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The Mission Society collaborated with International Christian Development Mission (ICDM) to host a training event for Haitian leaders January 9-13, 2012. The Mission Society’s first official conference in Haiti included presentations by staff members the Rev. Frank Decker, vice president for member care and development, the Rev. Michael Mozley, senior director for international mobilization, and Dr. Darrell Whiteman, vice president for mission mobilization and training and resident missiologist. Also presenting was a missionary that cannot be named for security purposes and Guenson and Claudia Charlot, a Haitian and Jamaican from Cap Haitian, Haiti. 

International Christian Development Mission (ICDM), directed by the Rev. Yvan Pierre, was founded in 1989 with the vision for a better future for Haiti. Pierre, originally from Bayonnais, Haiti, recalls the conditions in his hometown when ICDM started there. “Eighty percent of the people could not read or write. There was no school available for parents to send their children. The nearest school was too far away for young children — a walk of four or five hours over rugged mountain paths. For girls, the situation was even worse, because most parents refused to send them.” He proudly reports that today, more than 600 students attend the school Pierre founded in Bayonnais and more than 300 are on the waiting list.

“As a youth I became troubled when I learned that Haiti’s founders had dedicated my country to Satan. In exchange for freedom from French control, Haiti would serve Satan for 200 years. In 1804 they gained independence and established the world’s first black republic. No longer slaves of the French, they became slaves of Satan. The Voodoo religion and its priests control people’s lives and keep them impoverished and uneducated,” said Pierre.

Pierre is combating the challenges Haiti faces through a variety of ministries. ICDM has started schools, sponsorship programs for children, and literacy programs for adults. They have also trained more than 4,000 pastors and church leaders through their training programs. ICDM coordinates a ministry to the elderly, economic development programs, and hosts short-term mission teams and medical clinics.

The five-day conference included around 65 Haitian leaders from more than 10 denominations. Sessions included the topics of gospel and culture, belief systems and the Haitian worldview, discipleship, and oral inductive Bible study through storytelling. Other sessions included integrity, stewardship, business and ethics, and cross-cultural ministry.

“We wanted to uncover why Christianity often fails to penetrate the deeper underlying worldview of Haitians,” said Dr. Darrell Whiteman. “It was an unusually powerful week with the participants identifying and understanding some critical barriers to the spread of the gospel in Haiti.”

There was also a time for attendees to receive prayer from the conference leaders. The conference took place during the second anniversary of the earthquake that took 316,000 lives. Nearly half of the participants lost a family member or friend in the earthquake. “People here have been through a lot. Pierre’s brother’s house collapsed during the quake. His wife saw the concrete block falling towards her head, but had each of their daughters by the hand and could not protect herself. It took several months for his wife to heal from her head injury. He has been living in a plywood shack. Another pastor at the conference lost his 12-year old son in the quake,” said Frank Decker.

The Mission Society was invited back for a follow-up training event next year. A two-week training event for Kenyan missionaries is scheduled for this May, and an International Mobilization Conference is scheduled for August.