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Kentucky Baptist Volunteers Needed to Help Rebuild Homes in Haiti
08/12/2010
Pierre Obed (left) accepts a Bucket of Hope from Southern Baptist disaster relief volunteer Nancy Thrailkill of Rifle, Colo. Obed served as translator for Baptist volunteers, including teams from Kentucky, during ongoing relief efforts in his home country of Haiti following the massive quake there Jan. 12. He has helped Southern Baptists distribute some of the tens of thousands of Buckets of Hope filled with food collected from congregations across the U.S. earlier this year. Through the generosity of Kentucky Baptists, Obed, 20, now is enrolled at University of the Cumberlands in Williamsburg. (Photo courtesy of Kentucky Baptist Disaster Relief) Click here to download this photo.
LOUISVILLE - Teams of volunteers are needed in Haiti as disaster relief transitions to a rebuilding phase, according to Coy Webb, disaster relief associate for the Kentucky Baptist Convention.
“The North American Mission Board, Southern Baptist disaster relief and the Florida Baptist Convention have set a goal of trying to rebuild 5,000 homes in Haiti,” Webb said. “With that kind of goal, there’s an unlimited number of teams that we would need to make that happen.”
Eighteen groups have gone to Haiti so far from the KBC, and Webb was there in May serving on an incident command team.
“It is still a physically demanding part of the world to go to. We have fairly good living conditions. We have been staying in a combination of places, in some mission houses and hotels,” he said. “For that part of the world, the accommodations are good. The food is adequate.
“The biggest problem that we’re seeing with volunteers that is so physically demanding is the heat and humidity,” he continued. “The heat is extreme there, particularly this time of year, though it should be cooling a bit as the fall goes on.”
Haitians are recovering, Webb said, but many people continue to live in tent cities, and as the government urges people to spread out from Port au Prince into surrounding communities, the burden on the families who take in survivors is growing.
“For a short while, that’s okay, but it is very draining in resources for those families who don’t have a whole lot to start with,” Webb explained.
As the work in Haiti transitions, volunteer teams from Kentucky will be coordinated by the partnership missions department instead of the disaster relief office, Webb said. Several people already have contacted the KBC to express interest in the rebuilding effort.
An ideal size for a team would be about 10 people, Webb said, and one team probably could complete two permanent homes in one week. When teams arrive a concrete foundation already will be laid upon which the 246-square-foot house can be built. The structures are designed in such a way that they can be expanded by the homeowner later.
“Because of the limited resources of Haiti, it probably would be difficult for teams to be much larger than 12 just because of logistics of transportation, translators, lodging, that type of thing,” he explained. “A team of six to 12 can accomplish quite a bit of good things for the Kingdom in a week.”
In addition to supporting Kentucky Baptist Disaster Relief through gifts to the Cooperative Program, individual Kentucky Baptists are making direct connections with the Haitian people.
While he was in Haiti, Webb befriended a young Haitian man who served as a translator for the group. Now 20-year-old Pierre Obed is scheduled to start classes this month at University of the Cumberlands.
“The University of the Cumberlands was very gracious and gave him a scholarship, and then the Kentucky Baptist Convention, through one of our sources, was also able to get him connected with a fairly gracious scholarship,” Webb said.
A group of 15 Baptist Collegiate Ministry leaders and students recently spent 10 days in Haiti installing water purification systems, conducting vision clinics and providing hygiene education.
Mark Reeves, a junior at Western Kentucky University, was on the team, and he came back with a message from some Haitians who want to counter the negative image of their country that is sometimes portrayed in the United States.
“Haiti is not a scary place,” he said. “God is the same in Haiti as He is here. He has the same love for the people there, and He is just as much the Protector there, so I don’t think there needs to be any fear of Haiti,” Reeves said. “You want to be careful, but that’s true anywhere.
To find out more about helping rebuild homes in Haiti, contact the Kentucky Baptist Convention Partnership Missions Department at partnership@kybaptist.org or (502) 489-3529 or (866) 489-3529 (toll-free in Ky.).
Since the Jan. 12 earthquake in Haiti, 18 teams of Kentucky Baptist Disaster Relief workers have served there, providing medical care, clean-up assistance, water purification and food. Kentucky volunteers have shared the gospel more than 2,300 times and know of 168 people who have made professions of faith in Christ. Webb reports that Baptist leaders in Haiti are estimating that 140 new churches have been planted in the country and that 140,000 people have accepted Christ as their Savior since the quake.
The Kentucky Baptist Convention is a cooperative missions and ministry organization made up of nearly 2.400 autonomous Baptist churches in Kentucky. A variety of state and worldwide ministries are coordinated through its administrative offices in Louisville, including: missions work, disaster relief, ministry training and support, church development, evangelism and more. For more, find us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter.
Story by: Erin Roach, Kentucky Baptist Convention Communications
