18188: (Chamberlain ) Missionaries in Haiti (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

(Advocate Messenger, Danville, Kentucky)

(1 Feb 04)



Missonaries have much to do in Haiti

By LIZ MAPLES



Give them Jesus. Give them work. Feed them.

The rocky streets are dusty from the soil slipping off bare mountains where
mahogany forests once grew. People relieve themselves in public whenever
they feel the urge. Indoor plumbing is a distant dream. The fluid runs down
the street, mixed with gray water from houses, to create small streams
everywhere.

Empty containers, fruit and vegetable peels, and plastic bags are strewn
everywhere. The poor sift through to find what's useful. The goats and pigs
get a second shot at it, and then the rest is set afire. The smell of
burning trash hangs in the air.

This is the capital city, Port-Au-Prince, where one would expect to see the
best living conditions. It is worse than the poorest portion of any
American inner city, and it is the norm for the country.

A plumber from Harrodsburg, a farmer from Perryville, a jailer from
Danville and more than two dozen others from Central Kentucky paid $1,304
each to come here.

Willingly, they left their families, homes and took vacation time to
clothe, to feed and to preach to these impoverished people.

There are more vendors on the street than people buying. The goods they
sell are owned by a few, who steadily grow richer while the vendors stay
poor. They must sell food while hunger gnaws on them and their children.
The temptation to steal must be overwhelming. If they don't bring back
money for the goods, they owe or face a beating. It is a desperate
situation.

When they aren't hungry or ravaged by alcoholism in a vain attempt to
forget their own harsh lives, many face the fear of Voodoo spirits. Have
they pleased the spirits? Has their neighbor cursed them? Will they receive
the favors for which they ask?

Joe Mobley, who is there with Crusades for Christ, believes that Jesus can
free them from their fears, forgive them and secure their place in heaven.
He has been coming to Haiti since 1979. Once the site of one of his first,
and now largest church, Big Baptist, a voodoo priest tried to turn him into
a dog. Despite jokes from his missionary team, the curse never took.

Crusades missionaries have converted thousands of Haitians. During the
first week of a January revival, preachers from Kentucky and Indiana saved
140 souls and witnessed 260 decisions to come back to the Lord.

What isn't counted and what can't be measured is how much the Haitians have
brought to the missionaries.

"We come over here and try to be a blessing and we get blessed more than we
could possibly bless," Mobley said.

They cry when they see the poverty and are stunned by living conditions.
They cuddle handicapped children and give piggy back rides to orphans. They
deliver the clothes, medicine and toys they've brought over in their
suitcases and trunks.

"We come to give the physical - Bibles, clothes and medicine - but we end
up giving self and realize that this is more important than anything else,"
Mobley said.

The missionaries spend much of their time visiting the churches, schools
and orphanages with which Crusades works. When they go home to their
churches to talk about Haiti, they will raise money for projects that still
need to be done. Most of the labor done by Crusades missionaries is skin
deep. The money they've raised at home is used to hire Haitians to complete
projects.

Among the projects completed this January were: tile laid in a downtown
church; built the walls and foundation on another church in a new
neighborhood; taught more than 200 pastors at a college; built a roof on
another church; painted a gynecology clinic; rebuilt computer networks; and
fixed a foot bridge that thousands of pedestrians use to cross from one
neighborhood to another.

All of these projects are suggested by the Haitian pastors, not the
missionaries.

"It took me a long time to find out that it's not our country, we're just
visitors here. We do it their way," said Jerry Cheatham.

During the two weeks in Port-Au-Prince, Mobley will visit with pastors who
come to plead their cases and pitch projects to the missions. He will have
missionaries check on the status and then Crusades prays to make the right
decision about what projects it will help complete when the mission teams
return in July.

"If we had a million dollars, we'd spend it," Cheatham said.

What do the Haitians need most? Asked this question, Johnny Joseph, who
became a Christian with the help of an American missionary at 7, said,
"Give them Jesus. Give them work. Feed them."


Local Missionaries: James Edward Brammer, Trisha Claunch, Leroy Hagan,
James Harley, Loren Kaenzig, Pappy Yocum and Ken Meredith, all of
Harrodsburg; Deborah Derringer, of Springfield; Kim Divine of Perryville;
Barry Harmon and Tony Hunt of Danville; and John Mark Johnson, Jerry Kays,
Judi Kays and Edward Lynn Parr, all of Salvisa.