In the aftermath of the events of Sept. 11, 2001, and until Ground Zero was closed May 30, Alabama Baptists responded to the calls for volunteers and help.
And they stayed, from the logistics team that went in late September to coordinate apartment cleanup, to NorthPark Baptist Church in Birmingham that was one of the last missions teams to minister at Ground Zero before it closed.
The 36-member NorthPark team arrived at the site May 27, just three days before the closing ceremony.
During their stay, the team focused their efforts at Ground Zero prayer stations, handing out tracts and praying with workers and people on the street.
Tommy Puckett, director of men’s ministries with the Alabama Baptist State Board of Missions (SBOM), said 150 Alabamians went as volunteers to work in all facets of disaster relief.
Where they were from
“[They came] from as far south as the Baldwin and Dothan areas to as far north as Limestone,” Puckett said. “This was an opportunity to train volunteers in a variety of disaster relief roles. I think the response of Alabama Baptists has brought a greater awareness of disaster relief ministries’ role in opening doors to sharing Jesus Christ.”
During the 319-day response, Southern Baptists from across the nation cleaned 643 apartments in New York, served 1.29 million meals, gave 21,000 teddy bears to children and donated $4.1 million to the Baptist Convention of New York (BCNY), the Metropolitan New York Baptist Association (MNYBA) and the North American Mission Board (NAMB).
Claude Rhea, chief development officer with NAMB, said that money was distributed according to Enduring Hope, an allocation plan the three entities created to ensure the donations they received for the Sept. 11 relief efforts reached the affected areas.
The amount donated
Bobby DuBois, associate executive director of the SBOM, said $300,088.53 was channeled by SBOM to the BCNY and the District of Columbia Baptist Convention (DCBC). The BCNY received $254,093.89, which then would have been distributed through Enduring Hope, and $45,999.64 went to the DCBC, which was used for relief efforts in the Pentagon area. DuBois also said the first $30,000 of the total came from SBOM funds earmarked for partnerships, since Alabama is participating in Impact Northeast and the tragedies happened in the Northeast. Rick Lance, executive director of the SBOM, said the contributions of churches directly to entities in the affected areas were above and beyond the total sent by the SBOM.
Rhea said Enduring Hope was established only to allocate the Sept. 11 donations, so NAMB is not actively seeking more money for the plan. Fifty-nine percent of the money went to victim benevolence and counseling ministry. This includes financial assistance for victims, funds for a resident chaplain and the immediate relief effort. Forty percent went to an ongoing response ministry, which includes giving support to Mosaic Church which has started in the Battery Park neighborhood next to Ground Zero, and planting other churches, as well as buying a church building to serve as a volunteer mobilization unit that would house volunteers and missions teams.
“The amazing part of this whole thing was to see Baptists come together as ambassadors for God,” Rhea said. “Our volunteers, who labored long hours in the dust, testified powerfully to their faith through deeds of compassion.”
New Yorkers saw and appreciated that attitude as well. In its Dec. 4, 2001, issue, the New York Times featured the apartment cleanup crews, which were led by a logistics team of Alabama Baptists and involved both Southern Baptists and American Baptists.
The article quoted one resident as refusing a cleanup crew from New England, saying he preferred the “southerners” to the “Yankees”.
“The New York Times article has opened, many doors for Southern Baptists, both in and beyond New York City,” Rhea said. “It has facilitated greater access by our chaplains to recovery personnel, enhanced Southern Baptists’ reputation with government officials and boosted our church planting effort near Ground Zero.”
New beginnings
Puckett said a new ministry arose from the work, at the requests of workers at Ground Zero. “A new ministry that started is the shower trailer, which can be used at disaster relief sites, either for volunteers or civic and service personnel.”
The disaster relief work also resulted in new partnerships, offering an opportunity to continue missions work in New York City. Churches in the Birmingham Baptist Association (BBA) raised $70,000 to give to the MNYBA, which went into Enduring Hope, according to Lisa Chilsonrose, MNYBA’s director of volunteers and partnerships.
“We went [to New York City] and delivered [the money], started talking, and the partnership began from that,” said Ricky Creech, BBA’s director of missions.
The associations signed a five-year partnership, and Creech said that BBA is looking for teams to go to New York City to hold Vacation Bible Schools, do prayer walking and community ministries, door-to-door evangelism and also to help existing congregations.
“It’s been a two-way street. They’re learning from us and we’re learning from them some of their approaches to inner-city ministries and starting new ministries in multiple-housing units,” Creech said.
“Alabama Baptists have proven again that we are a people who seek to be on mission for Christ locally, nationally and internationally,” said Lance. “I want to thank you Alabama Baptists, for praying, going and giving.”
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