Baptist Press News

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (BP)--Mudslides, washed-out roads and massive flooding hampered Florida Baptists' efforts to feed the hungry in Haiti where three tropical storms in as many weeks have killed at least 150 people and destroyed crops and other livelihoods.       The impoverished nation that shares an island with the Dominican Republic already was reeling from the massive rainfall produced by Tropical Storms Fay and Gustav before Hanna brought additional rains to the waterlogged country Sept. 3.       The killer storms left an estimated 15,000 animals dead and destroyed nearly 25,000 gardens, a source of food and income for many in the Western Hemisphere's poorest country.       The heavy rains and strong winds also were responsible for the destruction of 34 churches and the homes of 27 pastors. Another 64 churches and 23 homes received damage in the storms.       With no relief in sight, the Haitians appear again to be in the aim of another storm as Hurricane Ike is targeting the Caribbean nation. Supporting a decade-long partnership, Florida Baptist Convention staff arrived in Port-au-Prince Sept. 1 to oversee the distribution of rice through Haitian churches.       The state convention underwrites the salaries of a national ministry director and six regional directors of missions in Haiti who supervised the delivery of food to the pastors.       "It was wonderful to see the eyes of the Haitians as we handed out the rice to feed their families," said Craig Culbreth, director of the Florida convention's partnership missions department.       "We were told, 'Thanks for not forgetting about us,'" Culbreth, who was on the ground in Haiti, said.       Each family was given enough rice for four people for three days. The first feeding, which provided nourishment to 2,800 families -- or 11,200 people -- was completed Wednesday at a cost of $12,000.       Culbreth told of the difficulties they encountered while traveling outside Port-au-Prince to other villages across the nation.

NEW ORLEANS (BP)--Many residents of New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary's main campus received news they have been waiting for -– at least a partial reopening of the campus after the evacuation cause by Hurricane Gustav.

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (BP)--Now that Tropical Storm Hanna is no longer a threat to Florida, Fritz Wilson, state disaster relief director for the Florida Baptist Convention, and his team are turning their full attention to Ike -- the next hurricane in what seems to be a never-ending string of storms tearing across the Atlantic toward Florida ...

BATON ROUGE, La. (BP)--Michael Desmond begins to cry when he tells the story.       "At 9:30 I heard the first tree crack and fall. By 12 o'clock, trees -- large trees -- were falling left and right" as Hurricane Gustav uprooted or snapped in half large oaks in a park across the way in Baton Rouge, La.

ST. PAUL, Minn. (BP)--With confetti falling and balloons popping, exuberant delegates at the Republican National Convention Sept. 4 settled down long enough for nominee John McCain's pastor, a Southern Baptist, to deliver ...

WAKE FOREST, N.C. (BP)--Arizona senator and Republican presidential nominee John McCain recently made history with the announcement that his vice presidential running mate is a woman.

SHREVEPORT, La. (BP)--The families arrived with three days of clothes and little else. In the car seats you see what is valuable to them: a painting of a dog, a hand-stitched doll. Quite a few spent most of their money on evacuating and many come from the same parishes ripped up by Hurricane Katrina three years ago.       But instead of grief and anger, there's frustration and some healthy doses of gratitude as Hurricane Gustav evacuees fill places such as the Shreveport Fairgrounds -- a campus utilized by the American Red Cross and now, at dinnertime, filled with restless families carrying Styrofoam containers of red beans and sausage, corn and fruit.       "I'm just so grateful," New Orleans resident Longelle Pierre said, eating a meal prepared 10 miles away at Willowpoint Baptist Church by a Tennessee Baptist disaster relief feeding unit from Shiloh Baptist Association. Her 8-year-old daughter held up a black-haired doll named Rosie. "We've had food here. Our pets have been cared for. We feel safe," Pierre added.       Though separated from their homes by hundreds of miles, the key point is that most evacuees have homes to return to.

PENSACOLA, Fla. (BP)--Evacuee Jamie Ferrier sat in the gym of East Brent Baptist Church with time on her hands, desperate for news amid rumors about the damage Hurricane Gustav had inflicted on her New Orleans-area community.

NEW ORLEANS (BP)--New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary students, faculty and staff will have to wait a few days longer for their return to campus. The tentative return date now is set for Monday, Sept. 8.

MILL VALLEY, Calif. (BP)--Four hundred goats descended on the verdant hillsides of Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary in July, cutting the grass as well as the seminary's costs.

NEW ORLEANS (BP)--As I prepared to evacuate from the New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary campus ahead of Hurricane Gustav ...

GORI, Georgia (BP)--Families displaced by fighting in the Black Sea country of Georgia are expressing profound gratitude for a feeding ministry Southern Baptist relief workers are conducting in Gori, a member of the relief team has told Baptist Press.       A seven-member team of disaster relief specialists from Texas Baptist Men cooked hot meals for about 2,000 people who have taken refuge in 18 kindergarten buildings in Gori, the team member reported.       "We are really starting to ramp up the relief operation," the team member said. "Many of these people have not had a hot meal in more than three weeks."       As people receive the meals, which are being provided through the Southern Baptist World Hunger Fund, they thank the volunteers profusely, the team member said.       "One lady just could not stop saying, 'Thank you,'" he said. "One man was crying as he accepted the food."       One woman who lives near the local Baptist church came to where the volunteers are working and asked for some soup, the team member said. She took it back to her apartment in an old paint bucket. Touched by the fact that she had nothing better to carry the soup in, one of the team members found a teapot near the church, cleaned it up, filled it with soup and took it to the lady's apartment.       The Texas team left Aug. 27 to set up the feeding operation and are expected to be joined by a seven-member team from the Kentucky Baptist Convention scheduled to depart Sept. 4 ...

CLINTON, Miss. (BP)--The night's warm breeze gave way to a drizzle as Kentucky Baptist disaster relief units rolled out of Camp Garaywa, a Woman's Missionary Union camp located in this small town ...