wfn.org | Haitian Mission reunites families, helps them get fresh start

[NewsDesk <NewsDesk@UMCOM.UMC.ORG>]

Feb. 16, 2000    News media contact: Tim Tanton·(615)742-5470·Nashville,
Tenn.     10-32-71B{074}

NOTE: For related coverage, see UMNS stories #073 and 075.

By Michael Wacht*
	
FT. PIERCE, Fla. (UMNS) -- Franz Brinache left his home in Haiti in 1994 to
escape the cruelty of the military coup that overthrew President
Jean-Bertrand Aristide. He left behind his three children, the oldest of
whom was 22.
	
Brinache settled here and started the process of getting his children out of
Haiti. He waited for five years to hear from the Haitian government, and
during that time asked three immigration assistance agencies for help. He
paid almost $300 for their services, but got no results.
	
A ministry of the United Methodist Haitian Mission here did get results for
Brinache and is helping many more refugees like him relocate themselves and
their families to Florida.
	
Brinache asked the Rev. Luc Dessieux, pastor of the mission, for help last
October. 
	
"He comes in here and says, 'Pastor, can you send a letter to the consulate
in Haiti to see if I can get my children?' " Dessieux said. "Three weeks
later, he gets a letter back with an appointment for his children to talk to
immigration. In less than three months, he gets his children.
	
"Someone is talking about what good is done? I did the letter for free and
had success. The guy was so happy, and we have so many stories like that in
the church."
	
With the successes, however, come setbacks for the 300-member, 10-year-old
mission church. Despite having more than 100 children and as many as 80
youth attending each week, the mission does not have a full-time ministry to
either group because it lacks volunteers and the financial means to hire
staff, Dessieux said.
	
The church is also closing its food and clothes pantries from lack of
support and its day-care center because it cannot find a qualified
replacement for the director, who found another job. It has cut back on its
rent and utility support program until it can find more money.
	
Regardless of the limited funds and support, the need is great. Ft. Pierce
is second to Miami in having the highest concentration of Haitian immigrants
in the country, according to the Rev. Brice Harris, pastor of First United
Methodist Church, Pompano Beach, and chairman of the conference's Refugee
Ministry Task Force.
	
Dessieux said 16,000 Haitians live in Ft. Pierce. Most of them work in the
area's citrus groves or packinghouses for six months of the year, and 80
percent are functionally illiterate. Many send money to Haiti to help
support family members still living there.
	
Many of the congregation's members "try to do the best they can to pay their
tithe," Dessieux said. The church also receives support from the Melbourne
district and its Board of Church Extension, and Dessieux is applying for
grants.
	
The mission received a $2,000 grant last November from the Florida
Conference Church and Society Ministry team that was funded by the
conference's share of the annual Peace With Justice Special Sunday offering.
It will help the church expand its ministry to people like Brinache,
according to Dessieux, who said the mission is helping as many as 150 people
deal with their own or a family member's immigration challenges.
	
For many of them, the greatest hardships are translating and completing
forms and paying associated fees. The fee to apply for permanent residency
is $220 per person, up from $95 a year ago, Dessieux said. The form to
petition for a family member to travel to the United States is $110, up from
$80.
	
The mission is also working to unite the Haitian community and improve its
standing in the larger community, Dessieux said. Currently, no Haitians are
serving in local government and very few are in organizations like the
police department, hospitals, banks and the courthouse.
	
Through the Haitian-American Citizens Club, which he founded in 1995,
Dessieux and others are petitioning public and civic offices and major
employers to hire Haitians. He said the police department has recently hired
Haitian officers.
	
Despite the challenges, Dessieux said his church does have a plan. 

"Our first responsibility is to preach the gospel and save as many souls as
we can," he said. "And through some difficulties, we try to see how we can
do social services to keep the community moving."
# # #
*Wacht is the assistant editor of the Florida Annual Conference's edition of
the United Methodist Review. This story first appeared in that publication.

*************************************
United Methodist News Service
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