FALLS CHURCH, Va. (ABP) — Chilean Baptists’ top leader tearfully thanked Baptist World Alliance officials March 10 for the aid and support shown to her country since its Feb. 27 earthquake — and said that the needs and opportunities remain great in the devastated South American nation.
“Maybe because Haiti is so big we have forgotten maybe how in Chile needs are tremendous at this point,” said Raquel Contreras, president of the Union of Evangelical Baptist Churches in Chile, during the BWA Executive Committee meeting at the group’s headquarters just outside the nation’s capital.
Chilean Baptist leader Raquel Contreras speaks during the BWA Executive Committee meeting March 10 in Falls Church. (BWA photo)
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“There are so many needs in our country, but there are also so many ways that the Lord has shown us his love, through your offerings and love for the people,” Contreras, who is also a BWA vice president, said. “People are looking for the Lord. Our churches last Sunday were packed; we know that in time of crisis is when the people are closer to the Lord.”
Contreras was traveling in the United States when the quake hit. Travel difficulties have prevented her from returning, but she said she expected to fly back March 12. “It has been very hard for me to be here” while her country and churches were suffering, she said.
Contreras said approximately 250 churches affiliated with her denomination — the larger of two Baptist groups in Chile — were destroyed or suffered severe damage in the quake.
Her remarks came during the report for Baptist World Aid, BWA’s relief-and-development arm. BWAid Director Paul Montacute said Baptists worldwide had raised about $600,000 for relief for the cataclysmic Jan. 12 earthquake in Haiti. “We know more is in the pipeline. We need to do likewise for Chile,” he said.
Peter Pinder, general secretary of the Caribbean Baptist Fellowship, said Haiti was living in disaster conditions before the earthquake, and will need long-term aid of all sorts.
“I believe that poverty in Haiti is probably a bigger problem than the earthquake,” he said. “So when we put together the poverty of the people and the results of the earthquake, we see a country that really needs our prayers — because only divine intervention can make a significant difference in that country.”
Nonetheless, Pinder — delivering his last report as the secretary of the region, one of six regional fellowships within the BWA — said the Haitian Baptists surprised him on his first contact with them following the disaster.
“When I inquired of the leaders of the convention what they would like for us to do for them, I was surprised that they mentioned two things that didn’t have anything to do with the earthquake,” he said. “They asked for evangelism material, and leadership training. But what they said, they believe that if they get the evangelism material and the leadership training, they’ll be able to do a better job of ministering to their people during this difficult time.”
BWA leaders heard a more encouraging financial report than the previous year’s, in which massive investment losses forced them to slash the organization’s budget by almost 30 percent to retain the necessary amount of reserve funds.
The group’s total 2009 revenue was $2,103,655.10 — just behind expenditures of $2,104,027.78, although almost $250,000 under budget.
BWA staff members have foregone any salary increases for two years and have seen their pension and health-care benefits cut significantly. “The staff not only worked hard to reduce operating costs, but they took a personal loss to help the Baptist World Alliance,” said Ellen Teague, BWA’s retiring finance director.
Denton Lotz
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She noted that registrations for this summer’s 20th Baptist World Congress — scheduled for Honolulu July 28-Aug. 1 — will need to pick up significantly in the next few months for BWA to cover its expenses for the once-every-five-years event.
In other news, Alliance leaders learned that Denton Lotz, who retired in 2007 after nearly two decades as BWA’s general secretary, would receive the 2010 BWA Human Rights Award during the Baptist World Congress. Lotz brought a significant emphasis to human rights during his tenure at the organization’s helm, including a special focus on fighting racism and promoting religious liberty.
Executive Committee members also unanimously agreed to recommend two new member bodies to the BWA General Council meeting, to be held along with the Baptist World Congress meeting. They are the Baptist Fellowship of Zambia and Baptist Churches in Vietnam. If accepted, the Vietnamese group would be the first BWA member body from that nation.
Robert Marus is managing editor and Washington bureau chief for Associated Baptist Press.