South Carolina Disaster Relief deploying medical teams to Haiti;

Interested DR volunteers must attend training March 5-6 in Anderson

South Carolina Baptist Disaster Relief is rapidly mobilizing for aid to disaster-stricken Haiti, sending medical teams, offering volunteer training, and collecting funds through the North American Mission Board’s Buckets of Hope ministry.

Cliff Satterwhite, director, Disaster Relief Group, SCBC, said today that the first South Carolina Medical Team is “on the ground in Haiti and seeing about 250 patients per day.”

The team, led by Eddie Pettit, Disaster Relief Group, SCBC, is positioned on the corner of a tent city, where about 10,000 homeless people are living. “Eddie and I have talked regularly,” Satterwhite said. “The team is seeing patients in a church building that no longer has a roof. About 300 people attended Sunday’s worship service at 8 a.m., and many of them were outside the church shell because it would not hold all the people. Eddie is reporting several professions of faith coming through the team’s medical ministry.”

Satterwhite said the nine-member Medical Team 2 is leaving today, Tuesday, Feb. 9. It will be led by Randy Shell, a former minister of music, Florence. Shell currently serves with Southeastern Medical International (SMI) a worldwide medical disaster response organization. South Carolina Medical Team 3, led by Ronnie Duncan, director of missions, Pickens-Twelve Mile Association, will be leaving Monday, Feb. 15. The teams will replace Pettit’s team at the tent city in Haiti. Medical Teams 4 and 5 are being assembled for future deployment.

In addition to medical response, Satterwhite said South Carolina Disaster Relief will send a four-member Crisis Intervention and Building Assessment Team on Monday, Feb. 15. “We will be sending these teams for months - teams of four members that will determine if structures should be demolished or refurbished. Assessment of structural safety is such a critical issue right now in Haiti.”

Also, Terry Parish, a retired South Carolina Baptist layman from the Pickens-Twelve Mile Association, is serving in Haiti as an incident commander with the NAMB Incident Command Team.

Disaster Relief Volunteer Training

South Carolina Baptists interested in short-term mission work in Haiti, through Disaster Relief, must attend SC Disaster Relief Training, Friday-Saturday, March 5-6, Anderson University, Anderson. Within the training weekend, there will be an embedded training event on Saturday morning, March 6, for Haiti volunteerism. Participants will receive credentials with picture identification. Online registration is available through the SCBC Web site. Interested volunteers may also call the Disaster Relief Group at 803.765.0030, ext. 3400.

Buckets of Hope Ministry

South Carolina Baptists are encouraged to participate in a Buckets of Hope Ministry launched recently by NAMB. Please visit www.scbaptist.org; in the right-hand frame, click on Buckets of Hope.

“A Bucket of Hope is a plastic five-gallon bucket packed with selected food items. For approximately $30 anyone can purchase the materials and assemble a "Bucket of Hope." The food contained in a single bucket will feed a Haitian family for a week. You are also requested to include a $10 cash or check contribution, placed in an envelope and attached to the lid of the bucket to offset the cost of transporting the relief buckets to Haiti. Make checks payable to SC Baptist Disaster Relief. In the note section of your check write: for Haiti.

Satterwhite said SC Disaster Relief will begin collecting the buckets on Saturday, March 6, at locations, to be named, across the state. One collection point will be at the Disaster Relief Training at Anderson University.

“Every bucket must be exactly alike with a specific list of items inside. Please follow the detailed instructions carefully. This will ensure that every bucket quickly passes through customs and into the hands of the Haitian people.”

The appropriate buckets can be purchased at Walmart (UPC - 9826250640) or Ace Hardware (Ace# 17714). There is a specific packing list for food items on the Buckets of Hope Web page, and NAMB cautions against substitutions or adding additional items.

There are other ways South Carolina churches can respond to the Haiti crisis:

• Visit the Baptist Global Response Web site at www.gobrg.org, where a bulletin insert can be downloaded from the Home Page.
  
• Follow reports Disaster Relief updates through the SCBC Web site and include Haiti in regular church prayer ministry.
  
• Donations may be mailed to South Carolina Baptist Convention, Disaster Relief Fund, 190 Stoneridge Drive, Columbia, SC 29210. Donations may be designated for Haiti and 100 percent of funds will be used in Haiti relief.

Updated:  Tuesday, Feb. 09, 2010
Updated:  Saturday, January 30, 2010
Updated:  Wednesday, January 20, 2010
Updated:  Tuesday, January. 19, 2010 
 

(This information updated as of January 30, 2010, 4:20 p.m. EST)

South Carolina churches urged to join Buckets Of Hope ministry for Haiti relief;
SC Disaster Relief Medical Team leaving Wednesday for Dominican Republic, Haiti

As South Carolina Baptist Convention (SCBC) Disaster Relief prepares to send its Medical Team to Haiti on Wednesday, Feb. 3, churches are encouraged to participate in the North American Mission Board’s Buckets of Hope ministry.

Cliff Satterwhite, director, Disaster Relief Group, SCBC, said today that the South Carolina Medical Team will arrive in Santa Domingo, Dominican Republic, on Wednesday and then travel to Haiti on Thursday. The team will be led by Eddie Pettit, Disaster Relief Group, SCBC. Pettit will serve as the team’s medical liaison and has experience in Haitian missions. Other members of the medical team include three physicians, four nurses and one pharmacist. The team will be working alongside a medical team from First Church, Jacksonville, FL, representing the Florida Baptist Convention.

The decision to send the South Carolina Medical Team came last week after a conference call that included state convention Disaster Relief directors and Mickey Caison, adult volunteer mobilization team leader, North American Mission Board (NAMB), Atlanta. The purpose of the call was to debrief a report of an SBC-directed Assessment Team, returning from Haiti.

The report confirmed Satterwhite’s earlier caution, to SC Baptist leaders, that Haiti is not currently safe or secure for short-term mission teams and that mission work will be needed in the country for years to come.

Caison said, “There is a great need regarding housing and we need to identify additional housing resources for volunteers along with the security issues surrounding that. (This is) not an insurmountable issue but very crucial. Another major issue is transportation within country as roads are blocked, bridges are out, and big crowds are moving about. We are evaluating translators and being able to provide interpreters to the teams.” Volunteers who speak Creole will be valuable to mission teams.

Caison said the planning team is developing a three-tier list of needs: Urgent, intermediate and long-term. “Urgent needs include medical, food, water, shelter, chaplains, and repair and rebuild ministry. (We) feel that Haitian churches can be used as ministry centers.” There is also a need for chaplains to work with Haitian pastors, police officers, and orphanage/hospital/school staff personnel.

Intermediate needs might include responses to funerals and memorials that will be taking place, Caison said. Long-term needs include water issues (water purification or sinking wells), medical clinics, food, water, chaplains, and repair and rebuild ministry.

Caison said some homes in Port-au-Prince are habitable, but people are not going back to their homes “instead living in tent cities. Ministry opportunity could be construction specialists and inspectors who can look at the homes and help the people understand that their homes are a viable alternative to sleeping on the street.” Following the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in New York City, Disaster Relief volunteers helped city residents know their apartments were safe to re-enter.

Caison encouraged churches to minister to Haitians in the United States through crisis counseling and memorial services, and even to incorporate Haitian pastors and people into long-term response systems.

“Remember, this is not a short-term response,” he said. “We will transition into a long-term response with mission teams following up after the Disaster Relief teams. Partnerships will be made. As long as we have volunteers and funds, we will respond to Haiti and minister there.”

Satterwhite said he knows there are frustrations because people want to go and serve, and there are frustrations from other state conventions that want to send teams, as South Carolina is doing, into the country.

“There’s just not enough security right now, and there are shelter and housing issues,” he said, telling the story of a volunteer who was attacked while distributing rice. Her attacker then returned to the shelter trying to sell the stolen rice.

Satterwhite said there are South Carolina individuals, and churches, impacting Haiti through individual efforts or alongside other relief organizations outside Disaster Relief.

“Bill Howard, pastor, Willow Ridge Church, Lexington, is in Haiti right now,” Satterwhite said. “Bill has been working for some time to help three pastors down there. One of those died in the earthquake, and Bill is there now ministering to people and helping with orphan care.”

Buckets of Hope Ministry

South Carolina Baptists are encouraged to participate in a Buckets of Hope Ministry launched last week by NAMB. (Please visit: www.namb.net and navigate this way: Mission Opportunities>Adult Opportunities>Disaster Relief>Buckets of Hope.)

From the NAMB website: “A Bucket of Hope is a plastic five-gallon bucket packed with selected foodstuffs. For approximately $30 anyone can purchase the materials and assemble a "Bucket of Hope." The food contained in a single bucket will feed a Haitian family for a week. You are also requested to include a $10 cash contribution, placed in an envelope and attached to the lid of the bucket, to offset the cost of transporting the relief buckets to Haiti.

“Every bucket must be exactly alike with a specific list of items inside. Please follow the detailed instructions carefully. This will ensure that every bucket quickly passes through customs and into the hands of the Haitian people.”

The appropriate buckets can be purchased at Walmart (UPC - 9826250640) or Ace Hardware (Ace# 17714). There is a specific packing list for food items on the Buckets of Hope web page, and NAMB cautions against substitutions or adding additional items.

The SCBC will be organizing delivery dates and further instructions for its churches.

There are other ways South Carolina churches can respond to the Haiti crisis:

• Visit the Baptist Global Response website at www.gobrg.org, where a bulletin insert can be downloaded from the Home Page.
  
• Follow reports Disaster Relief updates through the SCBC website, and include Haiti in regular church prayer ministry.
  
• Register for SC Disaster Relief Training, Friday-Saturday, March 5-6, Anderson University, Anderson, SC. Those interested in Haiti volunteerism can attend a special, embedded, training event on Saturday, March 6 as part of the Disaster Relief Training. Online registration is available through the SCBC website. Interested volunteers may also call the Disaster Relief Group at (803) 765-0030.
  
• Donations may be mailed to South Carolina Baptist Convention, Disaster Relief Fund, 190 Stoneridge Drive, Columbia, SC 29210. Donations may be designated for Haiti, and 100 percent of funds will be used in Haiti relief. 
   

Updated:  Saturday, January 30, 2010
Updated:  Wednesday, January 20, 2010
Updated:  Tuesday, January. 19, 2010
 

(This information updated as of January 22, 2010, 1:41 p.m. EST)

SBC Disaster Relief Assessment Team will meet in Florida next week
Churches can download bulletin insert as information, prayer guide

A Southern Baptist Convention Disaster Relief Assessment Team, currently on-site in Haiti, will leave the country on Monday and meet Tuesday with Florida Baptist Convention leaders.

Cliff Satterwhite, director, Disaster Relief Group, SCBC, said today the assessment team, while in Haiti, has met with Florida Baptist Convention staff and partners, developing a Southern Baptist plan and protocol for moving volunteers and aid into the country. Florida Baptists have long had a presence in Haiti, starting 842 churches in the past 15 years, and providing salary for seven Haitian missionaries and 15 additional Haitians who work in the convention’s guest house and on its security force. There are 305 Haitian churches in the Florida convention.

“After Tuesday, state conventions and Southern Baptists will know our short- and long-term priorities and what we can do,” Satterwhite said. “We want to get in there and minister, but there are security issues and travel problems that are prohibitive. We do have two doctors, within the SC Disaster Relief Medical Team, who have gone to Haiti as part of the United States government’s relief effort.” For others, the situation is too unstable for travel.

Satterwhite said the airport into Port -Au-Prince, Haiti, has closed, and that the airport in the Dominican Republic is presumably closing next week, too. “We understand, from reports, that there is a travel bottleneck in the Dominican Republic. There are refugees trying to get out of Haiti through the Dominican Republic, and there are people trying to get from the Dominican Republic into Haiti.

“In some cases, independent volunteers are going down through their own relationships, and many are finding that there is no place to stay and no transportation,” Satterwhite said. “These well-meaning volunteers then become refugees themselves and require aid from those there to serve the country.”

Satterwhite said Red 24, a global security specialist organization, has placed Haiti in its category of places “too dangerous to go into” because of devastation and violence in the aftermath of the recent earthquake.

South Carolina Baptists can respond to Haiti in these immediate ways:

• Visit the Baptist Global Response Web site at www.baptistglobalresponse.com, where a bulletin insert can be downloaded from the Home Page.
• Follow reports Disaster Relief updates through the SCBC Web site and include Haiti in regular church prayer ministry.
• Register for SC Disaster Relief Training, Friday-Saturday, March 5-6, Anderson University, Anderson, SC. Those interested in Haiti volunteerism can attend a special, embedded, training event on Saturday, March 6, as part of the Disaster Relief Training. Online registration is available through the SCBC Web site. Interested volunteers may also call the Disaster Relief Group at 803.765.0030.
• Donations may be mailed to South Carolina Baptist Convention, Disaster Relief Fund, 190 Stoneridge Drive, Columbia, SC 29210. Donations may be designated for Haiti and 100 percent of funds will be used in Haiti relief.

“The SBC Assessment Team is reporting that the situation in Haiti is very fluid right now,” Satterwhite said. “Things can change 10 different ways in a single hour. The greatest, immediate need is for medical teams, specializing in trauma, anesthesia, and orthopaedics.”

Updated:  Friday, January 22, 2010
Updated:  Wednesday, January 20, 2010
Updated:  Tuesday, January. 19, 2010

(This information updated as of January 20, 2010, 11:30 a.m. EST)

SC Disaster Relief preparing for 'years and years' of aid to Haiti;
South Carolina Medical Team expected to be in Haiti within a week

South Carolina Baptist Disaster Relief expects to send the first wave of 10 medical personnel of its 250-member Medical Team to Haiti within a week, pending the report of a Southern Baptist Convention Disaster Relief assessment team currently on site in the devastated country.

Cliff Satterwhite, director, Disaster Relief Group, SCBC, said today the assessment team has landed in the Dominican Republic and is in Haiti. The assessment team will be meeting with Florida Baptist Convention staff and partners, developing a Southern Baptist plan and protocol for moving volunteers and aid into the country. Florida Baptists have long had a presence in Haiti, starting 842 churches in the past 15 years, and providing salary for seven Haitian missionaries and 15 additional Haitians who work in the convention’s guest house and on its security force. There are 305 Haitian churches in the Florida convention.

“Working with Florida Baptists on site, the assessment team must evaluate security, housing and safety issues before we can send volunteers,” Satterwhite said. “Right now, this is a very dangerous part of the world.”

Satterwhite said Red 24, a global security specialist organization, has placed Haiti in its category of places “too dangerous to go into” because of devastation and violence in the aftermath of last week’s earthquake.

“We want people to understand that, currently, this is not a mission trip location,” Satterwhite said. “This is Disaster Relief Recovery Area, where there is extreme heat, dead bodies, mosquitoes, limited food sources, and primitive housing if even there is housing. Once the area is safe, South Carolina Baptists will be sending teams for years and years as part of the recovery effort. We will need a lot of grief counselors because of the devastation.”

Satterwhite said South Carolina Baptist Disaster Relief, one of the historic leaders in Southern Baptist Disaster Relief ministry, follows the national convention’s protocol.

“The Baptist Global Response (BGR) is the disaster relief arm of the International Mission Board,” Satterwhite said. “We have been faithful supporters of this effort for years and have responded across the globe. Each afternoon, I am part of a conference call that includes my counterparts at state conventions, Disaster Relief at the North American Mission Board, and Baptist Global Response. There is a coordinated system to our response and it occurs in a timely, orderly way so that we aren’t rushing in and creating additional problems. The current on-site assessment team is part of this system.”

Satterwhite said David Brown, a BGR representative whose work includes Haiti, is a South Carolina native and former Laurens area pastor.

Satterwhite said South Carolina Baptists can respond to Haiti in these immediate ways:

• Follow reports Disaster Relief updates through the SCBC website, and include Haiti in regular church prayer ministry.
• Register for SC Disaster Relief Training, Friday-Saturday, March 5-6, Anderson University, Anderson, SC. Those interested in Haiti volunteerism can attend a special, embedded, training event on Saturday, March 6 as part of the Disaster Relief Training. Online registration is available through the SCBC website. Interested volunteers may also call the Disaster Relief Group at (803) 765-0030.
• Donations may be mailed to South Carolina Baptist Convention, Disaster Relief Fund, 190 Stoneridge Drive, Columbia, SC 29210. Donations may be designated for Haiti, and 100 percent of funds will be used in Haiti relief.

“I know people’s hearts are broken here in South Carolina,” Satterwhite said. “We all see the news reports and the photographs. We feel the urgency to get down there and help. Southern Baptist and South Carolina Baptist leaders are working tirelessly to get inside quickly, safely and orderly.”

Updated:  Wednesday, January 20, 2010
Updated:  Tuesday, January. 19, 2010 

(This information updated as of February 10, 11:35 a.m., EST)