IN-HOME CARE KIT PROJECT
“Just got my Illinois Baptist. It said that ISBA gathered 195 buckets for Africa, that means that MBA gathered 31% of the total” This note was in an email from one of the pastors. The churches and individuals of the MBA ought to be excited, God called, you answered and now God will use your gift of love to touch lives for eternity in Africa.
BGR buckets begin their journey to Africa (Illinois Baptist Article August 26, 2009)
SPRINGFIELD | Illinois Baptists are reaching out to families in Sub-Saharan Africa that are caring for loved ones who are terminally ill with afflictions like AIDS, cancer, tuberculosis and malaria.
Illinois Baptists have joined other Southern Baptist congregations across the United States in sending In-Home Care Kits, five-gallon plastic buckets that contain a wide range of everyday supplies needed by a caregiver – from lotions, toothbrushes and vitamins to bedding, soap and socks.
A total of 195 of the buckets, packed by congregations from all over the state and delivered to the Baptist Building in Springfield and to Lake Sallateeska Baptist Camp near Pinckneyville in July, are now on their way to families in South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe. The Illinois Baptist Disaster Relief semi-trailer left Herrin, Ill. on August 24 to deliver the buckets to a warehouse in Nashville, Tenn. on the first leg of their long journey. From there they will be consolidated with buckets from other Midwestern states for shipment to Richmond, Va. In Richmond, the buckets will join with others from Southern Baptist churches all over the country to be containerized and put aboard ship for the journey to Africa.
In 2008, a total of 1,378 kits were packed by congregations in three states as part of a pilot project through Baptist Global Response, a Southern Baptist relief and development organization (gobgr.org ). Those kits were delivered to the Baptist Fellowship of Zambia's human needs program and to Tabitha Ministries, an outreach that provides care to more than 1,300 HIV-positive children in a district of South Africa that has the highest per capita rate of HIV-positive individuals in the world. Earlier this year, workers at Tabitha Ministries reported they were seeing 85 to 105 people die each week.
Each kit costs $100 or less to prepare. A goal of 5,000 kits has been set for 2009.
“These items are a tremendous help to families that must care for terminally ill relatives at home because access to health care is so limited,” said Mark Hatfield, Baptist Global Response's area director for Sub-Saharan Africa. “And although there are more than 22.5 million adults and children in Sub-Saharan Africa who are living with the HIV virus,” Hatfield said, “the need extends beyond those families. Thousands of people in the region die at home each year from sicknesses like cancer, tuberculosis, malaria, and other life-ending diseases. In-home care is the only care they will receive."
To: Macoupin Baptist Association Pastors
From: Don Stuckey, Missions Team Leader
Re: MBA Missions Project
Date: June 2, 2009
Baptist Global Response has challenged Southern Baptist Churches to prepare 5,000 In-Home Care Kits which will be sent to our missionaries in Sub-Saharan Africa for distribution to families that are caring for seriously ill patients in their homes. There are over 22.5 million adults and children who are living with the HIV virus in this part of the world, and for most of them the only care they will receive is at home. In addition, there are many other persons with life-ending diseases that must be cared for in their homes. The Baptist Global Response In-Home Care Kit Project will assist their caregivers with materials and supplies to help ease their suffering.
Southern Baptists are being asked to provide 5,000 Care Kits which will be sent to our missionaries in this part of Africa for distribution through their on-field partnering networks. We want to challenge our MBA churches to join in this project. The way each church participates will be determined by the individual church. For example, some churches may want to prepare one bucket, another church may want to prepare several using individual class, home group, or VBS projects, while a smaller congregations may want to partner with another church. The methods will vary, but the result will be the same, our missionaries will be supplied with In-Home Care Kits that will be distributed to people in need of help and encouragement, and Jesus Christ will be glorified by our caring actions.
The attached pages provide you with information about the program, instructions for preparing and packing kits, and the methods for collecting and delivering the kits to our International Mission Board in Richmond, Virginia. Please note that we must hurry since kits must to be delivered to IBSA in Springfield before July 15th or to the Lake Sallateeska Baptist Camp by July 31st. IBSA will see that kits from throughout Illinois will be delivered to Richmond before the September 1st deadline.
If you have questions, please call the MBA Office (217-854-8279) or Don Stuckey (618-729-3866.
Here is a link to the website and pdf downloads;
Below is an email from a missionary.
Dear Pastor Cleeton (Pastor at Mt. Pleasant)
It was a pleasure to talk with you during the recent SBC convention and to find out about your interest in the BGR IN-Home care kits. I very much appreciate your support of this project. Most of the kits will come to my region in Sub-Saharan Africa and I have been involved in the use of the kits over the past year. I wish there was a way for you and those packing kits to experience the kits in use. Death due to the effects of HIV/AIDS is a horrible death. This is especially true for those who live in abject poverty. The kits are a way that those in the USA who are concerned for those suffering with all the diseases caused by AIDS can have a hands on way to ease the suffering as well as encourage the one who is sick. Most situations where the kits are used are where the patient is bedfast or can only be up for a few hours per day and in a great amount of pain with little to no resources to ease the pain. The kit provides material for the care giver to keep the patient clean, care for their wounds and to give them vitamins that will assist their limited immune system to fight off all the diseases that cause the problems. They give dignity and communicate to the one who is dying that someone knows about their problem and loves them. Each Care Giver is a Christian and shares their faith with the patient and the kit gives a physical expression of what it means to be a Christian giving credibility to the verbal message being shared.
The kit also gives the volunteers from the communities who give their time to provide care resources to better carry out their ministry.
I know that packing a bucket is costly and time consuming but I do want to thank you and all those you are working with on this project for allowing me to represent you by providing these resources . What a privilege it is to be Southern Baptists who are a people who truly care.
I have attached a few pictures of the buckets in use. You can use them in any way that would assist you. They are not professional quality but do show the surroundings where the kits are used.
If I can assist you in any way just drop me an E-Mail . Thanks for visiting the BGR booth during the Convention. It was encouraging to hear of your desire to be part of this project.
Mark Hatfield
BGR – Area Director
Sub-Saharan Africa.
