A building gift for Christmas

Williamson Church now standing
 after three months of rebuilding
 what Haiti's 2010 earthquake
 destroyed. (Photo courtesy of BHM)

Haiti (MNN) ― This Christmas saw much rejoicing in Haiti as members of Williamson Church had a roof over their heads to worship for the first time since last year’s earthquake.

Haiti’s earthquake in 2010 that killed over 200,000 people last year also crumbled many churches to dust. Williamson Church was among the buildings that were utterly destroyed by the catastrophe.

Members of Williamson Church put a heavy emphasis on evangelizing to other communities and planting churches. But with no building to call their own, the going has been difficult.

Now over a year later, however, a very different scene stands where there was once rubble and debris.

Three months ago, Baptist Haiti Mission (BHM) began construction of a new building for the fellowship of Williamson Church. Work was officially completed this month, and a re-dedication service was held on Sunday, December 11.

BHM Field Director, Pastor Baker, and his family along with other leaders from the Fermathe area traveled to Williamson to be a part of this re-dedication celebration.

The service started at 9 a.m. and lasted for four and a half hours. Special music groups that performed from surrounding churches and a message of thanksgiving was presented by Pastor Edrice Romelus of Thomassin Conservative Baptist Church.

Toward the middle of the service, a plaque of appreciation was presented to Pastor Baker and BHM. Pastor Jean Claude Smith of the Williamson Conservative Baptist Church acknowledged the many needs of the people of Haiti.

Smith was quick to state that he was incredibly thankful that God had chosen to bless his church family through the gifts of the supporters of BHM for a new building. Spirits were high, and the name of God was praised.

There have been a variety of pressing needs since the time of the earthquake, and BHM has been working diligently to meet these needs. They responded immediately to Haiti’s 2010 earthquake disaster with aid supplies such as food, water, shelter, and hygienic and medical items.

Click here to learn more about BHM’s ministry.

Everybody loves a wedding

Haiti (BHM/MNN) ― Everybody loves a wedding.

The venue has been selected, invitations have been sent, the order of the ceremony has been decided, and now the countdown has begun for a special wedding day in Haiti.

A Baptist Haiti Mission church partner will be officiating over a wedding ceremony for 91 couples on December 30 in Muraille Lacee, a small town in northwest Haiti.

The region has had little evangelical witness and no evangelical pastors or churches in the area. Because of a lack of Gospel exposure, there is not a strong moral presence in the community. So it's normal for unmarried couples to live together.

As a result, many of the young women in Muraille Lacee have babies before they are 18. Pastor Jean Claude Smith and members of the Conservative Baptist Church of Williamson have begun traveling to Muraille Lacee to do evangelism. 

The church team made their first evangelistic venture into the community this past August. The journey to Muraille Lacee takes over half a day--some of it by car, some on foot. Upon arrival, the team did door-to-door evangelism and hosted outdoor church services. Lay preachers returned twice more to the area to preach and serve the Lord's Supper.  

Pastor Smith and several people from Petionville Church and Williamson Church will make another trip to Muraille Lacee for this incredible wedding ceremony in a couple of weeks.

Naturally, a wedding of this size will attract a lot of attention. Pastor Smith hopes the wedding will be an opportunity for a positive testimony to the community to help them begin to follow biblical principles. 

A public commitment before the Lord, family, and friends has the power to change an entire town. Naturally, there are a lot of logistics that need to fall into place.

Pastor Smith says they need extra funds for some of the wedding expenses. Baptist Haiti Mission is looking for help with this opportunity for a complete and total heart change in the community of Muraille Lacee.  

Click here if you want to help.

Ministry shows lay church leaders how to build

Haiti (MNN) ― If you've never built a house before, it would be absurd to build one without getting some training first.

No matter how simple the structure, without the know-how and the tools, the house won't be well made.  It's a similar story with lay church leaders in Haiti. They have the desire and the passion to build the body of Christ, but they don't always have the know-how or the tools. The other problem: poverty blocks access to the resources.

Chris Lieb with Baptist Haiti Mission says, "There's a great need for training for the people in the church. There's very little good quality systematic training for Sunday school teachers. This is one of the first trainings that we've done for Sunday school teachers in recent history."

What it boils down to is: to have an effective leader, it is critical that he be trained effectively. Last week, Baptist Haiti Mission brought in a team from the Association of Baptists for World Evangelism to work with the lay pastors and church leaders. Gill and Denise Thomas along with Carl Sexton taught from a Bible curriculum that was written in Haitian Creole. 

This week, it's the Sunday school teachers who are getting resources and tools. More than teaching from topic to topic, says Lieb, "They're looking for more resources and for a way to go through the Bible systematically."

A typical congregation has three kinds of people: genuine believers, professing Christians who have not clearly understood or genuinely embraced the Gospel, and seekers. That's why "ABWE has come in with some materials that they've developed especially for Haiti," says Lieb. "It goes from Creation to the end of the Bible, and it shows how God is Redeemer through each section."

These lay leaders need a resource that will help them teach a fairly thorough presentation of the Bible's redemptive story to people who attend their churches. The Chronological Bible Teaching Curriculum used by ABWE covers 100 Bible stories. Not only do the teachers have a clearer biblical worldview, but Lieb says they "have really appreciated having this material and having the training. It's not only the materials: they're also learning how to teach in a much better way."

Now that the foundation is laid and the framing is in place, the lay pastors and teachers are ready to go to work. Lieb says, "For those who have received the training, pray that the Holy Spirit will continue to use them and that they would be tools in the hands of God and multiply the work of ministry." 

Haiti moving forward: new prime minister, new curriculum

Mission Network News: Haiti (MNN) ― Six months after Haiti elected new President Michel Martelly, the rest of the government is finally taking shape. Last week, the new prime minister of the nation was announced: Garry Conille.

Conille was once an aide to former U.S. President Bill Clinton as a United Nations envoy to Haiti. He has worked for the UN in Ethiopia and Niger as well, according to BBC News.

Read more...

A ministry in Haiti grows its efforts to encourage healing

Haiti (MNN) ― When a ministry expands, there are always a mix of emotions...mostly of excitement and anticipation, but also sadness at leaving friends behind.

Such was the case for a Baptist Haiti Mission team. The Lieb family loaded up 2 trucks and just moved to the beach camp property about two hours away to begin a camp ministry.

Since 2004, the Lieb family has been living at the mission, where Chris has been serving as the Director of Church Development and Director of Youth and Family Ministries.
 
Much of their time was spent working with the youth and the churches connected with BHM. Chris also spent a lot of energy writing proposals, working on getting grants for the schools, and keeping up with the Information-Technology needs of the compound.

Wife Kelli homeschools the five children and helps with mission-related projects. She also oversees a ministry to the newborn babies and mothers in the hospital.

The family made their presence felt while serving on the main campus, but it also became clear that there needed to be staff at the camp ministries. BHM acquired some property throughout Haiti to host summer camps. The past couple of summers have consisted of only two weeks of camp, one of which is specifically set apart for the children of Haitian Pastors.

However, there's more need for the camp ministries as kids slowly recover from the devastation of the quake. BHM just brought on a new team of missionaries to help with the expansion: Trey and Chelsea Salter.

Together they'll be growing Crossings Ministries, whose primary focus is missions. They take the call to go to the nations seriously and seek to equip students to follow in this direction.
 
Baptist Haiti Mission has had a presence in Haiti for over 50 years. It is located in Fermathe, a beautiful area in the mountains an hour north of Port-au-Prince. BHM oversees a variety of ministries in Haiti. Some of these include planting churches, training leaders within these churches, child sponsorships, and running an 80-bed hospital on the mission property.

Ministry in Haiti cautiously optimistic after tropical storm visit

File footage of flood-prone Haiti. (Photo by Nick Hobgood)


Haiti (MNN) ― Rivers swelled dangerously as Tropical Storm Emily dumped heavy rains.

The storm broke apart over the island of Haiti--a near miss for the thousands that remain in flimsy shelters in the quake zone. Ron Sparks with Baptist Haiti Mission says concern remains: "Haiti is so vulnerable to flooding because so many of the trees have been cut for firewood and charcoal and cooking, that there's not a lot to prevent mudslides and terrible flooding."

Emily's heavy rains prompted the Dominican Republic's government to evacuate roughly 1,600 people at the end of last week because of the continued threat of flooding and mudslides.

And it's not totally over. While things seem to have calmed, forecasters say renewed storm energy could add more to the disruptive impact of the rains in Port-au-Prince. Recovery in the areas worst-hit by the 2010 quake remains tentative, Sparks explains, so it doesn't take much for a crisis to occur. "The tent structures and temporary living quarters that have been built are very dilapidated in many cases. People just don't have much to fall back on."

June's slow-moving storms triggered deadly mudslides and floods in Haiti, but with widespread poverty, recovery has been slow even with basic precautions.

Baptist Haiti Mission's team reported no ill effects from Emily's visit, although Sparks says it's possible that the impact will likely come as they check on partners. "We want to continue to pray for the safety of the missionaries and the Haitian people as well. There's a wide diversity of geographic conditions in Haiti from lowlands to the mountainous areas. So, depending on the conditions, people are subject to different threats."

Team member Deborah Baker writes that as a precaution, BHM had decided to keep the two teams that were visiting at the mission instead of going out to continue their building projects. She says the time was well spent. As a result, "These teams were able to complete some much-needed projects here at the mission, and they were a huge help. Some of them finished installing all the plumbing for two apartments. The others built some walls in storage depots and helped with some cleaning and sewing."

Baptist Haiti Mission uses all aspects of its ministry to meet the many physical needs of the Haitians through the local church. As a result, there are many times when people pursue the faith that motivates their team.
Find more details on BHM's work here.

New door-to-door evangelism program builds church body

(Photo by Nathaniel Watson)

Haiti (MNN) ― The phrase "door-to-door" could make a lot of people think of an annoying salesman. But in Haiti, more and more hear that phrase as "freedom."

The unemployment rate in Haiti has been horrific for ages, but since the deadly earthquake that hit the country January 2010, even fewer Haitians have been able to hold a job. Some estimates list the rate of unemployment at nearly 70%.

Add on top of this devastating economy a terrifying cholera scare, and many are in desperate need of hope.

Enter Baptist Haiti Mission. In the past couple of months, BHM workers have, with the support of their churches, begun a door-to-door evangelistic program.

"They organized an outreach program sharing the Gospel, going around door-to-door to different houses in the area and the community, telling people about the love of Christ, sharing the Gospel, and telling them about who Jesus is and what He's done for us," explains ministry vice president Ron Sparks.

Although a door-to-door ministry may be difficult in some cultures, in Haiti the unemployment rate actually helps make this kind of evangelism work: people are home.

"So many people do not work. They have a little garden by their home, or they just are around their neighborhood or at home a lot," says Sparks. "So there's a lot of response."

There are plenty of ministries in Haiti, but still many Haitians have never heard more than the name of Jesus. BHM workers are truly changing that as they build their new door-to-door evangelism program though.

"What these believers down there are able to share is the very real truth of how Christ in their lives has affected them, telling people about eternal salvation," says Sparks.

Now that BHM has fewer and fewer cases of cholera to address in their treatment center, even more focus can go toward these types of outreaches and toward helping to build churches for the new believing families that are born. Many are receptive to the Gospel, and the number of believers in the country has been shooting up since January 2010.

You can help BHM build church buildings and schools, reach more Haitians with the truth, or sponsor children to get food, education and medicine. It's all waiting to be explored at bhm.org.