FBC Haiti Disaster Relief

Dear Brethren,

May the grace and love of God be with you all!

We are writing to request your prayers for our trip to Haiti on Monday May 3rd. We will also fully equip 10 new homes for a group of orphan children, and conduct several medical operatives and fumigation in different communities. The rains have brought a plague of mosquitoes to Haiti.

Also, we will bring refrigerators, fans, medicine, milk, cereal, shoes and many other useful items to help in the many needs the orphanages are facing with the children.

Please pray for:

1. The construction team that is already in Haiti.
2. The customs officers, that God may touch their hearts and allow us to pass all the things we are bringing.
3. The volunteers who are coming from the United States; that they may have a safe trip and arrive well.
4. The security of the Dominican brothers and sisters who will be traveling on Monday.
5. The cooperation of the Haitian authorities.
6. That our Lord Jesus Christ may be glorified with this work, and that many would come to know Him as their Lord and Savior.

In the love of Christ,

Your servant,

Miguel Angel Castillo

Pastor, Bible Foundation Church

These thoughts will be primarily a bullet-point list of observations and decisions related to our corporate ministry efforts in Haiti stemming from my recent leadership coordination and planning trip April 5-10.

Re:  general impressions of present conditions

• Haiti is now beyond the immediate urgency of saving lives.  There is and will continue to be need for qualified medical workers to come alongside.  Our group has formed an ongoing relationship with “Viscaya” as the centralized dispatching service for medical workers through us.  Any medical personnel, particularly those experienced in wound treatment, orthopedic rehabilitation, prosthetics, etc. would be welcomed.  They/We have first option to accept or decline dispatch requests based on our ministry purposes; i.e. – if we are not allowed to share the Gospel in a particular place, we can decline and ask for a different posting for the day/week.
• The base house in Port-au-Prince is a great blessing.  Praise God for this provision.  It provides a safe center of operations for all our people.
• The principles of When Helping Hurts (Corbett & Fickett; Moody, 2009) are very helpful at this point.  Haiti has survived the relief crisis and now must move to rehabilitation and development.  The key to rehabilitation and development is a change of attitude, mindset, and heart, leading to participative solutions.  Anything less would be enabling deeply engrained negative and even sinful behavior.  We know that such a transformation from a stereotypical welfare-entitlement-corruption culture to one of responsibility and positive change can really only come through the transforming power of Christ through the Gospel.
• It is my perspective, that our North American churches should NOT gear up to do scores of work-project short-term missions to build buildings for Haitians.  No project should be undertaken without assuring the cooperation and co-laboring of Haitian recipients.  It may be best, in most cases, to send funds to be administering through our reliable DR brothers and trusted like-minded residents in Haiti to pay Haitians to do the hard work of demolition, debris removal, and rebuilding.  That accomplishes two things:  one/ it provides meaningful work (we were told that unemployment is presently 85-90%); two/ it instills a responsible ownership of the task and the results.  Hundreds of thousands of Haitians are idly living in tent cities covering most parks and open public areas waiting for the next food distribution, while pancaked shells of buildings remain untouched.
• There is a place, though, for very specific and useful projects when the above criteria are met.  These can be coordinated through Josue, Angelita, and the consortium work of IBSH and IBG.

Re:  finances and financial needs

• Please see the link (on the right sidebar in this blog, or on the left sidebar on the Faith Bible Church Haiti Relief web page) for the most up-to-date posted status.  To date we have received approx. $75,000 and dispersed half of that to Haiti Relief.  We continue to have utmost confidence in the people and ministries stewarding those funds on the ground in the Dominican Republic and Haiti.
• After the initial wave of donations, the flow of funds has dwindled.  We still need two reliable 4WD vehicles for the work.  The road conditions are abhorrent.  Traffic makes travel in and around Port-au-Prince a time-consuming trial.
• We praise the Lord that several larger external relief agencies, through the advocacy of several key people working with us, have deemed our group worthy of receiving and reliably dispersing whole container loads of goods and materiel in those communities to which God has led us to be committed.  Recall, in the early weeks after the earthquake, the U.N. provided armed escort fore and aft of “our” supply convoy to communities to insure that relief foodstuffs, etc., arrived safely at their intended destination.  We pray that such good relationships and favor would provide for efforts in those communities we have selected for longer term partnership and training.

Re:  Key decisions

• It is notable that a number of our dear, like-minded Dominican brethren had already established long-term ministry relationships across Haiti for years prior to the earthquake.  These relationships and connections form a continuing channel for ongoing ministry post-earthquake.  The Gospel-saturated nature of the teaching and proclamation ministries continues as well.    There are many testimonies of God grace through the Gospel have already accomplished amazing things.  We are grateful to God for both the men, the principles, and the connectedness of this legacy.
• Iglesia Bautista de la Gracia (in Santiago) and the IBSH consortium (in Santo Domingo) continue in sacrificial ministry to Haiti, often with other sympathetic ministries and NGOs providing resources far beyond the capacity of our corporate efforts through this fund.  A number of North American churches related more directly to those DR ministers have entered the arena as special partners in the work.  Notably the tireless labors of Jean-Pierre Cawas and connections through Childrens Hunger Fund and Esperanza have been a blessing to many.
• We clearly decided that we want to have large, longer-term impact on a handful of communities receptive to our teaching/discipleship ministry in, to, and through willing Haitian pastors.  The training will include both practical life skills (personal & community health & hygiene [e.g. latrines], literacy [for Bible reading], “up-to-code” building practices) and pastoral training (using a modified “Bible Training Centre for Pastors” curriculum) over the next couple of years.  This is an area in which adoptive churches in our FIRE Fellowship might take partnership responsibility and even aid in the teaching, training, translation of materials, etc.
• While larger “pastors conferences” may continue at a rate of 3-4 per year, these are acknowledged to be a shotgun approach and should be viewed as a screening event to determine who among those that come for free training and a free lunch are really serious about studying the Word, leading their people, and growing in the doctrines we hold dear.
• The key activists we are partnering with continue to be Josue Raimundo and Angelito Castillo, and those fellowships of churches and church leaders with whom they work and lead in this Haiti ministry.
• 

Greetings from Haiti and the Dominican Republic

God is doing great things here. In very different ways than we expected, but amazing things non-the-less. We just got back into the Dominican Republic this afternoon.  We drove out 3:00 am Tuesday [6 Apr] and went to bed after midnight. It felt like 2 days in one. We visited downtown [Port-au-Prince] Haiti and it was everything and more than the news had said. In some ways we only got a taste. But, the devastation is like nothing we have ever seen, nor likely will. The presidential palace was being demolished and some clean up efforts have begun. But at the same time the relief stage is passing and daily life is the new normal. Things may not actually change much now for many years. Markets are up and running. The tent cities are huge. Some over 10,000. and many may live this way from now on. Haiti is a strange place. I have never seen more scripture and Christian references on buses and businesses anywhere in the world. But, it seems like it is just “good luck charms” for protection.
The people are quick to speak of Jesus, but the corruption is so deep that it is difficult to know who to trust. There is a Mercy Industry here. There are hundreds and hundreds of orphanages and they all seem to be vying for resources. There is much to be said about it. It doesn’t seem like people caring for orphans are bad people, but it is clearly a business.  People go around and recruit for orphans. There are thousands that are not really orphans.
But the poverty is so great people would send kids there for an education and regular food.
But the thing we are so encouraged by is the Dominicans who are coming to serve and organize aid distribution. This group has such a solid gospel and heart for hurting people that we are a bit blown away. We are very like minded with Josue Raimundo who serves the DR churches and the Haitian churches. We came back early because we feel like key connections here are more important than seeing sites there in Haiti. We had a great contact with a missionary named Tony Jones who can help us set up pastor training.  We had a great visit to one place with a place for a potential orphanage work. Tomorrow we will meet with Angel Castillo.
We need discernment more than ever and are confident that he is putting some key pieces together.
Our hearts are all good. God is growing us in ways we didn’t expect and we are really enjoying each other.
More later,
For Christ’s Praise
Dan [Faith Bible Church, Spokane WA]
For the Team