A Surprising Fact

Haitian teenagers and young adults love to be involved in the worship of their churches.

Whenever visitors from North America come to Haiti, they almost always mention one surprising attribute they didn’t expect to find—the overwhelming number of children and young people.  Because of a low life-expectancy and a high birth-rate, the average age in Haiti is in the high teens or low twenties (depending on the demographic study).  Unlike North America, the Haitian churches are bursting with children and teens who are looking for opportunities for growth and engagement.  One of the greatest challenges facing the Haitian church is maintaining the interest of all these youth in their faith heritage and in the mission of the church.

For this reason, Christian Reformed World Missions-Haiti (CRWM-Haiti) began a new program called IMPACT Clubs that was developed originally in Romania by New Horizons Foundation.  The philosophy of IMPACT Clubs is to put young people together for mutual encouragement and relationship-building activities.  The activities range from discussion and reflection to small-group games. The young people who participate come from church but also from the broader community, providing a natural opportunity for Christian youth to be salt and light to other community young people they might not otherwise engage. 

One of the most exciting aspects of IMPACT Clubs are the community projects in which Clubs identify resources and needs in their communities and put together a concrete plans to make changes or “impacts” (hence the name, IMPACT) in their neighborhoods.  Our goal is that these projects come from the “grass-roots” and do not rely on funds and initiatives from any organization or church.  Two of the most popular projects amongst the Clubs have been recycling plastic and cleaning community streets and water sources.  We believe Christian young people engaging in acts of community service hand-in-hand with the unchurched will be a great opportunity for the Gospel to spread and for God’s people to be agents of grace in Haiti.