Baptist Global Response

In this new BGR iWitness video, Jeff Palmer takes you to Delhi, India, where pastors and church planters are learning hands-on skills for community development projects in their home countries.

This just received from BGR international prayer coordinator Lori Funderburk: BGR has formed a partnership with a Singapore-based development organization that is establishing a farming operation in India. This farm will help support Indian workers in several states. BGR is providing community development training to 30 of their national workers from 9 states in India as well as Nepal, Bangladesh, Singapore and Bhutan. The training will be Oct. 27-29. Additionally, BGR has arranged for an expert in goat farming to come during this same time and provide some training to the farm workers in the best, most productive methods for raising a healthy herd of goats. Pray that BGR personnel will be able be effective communicators of community development principles. Pray for the success of this farm. Pray that those trained this week will take what they learn back to their places of service and that they will see Kingdom Development take place.

SINGAPORE – Southern Baptists have developed, through decades of experience all over the world, great expertise in community development and disaster relief. Now that expertise – and its potential impact – is being multiplied by a new Baptist Global Response training project.

The International Relief and Development Training Initiative, which is based out of BGR’s Singapore headquarters, offers training in the principles and techniques of community development and disaster relief. The workshops – which have been conducted five times since June – are intended to empower other groups to effectively connect people who care with people in need.

The initiative was developed in response to requests from both Christian churches and ministry groups and secular organizations, like Singapore’s Economic Development Board, said Jeff Palmer, executive director of Baptist Global Response.

Read more!

ATHENS – Baptists in a Middle Eastern country are partnering with Southern Baptists to give their neighbors, as the old saying goes, “a hand up, not just a handout.”

In 2007, believers in the country brought their neighbors’ plight to the attention of Southern Baptist humanitarian workers in the region, and together they developed a strategy that would meet short-term needs while helping parents develop skills to better provide for their families over the long term.

Residents of the area struggle to survive, earning only about 40 percent of their country’s normal standard of living. On a day-to-day basis, they can not afford necessities like food, medicine and heat for their homes; their long-term prospects are clouded by the scarcity of jobs and their lack of training. Because the country predominantly follows another world religion, Christians find themselves faced with significant obstacles in reaching out to people in need.

In consultation with Abraham Shepherd, who with his wife, Grace, directs Baptist Global Response work in the Middle East, local Baptists and the Southern Baptist humanitarian workers developed a two-pronged strategy. To meet immediate needs, they provided packets of food – including sugar, rice, oil, eggs, milk, tea, and pasta – essential medicines, heaters and blankets the families could not afford. They also designed a program to train locals in skills that would enable them to improve their standard of living and help them provide better for their families.

The long-term strategy included both educational centers where literacy courses, English classes and computer training are offered. Individuals also were taught how to develop their own businesses. In the component of the program that ran between January and April 2009, an estimated 800 people were helped at a cost of $31.25 each from resources provided by Southern Baptists who gave to their World Hunger Fund.

Another benefit of the program is that while local Baptists were helping their neighbors, they also were developing their own leadership and serving skills. Because relationships are so important in the local culture, local Baptists were able to break down barriers by demonstrating God’s love for their neighbors.

“The object of this project is to work through local believers to reach the poor of this nation,” said the project director. “Our desire is for local believers to have a passion for their neighbors’ needs and be able to reach out in love. As the local believers get involved in sharing, they will be encouraged by seeing what God is doing and what great things he can do.”

Even a small gift to the Southern Baptist World Hunger Fund sets in motion a ripple effect that touches lives for generations to come, Shepherd said.

“By their generous giving to the World Hunger Fund, Southern Baptists trigger a chain reaction of caring that reaches across oceans,” Shepherd said. “It touches people in need and shapes national believers in the lesson of generosity and giving to their neighbors in need.”

–––
For more information about giving through the Southern Baptist World Hunger Fund, please visit the BGR Giving page.

Hundreds of disadvantaged villagers among the hill tribes of Thailand have an opportunity to escape the vicious cycle of poverty, thanks to a “community transformation project” funded by Southern Baptists.

Read more here