A Bible Study?

A lot of Christians participate in bible studies (both small-group and individual) in North American churches.  But, how many people have graduated from a bible study?  Many of you know that one of the main tools in our discipleship ministry in Haiti is the Perspectives Reformees (PR) Bible Study produced by Crossroads Bible Institute.  While there are three levels of the study, the first, called the "Great Truths of the Bible," is the most popular.  On July 22nd, Zach had the privilege of attending the first graduation for the PR bible study in an area called Savannette.  Savannette is known for its remoteness and difficulty of access.  In fact, village, which lies in a fertile river valley, is accessed by only a muddy and rocky "two-track" which is often blocked by rock-fall, landslides, and erosion.  However, as the picture above shows, Savannette is a beautiful and fertile area where there are many Christian brothers and sisters longing to study God's word.  Over twenty students of all ages graduated from the study.  It was an especially powerful witness to see Pastor Merisier Brunereus, the regional representative of the CRC of Haiti in Savannette among the graduates along with several other leaders from different denominations.  In Haiti (as in North America), pastors often neglect continuing education and are not willing to learn with their fellow church members.  However, Pastor Merisier was proud to sit among the graduates, many of which were less than half his age!  Please pray for PR's ministry as it has recently hired a new coordinator, Pastor Jacky Chery.  We have long known Pastor Jacky and we are happy to have him as a colleague and coworker.

Church Politics

For better or for worse, everyone who serves in ministry knows that the church has politics.  And no where does this come to clearer expression than when you through together a bunch of church representatives in an assembly or synod.  This July around seventy delegates of the Christian Reformed Church of Haiti met in Port-au-Prince for the annual General Assembly of the CRCH.  Some of the delegates were pastors while others were deacons.  There was a mix of both men and women as there are many deaconnesses in the Haitian evangelical churches (for the most part, Haitian churches do not have elders).  July's General Assembly was an occasion of great joy and also sadness.  The sadness was because one of the seven regions of the CRC of Haiti could not send delegates due a dispute between the regional representative and the pastors under his supervision.  Please pray that this dispute can be resolved as soon as possible so that the church can be whole.  There was also a milestone because a significant revision to the constitution of the CRC of Haiti was accepted by the Assembly.  While this may just sound dry to those unschooled in church politics, a solid constitution (church order) in a denomination can mean the difference between a united body of Christ or a splintered association of competing pastors.  Several new pastors were ordained (see above) and plans were laid for a denominational wide vote for new representatives for the Central Committee, which is the "board" of the CRC of Haiti (please see the picture above of Pastors Bellezaire Joseph, Camelus Anger and Gerald Paingue who are three members of the Committee).  Also, we rejoiced to hear a glowing report of what God is doing in the CRC of Haiti.  In the past year, 305 people received Christ, 173 of those were baptized, and of the baptized, 118 were young adults.  This occurred in a denomination of around 3000 members!  Please join us in prayer that the CRC of Haiti will continue to grow and that the church will seek the politics of the Christ and not those of the world.

Prayers for Rain Answered and Then Some

A lot of people of faith in the US have been praying rain as there are drought conditions throughout over half of the lower 48 states.  Well, we have been having quite a drought in the Port-au-Prince area too--over six weeks without rain during the normally wet hurricane season of all times.  Well, our prayers were answered on Monday, when with little fanfare, a storm hit the Port-au-Prince area at about 1 pm.  Zach was getting ready to load the car up with two boxes of French-language theological books he just received from a West Michigan charity called the Theological Book Network.  The wind picked up and it started to rain, so Zach ran out and pulled the grey Nissan Patrol into our office yard to load.  That's when the wind slammed us with a vengeance.  By the time Zach pulled out with the Nissan, the rain was hitting us horizontally and the sound of snapping trees was heard in the roar of the storm.  Zach pulled out and, not even twenty seconds later, a towering conifer tree in our office yard broke at ground level and fell across the driveway, coming to rest on the gate.  It was a tremendous shock to Zach to narrowly avoid getting smashed by a pine tree.  What was even more astounding is that the tree fell only inches from one of our mission vehicles that happened to be parked under it.  Needless to say, the storm has knocked out electricity for most of the week and snagged the Internet service.  We thank God for giving us rain--and protecting us from it (along with the accompanying wind)!   We pray that you too will get some rain without loss of life or property.