Florida Baptists care for Haiti’s hungry children

JACKSONVILLE (FBC) – From the widow’s mite to an ingathering reminiscent of the offering taken for the Jerusalem churches, Florida Baptists’ New Testament believers are taking to heart the mounting hunger crisis facing their Christian brothers and sisters in Haiti.

The overthrow of the Haitian government and lawlessness of some of its people have left the Caribbean nation in dire need of food, said Dennis Wilbanks, pastor of Mission Baptist Church in Titusville, who was on a fact-finding mission to Haiti April 13-16.

“What would happen to us in Florida if almost no one was able to come to our churches for a month? Would we be able to survive as churches, associations or a state convention? That is what has happened to our Haitian counterparts,” he explained.

“Yet the economic and cultural climate in which our brothers and sisters live was already in a depressed state,” said Wilbanks. “The lack of food is even more urgent.”

The Titusville pastor was in Haiti as a consultant of the Florida Baptist Convention’s Partnership Missions Department to meet with the Haitian Baptist leaders, food suppliers and distributors. Together they hammered out a process and delivery system to provide bags of food to feed 19,000 families of four—or 76,000 people—for a cost of $4.50 per bag or $75,000.

“Operations: Beans, Rice and Water” was initiated by John Sullivan, executive director-treasurer of the Florida Baptist Convention in April. “The people are hungry,” he explained. “We must do something about feeding our Haitian brothers and sisters in Christ.” Sullivan has visited the struggling nation four times since Florida Baptist churches developed a partnership to help start churches there.

Sullivan asked all Florida Baptists to respond to this need, but sent a personal plea to 88 Florida Baptist churches. If each of the 88 churches would give $1,000, he reasoned, the goal of $75,000 would be surpassed.

Many of the 88 churches have already responded. They join a growing list of individuals touched by the need and compelled by compassion to give. To date Florida Baptist churches and individuals have responded with $26,502. First Baptist Church of Palmetto, Celebration Baptist Church of Tallahassee and First Baptist Church of Milton were among the more than a dozen churches that have sent in funds in response to Sullivan’s direct plea.

“We believe in following our leadership,” said Michael Parris, pastor of the 2,500-member First Baptist Church of Palmetto. “When Dr. Sullivan asks for something, he really needs it and we can’t help but respond. There was such urgency to his letter and we believed we ought to step up to the plate.”

First Palmetto has a “long track record of being mission minded and seeking to help whenever we can,” said the pastor. The church is one of 93 Florida Baptist churches that are involved in the International Mission Board’s Global Priority Network. Several teams have participated in mission projects in Haiti and others were slated to return this year until the conditions deteriorated. The church also sends direct aid to a village in Haiti.

So Haiti has long been on the church’s prayer list, he added.

Jerry Garrard, pastor of Celebration Church, was preaching a series on the Lord’s Prayer to his congregation when he received the appeal from Sullivan, he said. The next Sunday, as he came to the part of the prayer that reads, “Give us this day our daily bread,” he shared the urgent need with church members. He noted America’s affluence and told the congregation that receiving bread is as important as giving it to others in need.

“When presented face to face with a need, people of faith try to determine how they can meet that need,” Garrard contended. At the end of the service a collection was taken and the congregation gave $2,100. Other checks are on their way, Garrard reported. “The people of this church historically have responded graciously.”

Celebration had also planned to send a mission team to Haiti this year, but it has been postponed indefinitely.

After receiving a letter from Sullivan, David Spencer, pastor of First Baptist Church of Milton, approached his congregation during the next Sunday night’s business meeting. The response was immediate. The next day, a church member matched the church’s $1,000 contribution with a check of his own for $1,000.

“The grace of God has fallen on us and we gladly share it with God’s children in Haiti,” said Spencer.

And just as meaningful in the eyes of God are the many gifts coming in small checks of $25, $50 and $100 from individuals whose hearts were touched by the compelling situation.

One 63-year-old Panhandle woman sent in a $100 check, but asked not to be identified. “Can you imagine anything worse than to be hungry?” she asked. “I have never been there and I don’t know what it feels like. But, I don’t want anyone to go hungry.”

Besides, she added, “In God’s Word, He tells us to feed the hungry. I don’t have a lot, but what I do, I want to give to others.”

Obedience, compassion, faith—each plays a role when New Testament believers respond to others in crisis.