By ABPnews/Herald Staff
Baptists in Serbia are appealing for assistance for victims of deadly floods which have inundated large parts of southeast Europe.
Heavy rainfall between May 14 and 17 caused heavy flooding and landslides, killing at least 62 people in several countries with hundreds of thousands left homeless. Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina suffered the greatest damage, though Croatia, Romania and Slovakia also were affected.
“Many are suffering,” Ondrej Franka and Dane Vidovic, president and general secretary, respectively, of the Union of Baptist Churches in Serbia, wrote the Baptist World Alliance. Rivers flooded “many cities, towns and villages,” they said.
“Believers [Baptists] from the town of Obrenovac have been evacuated and came to the Baptist church in Belgrade where they will live until their houses are made livable again,” the two wrote. The houses of a pastor and church planter were flooded out.
The Serbian Baptist leaders appealed for financial assistance and for food, water, hygienic packs, diapers, blankets, beds and linens. “This is a great opportunity to help Serbia and show the people and especially authorities that God cares.”
The Virginia Baptist Mission Board allocated $15,000 for Balkans relief May 28, said Dean Miller, team leader of the Mission Board’s glocal missions team. It will be distributed through European Baptist Aid, the relief arm of the European Baptist Federation, he said.
Donations may be made online through both the Mission Board and the Baptist World Alliance.
With reporting by Eron Henry, associate director of communications for the Baptist World Alliance.