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."