Mark Schlachtenhaufen
THE EDMOND SUN
EDMOND — Members of Edmond’s faith community are praying for the victims of the Haiti earthquake, and donating financial gifts toward the relief effort.
Faith is a fact of life for many Haitians, where about 80 percent of Christians are Catholic and 16 percent are Protestant, according to the CIA World Factbook. Roughly half of the nation’s 9 million people practice Vodun, an ancient religion in which adherents follow different spiritual paths and worship different spirits and a chief god who is remote and unknowable.
Despite the disaster, and the increasing suffering, there have been few media accounts of anti-social behavior. CNN reported that on the streets of Port-au-Prince, where many churches have been damaged or destroyed, people have gathered to worship and sing Catholic and Protestant hymns.
Edmond Mayor Patrice Douglas attends LifeChurch and said the city’s faith community always leads the way and steps up for those in need.
“We are blessed here in Edmond to have a community that cares not only for those who live here but also for those around the world,” Douglas said from Washington, D.C., where she is attending the U.S. Mayors Conference annual meeting.
Adherents of different faiths are contributing to the worldwide relief effort.
Razi Hashmi, executive director of the Oklahoma chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said metro mosques are conducting fundraising drives in conjunction with Islamic Relief, which as of Monday had raised about $19.6 million.
About $50 will supply a kit of household essentials, $81 buys a food pack to feed a family for a fortnight and $163 provides temporary shelter for two families, according to Islamic Relief.
Hashmi said concern for and almsgiving to the needy is one of the five pillars of Islam. He said support from local Muslims has been very positive.
“There have been a lot of people coming out to support the people of Haiti,” Hashmi said.
Oklahoma Baptists were asked to pray for a Baptist Global Response assessment team that went to Haiti to work alongside missionaries already assisting Haitians. The organization is coordinating with state-level organizations, including the Baptist General Convention of Oklahoma.
Alan Day, senior pastor at the First Baptist Church of Edmond, said church-goers viewed a video Sunday morning featuring Gordon Forte, a vice president with an international mission board, which explained the crisis in Haiti.
The church is receiving offerings and has a link on its Web site (www.fbcedmond.org) allowing people to give to relief efforts. All monies go directly to Haiti; no administrative costs are paid by these gifts, Day said.
“Our Oklahoma Baptist disaster relief team is determining how to best contribute their services, and they are networking with other relief teams throughout the country,” Day said. “So right now our contribution to Haiti is prayer and money.”
On Sunday, the First Presbyterian Church of Edmond collected a special offering that raised about $7,500 dollars, Senior Pastor Mateen Elass said.
Elass said the church’s missions committee will add more to that amount, and the church plans another collection this coming Sunday, Elass said. The money will go to the Outreach Foundation of the Presbyterian Church, and 100 percent of the gifts will benefit Haiti Outreach Ministries.
“My guess is all told we will send off somewhere near or above $10,000 total,” Elass said.
Catholic Relief Services has worked in Haiti for more than 50 years and has a permanent staff of more than 300 stationed there. The international humanitarian agency of the U.S. Catholic community has committed at least $25 million for relief and recovery. The organization is setting up primary medical care facilities and delivering hygiene kits and plastic sheeting along with limited amounts of food and water to informal camps around Port-au-Prince.
Locally, Fr. John Metzinger, senior pastor at The Catholic Church of St. John the Baptist, said parishioners are praying for the people of Haiti every day.
So far, the parish and its school, St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Catholic School, have collected slightly more than $40,000 to help in the relief effort, Metzinger said. He anticipated more funds would be raised this week.
Mark Hitchcock, senior pastor at Edmond’s Faith Bible Church, said the church is sending relief to a Port-au-Prince seminary. Faith Bible has a long-standing and close relationship with the seminary, which trains local pastors for ministry.
The funds Faith Bible sends will be managed and dispersed by a seminary management team under the leadership of its president, Hitchcock said.
Associate Pastor Jay Risner said a small Faith Bible team was scheduled to go down around the first of March, but the church canceled that trip.
“We feel it is important for those with a logistical and humanitarian purpose to be present in Haiti, and those who were going on that trip were not being equipped to serve that purpose,” Risner said. “That team may still make it to Haiti in the coming months, but their focus will need to change given the catastrophe.”
Edmond’s First Christian Church will take an offering this Sunday for the denomination’s outreach arm — the Week of Compassion, which joins with other mainline denominations through the Church World Service to help, said Chris Shorow, senior pastor. The church also is assembling relief kits with items recommended by aid workers.
marks@edmondsun.com | 341-2121, ext. 367
