wfn.org | Newsline: 'We worshiped and we mourned, and we rejoiced in what is good': A report from Haiti

[CoBNews <CoBNews@brethren.org>]

Newsline: Church of the Brethren News Service, News Director Cheryl

Brumbaugh-Cayford, 800-323-8039 ext. 260, cobnews@brethren.org

'WE WORSHIPED AND WE MOURNED AND WE REJOICED IN

WHAT IS GOOD': DELEGATION MEMBER SENDS HAITI UPDATE

(Jan. 29, 2010) Elgin, IL -- Jeff Boshart, a member of the Church of the

Brethren delegation currently in Haiti, has sent updated information on the

>church's disaster response.

Boshart coordinates the Brethren Disaster Ministries hurricane rebuilding

program in Haiti, and has been visiting the country with a group that also

includes Ludovic St. Fleur, coordinator of the Church of the Brethren

mission in Haiti, and Klebert Exceus, Haiti consultant to Brethren Disaster

>Ministries.

The group is accompanied by Haitian Brethren pastor Jean Bily Telfort,

who serves as general secretary of Eglise des Freres Haitiens (Haitian

>Church of the Brethren).

Earlier this week the delegation group left the Port-au-Prince area to visi t

Haitian Brethren in other parts of the country, and to inspect homes that

have been built by Brethren Disaster Ministries following the four hurrican es

>and tropical storms that hit Haiti in 2008.

"I'm now in the Central Plateau after visiting displaced Brethren in the

northwest," Boshart reported Wednesday. "We arrived here in Bohoc, near

Pignon, in the central plateau to a place where Peggy (Boshart) and I met

and later worked with a school doing gardening projects with children in

the community. There is now a Church of the Brethren church plant in this

community which was started last year by a seminary student, Georges, who

was one of those kids who planted trees and vegetables with us. The worship

leader is a young woman, Fabnise, who was also worked with us on many

>of our projects.

"The worship was tremendous. We were first treated to a fabulous meal which

was served to the nearly 100 people in attendance. The occasion for this fe ast?

Our presence among them and their excitement at being part of the Church

>of the Brethren."

The worship service was held under sheets and tarpaulins stretched between  a

cluster of trees, with a generator providing power for musicians and lights .

"Choir after choir came forward to sing. We sang and danced and praised God .

It was a worship of praise and healing," Boshart wrote.

"Each one in our delegation was asked to share a few words. I shared a brie f

meditation on Mark 4 and the parable of the sower. Peggy and I had no idea

that nearly 10 years ago when we were sowing seeds with children in the

school gardens, that we were sowing the seeds of a church. What a priviledg e

to see these young people now. Not all of the children we invested in are s till

with us. Some have left to search for a better life in the DR and one even  in

the US. One died while still a teenager of an undiagnosed illness. One died

>in the earthquake.

"We worshiped and we mourned, and we rejoiced in what is good."

Earlier in the day, Boshart and pastor Telfort visited with several familie s in

the community who had lost relatives in the earthquake. "The stories were

heartwrenching," Boshart wrote. "Many of the best and brightest had moved

to Port-au-Prince. Four university students from this small village were li ving

in a house in Port-au-Prince which collapsed, killing all of them. One of t hem

was the same age as Pastor Georges and one of his very best friends. This s ame

student was the older brother of Fabnise, our worship leader."

The delegation group has visited with recipients of homes built by Brethren

Disaster Ministries in the city of Gonaïves and elsewhere. "They are so s o

>thankful for their homes," Boshart said.

The Brethren-built homes are in good shape, according to reports. One home

built in Port-au-Prince for the widow of a Haitian Brethren pastor has surv ived

the earthquake well, while buildings around it collapsed. Another of the br and-

new homes built by Brethren Disaster Ministries--so new it is described by

Boshart as "not yet painted"--is already sheltering two Port-au-Prince fami lies

from the Delmas 3 congregation of Eglise des Freres Haitiens, who are livin g

>there with the new homeowners.

This week the delegation also visited programs in northwest Haiti that rece ive

sponsorship from the Church of the Brethren's Global Food Crisis Fund, and

>they are "going pretty well," he said.

The hurricane rebuilding work continues, Boshart wrote. During their visit,  the

delegation met with a representative of an organization that will work alon gside

the community of new home recipients to dig a well. The organization will a lso

"set up a committee to collect monthly fees, so that when new parts are nee ded

there will be a fund already in place," Boshart wrote.

In addition, the delegation this week received word from Haitian Brethren l eaders

in Port-au-Prince that a Brethren-sponsored feeding program with children i s

>off to a good start.

"We'll return there tomorrow to see how things have or have not changed in  the

few days we've been out of the city," Boshart concluded in his report from

Wednesday. "Thanks for your thoughts and prayers."

For more reports from the delegation, go to www.brethren.org/HaitiEarthquak e to

find links to a Haiti blog and video of Brethren Disaster Ministries execut ive

Roy Winter reporting on the situation in Haiti.

The Church of the Brethren is a Christian denomination committed to continu ing

the work of Jesus peacefully and simply, and to living out its faith in com munity.

The denomination is based in the Anabaptist and Pietist faith traditions an d is

one of the three Historic Peace Churches. It celebrated its 300th anniversa ry in

2008. It counts some 125,000 members across the United States and Puerto Ri co,

and has missions and sister churches in Nigeria, Brazil, the Dominican Repu blic,

>Haiti, and India.

># # #

>For more information contact:

>Cheryl Brumbaugh-Cayford

>Director of News Services

>Church of the Brethren

>1451 Dundee Ave., Elgin, IL 60120

>800-323-8039 ext. 260

>cobnews@brethren.org