ATLANTA – As the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship nears completion of a base of operation in the earthquake-ravaged country of Haiti, opportunities are opening for on-site volunteers to assist in the country’s recovery from the 7.0 earthquake that struck Port-au-Prince Jan. 12.

CBF field personnel Nancy and Steve James will continue coordinating medical work in Cap-Haitien – about 100 miles north of Port-au-Prince. Scott Hunter, one of CBF’s former field personnel serving on temporary assignment, is establishing an operation base southwest of Port-au-Prince, near the epicenter where 98 percent of all local structures were either damaged or totally destroyed. Soon, the Fellowship will be able to receive volunteers in this heavily affected area.

There are limited volunteer opportunities available now for individuals and teams to help prepare the operation base. Once the base is finished, the Fellowship will send more volunteers into the region. Service opportunities include debris cleanup, reconstruction, administrative services, supply logistics and providing medical services.

The Jameses, CBF field personnel co-appointed with American Baptist Churches USA, have served in Haiti for years as healthcare professionals. For days after the quake, Steve, a physician, treated survivors at Haiti Health Ministries’ Christianville Clinic, less than four miles from the quake’s epicenter and close to where the CBF base is being prepared.

"We who have been in Haiti many years have lived with hearing and witnessing terrible tragedies. Yet this present disaster has shaken all of us in the scope and breadth of pain for so many," Steve James said.

The Jameses and Hunter, who previously coordinated portions of the Fellowship’s response to the 2004 Asian tsunami, will soon be joined by Tori Wentz, one of CBF’s medical field personnel based in Virginia.

Those desiring to volunteer must sign up on the Fellowship’s Web site at http://www.thefellowship.info/Disaster-Response-Application. The Fellowship will match the skills and resources of volunteers with on-site needs to ensure a meaningful and effective response.

The Fellowship’s long-term disaster response plan includes working with ministry partners to provide medical services, access to clean water, spiritual formation and pastoral care. Efforts will also include work with children and orphanages, microenterprise development among women and construction of earthquake resistant housing.

As of Feb. 5, more than $193,135 has been contributed to the Fellowship’s Haiti response effort. Also, Fellowship Baptists have sent more than 4.3 tons of medical supplies worth more than $153,000 to CBF partner North Stuart Baptist Church in Stuart, Fla., where the supplies are repackaged and sent to Haiti.

"We thank God for each of you who have loved, prayed and cared for the suffering ones of Haiti and the world," James said.

To give to the relief effort, visit the Fellowship’s donate page, https://www.thefellowship.info/Give/Donate.aspx?fund=17015 or send your check to Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, P.O. Box 101699, Atlanta, GA 30392, indicating fund No. 17015 "Haiti Response." Under newly-passed legislation, donations to Haiti response made between Jan. 12 and Feb. 28 will be eligible for deduction on 2009 taxes.

To contribute medical supplies, download the list of items needed from the Fellowship’s Web site at www.thefellowship.info/haiti.

Updates about the Fellowship’s response and recovery efforts will be posted at its blog, www.thefellowship.info/blog.

CBF is a fellowship of Baptist Christians and churches who share a passion for the Great Commission and a commitment to Baptist principles of faith and practice. The Fellowship’s mission is to serve Christians and churches as they discover and fulfill their God-given mission.