State Baptists support ongoing tsunami relief

Alabama Baptists continue to support disaster relief efforts in Southeast Asia after the Dec. 26, 2004, tsunamis that shocked the world.
   
According to Tommy Puckett, director of disaster relief for the Alabama Baptist State Board of Missions, the state’s kitchen unit left Feb. 2 for Indonesia and is staffed by a feeding team from Mississippi. The team will train local volunteers on how to use the kitchen, with plans to leave the unit in the country on a long-term basis, according to the North American Mission Board’s (NAMB) Web site.
   
Puckett said one medical team from Alabama has returned, with another scheduled to go to the area in March.
   
Although there are no immediate plans for any other Alabama disaster relief teams to travel to Southeast Asia, Puckett said water purification teams and units are on alert as are other teams such as cleanup crews.
   
Puckett also said Baptists can still contribute to the disaster relief funds. Baptist Press reported that as of Feb. 17, gifts from Southern Baptist churches and individuals through the International Mission Board’s (IMB) relief fund had surpassed $10,209,000 — an unprecedented outpouring in such a short amount of time, according to IMB officials.
   
Puckett noted that besides the expected uses, such as purchasing food and supplies, some of the money is helping revive the economy in the affected areas. 
   
The money earmarked for rebuilding efforts is being used to employ local people to do the work.
   
“Because the economy was — to a degree — devastated in this part of the world, we felt it would help them economically by putting their own national people back to work,” Puckett explained. “We’re providing the supplies to help them rebuild houses in the communities that were destroyed.”
  
According to NAMB’s Web site, disaster relief teams are moving in and out of the area on a rotating basis. The water purification teams are projected to leave for Southeast Asia in April.
   
Donations to aid in disaster relief can be sent to: Alabama Baptist State Board of Missions, P.O. Box 11870, Montgomery, AL 36111-0870. Please mark checks “for international disaster relief.”