November 2-8 I (Sean) had the privilege of coming alongside the already thriving national CEF ministry in Haiti to support and encourage the full-time workers, volunteers and national board.
CEF Haiti celebrates 35 years of ministry February 19, 2018 and God has poured out His hand of blessing upon them over those 35 years. In spite of tremendous, at times unspeakable challenges for the country of Haiti, in spite of great obstacles for the CEF ministry locally, the local leaders are resilient, faithful and they deeply trust the Lord.
There is a thriving ministry there, with nine full-time staff at the national office in Port-au-Prince and multiple local offices in more distant parts of the country. CEF Haiti has the largest Instructor of Teachers team in the Caribbean, and the local churches, volunteers and staff of CEF Haiti reach over 3,000 children every single week in school-based CEF ministry!
Pictures of the CEF Haiti national office
Some of the CEF literature, notice some in Creole!
A familiar site, the CEF Culture Points, adhered to globally.
National Director Jacky Gilles’ office
Preparing to teach the Teaching Little Kids course,
credentialing even more local instructors!
This trip had quite a number of objectives to it, and I was very thankful to be in Haiti with a long-time friend of many years, Benjamin Richey. Ben is a fellow Moody Bible Institute grad and I have known him for 7-8 years now. We first met when Ben was an assistant pastor at Heritage Baptist Church – Prattville, Alabama. It has been awesome to get to know the Richey’s over the years as we have stayed connected with our HBC friends. He moved out to California a couple years ago to be the pastor of FBC Kernville. We don’t hardly ever travel out to the West Coast, so I praise the Lord for opening the door for Ben to join me on my CEF time in Haiti and bring new great friends of mine, Rick and Julie Phillips, along to see firsthand the awesome things God has been doing through the local leadership of CEF Haiti.
Rick, Julie, Ben & Sean
Ben had a chance to preach at a CEF-partnering local church!
Rick & Julie were fantastic to get to know, and here they are guest-teaching
together at a CEF Haiti Christmas Party Club!
Thankful for the Church globally and all the ways that God connects us all together. One of those other ways that God connects us all together is how within CEF, two CEF-trained workers from entirely different cultures, backgrounds and teaching styles can meet for the first time, and teach together seamlessly! I had the chance to join in on a Christmas Party Club and teach alongside one of the full-time CEF workers, Nadège. We met for the first time at the Christmas Party Club, and she was assisting me with leading the CEF songs in Creole. The club went wonderfully, and there was no ‘dead time’ in the club sorting out details or song motions or anything.
As shared from the first picture, a primary objective was to assist CEF Haiti with their first large scale Children’s Workers conference, a promotional/training one-day event for local church children’s volunteers. Praise the Lord that over 220 people came out to this first ever event, and CEF Haiti did a fantastic job putting it all together!
Additionally, the pastor of the host church asked me to share the Word of God on Sunday morning! A humbling honor any time there is an opportunity.
It was also a privilege to meet and encourage the CEF Haiti national board! These volunteer leaders are the true leaders of the national ministry and God is using their efforts greatly for the Kingdom.
As always, we try as often as possible to partner with The Gospel Coalition-International Outreach and bring along their freely provided books. This time we were able to bring cases of Mark Dever’s 9 Marks of a Healthy Church as gifts for local pastors, elders and lay leaders!
A special blessing during the trip, and only CEF people will probably fully appreciate this (aside from the huge fact that God also used these folks to translate the very first Bible in Creole, which to say is a huge deal is an understatement), but we met and spent time with Mother Wallace of the CEF Ti-Fam missionary story! An amazing woman of God who has spent decades in genuine Christian Community Development in Haiti.
Jacky Gilles has been a friend of mine for many years in CEF, Jacky is the CEF national director, and he was a great host during our time there. God is using Jacky to grow the ministry there in Haiti, will you pray for him and his wife Myrlande?
To God be the Glory, Great things HE has done!
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P.S.
When you hear about Haiti in the news, or see pictures of Haiti, remember that though there is unimaginable poverty in parts of the country, government challenges in its history and having had profound national disasters that they are still rebuilding from…..Haiti is a beautiful island nation with caring people who love the Lord deeply. Never forget to look for the beauty and positive aspects about this great country when the temptation in our sensationalized, media story-driven culture is to look at the pain.
Love this, Sean! I developed the work in Guyana and through staff like Margaret and Pratima other countries got involved with CEF. I am so happy that the work is thriving.
I wonder how we think of how “thriving” is defined in a context like Haiti? would love to hear your response.
Lord, we do ask your amazing outpouring on Sean and team in Haiti. Amen.
Veda,
Thanks for your below comment on our Haiti blog post! Thankful for your faithful ministry over the years and I praise the Lord for how He used you in Guyana and in our region! Maggie, Pratima, Petronella and many of the other great Guyana staff that I get to work alongside are fruit from your efforts.
That is a very good question. I would say thriving in a context like Haiti is made up of a few different categories, that frankly every country would be evaluated by personally. I would ask questions like: “is the country self-supporting and if not, are they actively working towards this?” “Is the country self-propagating in regards to teacher training and new staff?” “Is there increasing children’s ministry?” “Is there measurable fruit from the overall children’s ministry of the CEF chapter?” Is there increased partnership with other NGOs/NPOs and churches?”
Hope this helps!
Thank you for your prayers!
Sean Miller