Story number 1 for 24 Jan 2002

(Congo)–Headlining today’s news, thousands are hungry today as many Congolese are dealing with an onslaught of lava that’s destroyed entire villages. Baptist World Aid, the relief arm of Baptist World Alliance, is gearing up to assist the needy. BWA’s Paul Montacute says many indigenous groups have been hard hit. “We’ve had news that one of the Baptist groups has lost everything. The Virunga Hospital is gone, their headquarters have gone, the school has gone, the residences in which some of the staff lived have gone. It’s just been an absolute devastating experience for them. And, it’s going to take a long, long time for them to recover.” Montacute says they’ve made an initial emergency grant of 10-thousand dollars. He says to be an effective witness for Christ they’re empowering the local church. “They have the ability. We know that. They’ve done so much in the last decade. We know they can do it. What we need to do is to provide them with the resources, and the resource which can be used best is of course money.” Go to their web site: bwanet-dot-org to help.