Empower visited Haiti for the first time in February 2012. Our team ( Wayne Pelly and Liz Guy, Kennewick, Washinton; Kristina Sachs and Carrie Miles, southern California) met in Port-au-Prince on January 31.
I’m pleased to report that while there is still a lot of evidence of the earthquake, the Haitians have made good progress in clearing things up. Betty Prophete, our hostess and co-founder of Haitian Christian Mission, tells us that areas like this in the photo below were covered by tents. Now many of the tent cities have returned to being parks.
Haitians Christian Missions’ main compound is in Fond-Parisien, about 45 minutes from Port-au-Prince and just 7 miles from the border with Domican Republic. Being on more stable soil, it was not damaged in the earthquake.
The first seminar began on Wednesday and was well-attended by pastors and their wives. The second seminar was Monday – Wednesday the next week. Saturday we toured Port-au-Prince, including a visit to the ‘Baptist mission’ high atop a mountain and featuring many green houses, a not-so-fast-food grill, and a bakery. We met the former president of Haiti there (although I thought he was the former president of the mission — I didn’t understand just who he was until later or I would have taken his picture). On Sunday, Carrie preached at the Mission chapel on Sunday. Kristina sang. Wayne preached in Port-au-Prince at a service that started at 6:30 AM! Sunday night (I think) we went to a birthday party for one of our translators. You have to try Haitian lasagne — spicy and delicious.
In this view from a mountain overlooking Port-au-Prince, it is apparent why it suffered so badly in the earthquake. The city of several million is built on a vast alluvial (river) plain. It may look like solid ground, but it isn’t.
Haitian Christian Mission has a compound that contains a hospital (very modest — the ‘ward’ has nine beds that house all patients, male and female, in the same room), health clinic, school, orphanage, and dormitory. Kristina, Liz, and I shared a room in the dorm. Poor Wayne was by himself — he was not too lonely, I hope. We ‘girls’ had a good time together. The compound has electricity only intermittently, and went out every night around 10. My goal for each day was to brush my teeth before the electricity went out. We had flush toilets that we were asked not to flush very often as the compound was on well-water and it hasn’t rained there since October. The shower ran more freely than the sink and toilet but the water was cold!
Our meeting room was just across the hall from our room — very convenient.
The first seminar began on Wednesday and was well-attended by pastors and their wives. The second seminar was Monday – Wednesday the next week. Saturday we toured Port-au-Prince, including a visit to the ‘Baptist mission’ high atop a mountain and featuring many green houses, a not-so-fast-food grill, and a bakery. We met the former president of Haiti there (although I thought he was the former president of the mission — I didn’t understand just who he was until later or I would have taken his picture). On Sunday, Carrie preached at the Mission chapel on Sunday. Kristina sang. Wayne preached in Port-au-Prince at a service that started at 6:30 AM! Sunday night (I think) we went to a birthday party for one of our translators. You have to try Haitian lasagne — spicy and delicious.
We conducted two seminars for Haitian Christian Mission, who requested this material because of concerns about the amount of violence against women in Haiti. The pastors and their wives who attended the seminars were already committed to teach this material before they came, and were eager to get to work doing just that. We committed to coming again to give them further support, which the participants and Betty Prophette especially, were happy to hear. Some comments:
“These teachings are like a cabbage. The more leaves you unwrap, the nicer it gets.”
“I love this. There is a problem in Haiti in that sometimes men, even in the church, have a bad application of Eph. 5:22. A lot of wives suffer as a result. We see now that saying that the husband is the chief of the wife is a bad application. We love you to help us understand this.”
“The surprise in the study on ‘head’ is that the duty of the husband is to bring unity with his wife. Couples are to respect each other. The husband as head sacrifices himself for the household. Like Jesus, he loves his wife, even is willing to die for her. He is like the captain of a ship. He will do anything to bring the boat back to shore safely.”
“A husband can make his wife glorious without fear, because you (the husband) are the glory of God yourself, and your wife is your glory. Be an example to your congregation you are serving.”
It was wonderful to watch the transformation of the women as the seminar went on. They came in looking so low and shy. By the end, they were all smiling, alert, laughing and cheering, and held their heads high.
A message from Betty after we returned home: “I want to thank you so much for taking time in your busy schedule to come to Haiti with your wonderful team for the seminar. I have some feedback from some people. For one young couple, their pastor told me they use to fight now they have a happy life. Pastor Sylvio Joseph told me, he preached yesterday, his sermon was, “How God created men and women equal”. There is much more to say, but this is enough for now. Eventually I will put a slide show and some video on the web. In the meantime, thank you for your interest, support, and prayers.
Carrie