When Carl Lancaster, Jim Hopkins, Jeff Crisp and I went to Haiti in March of 2013, we spent a couple days in Hinche working with Jean Martel (the minister in Hinche, who JT has been training and mentoring for a number of years). One of the places we stopped at was a Church of God when we got there…and a Church of Christ when we left.
It was in a place called Carissade, just outside of Hinche. We ended up baptizing several people there, and watched as the new converts actually took down the wooden sign that read, “Carissade Eglise de Dieu” (Church of God). With my limited comprehension of Creole I didn’t totally grasp what all was going on at the time, but here’s what I know now about what actually happened that day:
The “Church of God” stop was an unplanned, impromptu visit. As we were driving by their little thatch hut, Jean Martel noticed that the preacher – who Jean Martel knew – and several members were there, so Jean Martel told the preacher that he had some American missionaries with him, and asked if we could come and share a brief message with their congregation. The preacher obliged; Jeff spoke a brief message about the love of God as shown to us through Christ, and then JT followed up with the importance of baptism for the forgiveness of sins, and the importance of teaching and following the Bible accurately. The preacher and several members were converted, and wanted to be baptized.
So then Jason Ayers, Johnny Israel, and I returned to Hinche in October, along w/JT and Bwa. While we were there we went around and visited several of the little churches that Jean Martel works with. One of the places we visited was the Church-of-God-turned-Church-of-Christ, where we had baptized all those people in March. The sign over the doorway now read, “Carissade Eglise du Christ” (Church of Christ).
When we arrived, the preacher (that was baptized in March) was there, along with several members of that congregation. Jean Martel explained to us that he had continued working with this preacher and the church, and that there were about 200 Christians worshiping there now. Additionally, there were three other men from that church who had asked Jean Martel if he could begin training them to be ministers also.
(The photo at top is what the Carissade church looked like when we first went there in March of 2013)
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[…] (there’s a very cool backstory on why this place is so special to us – see previous post at https://thehaitifund.org/2020/02/21/carissade-the-backstory/ […]