Living the Faith

Part of a Haitian saying goes something like this; "If Haiti needs it, Missionaries will bring it." Whether or not Haitians needed western religion, is a debate beyond this blog. Nonetheless, Missionaries came, in all flavors and colors; Catholics, Baptists, Adventist, Methodists.
In a country 80 per cent Catholic, it's fair to say Rome and the Pope won the battle for souls. However, each religious perspective that traveled to Haiti left a major impression in a country where 110 percent of the population practice Voodoo to some extent.
Given my wonderful mother in-law is a retired Methodist minister from a family of traveling Texas padres, and that Gresham UMC has followed these exploits while being my family's comfort network, I thought I tell a Methodist story of a church and a school Haitian style.
The Church, "Eglise (Church) Methodiste, is a small 10-year-old cinder block structure with a bare slab concrete floor and tin roof sits just off Highway #1 north of L'Arcahaie. Inside, this small gritty church, which before the 12 Jan 10 earthquake doubled as a school for about 15 kids, is a simple wooden alter painted white with plastic flowers, and bare wooden benches. However, its walls are now cracked, and there are gaps in its roof now tristed due to Haiti's January catastrophe. No murals adorning walls, absent a large cross, without colorful cloths, bibles, or organs. However, as the church caretaker Madam Gustav Zanor explained, their congregation church is alive with praise and song each Sunday as about 50 members travel many miles on foot or burro from surrounding valleys and hills to join their visiting minister from Port au Prince.
"There maybe is not much here; we have very little," said Madam Zanor in her native Creole. But after the briefest of pauses, she added, "Nous avons Dieu" - "We have God."

A little further to the south also on Highway #1 is Ecole (school) Methodiste De Thomas.
Home to about 80 students (down from a pre-quake number of over 120), the school serves kids from kindergarten thru eighth grade. In Haiti, often times, people must walk a simple dirt path and pass thru a protective iron gate to reach their destination. Ecole Methodiste De Thomas, whose building also houses a church, is no different. There are no parking lots or playgrounds here. Just a place to tie off your donkey and outhouse, all of which is adjacent to a lush green grove of bananas, plantains, and coconuts.
In Haiti, school, which is mandatory until grade six, is not public or free as tuition costs between one and two thousand dollars US depending on grade in a country where the minimum daily wage is about 40 Goude ($5 US). Moreover, girls, usually with colorful ribbons in their hair, and boys must wear uniforms.
Although not toppled, this concrete building first built in 1978 with a second story added for a church in 1992, received major damage during the January earthquake. Support columns are crumbled and walls are cracked, so much so that classes are now held outside for fear of being inside.
As such, the lower school level remains empty of all unused chairs desks and chalkboards, clutter, dust and fear.
"Our biggest problem right now, like everybody, is money" to fix the school and church, said Director Lazarre Pierre Decilien thru an interpreter. "But what we need most are the small things like pencils, notebooks and uniforms."