CBAmerica

Haitian Earthquake Relief

Dear Friends,

As I write this quick letter, my heart is sadden by the horrible situation that Haiti is experiencing at the moment because of the devastation caused by the earthquake today. Pray that God will intercede for those who have been affected by this natural disaster.

I was able to communicate with Guillomettre Herode, our National Coordinator in Haiti, and in the midst of tears and desperation he has informed me that they are OK, but the country is in a chaos at the moment, many people dead and many houses destroyed. The whole family was outside because the inside of their home is a mess. His wife Edline cut herself while she was running for safety.

Also, I was able to talk to Jonathan & Alexandra Joseph. They are OK as well, but in the midst of tears they have informed me that the city of Port-au Prince was devastated. They were at the Ministry Center that we have in Delmas and the building is OK.

We have also learned that our missionary Francklin Alexis in Petit Goave has some minor cuts while he was trying to escape the earthquake. The Hostal that was recently built as an economic development projects has been damaged severely.

We still have not being able to hear from other leaders in other parts of the country because there is no communication. Pray that soon we will be able to get news.

Pastor Felix Abreu, who oversees the ministries in the Caribbean will try to get into the country tomorrow by plane, if not by bus, so he will keep us posted on the situation.

Blessings,

Joaquin A. Vargas
Vice President of Latino & Caribbean Ministries
www.MissionsDoor.org

Dear Friends:

Again, another tragedy hit one of our countries. A few minutes ago, my brother Joaquin Vargas from Missions Door sent me the enclosed report about the situation in Haiti after the earthquake of 7.3 in Port Au Prince. Our partner and church planter in Santo Domingo, Felix Abreu is moving tomorrow to Port Prince from Dominican Republic to Come Over and help to our brothers and sisters in Petit Goave and Delmas. Joaquin and me are planning to send a team to start mobilizing the help.
So far, the damages are big and hundreds of death people.

Please keep praying as we do our best to help this country. We will keep you update.We still waiting to hear from our ministries in Saint Raphel, close to Cap Haitien.

Pastor Martin Vargas
Come Over Ministry
Iglesia Biblica de Broward

You can send your aid to CBAmerica ACTS Fund
(Avenues of Compassion in Tragic Situations)
3686 Stagecoach Rd, Unit F
Longmont, CO 80504

You can use your credit card to donate to disaster relief by using the PayPal link.

Region Helping Region

With the resignation of its executive director Stephen LeBar, CBAmerica initiated a renewal of its structure and more importantly of the relationships within the structure. Focusing on the eight current CB regions, the regional directors along with the national staff began to reshape the national expression of CBA around the connections of the regions themselves. CBAmerica will, in effect, become an association of regions even as the regions are associations of churches. In this model, one or more regional directors will serve as the catalyst for the national expression of the regional associations, replacing the need for a national executive director.

One of the key elements of the new structure involves regions helping regions as we all strive to grow in effectiveness. Earlier in the fall Dr. Downs joined personnel from another region and a national staff member in assessing the Next Gen Churches (Northern California region). Later in November, he will travel to Southern California to help their regional director in a ministry mapping process. At the SWCBA fall board meeting Northwest director Mark Hoeffner joined our Board via video conferencing to help bring insight to our renewal process. While change is always a challenge, the potential for the regions and their churches grows exponentially as they share gifts, talents, experiences and resources to help make each region increasingly strong.

(Taken from the November 2009 Southwest CBA E-Newsletter Field Notes)