New Salem Missionary Baptist Church, at 26th & Lyndale N. in Minneapolis will present a Haiti Earthquake Disaster Relief Benefit Concert 6 pm Monday, January 18th, MLK Day. Excelsior Community Choir, New Salem Mass Choir, and other area celebrity performers and gospel artists join regional church and civic leaders in raising money to assist disaster relief work in Haiti. According to Reverend Jerry McAfee, the local church initiative will deliver assistance through networks created by Dr. Willa Grant Battle, pastor of Grace Temple Deliverance Center in South Minneapolis. Dr. Battle is founder of Grace Temple and heads the church’s 53 year old Haiti Mission work. The Mission includes two churches that were impacted by the earth quake, and a network of over 200 churches and ministries throughout Haiti.
The Mission’s principle medical facility, Good Samaritan Hospital of Boutillier, part of a large education and training campus near Port Au Prince, did not sustain damage, but a sister facility, Good Samaritan Hospital of Cazou suffered major damage including collapse of a second floor that was under construction. The church tower and a back room of the House of Refuge Church, the Mission’s Mother Church at Cazou collapsed during the earthquake, killing one worker. 
Jamaica Minnesota Organization and other Caribbean focus service organizations, University of Minnesota’s North Minneapolis based University Research and Outreach/Engagement Center (UROC), Stairstep Foundation, Black Church Coalition/African American Leadership Conference have joined the initiative to promote the benefit event and to encourage humanitarian aid to earthquake victims in Haiti. For more information about the benefit concert contact Rev Jerry McAfee 612-522-2951. Send donations to Grace Temple Deliverance Center, 1816 4th Avenue South, Minneapolis, 55404. For information: www.gtdci.org or call 612-870-4342.
