LCC on the Road: Haitians working together

President Robert Bugbee (LCC), Rev. Willy Gaspar (Dominican Republic), and Rev. Dr. Albert Collver (LCMS)

by Robert Bugbee

Dear friends,

I write these lines on a bright, warm Monday morning from Gonaives in northern Haiti.  I am making a very quick “get acquainted” trip here together with Rev. Dr. Albert Collver III.  He is the Director of Church Relations and Assistant to the president of The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod (LCMS). For some years, our American friends have been in close fellowship with the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Haiti (ELCH) and their president Rev. Marky Kessa. Meanwhile, a good number of LCC people involved in the Haiti Lutheran Mission Society Canada have worked closely with a second group, the Lutheran Church of Haiti (LCH) and their president Rev. Revenel Benoit.

These two groups were formerly part of the same church body (the ELCH) and divided some years ago. Their relationship has often been troubled. Now LCC and LCMS are working together to bring a deeper level of peace and cooperation between them. We are hopeful the Lord is blessing our efforts. Our two North American churches want to provide a common program to train deacons, evangelists, and pastors for both Haitian groups, and to have their students study together for much of the course-work.

After arriving in the Haitian capital of Port au Prince on Saturday, our group travelled several hours northward on Sunday to the city of Gonaives. This city is the “nerve centre” of the LCH and President Benoit. After attending Sunday worship at his church in the central city, we spent a good piece of Sunday afternoon getting to know some of LCH’s ministries: a home of refuge for orphaned street boys, a depot providing clean water to its neighbourhood, a quarry which the LCH uses to sell gravel products to become financially self-sufficient, and a TV and radio transmitting tower (second-hand from Omaha!) on a high hill which is capable of reaching 2/3 of the entire country.

The Lord has moved President Benoit and the LCH to give us a letter indicating his church’s commitment to training pastors together with the ELCH. Now today we set out for the southern city of Jacmel in the hope that President Kessa and his co-workers will respond positively as well.

Haiti is gradually recovering from the dreadful earthquake of early 2010. There are many people who fled the capital and are now living in makeshift dwellings throughout the countryside but, of course, this does not mean they find work or have a regular income. In addition to the “scarring” one sees in the aftermath of the earthquake, we saw the fingerprints yesterday of Haiti’s sorrowful past: a large cave by the roadside where dictators disposed of the bodies of their victims after executing them.

People are gracious and welcoming, however—nowhere more so than at the home I visited yesterday for orphaned street boys. Remember those TV commercials from aid agencies where some North American visitor is surrounded by a “flock” of beautiful little children following him around? I experienced it myself. Some of the little boys were abandoned on the streets as young as two years of age. They are starving for attention. For now, at least, our Lutheran friends in Haiti are providing them with a roof over their heads, a bed to sleep in, two good meals each day, and enrollment at Concordia Lutheran School.

I’m grateful to hear of the appreciation these people have for Canadians and their support of the Haiti Lutheran Mission Society.

If time permits, I’ll write again later.  God bless your workweek, wherever you are reading this!

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Rev. Dr. Robert Bugbee is president of Lutheran Church–Canada.

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