Thailand (BGR/MNN) — Heavy rains and massive widespread flooding have killed 269 people in Thailand and over 200 in Cambodia. Millions have been affected.
In the northeastern and central plains of Thailand, residents have braced for more flooding because the government plans to release water from
overflowing dams.
The floods, which have already affected 58 of Thailand's 77 provinces, have
been declared the worst in over 50 years.
Thanks to
Baptist Global Response, help is being given. Baptist Global Response
is among the responders, but not simply because of
the emergency.
BGR teams were already in place due to a six-year investment with the remote
Thai villages. In 2005, a team of six Thai Life Development Center workers and an
International Mission Board missionary headed to Ban Cam, a village the Thai
government deemed as being in great need.
There, they began addressing the needs found in these isolated villages
through the World Hunger Fund: physical and spiritual poverty, no electricity,
no sanitation, and wooden homes with thatch roofs. The village had no building
specifically for their children to attend school. Eventually, the relationships and trust began
providing access to even more isolated villages.
Community development projects have taken hold gradually. Villagers have learned about
proper nutrition and how to grow their own vegetables. Proper toilets have also
been dug, keeping their water supply clean.
Through the team's teaching, children have heard the story about Jesus'
love. Because they act in the name of Christ, one team member said, "Though
there is not a believer in the village now, one day someone will come to
believe in Jesus."
Support for the World Hunger Fund makes it possible for the Gospel workers
to physically help people in poverty while sharing Christ's compassion and love
to the ends of the earth.
