One of the myriad facets of “God’s amazing grace” in my life story includes God’s extraordinary weaving into my heart the dear, beleaguered, yet ever-overcoming country and people of Haiti. It was not that I had a burning interest or even an awareness of Haiti in my younger, pre-Christian era. To be honest, I doubt I had given too much thought to the place or its beautiful people until I was early into my pastoral call in Maine. Maine, you ask? Of course! Isn’t it just like the Lord to call you to what feels like the ends of the earth, only to awaken you to another end of the earth, to realize He loves every end of the earth?! (Yes, I know some of you will think where I grew up in South Dakota is the end of the earth…and where we are in West Tennessee is, etc😊). This is a blog-style overview of the early roots of God’s call to me to be a vessel for His purposes in northern Haiti, ultimately culminating in what is known today as “Strong Tower Haiti.” I have declared it for years, and will declare many times here with the reasons, that “God knew I need Haiti more than Haiti needs me.”
Back to the beginning…as God would have it the church to which I had been called to pastor, the Military Street Baptist Church (“MSBC,” now Church on the Hill) in Houlton, Maine, had been sending people and resources to Haiti for about 5 years prior to my arriving there in 1991. We were supporting Pastor Apollyon Noel in Terrier Rouge, Haiti, a medium-sized village in northern Haiti strategically located on the “DR Road.” This highway serves as the primary artery from Cap Haitien to the Dominican Republic border. Pastor Noel shepherded by Haiti standards a large church and was developing a school there. This is standard procedure for many pastors and churches with vision for their young people in Haiti, as a school education is relatively rare and precious. Little to none of this is possible without financial support from churches in the USA.
Prior to my call to Maine, two men, Don and Jack, from MSBC, had heard of the opportunity to assist in Haiti and traveled down (during the reign of “Papa Doc”!) to meet Pastor Noel and investigate the invitation to invest in the development there. At that time, Pastor Payot Jacques, though not yet a pastor, was being discipled by Pastor Noel in hopes Payot would become a pastor. Payot grew up in Terrier Rouge, where he, like most Haitians, learned how to survive day by day and learned of the faithful love, provision, and goodness of Almighty God in Jesus Christ. Payot had also brilliantly learned English, and is one of the most skilled and gifted translators you will ever meet or need, translating English to Creole and vice-versa.
I had the privilege of meeting Pastor Noel and Payot in about 1992, when both were flown to Maine to tell us about life in Haiti. I recall being enthralled and horrified by the fact that there was an island, not even two hours from the Florida coastline, that had no electricity, no running water, no sewage infrastructure or any of the basic “necessities” of life in the 20th century! Here we were being shown how to carry heavy water jugs on our heads (yes, Payot showed us!), as people were having to walk to the nearest river or well for their water every day. The men of MSBC were tasked with figuring out how to devise a way to use the sun’s strength in Haiti to assist in cooking meals as Haitians were cooking on open fires with charcoal, and Haiti was quickly being denuded of its trees!
God knew, of course, that my white, American, male, Christian self needed Haiti to expand my world and faith view even larger to make me more like Jesus. He had called and blessed me to be involved in mission to the British Commonwealth for four years, but now it was time to go 2/3rds world, even beyond what I had experienced in South Africa in the 1980s. Who knew that the 2/3rds world was so close to West Palm Beach, Boca Raton, Jupiter, and Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, where it’s not unusual to see multi-million dollar yachts docked next to multi-million dollar houses, some of which are rarely even used! God knows! and He was getting me introduced to the fact that He had plans for me to contribute, doing something to change all that, to be part of His bringing His Kingdom to Haiti within the long history and legacy of missionaries who had been called to the same over the last 200 years.
One of my life Bible verses is, “In our hearts we plan our course, but God directs each step” (Proverb 16:9). I doubt that there has been a month of my life since becoming a follower and lover of Jesus in 1980 that I haven’t seen this verse in action. Along with being a new father to two small children, a new pastor, and the music director of MSBC in the early 90’s, God was directing my steps to a deeper walk with Him, a deeper understanding of His heart for the “poor,” both “in spirit,” and just plain poor (Matthew 5:3; Luke 6:20), which in so many ways can describe me in my pilgrimage through this life.
After a few years of communications (by postal service and written letters at the time, pre-texting), the church and I continued in our increased interest and support of the school at Terrier Rouge. At the invitation of our Haitian friends, I made my first trip to Haiti. For some reason, I went alone for the first 5 days, to be met by a team from the church after that. There were only one or two flight options from Miami at the time, and the one I booked had no toilets on that plane, about 18 seats, and it put me in mind of some of today’s private business jets without water or pretzels.
As we neared the Cap Haitien “airport,” I could see people shooing goats and people off the grass strip to make room for our small jet to land. Somehow, I expected that the 2nd largest city in Haiti, with nearly ½ million people in it, would have more than a grass landing strip and a pub for the airport terminal! It was about then I began to understand that “God knew I needed Haiti more than Haiti needed me!”
For instance, that was the first time in my life to be a “minority,” as there was not a “blanc” (white) face to be seen anywhere. “Thank You, Lord~ I needed that.” I needed to know what it felt like to be in the minority, to be of different color, to stand out in every crowd with no knowledge of the language, no ability to communicate, and to be vulnerable, very vulnerable. I needed to feel what it felt like to have to wait for nearly two hours for my Haitian friends to arrive to retrieve me, all the while I could just smile and refuse the many offers from the baggage handlers to take my luggage to somewhere for a few dollars. “Thank You, Lord,” for inviting me to an environment completely out of my comfort zone, but where I was also beautifully and graciously received! The old hymn, “I Need Thee Every Hour” was undoubtedly coursing through my soul on “repeat.”
I neither have time nor space to share all the details of that first week in Haiti before the team arrived. But I DO want to share a few pertinent stories as to why I need Haiti more than Haiti needs me. I needed to experience life where there’s NO electricity or running water…ever. (Things have slightly improved for a few since then, but there is still no consistent electricity or running water, even in Cap Haitien.) On my first night there, it was pitch darkness everywhere. I sat with Pastor Noel, my translator and a few other Haitian sisters and brothers, in the light of a small candle. He said to me, “I understand that in America, after Christmas Eve services, you throw out the used candles from that service? Here in Haiti, those candles could provide a little light for a whole family. Please bring the ones with you that you plan to throw out next year.” “Thank You, Lord~ I needed that.”
Before every meal, Pastor Noel would taste the food to make sure my stomach could handle it. He said, “you’re more useful to us well than sick…” Yup! Thank you, Pastor Noel. That night he refused an entire dish of food for us, declaring, “not good!” which then was sent to the many unbeknownst to me silent, hungry children at the back door… “I need Haiti more than Haiti needs me.” The morning I realized that we were using a regular toilet but without running water, then heard voices out back and saw women sifting through the solid waste with bare hands to process the sewage away from the building…I needed Haiti. I needed to see how these precious souls do life without all that I take for granted.
Funerals were so common that week (and every week) as so many die from malnutrition and diseases for which we have cures. Pastor Noel asked me, “Is it true that you as a pastor in the US get paid for officiating a funeral?” I told him it was true. He put his head down and expressed that in Haiti, it’s expected that the pastor will bring money to the bereaved, most typically a newly widowed woman with her children. This was all part of why he cherished receiving US support money as his church couldn’t afford to employ him either. God knew I needed Haiti!!
It had been decided by my Haitian hosts that I must meet the leaders of the Haitian Baptist Convention in downtown Cap Haitien. They wore suits in the stifling heat, and greeted me like I was royalty. One by one they opened their books to all the churches in their regions who were needing financial assistance to carry on. I remember this like it was yesterday and shall never forget its ramifications theologically. My question of them was, “I have just spent around $1800 to fly here. Would it not have been a better use of God’s money to send you a check?” Without missing a beat, the elder statesman, a seasoned pastor and administrator looked me right square in the eye and declared, “God did not send this world a check, but sent His beloved Son to come and walk among us. When you join us in person here, you remind us that God has not left us or forsaken us, but is still coming to us in person.” God knew I needed Haiti, to form an incarnational understanding of theology!
When I met Payot and his brother Kent, we went to visit the Citadel for the day. I brought along one bottle of water for the whole day and realized they had none in 90 degrees.…There were no strip malls, grocery stores, or truck stops on the way up to the Citadel, just a dirt road through extraordinary poverty. I offered to share my water and their response was, with their typical, big, wide, grins: “We can drink anything. You need the clean water.” It was the beginning of a brotherhood, a partnership in Christ of “faith, hope, and love” that remains strong to this day. It would forge the connections for the possibility of Strong Tower Orphanage, now Strong Tower Haiti.
And there were the children, the little children…naked, starving, foraging through the rotting food and garbage piles with the pigs, dogs, and rats, looking for something to eat. And every morning and every evening from those days to this day, our dear sisters and brothers in Jesus gather themselves together to praise and worship the Savior, not knowing if there will be food. They know Him, love Him, and trust Him in faith in ways I rarely to never see outside of Haiti. He’s all they have, and they have proven that He’s all they need. They have a joy in their salvation, most typically with stomachs not full, not enough good water, and no fans or air conditioning to cool them from the Caribbean heat. They often still have to cook their food (if they can get some) on open fires with charcoal.
Unemployment is epidemic, over 90% in Caracol, with no welfare programs and no governmental anything to help. Because there’s little to no refrigeration, whatever meat they can get, they have to buy it at the market, kill it, and eat it that day. And they praise the Lord, and celebrate His great goodness, provision, and grace… and they share.
And Haitians LOVE to fellowship and seem to never be in a hurry, not allowing the clock to dictate their peace or joy. (This paragraph was in remembering how things were in my earliest visits to Haiti. Limited electricity in Caracol has helped many to have a “better life” today, and more wells have been dug to bring better water). Thank You, Lord…You knew I needed Haiti to remind me regularly of just HOW MUCH we Americans have of this world’s everything, yet strangely remain some of the unhappiest in the world in global polls!? (I returned from those first trips to Haiti suffering from PTSD for weeks.…My mind could NOT process what I’d seen there in some of the worst conditions known to humanity).
Payot Jacques became a pastor, and so did his brother, Kent. Payot and I had preached one evening in a little fishing village called Caracol, about 40 minutes from Terrier Rouge. He was my translator and we would preach the Gospel. The Lord gifted and gave us a joy in becoming one spirit in our preaching efforts from the very beginning. That night, with one gas powered generator-run light, one microphone, and a makeshift “band” from Cap, we preached the Gospel to what seemed to be the whole village of Caracol! (I vividly remember that a trumpeter was there whose trumpet was missing the button off his 3rd valve)! There wasn’t much for entertainment in those days. God was so gracious and good to bring forth and save two men who responded to the invitation to surrender their lives to Jesus to receive His forgiveness, salvation and JOY! Payot was ecstatic, as this had yet to happen there. Those men were part of what would become the “Church of the Redeemer” in that space and place. The night we preached we stood on a big block of cement, which remains to this day near the entry of the Church building, a reminder to me each trip of God’s saving grace and faithful provision to “build His Church…and the gates of hell will not prevail against it.”
Over time, our church allegiance shifted from Pastor Noel as he aged out from Terrier Rouge, to Pastor Payot (and then Sainjela, his wife, and then their family). Their precious family commuted from Cap Haitien, and they’d often stay the night on an old rolled up piece of carpet. Payot would sometimes commute on his bicycle those 40 miles from Cap Haitien to Caracol! A church building was beginning to be built, and then a school, and their faith in God’s provision was astonishing to me. Seeing even the smallest school children sharing a bowl of rice and beans with their family at home…I needed Haiti to continually see how “faith, hope, and love” act as a way of life! I traveled there a few times in those years as I also had small children, my wife Melanie, and a growing congregation to tend to and pastor at home.
Then came the call one day, some time before the Port au Prince earthquake. Her name was Lorie Holt. She had gone to a conference at Saddleback Church in CA, and asked a table of people around her if anyone had any connections to Haiti. Well, as the Lord would have it, and as He does these things, Gretchin was there, and she had been a member at MSBC, now working at Saddleback! What are the odds of this?? Apparently really good when the Lord is in it all. She indicated that her church (MSBC) had done ministry and mission in Haiti, and we might be able to help. God knew I needed Haiti and assured that my heart would be forged to these dear ones by inviting MSBC to prayerfully consider partnering in a venture to form an orphanage with Pastor Payot (“Pas”) if he was so called to do it.
Pas was willing and ready to prayerfully consider next things about getting an orphanage planned, built, staffed, and supplied. The Lord knew I needed Haiti because it seems to me, those with little to nothing tend to expect greater and mightier miracles from God when it is always “impossible.” For those of us who are used to working within the parameters of our abilities and resources, we rarely really need for God to work extraordinarily. I’ve needed this truth throughout my ministry to the present. As a matter of fact, when Lorie Holt phoned me, MSBC had just begun a capital campaign to build a new worship center on the Hill up the road. We were hamstrung with not quite enough money raised to move ahead. My initial response to her call was, “I’m so sorry that I think we’re going to have to pass. We’ve just begun our own plans for a mission center here in Houlton, and I can’t imagine how we’d support both projects right now.” How’s that for faith?!
It wasn’t one minute after I’d hung up with Lorie that the Lord in no uncertain terms had a little “chat” with me. I remember it exactly! “Randall, am I so small to you as to not be able to do TWO projects at once?! Would it not be worth at least bringing this to the Elders to have them pray about this with you?” Ummm…How would you answer that?? I answered by phoning Lorie back to say, “I’ll at least bring it to the Elders” They agreed that the Lord was in this and we needed to go for it. How!? That was yet to be discovered.
The Elders decided we needed to call for a day of prayer and fasting regarding how to move forward and to listen for what God had in mind. We knew He hadn’t called us this far to just leave us hanging with our own project, not to mention starting another one in Haiti! But my friends in Haiti had taught by example that “God is able to do exceedingly abundantly MORE than we can even think or ask!” Ephesians 3:20-21.
On the way to pray that Saturday morning, I asked the Lord if there was anything I needed to know going into our time that He wanted me to share. Again, He said in no uncertain terms, “Propose to the Elders that you give a tithe of the $900,000 you have raised, and give it to My Mission.” I nearly guffawed, and exclaimed, “That will go over like a lead balloon, Lord!” As God would have it, after 30 minutes of praying the Lord reminded me of what I was to share. So I did! The Board all said, “This is brilliant! Let’s do this!! Praise the Lord He’s given us a path forward.” (Yes, I had the privilege of pastoring a group and church like this, PTL! Yes, it’s humbling.)
The church had to vote on this shift of plans, and it was one person short of an “unanimous” vote!! When does that ever happen in a Baptist Church?? They/we were like kids in a candy store to be giving God’s money to His mission. But to where? I heard Him say, “To Jerusalem (local mission), to Judea (denominational missionaries), to Samaria (non-Baptist missions), and to “the utter-most parts of the earth.” PERFECT.
And out of that tithe and portion came the seed money for our local mission, Adopt-a-Block of Aroostook, and Strong Tower Haiti! Just two weeks after these deliberations, I received a letter in the mail from a man for whom I had officiated his wife’s funeral years earlier. He didn’t attend church anywhere but listened to us on the radio. He wrote that he loved our vision for our community and the world for Christ, that he was wealthy and old and wanted to bless us with $100,000 to do with as we needed!!! So God returned the $90K we gave to Him, with $10K more, and the financial logjam was broken for doing our project (paid in three years!!) and STH! Glory to God! He knew I needed Haiti to strengthen and grow my own faith to be like those there, who expect and live by such anticipation of God’s supply every day.
I could fill a small book with more stories of why I need Haiti more than Haiti needs me. More of those stories in detail later. Suffice it to say that Strong Tower Haiti was born of God, supplied by God, spiritually nurtured by God, and supernaturally protected and sustained by God through the sacrificial love and support of our partners in Haiti, folks like you who are reading this and others whom God has raised up (the Haitian government!?) “to honor God and bring glory to the Name of Jesus Christ by caring for orphaned and vulnerable children in Caracol, Haiti” (STH Mission Statement). Is it possible that YOU need Haiti more than Haiti needs you?