Mission: Haiti
Update
Glory
be to God! I have just returned from my third (and last) trip to
Haiti this year, during which I spent nearly two weeks with our
brethren, serving for one Sunday and the parish feast, of the Nativity
of the Theotokos. This is perhaps the hottest time of the year
(though the temperature does not vary greatly year-round), but we were
spared torrential rains as well as any hurricane activity during the
time I was there.
As is usual in Haiti, a great deal of my time
was spent in waiting… if not for someone, for something. The most
trivial of tasks frequently occupies a major part of a day. For
those of us from a bustling “modern” society, this can be a great
lesson in patience. It does not, however, contribute to getting a
great deal accomplished in a short time!
I arrived in Port-au-Prince
(with about 100 pounds of excess baggage, free of charge courtesy of
American Airlines) a few days after John Heers had arrived from New
York. I knew before departure that all was not as smoothly in
place as I had hoped with respect to housing for the Heers family and
Mission headquarters. Little did I suspect that a truly firm
resolution to the situation would not be reached until I had already
left Haiti and visited once again with the owner of one of the possible
houses, who lives in Miami. However, all is well that ends well
(so they say). The Mission Orthodoxe d'Haïti is now officially
installed in a very pleasant two-story masonry home, in good condition,
located within a 2 acre walled compound (shared with the caretaker
Grégaire and his family) near the northern edge of Port-au-Prince, less
than 3 miles from the church and school. The house is rented on a
two-year agreement from its owner in Miami at a very favorable price,
with a gentlemen's agreement permitting purchase at a price in the
$100,000-$130,000 range after the two years… perhaps much less, if he
sees and believes that we are truly proceeding in such a way as to
benefit his native country. John has undertaken to make a number
of repairs and improvements on the property (we were given the first
three months rent-free to provide allowance for this), which will
provide an ample space for his family, as well as a small
apartment/office for the Mission. For the present, Fr. Jean and
his family have elected to continue living in Christ-Roi (near the
center of the city) in the apartment they have occupied since January,
for which the Mission will pay the rent.
We are not
entirely comfortable with living in a “rich man's house” in one of the
poorest countries in the world, yet recognize our own limitations, and
our inability to live as do the vast majority of Haitians. On the
other hand, we are very grateful for the possibility given us of a
space in which we can be at least somewhat comfortable… and so better
able to assist with the needs of the church and school, as well as be
better able to provide for possible guests.
Happily, we can now
assure would-be visitors of a warm (!!) welcome and reasonable
quarters… and hosts who are able to communicate in English as well as
in Créole (John and his family are making rapid progress in that
direction). The Mission house is less than a 15-minute trip from
the airport, church and school, and has adequate space for
visitors. Running water, electricity at least most of each night,
and a space secluded from the incredible press of the city, offer some
small buffer against the inevitably violent spiritual and emotional
shock awaiting any visitor from the United States.John's wife Helen and
their three daughters (Imani, 12; Theodora ("Nonni"), 6; and Georgia, 8
months) arrived on the eve of the Feast of the Nativity. It was a
great pleasure for me to see them all again… I had least seen them when
the entire family visited with us in Tennessee immediately after my
return from Haiti in June. They plan to spend the next two years
in Port-au-Prince as members of the mission, teaching (catechism and
English) at the school, missionaries by their presence and practice of
the Faith. Already they are well known in the neighborhood of the
Mission house… and no one goes long in Haiti without being asked why he
is there… and then being led into a vigorous discussion about
religion. In the United States, it is sometimes said that
“polite” people avoid discussing religion and politics. In Haiti,
it seems that no one discusses anything else! “Foreigners” are
assumed to be out of the loop for politics… and that leaves nothing but
religion. — thanks be to God!
Indeed, that has been my own experience over and over again. Everyone in Haiti knows what a cassock means (though by no means all of them like it, thanks to decades of Protestant activity following the US occupation of Haiti in the early part of this century); Roman Catholics abandoned it quite some time ago. The result is that it is guaranteed to initiate vigorous conversation at every turn.
Fr. Jean once said
that we could open a church just about anywhere in Haiti, start having
services… and it would fill up with people. Indeed, it seems that
everywhere there are people eagerly seeking someplace to worship God,
even when they have only a vaguely formed notion of what that might
mean. But it is not always so vague…
One of my tasks while in
Haiti took me to a small town of about 20,000 less than an hour’s drive
north of the Mission house. While there, I made the acquaintance
of the reader who was in church of the Episcopal mission station there,
and acquaintance which turned into a daylong conversation, lunch
included. Well read, he was already quite familiar, in theory,
with the Orthodox Church, but had never met an Orthodox
Christian. He is quite disconcerted by what he sees as the
modernism of the Episcopal church. He eagerly accepted the
suggestion that he might come for Liturgy for the Feast of the Nativity
of the Theotokos… and was the one of the first to arrive at the
church that morning, after a journey of an hour or more by tap-taps
from Cabaret.
Others had come from much farther.
Several of the faithful from Cap-Haitien on the north coast, a
gruelling six-hour (or sometimes much more) bus trip, arrived late
Monday evening, several more in the early morning of the feastday
itself. A young man whom I had met at Jacmel on the south coast
and visited again on the June trip had written me shortly before this
trip to say he would like to come for the feast, but didn't know how to
find the church. A fax sent from Port-au-Prince to Liberty to the
hotel near where he lives in Jacmel actually found him… and he and
his cousin were already at the church when I arrived there for Vespers
on the eve of the feast.
Indeed, it was a glorious feast, perhaps
more because of than despite the poverty of the surroundings. The
church, large as it is, was filled, though not crowded. Thanks to
the generosity of the faithful here, we were able to offer an excellent
meal after Liturgy… probably the first “decent” meal many of the
parishioners (especially the children who live around the church) had
had in weeks. By anyone’s standards it was delicious.
It became apparent in the course of this trip that there are significant numbers of people over a wide geographic range in Haiti who sincerely thirst for the Faith and would be readily drawn to the Church, if it were available to them. Already, we have been offered land, at no cost, in Léogane, a village about a half-hour west of the southern extreme of Port-au-Prince, if we would build a church there. The faithful in Cap-Haitien, in the north, have asked for instruction and liturgical books so that they may begin readers' services there. Overnight, given money to cover transportation costs, three of the faithful who live some distance north of Port-au-Prince were able to find over 20 people who wished to come to the church for the Feast.
Urgently,
we need to provide continuing support for Fr. Jean and the church and
school at Village Nerette in Port-au-Prince. At the same time, we
need to begin to prepare readers who will be able to serve in other
locations, and to acquire ground and establish chapels, no matter how
simple, in other parts of Port-au-Prince and outlying villages.
We must, of course, begin where the need and demand is already present,
but without losing sight of our Lord's command to preach the Gospel to
all men. To this end, funds are needed not only for land
acquisition and building, but also for the very costly liturgical books
which are a necessity, especially so in a society in which only a very
small percentage of the people are able to read in any language; for
many, the services of the Church and the verbal instruction of
catechists will be the sole source of instruction.