ALEXANDRIA – An SBC Disaster Relief-trained team of a dozen medical professionals and chaplain from Louisiana, expects to be ministering this week in Port-au-Prince, Haiti.
Led by Jay Johnston, associate pastor at First Baptist Church of Covington, and DR_trained chaplain, this team was to leave from New Orleans, Friday, Feb. 19, for a week in the hurricane-ravaged capital city.
A 14-person medical missions team led by Dwayne Rogers, chief of security at Louisiana College and a frequent early-responder at global disasters, plans to leave Feb. 20. They plan to work in a ward at Good Samaritan Hospital in Jimani, Dominican Republic, on the Haiti border.
“There’s going to come a time for more people to do hands-on ministry in Haiti,” said John Yeats, LBC director of communications. “Right now, the best thing for Louisiana Southern Baptists to do is to pray, to give, and to pack Buckets of Hope.”
Instructions for all these, and Haiti updates as they come in, can be found on www.baptistmessage.com,www.baptistglobalresponses.com, www.lbc.org/haiti, and bpnews.net.
“Many Louisiana Baptists would love to go to Haiti and lend a helping hand or hold a hurting child,” Yeats said. “However, unless you go as part of a coordinated team, you more than likely will be part of the problem and not a solution.”
It won’t be long until many DR teams from Louisiana will be sent to Haiti, Yeats added. They’ll be coordinated through LBC Disaster Relief, where Gibbie McMillan is director and Christi Bates is his assistant.
In a situation like the earthquake aftermath in Haiti, it’s especially important for local churches and individuals to coordinate their plans and any mission trips through their state convention or through NAMB or the International Mission Board, said Mike Ebert, a NAMB spokesman.
“Part of it is just because we are keeping informed about all the requirements and regulations in play and restrictions and travel issues and safety issues,” Ebert said. “As part of our normal disaster relief work, NAMB is constantly in touch with local governments and many other disaster relief entities. So we have a lot of information about what is actually happening on the ground and how people can be the most effective.”