18880: Nlbo: Congratulations to Boston's Operation Make a Difference (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Nlbo@aol.com

Though I have a lot to do, I  don’t want the week to go by without giving a
BIG applaud to the 400 to 500 young Haitians who came together the weekend of
February 13 to 15  for their 12th annual Haitian American [Prostestant] Youth
Congress. Their topic, “ Free to be me: An Heir of God” taken from Gal 5:1
support their theme”Celebrating our Spiritual Freedom from the Slavery of Sin”.
Echo Evangelique, Haitian American Youth Soccer, Inc, and Centre for
Formation and Development need to be praised also for sponsoring this gathering geared
to  young Haitian protestants.

I have read about Haitian protestant  congresses gathering 1,000 young
people. One of the youth told me they used to be 3,000. Besides the national college
student conferences, this is the first time I have witnessed several hundred
young Haitians come together, especially in a Christian atmosphere be it
Protestant or Catholic. I have seen 100, 150 Haitian Catholics have come together.

It all started at Meadow Glenn Mall off Route 16 in Medford when I noticed a
line of young blacks who looked Haitians. The queue was so long that it
reached outside of Country Buffet Saturday. I curiously asked them who they were,
where they came from, what  they were doing in the mall?  One gentleman
informed me they were a group from L’Eglise Baptiste d’Expression Francaise in
Downtown Brooklyn. Another told me they are between the ages of 13 to 30 in that
bus trip.   I learned during the unplanned 5 hours  I ended up spending  in the
youth gathering, these young Haitians from New York always come alone to those
annual congresses. There was also another group from another protestant
church in the New York area. As a Catholic, expecting a priest to be with them, I
asked for the pastor. They told me he did not come. When I got to Boston
Missionary Baptist Church that hosted the youth congress, I found out the pastor
was out of town also.

Besides West Medford which is a black middle class area, the area where the
mall is located is, a predominately working class Irish and Italian town that
has gotten ethnically mixed over the last 15, 20 years. Unlike Dorchester,
Roxbury, Mattapan, five young blacks  together in that mall, especially five black
men would get people’s attention, even “ nervous” or “uncomfortable”, not
along 50. Everyone knows how some Haitians can behave when they are to serve
themselves in parties. It wouldn’t take too long to manifest the same behaviors
in a self-service, all -you- can- eat restaurant, in addition to talking loud.
 I have been with adult groups who don’t show good manners. These young
people were one of the most well behaved groups I have ever seen. They deserve
public praise. They deserve public acknowledgement, not only for their behaviors,
but for organizing the day basically by themselves. Contrarily to traditional
Haitian Christian attitudes, not to get involved in “non-church” issues,
these young Haitian protestants seem to be changing the evangelical tradition.
They had workshops on Celebrating Haitian Independence Day, delicious Haitian
food in abundance, and Haitian art gallery. In the night service that I got to
see,  a young man gave a biography of Jacques Stephen Alexis, a young woman read
about Haitian novelist Edwidge Danticat, and a younger adolescent recited
eloquently a poem on Africa.

I don’t like  religious polemics. However, when good things are happening in
the community, it doesn’t matter who is doing it, they need everyone’s
support and encouragement. Five hundred young Haitians in a church for three days,
especially Friday, Saturday nights deserve to be applauded. This is an example
that Catholics also can follow.  Both Catholic and protestants can vision to
have in each church educational and recreational programs for 50 to 100 youth
every Friday or Saturday nights and on going after school, summer activities
for youth. This is an endeavor that donors from faith based initiative programs
will gladly support.
 As a Catholic who migrated to Boston in my early teens,  I am jealous. I
envy those young protestants. For 30 years,  young Haitian Catholics in Boston
have never had a youth congress, neither have they participated in national, or
regional, Haitian or non Haitian conventions as members of a Catholic church
community. Ideas for plays, poems, educational gatherings, lectures, readings
or presentations with prominent authors and/or well versed clerics, or trained
lay professionals never got support.

 Again, Congratulations  to all of the young Haitian-American protestants and
the Haitian adults who work them !

Nekita