighttime temperatures. Government officials reported they were distributing tents, blankets and food into the quake zone. A Southern Baptist assessment team will work to identify which needs they can help with and look for communities not being adequately reached by relief efforts.

“We are closely monitoring the situation and waiting to hear from our field partners on the ground,” said Jim Brown, director of the U.S. office for Baptist Global Response. “We ask all Southern Baptists to pray that God would preserve life and speed rescue efforts. Pray that God would work in this crisis to help people understand how much he loves them and wants them to experience lives filled with hope and purpose.”

Joshua Guthrie is a 16-year-old high school sophomore who cares about people in need – specifically people in Sudan who don’t have access to clean drinking water.

Our friend Joshua is bold enough to think that, with God’s help, he can make a difference in a faraway place like Sudan, so he has launched a campaign he calls “Dollar for a Drink.” He is raising money to drill a well in Sudan, where clean water will not only make people healthier but also will help reduce conflict in an area where competition for scarce water resources can lead to violence.

Joshua’s goal is to raise $8,000 by Christmas, and BGR is partnering with him to channel 100% of the money he raises into a well project in Sudan. BGR Executive Director Jeff Palmer has enthusiastically endorsed Joshua’s project.

You can read more about “Dollar for a Drink” and make a contribution at http://www.dollarforadrink.org/. Joshua is posting updates on his progress on his blog at http://www.dollarforadrink.org/from_the_directors_desk.

We encourage all our friends to visit Joshua’s site and help his cause along. Maybe you’d be willing to not only give a dollar but also tell your friends and fellow church members about his project too!

Southern Baptists in Mississippi, Kentucky, and Tennessee have reached out to families in Sub-Saharan Africa that are caring for terminally ill loved ones.

A total of 1,378 five-gallon plastic buckets filled with supplies to help caregivers were packed by congregations and delivered to the Baptist Fellowship of Zambia’s human needs program and to Tabitha Ministries, an outreach that provides care to more than 1,300 HIV-positive children in a district of South Africa that has the highest per capita rate of HIV-positive individuals in the world. Earlier this year, workers at Tabitha Ministries reported they were seeing 85 to 105 people die each week.

The buckets contain a wide range of everyday supplies needed by a caregiver – from lotions, ointments, and vitamins to bedding, bandages, and thermometers. The total cost of each bucket ranged between $100 and $125.

Mark Hatfield, Baptist Global Response’s area director for Sub-Saharan Africa, sends a note to say the second shipping container of buckets has arrived in Lusaka. 

“Please pray for the Baptist Fellowship of Zambia as they begin to clear the container through customs. Pray for duty-free status and an easy process,” Mark writes. “Pray that the use of these items by loving caregivers will show the love and compassion Jesus Christ has for the terminally ill. Pray that they would come to know the True Hope that comes from a personal relationship with him.”

The items in the buckets will be a tremendous blessing to families that must care for terminally ill relatives at home because access to health care is so limited. And although there are more than 22.5 million adults and children in Sub-Saharan Africa who are living with the HIV virus, the need extends beyond even those families. Thousands of people in the region die at home each year from sicknesses like cancer, tuberculosis, malaria, and other life-ending diseases. In-home care is all the care they will receive.

So to the churches in Mississippi, Kentucky, and Tennessee that helped with this pilot project, almost 1,400 families in Africa shout a hearty “Thank you!”

If you or your church would like to participate in the 2009 phase of this project, please e-mail Dennis Eastridge at deastridge@gobgr.org.

With the economic situation in Zimbabwe so difficult, Southern Baptists have been looking for ways to connect with people in need. One way has been to send boxes of food to families. The expressions of gratitude have been touching.

Another very significant way Southern Baptists have been reaching out to Zimbabwean families is something most American families would take for granted: school supplies. The unimaginable financial plight of families in Zimbabwe, however, means that even a simple, inexpensive (to us) gesture demonstrates God’s love to them in a way we can hardly fathom.

Southern Baptists recently helped Zimbabwean families with school children by providing 250,000 workbooks, plus pens, pencils, and sharpeners. It would take two months’ wages for a family to purchase just the workbooks for three school-age children. Southern Baptists were able to help a family like that for just $15.

The reaction of families when they receive the school supplies has been very moving. We’ll let Kelly Carruthers, BGR’s Southern Baptist partner on the field, tell you the story:

Have you ever not been able to buy your children notebooks for their school work? Have you ever seen the price of a notebook cost more than you make in a month? That seems farfetched and impossible, but it is the situation in Zimbabwe.

Zimbabwe is hurting. That is the understatement of the year. I went to Zimbabwe yesterday and what I am seeing is hard to describe. The people there are so resilient, tough, thankful, and continuing to remain hopeful, in a time when there is no way their government can bail them out of anything.

However, there is one silver lining. Baptist Global Response is allowing me to make a huge difference in the lives of those who do not have food and various toiletries and in the lives of school children who have not had notebooks in months.

Teachers and parents are overwhelmed at what we are giving. The teachers cannot afford a single notebook on their monthly salary. Mothers came up to me almost in tears because we had given their children notebooks. I couldn’t stand to have them thank me. It is you, Baptist people from all over, who have allowed me the privilege of driving your vehicle and carrying gifts which bear your name. We do this in the name of Christ, and it does make a difference.