Baptist Church in Haiti Gives the "Widows Mite" to Help with Relief Efforts

The gift, though small by some standards, is the equivalent of about two years' wages in the Haitian economy.

"Too often we look at the size of the gift, not the size of the sacrifice," said Dennis Wilbanks, Florida Baptists' associate director of partnership missions. "I was so moved that I could not believe this was actually happening."

The gift from members of Nazarite Baptist Church in Port-de-Paix on northern Haiti's Atlantic coast is the first time a Haitian congregation has given funds "to distribute as we see fit," said Wilbanks, who is accustomed to receiving numerous requests for financial aid from the impoverished Haitians and was surprised by the unexpected no-strings-attached gift.

On a recent trip to Haiti, Wilbanks, along with Tennessee pastor Steve Nelson and Jean Louis Otandieu, director of missions in Haiti's Northwest Baptist Association, visited the church to thank leaders personally for the sacrificial gift.

"After crossing five rivers and the roughest road I have ever traversed, we finally arrived at the church site," Wilbanks said. "When I saw the building, I was completely at a loss. I could not believe that the congregation that meets in this building could ever raise those kinds of funds, much less even consider giving them."