Searching for Haleigh, showing compassion
Written by: Janet
After Terry Wright dropped his kids off at school, he got a riveting phone call, on Feb. 10, from the Putnam County Sheriff’s office, where he serves as a chaplain in Palatka, Fla. Haleigh Ann-Marie Cummings was missing. Through family connections to Dunn’s Creek Baptist Church in San Mateo, Fla., where Wright is pastor, he and the church found themselves at the center of a massive hunt for the kindergartener .
A week later, Wright was still holding on to hope, though bringing closure to the ground search — which involved Florida Baptist disaster relief volunteers among others — at a candlelight vigil Feb. 17. Among them were Ronald Cummings, 25, the girl’s father; Croslin; and Haleigh’s mother, Crystal Sheffield, who lives in Glen St. Mary, Fla.
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Another Florida Baptist who joined the search was George Anthony….Wit h tears and prayers, family members were joined at the vigil by more than 400 people — Haleigh’s classmates, law enforcement officers and friends, and members of the press — who heard Wright speak from 1 Peter about the “hope that is in Christ.” Wright described the vigil as a celebration of hope and an exercise of putting trust in God’s character.
The search involved law enforcement officers from throughout the state and experts in locating missing children from throughout the nation, Dunn’s Creek Baptist and St. John’s River Baptist Association churches joined with the community to provide support in tangible ways as well.
The congregations brought in tents, tables, food, ice and drinks, those in the rural and heavily wooded community about 25 miles west of St. Augustine made sure there was plenty to go around. Wright called the people caring and compassionate. Florida Baptists mobilized trained volunteers through their disaster relief network for the search over the previous weekend.
Working through Asa Greear, director of missions for the St. John’s River Association, volunteers from 10 churches mobilized on Saturday and five churches on Sunday. This wasn’t a typical callout for help in a disaster, or other event which requires a full response, a search for a missing child is coordinated directly through the sheriff’s office or through the Federal Bureau of Investigation, said Fritz Wilson, director of the Florida Baptist Convention’s disaster relief and recovery department. Within 20 minutes of receiving a phone call requesting assistance, the convention used its automated calling system to contact all 150 trained volunteers in that particular association.
In addition to aiding in the investigation, most disaster relief volunteers have been through spiritual care or “Barnabas” training, which Wilson said provides in-depth listening, grief processing and evangelism skills particularly for a crisis or disaster situation. And some are trained disaster chaplains as well.
Let me explain, that first and foremost, volunteers are christians, have a strong passion to serve folks in tough situations. Of the candlelight vigil and of hope, Wright said, yes, there is still hope Haleigh will be found.
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Tags: churches show compassion, Crystal Sheffield, Cummings, Haleigh, Mistie, Misty Croslin, Ronald
This entry was posted on Saturday, February 21st, 2009 at 11:27 am and is filed under Crime & Punishment, Missing Children. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.
