|
Dear Families in Christ,
Greetings in the name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. I hope this
newsletter finds you all in good health both physically and spiritually. We want to thank you all for your involvement, commitment, prayers,
financial and material support to the Lord’s kingdom all over the world
and specially in Haiti. We wanted to update you on our ministry,
specifically on the School of Preaching. We are in the process of making
an unexpected yet exciting change to our student leadership. Due to certain
circumstances, the national Board of Trustees decided upon efficient changes in
the staff for the upcoming 2018-2019 school year, and quite the contract
possibly of a few others. There are a few realities in our ministry:
Vision:
The vision is that the un-reached people of Haiti come to Christ as
Revelation 7:9 prophecies, and that when the gospel is preached to the
whole world then Christ will return. This ministry is one small part of
the Great Commission that will hasten the return of Jesus Christ in great
power and glory.
Overview:
The Church of Christ at Delmas 43 was established on September 13, 1988
(29 years ago). The bible school was started in 1990 by Jean Robert St-Hilaire, an indigenous pioneer worker among the people in the Port-au-Prince area,
Capital of Haiti, Rod Myers (now Elder and pulpit Minister of the Central
Church of Christ in Sarasota Florida), and the Snellville Church of Christ
in Snellville Georgia. Then, because of a lack of leadership and finances
the oversight was transferred to the Boca-Delray Church of Christ for a
few months, then transmitted to the Northeast Church of Christ in Kingsport, Tennessee as sponsoring and overseer congregation in 1992.
Haiti is the
poorest country of the Western Hemisphere and one of the most receptive
countries to the Gospel. Now, there are 243 churches in Haiti, some were established by
our graduates, others are converted through seminars for denominational
preachers including Delmas 43, containing over 2,414 believers. There are
30 full time students attending over a 3-year graduation period and more than
300 satellite school’s students.
There are seven full time teachers (three receive $150/month), the others are
volunteer graduated from the school, and one paid Secretary (her monthly
salary comes from the Central Church of Christ in Sarasota Florida). All
are ministering among different groups in two languages (Creole and French).
During my lifetime, I have had the opportunity to observe many people as
they have dealt with the complexities of so-called normal living. Since
many years ago, those observations have mainly been of those professing
Humanities - some in the Horse Show world, others in the business world, and
still more in prison by the devil and false doctrines.
Some grew quickly
and flourished spiritually; most floundered. Some made an impact; others
made no difference whatsoever. Some grew in Christ; others dried up
spiritually and withered away. Some rejoiced and offered encouragement;
others moaned, complained, and griped. Some deepened and softened; others
became more shallow and hardened. Some grew old with Godly grace and Godly
influence; while most just grew older.
Haiti is a place wracked by voodoo, Catholicism, hundreds of
denominations, diseases and poverty. But it is also a place where the Good
News of Jesus is spreading quickly through the towns and villages. The
Church of Christ at Delmas 43 has a number of key men graduated from our
School of Preaching, working in this area to promote the concept of Church
Planting Movement, encouraging and training people to share their lives
and the Good News in their homes, their villages and bringing people together
in simple small groups.
The Northeast Church of Christ in Kingsport,
Tennessee has been partnering with Mission South Haiti for a number of
years, overseeing and supporting financially the Delmas School of
Preaching. We have known the Northeast Church and the key leaders for 25
years and they understand the impact of the work in this part of the
world.
The work continues to develop and new local based churches are constantly
being established. We like the simplicity of the concept and the impact it
has on people. People are encouraged to become Bible readers and teachers;
and to just take their new found faith out into their networks. This sort
of grassroots concept is very transferable in this country.
Objectives:
-
To equip the saints to do the work of the ministry
-
To build character, discipline and holiness
-
To send out graduates into full-time evangelism and church planting
-
To support the graduates in their work until they have established
independent and self-supporting indigenous churches
-
The harvest is ripe, but the laborers are few.
-
The poor people are generally open to the gospel but there are few people
working among this group. Our vision for the bible school is based on Rev
7:9.
Our leadership responsibilities include:
-
Planning denominational seminars
-
Pastoring the Delmas
congregation and giving advices among those who have planted dozens of
churches
-
Planning refresher and leadership teaching seminars for church planters
-
Visiting city and rural churches outside of Port-au-Prince
-
Preparing and teaching daily Bible classes for the School of Preaching
-
Maintaining contact and teaching the World English Institute students
-
We travel extensively to help the small churches to continue living and
growing in the Word of God. The challenge is to build a team of short and
long term supporters who will support financially into a monthly basis so
we can concentrate on developing the churches together with the Northeast
Church of Christ.
Vision and Annual Strategy The vision is to grow this church planting movement by supporting the key
leaders, providing buildings to worship, providing transportation fees, giving
Bibles to the new converted, and feeding poor Christians who cannot take
care of themselves. In addition, there are other needs related to the
development of the work that the support will go towards. The monthly
funds (which is a great blessing) of $3,100 from the Northeast Church of
Christ is only used to operate the School budget including an inadequate
monthly salary of $700 for Jean Robert and his family as the School
Director and Church Minister; however, the largest amount each year goes
towards the expenses of the School of Preaching. Nevertheless, the
ministerial budget is estimated to be more than $6,900 monthly. So, this
ministry necessarily needs supporters for $3,800 more on a monthly basis.
Final remarks:
As you can notice, it is very urgent to support local students ($50,
$100/month until graduation). Again, the harvest is ripe, but the workers
are few. Currently, the Northeast Church of Christ in Kingsport Tennessee
has been the main supporter of the Delmas Institute of Biblical Studies
for the past 25 years. Can you imagine what a donation of $50, and $100
would do to
help train a Preacher?
We need short and full-time supporters.
We need a
missionary mindset to reach this goal; and so, in addition to prayer and
people, we need dedicated individuals to support our work financially. We
run a tight ship, so the majority of your support at this point will go
toward our evangelistic efforts.
You can donate by calling or contacting
one of our overseeing Elders, Sam Ross:
sam@securemoneymasters.com, Richard Bonner:
rtbonner@charter.net, Larry Luethke:
lluethke@charter.net. Or, mail your
checks to: The Northeast Church of Christ, 2217 Beechnut Dr. Kingsport, TN
37660. We’d like to hear from you. Stay committed, blessed and mission-minded!
Jean Robert
Carlo S. Mardy, Duquesne, Prophete, Jean Robert St-Hilaire.
Chairman Elder: Treasurer Board of Trustees, Mission Minister
Home
|