Virginia Baptists are responding with fervor to the tsunami disaster in South Asia, providing thousands of dollars in relief funds and looking toward cooperating on a short-term project with Baptists in several of India's southern states.
Baptists around the nation-including those in the Baptist General Association of Virginia-have joined the massive outpouring of financial contributions aimed at providing relief to victims of the disasterous tsunami in South Asia.
Hundreds of millions of dollars have been given by individuals, religious and charitable organizations, corporations and governments-all touched by scenes of devastation in the nations bordering the Indian Ocean, where a Dec. 26 earthquake and tsunami left more than 160,000 dead and millions homeless.
By Monday, Jan. 10, Virginia Baptists had sent more than $11,600 in relief funds to the Virginia Baptist Mission Board to be distributed to the Baptist World Alliance, the Southern Baptist Convention's International Mission Board and the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship. Contributions are distributed according to the instructions of the donor.
An additional $8,000 in Virginia Baptist disaster relief funds was sent to Baptist World Aid, the relief arm of the BWA, just after Christmas.
In an unexpected move, the enormous needs in the affected region and Virginia Baptists' past assistance to Baptists in India may result in a long-term parternership with the Indian Baptist Convention.
In early January Kunjamon Chacko, a leader in the convention who heads both its seminary and one of its social ministries organizations, asked Virginia Baptists to send a representative to assess the situation in the south Indian states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala.
Details of the partership remain to be decided, but John Upton, executive director of the BGAV, said the initial focus will be on the Precious Children's Home, an orphanage in Areeparambu in the state of Kerala. Upton said the goal will be to provide funds to increase the orphanage's capacity by 100 additional children.
About $18,000 in funds were made available for the children's home last week when the Mission Board and Woman's Mission Union of Virginia cancelled their annual spring missions celebration and donated money that had been budgeted to host that event.
“Individuals are encouraged to donate money they would have spent on transporation, food and lodging at the missions celebration,” said Jerry Jones, team leader of the VBMB's glocal missions and evangelism team. The missions celebration had been scheduled to take place March 11-12 in Newport News.
The mission board also is asking churches to set aside Saturday, March 12, as a day of prayer and fasting for the people in South Asia.
“We hope this will provide an occasion for Virginia Baptists to come together as many of them seek concrete ways to participate in relief and aid for the region,” said Jones.
Jones also said the board and WMUV is developing new resources to help individuals and churches offer an active response to the disaster.
“Materials may include prayer guides, stories and testimonies from the region; lists of items that can be collected and sent for distribution; volunteer opportunities; and other information,” he said.
Additional information will be posted at www.vbmb.org and at www.wmu-va.org.
Meanwhile, checks and online donations have been streaming into the International Mission Board, according to Baptist Press.
Among them, one stood out. Clipped to it was a colorful, butterfly-decorated note that read, “This is all I have that I can claim as my own.” The cashier's check for $3,963.01 and unsigned note left no clue who had been so generous. But the intent was clear:
“It is my most prayerful and heartfelt wish that every cent go to the victims and their families. God bless you in your efforts to help these people in such a tragic time.”
More than $1.4 million had been given to the IMB by Jan. 6.
“We've just been overwhelmed by the response,” said Ritchie Lipscomb, who directs the department handling financial receipts at the board. A unit which normally has two people recording receipts had called in two temps and gotten help from other work units. Even the board's treasurer took his turn opening mail and receiving checks.
Gifts ranged from three $1 bills in an envelope to thousands of dollars in a single check. Most checks came in smaller amounts-$20, $25, $50, $100, $200. But some were made out for $1,000, several for $5,000, others even larger.
Two of the largest individual donations came from Georgia and Mississippi. A homebound widow in Jackson, Miss., sent a check for $20,000. The notation on the check read simply, “Asia Earthquake Relief.” There was no other note.
A company in the Atlanta area also sent a check for $20,000. The Southern Baptist owner enclosed a personal check matching half that amount. “We always tithe on the company earnings,” he said. “I make the decision based on what God lays on my heart. I had my financial guy pull [the IMB's] records. [They] seem to handle the money well.”
The Cooperative Baptist Fellowship announced last week that approximately $28,531 has been donated online to its Asian response fund. CBF leaders said financial donations remain the best form of assistance that stateside supporters can provide.
“Giving cash is something all of us can do,” said CBF coordinator Daniel Vestal.
“Cash is something we can use in-country that we do not have to transport over borders, so we avoid shipping delays. It makes it a lot easier,” said David Harding, the Fellowship's international coordinator for emergency response and transformational development.
Contributed funds are purchasing food in local areas, which helps restart area farming businesses, Harding said. Monetary contributions also give field personnel “flexibility to determine what the greatest needs are,” said Barbara Baldridge, CBF Global Missions acting coordinator.
Relief purchases to date include basic hygiene kits, food and utensils, water purifying tablets, supplies for shelters housing survivors, and water purification systems that cost $7,500 and an additional $3,000 to ship locally.
Both the International Mission Board and the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship have released resources for churches to help in their response to the disaster.
The CBF is providing worship resources, compiled by its initiative for congregational life. They are available on the Fellowship's website, www.thefellowship.info.
Resources include sample orders of service, a sermon, a devotional and hymns written in response to the disaster. Also included are a guide for praying through questions about the disaster, advice on how to handle the crisis with children, two literary responses and a listing of additional worship resources, websites and books.
The IMB released “100% Relief: Reflections on the Tsunami,” a one-minute video about the tsunami disaster and Southern Baptist response. It is available from the IMB for downloading and use in Sunday worship services. To view streaming video or to download, visit www.imb.org.
A “Tsunami Response” flier suitable for use by churches also is available at http://media1.imbresources.org/downloads/pdfs/Tsunami/TSUNAMIRSP_BLTN.pdf.
A video released last week featuring International Mission Board President Jerry Rankin talking about response to the disaster also continues to be available for viewing or downloading at www.imb.org.
At the Baptist World Alliance, the general secretary has sent a pastoral letter to Baptists in Asia, expressing the shared grief of the Baptist family and pledging long-term support to aid victims and help for reconstruction in the countries in the aftermath of this unprecedented natural disaster.
“Your brothers and sisters around the world are suffering and in pain with you due to the destruction brought about by the tsunami earthquake,” Denton Lotz wrote. “Millions of people are continuing to pray for you and in thousands of worship services worldwide, brothers and sisters are calling upon our gracious and merciful God to bring relief and comfort to those who have suffered.”
Lotz noted already “thousands are giving sacrificially to the special Baptist World Aid earthquake relief fund,” and that BWAid will continue to collect funds and will work especially with the Baptist unions and conventions and with secular organizations and governments to bring assistance to the needy.
The scope of the disaster means years of recovery and Lotz promised that the BWA “will not stop until the job is completed.”
Lotz urged Baptists to continue to give to BWAid, “to participate in this long-term effort of rebuilding and restoration.”
In India, Sri Lanka, Indonesia and Thailand, there are more than one-and-a-half-million baptized believers in the member bodies of the BWA, and Baptist World Aid is working closely with leaders of those areas that are most affected.
“As Christians we believe that God is good, all the time, but we know that this good earth also suffers pain and loss of life, tragedy and evil,” Lotz says. “The cross of Christ reminds us that God suffers and endures the pain and consequences of evil, and takes this evil upon himself in the cross and turns it into redemption and resurrection.”
“We cannot answer the philosophical questions of evil, pain and suffering,” Lotz wrote, “but we can point to Jesus Christ and see that in taking upon himself the form of a human, God has accepted our suffering and pain and suffers with us.”
“This is the great Christian message of comfort,” Lotz says. “In Jesus Christ God is suffering with the homeless, the hungry, the orphans with those who have lost wives and husbands, daughters and sons, sisters and brothers.”
Lotz points to the resurrection of Jesus Christ from death as the basis of hope and action. “In the resurrection of Jesus Christ from death, a new humanity and a new kingdom have begun. In this resurrection period God calls upon those who have experienced such redemption to themselves become agents of redemption and reconciliation … to inaugurate the new kingdom of love and justice and peace by participating in his suffering by helping the poor, the needy, the naked and the lonely.”
Lotz called on Baptists to have hope even as they continue to pray and work. “The hope we have in Jesus Christ is certainly the greatest gift we can give anyone, “Lotz says.
The full text of the pastoral letter can be read at http://www.bwanet.org/News/05-jan-mar/pastorallettertoasia.htm.
Compiled from Religious Herald staff reports, Baptist Press, Associated Baptist Press and Cooperative Baptist Fellowship and Baptist World Alliance press releases.