CP: 0.88% ahead of 2007 pace
Year-to-date contributions through the Southern Baptist Convention’s Cooperative Program are 0.88 percent ahead of the same time frame in August 2007. As of Aug. 31, the year-to-date total of $189,458,403 for Cooperative Program missions is $1,654,261 ahead of the $187,804,142 received at the same point in 2007. For the month, receipts of $17,968,09 were 14.72 percent, or $2,305,602, ahead of the $15,662,488 received in August 2007. Designated giving of $198,733,262 for the same year-to-date period is 0.65 percent, or $1,300,571, below gifts of $200,033,834 received at this point last year.
Disaster relief teams roll into Louisiana
The night’s warm breeze gave way to a drizzle as Kentucky Baptist disaster relief units rolled out of Camp Garaywa, a Woman’s Missionary Union camp located in Clinton, Miss. The camp has long served as a staging ground for disaster relief operations, including those following Hurricane Katrina in 2005. While most Southern Baptist disaster relief units routinely handle up to 30,000 meals per day, units in Houma and Baton Rouge will handle American Red Cross and Salvation Army requests for 110,000-150,000 meals as Louisiana Gulf Coast residents without power due to Hurricane Gustav seek food and refuge. Feeding units are traveling to affected areas from Arkansas, Tennessee, North Carolina, South Carolina, Oklahoma, Virginia and Kentucky with more possibly to follow. Many of these units also will be involved in recovery operations.
2,000 refugees in Georgia fed by Baptists
Families displaced by fighting in the Black Sea country of Georgia are expressing gratitude for a feeding ministry Southern Baptist relief workers are conducting in Gori. A seven-member team of disaster relief specialists from Texas Baptist Men cooked hot meals for about 2,000 people who have taken refuge in 18 kindergarten buildings. “Many of these people have not had a hot meal in more than three weeks,” a team member said. As people receive the meals, which are being provided through the Southern Baptist World Hunger Fund, they thank the volunteers profusely, the team member said. The Texas team left Aug. 27 to set up the feeding operation and were expected to be joined by teams from the Kentucky Baptist Convention and the Baptist General Convention of Oklahoma.
Storms kill 150 in Haiti
Mudslides, washed-out roads and massive flooding hampered Florida Baptists’ efforts to feed the hungry in Haiti where three tropical storms in as many weeks have killed at least 150 people and destroyed crops. The impoverished nation that shares an island with the Dominican Republic already was reeling from the massive rainfall produced by Tropical Storms Fay and Gustav before Hanna brought additional rains to the waterlogged country Sept. 3. The killer storms left 15,000 animals dead and destroyed nearly 25,000 gardens, a source of food and income for many in the Western Hemisphere’s poorest country. The heavy rains and strong winds also were responsible for the destruction of 34 churches and the homes of 27 pastors. Supporting a decade-long partnership, Florida Baptist Convention staff arrived in Port-au-Prince Sept. 1 to oversee the distribution of rice through Haitian churches. Each family was given enough rice for four people for three days.