Amazing Things In Haiti, November 2009
We’re delighted to announce the birth of the first ecclesia in Haiti. For some time we’ve been in contact with ESMATH, a zealous Bible student and Bible Basics contact who had been through many churches in his search for truth. Brother Charlie Klennert of the Tacoma, USA ecclesia has had a lot of phone contact with Esmath, and it became evident that here indeed was a very sincere person who had come to a full knowledge of the Truth. During the course of our contact, Esmath became increasingly convinced of the error of the Trinity- when he started teaching against it in his church, he was eventually chased out. He started meeting with a group of friends who had also become convinced that the Trinity isn’t a Biblical doctrine. This group meet regularly at Esmath’s home. Esmath had been a lay pastor of a church and so has many contacts. He and his group have made a complete break from all Trinitarian churches. Here are extracts from some of the emails:
"12 years after my graduation at Bible school I began to search for the true word of God, not what I have learned at theology school. I concluded that the people who are teaching Trinity, a veil lies on their heart. We were three Pastors in the Church that I was leader of, but they put me out for asking to be rebaptized because I had previously been baptized in trinity. They became very furious towards me and treated me like crazy. The Bishop said “if you are preaching another doctrine, you must leave the church". So I was obliged to leave the church, and other churches were saying that I am against the rules of their churches if I preached against trinity. I organize meetings for some friends who believe in the true Gospel ... a lot of good people are scattered among the false religions and drinking the bad milk of trinitarian doctrine. They are waiting to be gathered to the same place. I need your prayer because the true Gospel should be exploded in Haiti where a lot of so-called pastors are working simply to gain money but they do not really care about bringing people to the true hope of the Kingdom of God.... I urgently need to be rebaptized... I see how ever since 1988, gradually God was at work open the eyes of my heart to see the real truth... "
Our brother now has a full time job with a Western development organization, and spends his free time teaching about the Bible and holding meetings at his home. A trip to Haiti is a significant thing for anyone, and so we didn’t likely take the decision to go out there and meet this group. But they were urgent, even clamouring, for baptism into the real Christ, and one can’t leave such calls unresponded to.
We found this group as good as they had sounded by email and on the telephone. Their non-Trinitarian position had been confirmed for them by the aggressive rejection they’d all received from the churches they’d attended. Their common experience had clearly bound them together as an effective group. And so finally we all gathered for the baptisms at a beach near Carrefour. ESMATH was first to be baptized, and then he proceeded to assist with the baptisms of the other brothers in the group: MOITEAU, PATRICK, FITO, LUCKNER, AMOS, WILFRED, WILLIERE, ABSOLU and KENZI.
Photos: Baptism of Esmath and then the rest of the group
The baptismal service was very moving. The brothers sung with enthusiasm but decorum, achieving a deep harmony. There was a 4 minute prayer given by a brother, in French with some translation, which is just lovely. He thanks God with great enthusiasm for having been led from false doctrine to the real Christ, he thanks God that Jesus as someone who was of his nature can bear his sins; and he also thanks God for His grace, to which he had been led, away from the legalism which he felt attached to a wrong understanding of Jesus. Truly those brethren pledged a good conscience to God, with a nice blend of solemnity, Bible quotations and yet joy and enthusiasm.
You can see a brief movie of the baptism service at http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=182219863838&ref=mf
or http://aletheiacollege.net/video/haiti.html
They gave their testimonies as to why they wished to be baptized or re-baptized. They each mentioned the conviction they had received from discovering a true relationship with the Lord Jesus based on more accurate knowledge, and their desire to commit themselves to Him now as someone whom they better knew. In the movie you can hear some of all this- they’re speaking in French mixed with some local Creole.
Photos: Baptismal service
There’s a very zealous interest amongst these new brethren in ‘getting it right’ so far as Biblical interpretation goes, and truly it’s a pleasure to welcome them into the brotherhood. They really are Bible students and lovers of the Truth. And very fluent with Scripture.
We were able to distribute French copies of the Bible Companion and also supplies of the bi-lingual booklet What Is The Gospel? which we have printed in parallel English / French columns. You can see the text online at www.carelinks.net .
Our long suffering taxi driver seemed quite unphased by having 11 people packed into his vehicle afterwards- he read through the booklet whilst waiting for us to perform the baptisms:
The group have been meeting in Brother Esmath’s home; it was a pleasure to hold the first meeting of them as baptized believers together with them.
Photo: The group at Esmath’s home
Since our leaving Haiti, we received the following email from brother Esmath:
“Peace and Grace be unto you in the name of Jesus our real example. I was so glad and blessed to receive your message this morning and immediately printed out some good documents that can surely help me in my teaching regarding the word of God. I have just created a new name for the ecclesia , this is “Eglise de Jesus Christ -Lieu de verité” means: Ecclesia of Jesus Christ- Place of truth. We are having Bible study tomorrow and Sunday we are starting with our first Sunday service together as baptized brothers .This will be the inauguration and a lot of people in the area are invited to take part, either Pagans or so called Christians from other churches. We count on your prayer, so that the real gospel could be preached fearless for the glory of the Ministry of God our heavenly Father”.
We sure can pray for them in their great zeal to serve God in sincerity and in truth. They could really do with a permanent meeting place, but it seems hard to hire any hall connected with a Trinitarian church. Esmath is already well known in Port au Prince as a staunch non-Trinitarian. To rent a commercial property on a permanent basis would be an option but expensive. We’ll let you know how things develop with their meetings.
WELFARE ISSUES and FUTURE PLANS
We understand that there is a Jamaican brother, Kenson Fortune, living in Haiti, but our efforts to contact him had no response. We’d be interested in hearing from any others preaching in Haiti; the CBMA have an open invitation to fellowship with us in this work, and we’re encouraging the Meal-a-Day Fund of the Americas to consider getting involved in Haiti.
Because it really is a tragically poor country, one of the world’s very poorest. According to the World Bank website, "Haiti continues to be the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. Some social indicators are among the weakest in the world... 54 percent of Haitians live on less than US$1 a day and 78 percent on less than US$2 a day... crime and violence, centered on gangs based in Cité Soleil and other Port-au-Prince slums, continue to undermine Haiti’s development"
>From http://www.ciaonet.org/pbei/aei/oti/aei053/index.html: "It is without question that Haiti is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, plagued by disease and poverty and riddled with gang violence. Without a real provision of the fundamental human rights of safety and security for its citizens, this position is likely to hold well into the future"
Haiti has a huge food shortage- partly due to the collapsed economy, but also due to massive hurricane damage and the fact that 98% of forest cover has been cut down and much of the land is eroded; centuries of irresponsible plantations have also contributed. Without replanting the tree cover, the heavy rains wash the soil away down the slopes. Quite simply, large numbers of people are hungry and malnourished. Whilst brother Esmath has a responsible job with a Western organization, many of the others in the new ecclesia are amongst the large majority of desperately poor Haitians.
Photo: Classic erosion of the hillsides due to deforestation
Haiti’s hardly a tourist destination- the only foreigners we encountered were aid workers, UN soldiers who are basically policing the country and defending society from the gang warfare that engulfs it; and Westerners who come to Haiti to adopt children. However, we do urge your involvement. Through these Carelink messages we’re casting our bread upon the waters and seeing if maybe someone, somewhere, has some connections which may be useful to the work here. And please do pray for them all there. One practical necessity is going to be to reprint Bible Basics in French; many copies are required in Haiti now!
Photos: UN soldiers patrolling amongst the traffic; a woman with her adopted Haitian child
With love from your brothers and sisters of Carelinks