Jul 13

Finding Signs of Hope in Haiti’s Rubble

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-Dominican Republic, Life in the City, Personal Reflection, Social Issues, Urban Church, • In But Not Of, • The City of Joy

Editor’s note: This week is the six month anniversary of the devastating January earthquake in Haiti. There will once again be media coverage of what is and what is not happening in Haiti. Here is a viewpoint from Mario Matos, CTM – Estrategia de Transformacion Caribbean Director.

Recently, Kris Rocke and I along with two other friends went back to Haiti to work alongside Sous Espwa (Source of Hope in Haitian Creole), our Haitian partner organization, to continue the training of Haitian pastors and grassroots leaders.  This time, the goal was to do a vision trip, visiting places of pain and attempting to find signs of hope after the massive earthquake that hit Haiti almost six months ago. If we want to preach and teach good news among people whose lives have been crushed by life, sometimes the best classrooms are places where people are living in affliction and pain.  We wanted to take these leaders out of their church buildings and enter in with them to the most intense places in Port-au-Prince, to ask beautiful questions to the people the church exists to reach out and serve.  We wanted to enter into their pain, and help them give voice to it. This is never an easy task, but one thing we are learning is that, “the first condition of healing, is to bring pain to view, so that everyone can see it.” -Kathleen O’Connor Lamentations and the Tears of the World
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May 2

The Open Door – Reflections from Haiti

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-Guatemala City, Bible and Theology, Calendar of Faith: Lent, Calendar of Faith: Ordinary Time, • In But Not Of

Oh what a difference a few months and a huge natural disaster can make in the mission of a theological seminary. Roughly a year ago, Mario Matos (Center for Transforming Mission Dominican Republic Director) and I sat around a table in Haiti with the leadership of a prominent seminary who called us into a meeting after a presentation we had been asked to make of the CTM training process for grassroots leaders to about 100 students and Haitian leaders. The seminary campus was surrounded by an ominous wall separating its tranquil learning environment from two expansive urban slums that literally sandwiched the campus on either side.

In an office with the seminary president and the rest of the executive team we learned about considerations of moving the seminary from its current location because of the rising delinquency and violence around them. In reference to our presentation on incarnational mission that we had just concluded, they held up their mission statement that said something about their call to train pastors and Christian leaders for community transformation and stated that if they indeed fled from their current location they would in effect be turning their backs on the very mission they had committed to instill in the students they served. They poignantly asked, “Can you help us learn how to engage and connect with the slums around us that are threatening to choke out our existence here?”

Shortly after that meeting, we received a tour of the beautiful seminary campus and were invited to visit a local pastor by passing into one of the two slums adjacent to the seminary. We entered the slum only after passing through a metal door painted red that was locked and guarded by a security guard.


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