Discipleship, Stewardship and Missions: A Perspective from Haiti

by Rev. Dr. Larry Hovis

At the CBFNC General Assembly in March at FBC Asheville, the mission offering we collected was designated for the newly formed Haiti Housing Network (HHN). CBF is one of the principal partners in this network, which has the ambitious goal of building one thousand homes in the Grand Goave community over the next three years. At the assembly, we asked Dr. Steve Bissette, a family physician and member of Ardmore Baptist Church in Winston-Salem, to issue the challenge and prayer for the offering. Dr. Bissette, husband of CBFNC moderator Donna Bissette, had taken a group of college students to Haiti to perform medical and construction work the previous summer. During his appeal, Dr. Bissette told the large group of worshippers that if they contributed enough money to build a house (then estimated to be $3,000, it has since been revised to $4,000), he would “personally guarantee that Larry Hovis would go on the trip and help build the house!” At the end of that service, in the euphoria of the moment, I upped the ante and challenged the assembly to contribute enough funds to build two houses, and publicly promised that I would, indeed, make the trip.

The trip was scheduled for the following August, right before the students were return to school. It was the hottest time of the year to visit one of the hottest places I’ve ever been. Prior to undertaking this journey, my daughter, Lauren, a college student for whom this was her third mission trip of 2011, encouraged me to read, When Helping Hurts: How to Alleviate Poverty Without Hurting the Poor…and Yourself. I found the book to be extremely thought-provoking and it caused me to question, filter and analyze our mission trip (and all mission work) from a whole new perspective.

Our experience included meeting and worshipping with Haitian Baptists, meeting and learning from CBF global missions field personnel and partners, administering basic medical treatment (Dr. Bissette and a portion of our group for half the week), and working alongside Haitians in building a rubble house. Space limitations don’t permit me to describe the fascinating process of rubble house construction, so I encourage you to visit the following website for more information: http://www.haitihousingnetwork.com/. I emerged from this week hot, tired, and sore, but also spiritually renewed. After processing this experience, I’ve drawn three conclusions and want to issue a challenge.

CBF is Doing Missions Right

While the situation in Haiti is very discouraging in many ways, including the dysfunctional government and the ineffectiveness of much of the relief effort there, CBF and our primary partner, Conscience International, are functioning with good missiology and a wholistic, sustainable, Christ-centered approach. The field personnel whom we encountered (Mike and Brenda Harwood and Jenny Jenkins) are dedicated, smart individuals who would pass the muster of When Helping Hurts. Our CBF efforts are done with the Haitians, not for them, empowering them ultimately to provide for themselves, rather than perpetuating a culture of dependency.

Benefits of Short-term Mission Engagement

While our team, no doubt, rendered some genuine service to the Haitians we encountered, we were the primary beneficiaries of our trip. As we traveled together, experienced a new culture, prayed together, met and worshipped with Christian brothers and sisters who are materially poor but spiritually rich, and interacted with our CBF missions field personnel who have sacrificed greatly to live and serve in a hard place, our faith was challenged, strengthened and renewed. If we are honest, then we have to admit that in terms of impact, it was more of a discipleship development experience for our group of American Christians than direct ministry to needy Haitians.

Field Personnel More Important, Not Less

It’s been customary, after thirty years of the short-term volunteer missions movement, to pat ourselves on the back for taking a week or two of our lives every year for a mission trip, and call ourselves missionaries. Some Christians and churches have questioned the need for vocational, field-based, full-time missionaries, and their support of such personnel has declined as they devote more and more resources to supporting their members in short-term projects and trips. But I came back from Haiti more convinced than ever of the necessity of “professional” missionaries. Mike, Brenda, Jenny and others built the relationships and prepared the way for us to have a meaningful experience. They remain in place long after we are gone. They get to know the people and the culture and ensure that our brief work is done in a way that helps rather than hurts those we purport to serve. Ironically, the more volunteers we send on short-term mission trips, the more vital our field personnel become.

A Modest (or is it Radical?) Proposal

Because God’s mission to the most neglected and least evangelized people in the world along with the discipleship development of short-term missions volunteers is dependent on the presence, effectiveness and faithfulness of vocational missions field personnel, I propose that CBF Christians and churches make the following pledge: for every dollar we spend to send a team on a short-term mission trip we raise another dollar for the support of the field personnel with whom they work and their colleagues around the globe. For example, I estimate that the Ardmore group spent around $15,000 to send eleven persons to Haiti, not including the $6,000 CBFNC gave to the Haiti Housing Network. This money came from a combination of church funds and the personal funds of team members. Under this proposal, we would raise an additional $15,000 to support our CBF field personnel. If every CBF short-term mission team followed this practice, we would be able to increase the number of our career missionaries and significantly strengthen our mission efforts around the globe.

There was a time in which we outsourced mission engagement to professionals and assumed ordinary Christians had no responsibility for global missions, other than supporting vocational missionaries. Thankfully, that’s no longer the case. But has the pendulum swung too far in the other direction? In our time, have we assumed (by our stewardship, if not our words), that because we can travel all over the world we no longer need vocational missionaries? It’s not either/or, but both/and. Our recent trip to Haiti made that very clear – at least to me.

Larry Hovis is the Executive Coordinator of CBF of North Carolina.

Rescuing Creation

by Dr. J. Derrill Smith

After having been buried alive for a week in the rubble of Haiti's January 12 earthquake, Ena Zizi was rescued by the Gophers. As they pulled her dirty and injured body out on a broken piece of plywood salvaged from the rubble and carefully passed her down over three stories of debris to the ground, the 70-year-old woman began singing. Her singing was inarticulate, as she hadn't had any water to drink for seven days. Yet, her joy was infectious. The members of the Mexican rescue team who were carrying her began crying...

The Mexicans who saved Zizi's life are known in their home country as Los Topos de Tlatelolco, or the Gophers of Tlatelolco. Tlatelolco was a giant apartment complex in Mexico City that was destroyed by earthquake in 1985. During that disaster, when the Mexican government failed to respond promptly, Tlatelolco residents formed their own rescue brigade and learned on the job. In the years since they have become stars among international rescue teams.

Unlike rescuers who stay on the surface and peel away the debris until they reach the victims, they Gophers have become world-renowned experts at gaining faster access to survivors by tunneling into rubble and propping up makeshift tunnels with debris. It means they put their own lives at risk, but that risk paid off for Zizi. ("Out of the Rubble," The Christian Century, March 23, 2010)

Paul Jeffrey, a United Methodist missionary who reported this moving story, says that the Gophers have a lot to teach us. He says that if we are to help the Haitians, as well as other devastated people, we must dig deeper and tunnel into the systems that keep people depressed and poor. Indeed, he is correct. But some of my first thoughts about the Mexican rescuers tunneling deep into dangerous places went immediately to the great thing that Christ did for us. Setting aside his glory and putting on human flesh, Jesus of Nazareth tunneled into the pathos of human existence in order to show us the way to God. Yet, the world did not receive this Savior but hung him on a cross. The earliest teachers of the faith said that "he descended into hell." There is much speculation about what exactly that descent means, but there is no denying that Christ tunneled into human existence, even death and hell itself, to rescue his creation. This is the message of Easter. "Christ is risen! The Lord is risen indeed!"

Derrill Smith is the pastor of Wingate Baptist Church in Wingate, NC. This article originally appeared in Wingate Baptist's church newsletter, "The Chrysalis."

The Bribing of Converts

by Rev. Laura Barclay

As relief pours into Haiti from a variety of religious groups and the transition to long term aid begins, fundamentalists from a variety of backgrounds are clashing over beliefs. CNN reports some Christians are throwing stones at Vodou (also called Voodoo, a syncretic religion borne out of West African religions and Catholicism) practitioners during their ceremonies and defacing their altars. It’s very disconcerting that followers of Christ would turn to violence and disrespect in the name of God. I recently heard a pastor make the statement that when Paul went to Athens and was discouraged at the presence of local religious practices, he learned Athenian wisdom and culture from the Epicureans and Stoics and then debated the issue in front of the Areopagus, as the locals would (Acts 17). Paul respected the traditions of the Athenians and learned their ways, meeting them on equal terms as a show of deference.

The CNN article alludes to the fact that those throwing stones are Christian Haitians. It would be easy to say that violence and aggression are by-products of poverty and tragedy. But when you peel back the layers of this story, a disturbing trend begins to emerge. One pastor from Miami states:

“We would give food to the needy in the short term but if they refuse to give up Voodoo, I’m not sure we would continue to support them in the long term because we wouldn’t want to perpetuate that practice. We equate it with witchcraft, which is contrary to the gospel.”

This pastor is offering food for conversion, a manipulative prospect. Instead of witnessing the boundless hospitality of Christ, converts from external missions are learning to devalue the culture out of which they came to the point that they are ready to stone their neighbors who have not become Christians. This dangle-the-carrot type of missions is abhorrent, and is leading to conflict in this already ravaged nation.

In a previous post, I highlighted the work of ABC/CBF field personnel Steve and Nancy James for their diligent work as followers of Christ, providing medical attention and needed services. They were in Haiti before this tragedy occurred, and they will be there after, providing physical and spiritual healing without a time limit or a threat to deny aid. That is the example of Jesus—working for justice and exhibiting love and healing in the name of God. Wouldn’t the best way of sharing your experience with God be to love God and your neighbor unconditionally as God loves us?


Interested in continued support for Haiti in this time of great need? Read about the James' work in Haiti, learn about volunteering, or donate.

Why God Didn't Curse Haiti

by Rev. Laura Barclay

Many people have heard about Pat Robertson’s terrible remark where he states that the country has been “cursed” because they “swore a pact to the devil.” Christians, in varying degrees, have denounced his statement. Some say that while God does judge us, this isn’t an example of that judgment. Al Mohler, president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, KY says it was the right sentiment at the wrong time. He states “Do I believe God punishes nations? You bet, the same way I know that judgment falls upon individuals.” Is there really a right time to tell a nation that you think they signed a pact with the devil because they stood up to those oppressing them and threw off the shackles of slavery—a biblical paradigm straight from Exodus, I might add? The associate pastor of my church, Susan Parker, says the opposite on her blog, “Choosing life and blessings”:

“My God is grieving for the tens of thousands of people who have died, grieving for those who may still be clinging to life, but who are trapped under the rubble and may not be able to be saved. My God is instilling hope in those who are working feverishly to uncover any remaining survivors, giving strength to aid workers who have been on their feet for days without proper rest, and comforting the survivors who have lost family, friends and all their meager possessions.”

I completely agree. Unlike some who denounced the timing of Robertson’s words but stood by the idea of a God who would judge Haiti through an earthquake, I believe that God is not instigating catastrophes but is present in the response of aid workers like the American Red Cross, Doctors Without Borders, and many Baptist entities including CBF missionaries Steve and Nancy James and coordinated disaster response teams. As Jon Stewart pointed out in what seemed like an impromptu sermon on The Daily Show last week, there are countless Bible verses a minister could use to bring comfort at a time like this (Psalm 34:18, Isaiah 41:1, Isaiah 54:10, to name a few). These entities that are so dutifully coming to Haiti’s aid embody these scriptures.

As I was listening to NPR a week ago, a Haitian immigrant now residing in the U.S. told a story she had heard in the news coverage. Rescue workers tried desperately to extract a little girl from the debris, and when she was freed later she spoke about feeling God’s presence as she was trapped. Conversely, Elie Wiesel, in his book Night, talks about his experience at a concentration camp during World War II about not feeling the presence of God as he watched a boy being hung on the gallows by Nazis. Whether or not we feel the presence of God in the debris of Haiti or atrocities of war, God is suffering with us. That is why Jesus is called “Immanuel” and why God plays the role of comforter in so many passages, as Jon Stewart pointed out. As we struggle for answers, let us remember that we are called by God to bring hospitality and comfort to God’s people. Let us do that both in our own communities and in Haiti. Donate to CBF’s efforts in Haiti, the American Red Cross, Doctors Without Borders, Haiti Action, or any other charity you have found to be effective during this tragedy.