26919: Wharram (news) Michigan man's Haiti mission raises broader questions (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From Bruce Wharram <bruce.wharram@sev.org)


Article published December 16, 2005 The Blade

Michigan man's Haiti mission raises broader questions

Jack Lessenberry, a member of the journalism faculty at Wayne State
University in Detroit and The Blade?s ombudsman, writes on issues and people
in Michigan.
» E-mail him at OMBLADE@aol.com or call 1-888-746-8610.


ZEELAND, Mich.- Phil Snyder has spent most of his life going back and forth
from his home near Grand Rapids to do missionary work in Haiti, and he has
known a few rough days.

Dec. 1, however, was rougher than most. He was shot several times, robbed,
kidnapped, and held for ransom in one of the world's worst slums. Finally,
he was released, and made it back home to his wife and nine kids. So what
are his immediate plans?

Why, to go back to Haiti as soon as possible, where he runs something called
Glow Ministries International, which helps feed and clothe several thousand
Haitian schoolchildren.

Glow stands for God Loves Orphans and Widows, and there is no shortage of
either among the 8 million terribly poor Haitians.

"Haiti defines me," the 48-year-old Mr. Snyder said simply.

What happened to him two weeks ago was, he indicated, at least partly his
fault. He was on his way to the American embassy in Port-au-Prince, to try
and get a visa for a 6-year-old boy who needed eye surgery.

"It was a beautiful day. There were [United Nations] vehicles everywhere,
and I felt safe and secure."

So he took a short cut. Suddenly, a child threw a large rock at his
windshield, and he ducked. "That saved my life," he said.

Instantly, armed men began shooting at his truck. He took some buckshot in
his neck and chest, and a bullet passed through his arm. He drove on for a
few hundred yards before his truck gave out. He got out dazed, and a crowd
ripped his shirt off and stole his wallet.

At length he was led away. "Some Haitian Red Cross nurses appeared and
bandaged my wounds, and at some point I was told I was now a hostage. The
Haitians presume all Americans are rich," Mr. Snyder said, "and compared to
them we are. We are all kings."

He didn't know what would happen or if he would survive. Fortunately, his
oldest son, Chad, was also in Haiti. Somehow, the kidnappers got word to
him, and he negotiated with his father's captors.

They wanted $300,000. In the end, they settled for $2,000 and $10,000 in
Haitian currency, he said. The money was put up by an anonymous donor.

Shelton, the little boy who needed eye surgery, remained with Mr. Snyder
throughout the ordeal. He was rescued, too, and has since had his surgery.
But while the story had a happy ending, it raised some eyebrows and broader
questions about missionary work itself.

Ruth Tucker, a professor of missions at the Calvin Theological Seminary in
Grand Rapids, thinks there may be more missionaries now than ever. "The
nature of mission work is different," she said. "Before, people made it
their life's work. Now, most people go out for a short period of time."

Virtually every devout young Mormon male, for example, spends some time
working as a missionary abroad. Tens of thousands of idealistic young
Americans go forth every year.

Increasingly, however, U.S. missionaries are being resented by people who
don't appreciate outsiders showing up and telling them that their religion
and culture are wrong. Then, too, the war in Iraq has taken a toll.

"The war is terribly unpopular in much of the world, and that hasn't made
life easier for our missionaries," she said.

"I'd have to agree with that," Mr. Snyder said thoughtfully. "But it is a
little different in Haiti, since the people see that the church is about the
only ones who do anything for the people."

Mr. Snyder is devoutly religious. His father was a missionary to Haiti
before him, and he believes his work in Haiti is directed by God.

But if people come to his Glow ministry sites only for something to eat,
that's just fine with him, too. "There is terrible economic necessity," he
says, agreeing that this, not a lack of religions, is Haiti's biggest
problem.

Ruth Tucker, who has written a book on the history of missions, said many
denominations are now sending missionaries from other countries,
particularly Korea, because there is such hostility in many quarters to
anything having to do with Americans, especially abroad.

And in an ironic twist, she added that some Korean and African missionaries
are coming to preach in a new country that has seen few missionaries before,
but which is widely believed to have given itself over to the worship of
materialism and the consumer culture.

Those missionaries are coming to ? America.