CORDOVA, Tenn. — Bellevue Baptist Church in Cordova, Tenn., has raised more than $73,000 for Southern Baptist relief ministries that help survivors of the Jan. 12 earthquake in Haiti.
A sixth of that total was raised March 6 in a 5K run-walk that drew nearly 500 participants, said Andy Beal, sports outreach minister at Bellevue. The majority of the participants were Bellevue church members. The remainder of the total came from a special offering held in January in the immediate aftermath of the earthquake.
“The vision of the event was to include the entire body of Christ in the Memphis area,” Beal said. “It worked out beautifully. … We had people from all over the place, from all walks of life.”
Bellevue was already planning to hold a 5K event when an intern approached him about wanting to organize a 5K that would benefit the people in Haiti, Beal said.
“God just preordained that,” Beal said. “We changed the emphasis behind the 5K and put some meaning behind it.”
Beal said Bellevue hopes to hold more run-walk events in the future, with the intent of sending aid to other disaster areas.
“(The 5K) blew away our expectations,” Beal said. “We came in not sure what to expect, and God showed up and made it a great day. … Everyone seemed to have a great time and they were really excited to hear the tentative total.”
The money raised will be channeled through Baptist Global Response to projects conducted in partnership with Haitian Baptist churches. Bellevue’s members also contributed to Haiti relief by helping their students fill 169 Buckets of Hope, amounting to more than 3,000 pounds of food. Each bucket can feed a Haitian family for a week.
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