Report on Haiti: Part I
Haiti – This article is part one of a series about the ministry taking place in Haiti.
Activity to Date
In March 2010, the Church of God Chaplains Commission was contracted by Dr. Douglas LeRoy, director of Church of God World Missions, to begin a collaborative arrangement to take counsel to the Haitian Church of God who suffered a devastating earthquake a few weeks earlier.
The Training Department of the Chaplains Commission developed a “Post Earthquake Response Manual” and a “Post Earthquake Training Manual” for debriefing teams. We developed both of these manuals and published them before April 2010.
In April 2010, Jake Popejoy made the first trip to train chaplains for the awesome task ahead of assisting those who had lost family, members, and friends. Having met with the newly appointed bishop and assuring him of our intent and desire to help, he immediately set about to locate the best and brightest of his pastors for this training. Bishop Bordeaux selected 29 pastors for the initial Disaster Response Training. These 29 pastors completed the 32 hours of training and received certification and Chaplaincy credentials.
The Haitian bishop has appointed a national director of Chaplaincy Ministries and a Chaplains Board who help give direction to the chaplaincy ministry in Haiti. The Chaplains Commission has provided necessary documents and certification for the coordinator and we continue to give advice, direction, and insight. It will not be too long before the Haitian Chaplaincy program will be able to address many of the problems by themselves. We are offering limited resources so that the trained chaplains can get into the provinces and do their disaster response ministry.
The Chaplains Commission continues to send training and assistance teams to Port-au-Prince every six weeks and we continue to instruct pastors, as well as go into the field to supervise the initial 29 pastors. They are doing an absolutely outstanding job of ministering to the emotionally afflicted survivors of the earthquake.
In addition to the chaplaincy training, the Chaplains Commission has worked with some of the Haitian nationals who are living on the Church of God compound and elsewhere. A number of the chaplains, which we have taken on these training missions, are also pastors and have formed some alliances with local Haitian pastors and leaders.
The chaplains have also offered practical assistance to the resident missionary, Jim Hudson, assisting in brush clearing, electrical work, etc.
On a recent trip, December 6-14, 2010, violence and rioting broke out across the nation of Haiti as a result of political unrest. During that time, the Chaplaincy team, which had just arrived in the country, was still able to do some training and organizing of the chaplaincy ministry. During a break in the unrest, the team went to the village of Sanct Marc, which was the origin of the recent cholera outbreak.
There, we ministered to staff and patients at a hospital designated for cholera patients. Please know that we have a tremendous chaplain, Pastor Andre, who has been working with the cholera patients from the first day of the epidemic. He is truly to be commended. Pastor Andre was in our first training class for disaster response chaplains.
Jake Popejoy
Director – Chaplains Commission
