The Son Rises over Haiti

Zach led and participated in his final Easter sunrise service last Sunday.  We are going to miss those beautiful sunrises from the perspective of Haiti's mountaintops.

Easter has always been a scandal.  The thought of Jesus Christ rising from the dead three nights after being brutally killed offends human reason.  Just look at how our popular culture treats the concept of life after death (portrayed as everything from a "light at the end of a tunnel" to a "zombie apocalypse").  In the time of the early church the resurrection of the dead was considered equally as absurd.  Which, I imagine, is (at least) part of the reason neither Mary Magdalene or the disciples on the Emmaus Road recognized Jesus (despite the fact Jesus' disciples even witnessed Jesus raise the dead). Today many consider Christ's resurrection to be "metaphorical" or "symbolic" of the new life of faith.   However, our faith requires that the resurrection of Christ be real, or as Paul writes, we of all people are most to pitied (as delusional).
This leads me to a final article of faith, one that has kept us laboring in Haiti for the Gospel during these past twelve years.  Just as Christ was raised and glorified, so also God is raising his people in Haiti who will manifest (and are manifesting) the love and power of God in Haitian society until Christ returns again.  There are days when this faith seems tragically delusional--when corruption, strife, lawlessness, etc. seems to overcome the Good in Haiti.  But, on the side of Good is the Resurrection, the power of God to achieve decisive victory at the moment when all seems lost.  That is what I see rising over the mountains of Haiti on Easter morning.  The sun rising reminds me that the Son's rising on Easter morning will be the final word in the battle between the Gospel and human depravity.

Service Project for 2017-18

Someday on this property CRECH will teach Christian school teachers and administrators to be more effective in the classroom.

Beginning around the turn of the millennium, staff at CRWM-Haiti/Sous Espwa recognized the precarious position of our three Haitian ministry partners who were using large percentages of their organizational budgets to rent office and conference space.  Precious funds that would be used for Gospel ministry were instead being absorbed by operations.  Also at that time, North American churches were developing an interest in mission-service projects.  Our predecessors in Haiti made the decision to help our three ministry partners purchase property and build offices to free up rent money for ministry.  Visiting teams would help with raising capital and construction costs.  This model resulted in the purchase of the Ministry Center property and the construction of the offices and conference centers for the Christian Reformed Church of Haiti and the Ministry of Christian Development.  Now, the final partner to receive this assistance, the Consortium for the Reinforcement of Christian Education (CRECH), is making a downpayment on a piece of property on which it will build its new office.  Much of that down payment comes from funds raised from you, our support network.  Once the transaction is complete, CRECH will have to fund the rest of the purchase with its own resources over the next three years.  CRWM-Haiti will be recruiting visiting Service and Learning Teams to help in the construction in 2017-18.  If you or your church are interested in this important ministry, please e-mail Cody Zuiderveen (czuiderveen@crcna.org).  During the visit you will also learn about the great work CRECH is doing in educating Haitian Christian school teachers and administrators and developing integrated Christian primary and secondary school curriculum.

Things We Will Miss About Haiti

We will definitely miss the entertaining signs:

"'Nutrigu' cereal for children--for happy babies"

What self-respecting baby could turn up his or her nose to Nutrigoo?