Emmanuel Mytil (pictured above with JT Elmera) is an extremely impressive young man – since graduating from the Preachers’ Training School last December, Emmanuel has been serving as Associate Minister at the Delmas 28 Church of Christ in Port-au-Prince, and as Dean of Students for the Preaching School.
JT says that Emmanuel and his wife, who recently graduated from the School of Nursing at Delmas, are like the Acquila and Priscilla of Port-au-Prince. He hasn’t come right out and said it, but you can tell that JT has tapped Emmanuel to ultimately be the one to fill his shoes some day, and JT is clearly pouring a lot of time and energy into mentoring this young man.
When Jim Cain and I were in Haiti this past June we had a chance to ask Emmanuel what all he’s doing now since graduation, as part of his role as a minister at the Delmas 28 Church. Here’s what he told us:
“I work as an Associate Minister with brother Elmera. My primary role is as a Youth Minister, working with Jr. High, High School, and College age students. In addition to working with all the students at Delmas, I also coordinate youth activities for most of the churches in the metropolitan Port-au-Prince area. I am striving to take everything I learned in my 4 years of training at the school of Theology, and share what I’ve learned with others, and I am especially focused on helping young men and women grow into strong, effective Christian leaders in their homes, churches, and communities.
“Each Sunday I preach and teach classes either at Delmas or one of the other churches in the area who don’t have a full-time preacher – I get a lot of calls from many churches, in Port-au-Prince and outside Port-au-Prince, to go help them. We also have a radio program we do each Sunday, and I fill in with that when brother Elmera is not available – we reach a lot of people with that radio program.
“I actually coordinate activities with many of the Churches of Christ all across Haiti who are trying to grow their congregations. There are a lot of churches here that are really struggling, and I’m working with JT and the Elders at Delmas to develop programs designed to strengthen and encourage these congregations – to give them a bit of a boost. We had an area-wide church conference on May 13th with 33 churches represented. Our plan is to continue doing this once every 6 months, and to extend it to include all the Churches of Christ from around the entire country. I believe this is an extremely important activity.”
When we asked Emmanuel about his role as Dean of Students at the Preachers’ Training School, he said:
“After we started the second round of students at the DCU* School of Theology, I was asked to take on certain leadership roles, primarily serving as a liaison between the students and the churches in this area. The Churches of Christ very much appreciate what is being accomplished through our School of Preaching, and the training these men are receiving. I find churches for our students to preach at each Sunday to practice the skills they are learning – so each week we’re sending students to Cazeau, Terra Noir, Leogane, and churches even farther away than that. The work we’re doing here is impacting not just the Delmas church, and not even just the churches in this immediate area – our work is very wide spread, and very evangelistic in focus. We are developing a good school, and we are trying to extend our services to people who need us all over Haiti.”
After he had rolled all this out for us, Emmanuel looked at Jim and I, and with a big smile on his face he concluded by saying:
“So that’s just a few of the things I’m doing now – and I’m not tired.”
* (Delmas Christian University, the actual name for what we informally refer to as the “Preachers’ Training School”)
