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 This February, 2004, Doug and I accompanied Pastor Sol Védrine, director of EGC’s Haitian Ministries, to his home country on a ministry trip. This adventure allowed us to see more of the many sides of Sol’s work. Doug and I have learned to pack light for our trips, but at the airport that morning, our two small carry-ons felt out of place next to Sol’s four gigantic suitcases, crammed full of items for family and friends. On the plane, I was surprised to see Sol studying the one-inch-thick, Haitian Civil Code. When I asked him about it, he told us how inheritance laws affect Christian ministry in Haiti. “Commonly, what happens is that one son in a family becomes a Christian and builds a church on his land, but the other non-Christian heirs may also want the land; then there is a legal battle around the church’s land and people become discouraged.” Sol, who studied law in Haiti, frequently helps pastors sort out legal problems.
Passing through customs and regaining Sol’s considerable baggage went smoothly, and, emerging into the bright sunshine, we climbed into a jeep driven by Sol’s friend Reverend Lucanus Altino, better known as “Pastor Luke.” Pastor Luke guided the jeep across Toussaint Louverture Boulevard, which goes into Port-au-Prince, and onto a semi-paved side road that led up a steep hill—is there any other kind in Haiti? Immediately we were bombarded with the brightly painted signs, smells, and sounds of intense street life! Navigating the ruts in the road, we followed the signs to “Habitation Hatt,” our home for the week.
Later in the afternoon we began to meet our ministry team of folks from Emmanuel Baptist of Norfolk, Mass., two women from Maine, and Brother Eli from Sol’s church in Boston.
The next three mornings found us wending our way in a Haitian taxi or “tap-tap”—a brightly painted pickup truck with a tin roof and two long benches on each side of the bed—for 45 minutes through crowded “roundabouts” and the busy market town of Croix-des-Bouquets to eventually arrive at Eglise Baptiste in the town of Beudet, one of the fourteen churches that Pastor Luke oversees. Pastor Luke has been planting churches for fifty years. This congregation began in a small structure, then, in faith, the foundation of the present sanctuary was laid out twelve years ago. In the intervening years a two-story school building, called “Ecole Mixte Salem de Beudet” was also built. This school has 500 children in grades K-9.
Every day when we arrived there were 30 to 40 men in the building, sifting sand, carrying buckets and bags of cement, mixing plaster and—climbing up on the makeshift scaffolding—throwing it trowel by trowel onto the ceiling, then it was smoothed over. The process was worker-intensive in a country with high unemployment.
One of the highlights during the week was a marriage and family conference which Sol held on the second floor of the unfinished sanctuary. This conference covered the many dimensions of marriage: emotional, legal, spiritual, social, moral, and financial. Sol feels Haiti needs critical minds to evaluate and help contextualize Christianity to people’s real worlds.
One evening, our rented tap-tap careened through the crowded streets of Port-au-Prince to an evening service at Second Baptist Church, pastored by Rev. Cenofa Point du Jour. In 1957, as a boy going to school away from home, Sol found a spiritual home in this church and maintains strong ties. Effortlessly, he spoke to the congregation in Creole, French and English from Acts 15:36, about Paul’s example of “going back to see how the brothers are doing.” During the service the electricity failed for a few minutes. Plunged into total darkness, the service continued without a break! “The best time to visit is in a time of trouble,” Sol said, “to show that we have not forgotten Haiti in its critical times! I am glad to be here in this hour!”
On Friday, Sol disappeared for the whole day. He was driven across the mountains to visit a rural church he had assisted by purchasing land for them to build. Now he wanted to see the church and meet the people for the first time. Early the next morning, we rushed off to the airport for our noon flight and found the terminal already overcrowded with hundreds of people waiting to leave! Finally settled into our seats, we looked around to see many Diaspora Haitians with very empty suitcases—and very full hearts!
by Judy Hall
[published in Inside EGC, September-October, 2004]
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