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Dear American Baptist Family:
A devastating earthquake has hit Haiti, and early reports indicate widespread destruction and the loss of thousands of lives. I know that you and your ABC church will want to respond to this crisis, and this letter is intended to provide you with guidance on how to do so most effectively.
The American Baptist Churches of New Jersey is especially suited to work with you in this crisis, since one of our core constituencies is the Haitian churches of our region. ABCNJ is considered the leading region in Haitian ministries in our denomination.
There are two ways you and your church can provide offerings for Haitian disaster relief and recovery:
1. Through ABCUSA’s One Great Hour of Sharing Offering: This option is best for a general response to the crisis. You can use the enclosed ABC missions form to record and designate your gift. Use line “OGH” for this.
2. Through ABCNJ’s Haitian Ministries Response Fund: This option is best for responding to the many specific aid requests our Haitian churches will be receiving over the coming months. This fund, administered by ABCNJ, will have 4 priorities:
a. Emergency aid to ABCNJ related Haitian families affected by the earthquake.
b. Emergency aid to Haitian Baptist Churches, in cooperation with the Haitian Baptist Convention, a partner in ministry.
c. Financial support to ABCNJ related work and medical teams that will help rebuild the country.
d. Micro-finance loans to Haiti’s poor to help them rebuild their lives, in partnership with Calvert Foundation (the administrator of the micro-loan program).
Church donations to the ABCNJ Haitian Ministries Response Fund can be made using the enclosed missions form. Use line SPECIFICS (SPC) and in the details box write “ABCNJ Haitian Ministries Response Fund.” For individuals, checks should be made out to ABCNJ and write “ABCNJ Haitian Ministries Response Fund” in the memo line. Individual gifts may be sent to the region (3752 Nottingham Way, Suite 101, Trenton, NJ 08690).
We are asking every ABCNJ church to take a special offering for this purpose over the next 3 weeks. Please do not re-designate offerings for ongoing mission gifts (such as United Mission or Region Offering) for this purpose. Your people will be generous if they are presented the opportunity to give!
Yours in the love of Christ,
Rev. Dr. Lee B. Spitzer
