Florida Baptist relief effort brings some comfort to Noel-devastated Haiti

by Barbara Denman | Nov. 9, 2007

JACKSONVILLE, FL (FBC)—Haitian Baptists are reeling from the widespread devastation caused by Tropical Storm Noel, many desperate for food and shelter, said Dennis Wilbanks, who traveled to the Caribbean country after the storm.

Noel flooded crops, which serve as both their livelihood and source of sustenance, destroyed homes and churches, and left thousands displaced, said Wilbanks, associate in the Florida Baptist Partnership Department.

“Everywhere I have gone, I have met with individuals or pastors, whose eyes sparkled with some hope because Florida Baptists have remembered them in their suffering as we did in the past,” said Wilbanks.

Wilbanks traveled to Haiti, Nov. 5-8 to assess the damage from the storm and oversee the distribution of beans and rice disbursed by local director of missions.

This effort, underwritten by Florida Baptist Convention funds, is expected to be the first of several food distributions during the next weeks, said Craig Culbreth, director of the Partnership Department. Each family receives enough beans and rice to feed at least four-to-six persons for three days.

“We are feeding both church members and persons in the communities,” said Culbreth. After the initial feeding is completed, the Convention then will assess the need to rebuild churches and pastors’ homes.

Florida Baptists have been in partnership with Baptists in Haiti for more than a decade and employ six indigenous directors of missions and a director of ministry to give structure and help strengthen the more than 600 Baptist churches.

This is the fifth time that Florida Baptists have mounted a campaign to provide beans and rice to the churches and their communities after a natural disaster or economic crisis struck their impoverished nation.

“Helping them recover from the tropical storm Noel is our chance to show the Haitian people the love of Christ,” said Culbreth. “It is our chance to in a practical way show them God's people cares about them. My prayer is that God will use our work to bring many Haitians to the Lord. We want to feed them and help them rebuild but we want them to know Jesus most of all."

Describing the conditions he saw while in Haiti, Wilbanks told of his trip to the Central Association, north of Port Au Prince. “The roof had collapsed at the first church we saw. The church has been used as a shelter for the people fleeing from the rising water and the roof had fallen while the people were in there on a Sunday night. Yet there were no injuries and no deaths, which was a true blessing.”

Five persons were staying in the church, including a single mother whose husband had died sometime earlier from AIDS, and her three children. “Her crops are completely gone,” reported Wilbanks. “She grows bananas to feed her children and to make money, so all of that is gone now.” A wall in her home was toppled by the flooding waters, which rose to six feet in the house. They only survived because they were able to climb up on the furniture, explained Wilbanks.

“I was able to offer words of comfort and pray with her. She has already received a portion of the Convention’s beans and rice to help her family survive over the next few days.”

Another woman, a member of the damaged church, had watched as her 13-year old daughter was swept away in the flood waters, Wilbanks reported. “They have not found her body yet. Her husband is still searching the river banks trying to find their daughter.”

Wilbanks prayed with the woman and her 15-year old son. “It’s just one of those touching moments to have been there with her.”

The affects of Noel were exacerbated by several other tropical disturbances this season that passed over the island and died over the mountainous terrain of Hispaniola. As the mountains sapped the storms’ strength, rain and moisture were dumped on the impoverished island nation.

While he could not travel throughout the entire nation during his short visit, Wilbanks received reports from directors of missions of deaths and widespread devastation of homes in their associations.

Because some areas of the nation are remote, many of the reports fr damage and needs have been delayed, but many of the pastors believe the nation with its extreme poverty is in a “catastrophic situation,” Wilbanks said. “Many have asked, when is help coming?”

Yet many have found their hope and help in Florida Baptists.

“They were just so gracious in saying thank you, thank you for coming, for being here,” Wilbanks added. “Because I happened to be the face that goes in with Florida Baptists’ disaster relief, several times a pastor would say, ‘I just knew that I would see your face and by your presence here it brings hope.’”