Relevant Magazine recently highlighted one of the church-to-church partnerships we were blessed to facilitate. Here’s an excerpt of the article, “In Haiti for the Long Haul” by Kami Rice:
Pastor Edouard Clerhomme and Pastor Ed Noble likely never would have met if an earthquake hadn’t filled Haiti’s streets with rubble. But now the relationship between them and the churches they lead is growing into something that has life beyond the tragedy.Clerhomme pastors the Church of God Mission by Faith church in Carrefour, Haiti, a very poor community southwest of downtown Port-au-Prince. He was walking home from downtown when the earthquake struck. He was OK but saw people buried in the pancaked buildings. He said he was filled by the Holy Spirit then and began preaching the Gospel as people in the streets with him cried and prayed.“Since the earthquake, God has done mighty acts. A lot of people came to Christ and were saved right after the earthquake,” he says. Even now, eight months later, his church holds revival services and meets together to pray all the time: each morning and night at the church with additional afternoon services, plus praying with people in their homes.In late May, Noble, the pastor of Journey Community Church in La Mesa, Calif., traveled to Haiti with a group of ministry bloggers to help kick off the Church-to-Church Program through which interdenominational missions organization Adventures in Missions (AIM) is facilitating direct partnerships between churches in Haiti and churches in America.
We emphasize that the relationship between the two churches is an interdependent one; a partnership that empowers both the church in La Mesa and the church in Carrefour. Kami continues (emphasis added):
… As Journey covers their activities in prayer while providing small business loans to church members and restocking the medical clinic Clerhomme had been running in his community, Mission by Faith prays for their American partner church.“One of the things we have to offer to Journey is that we can pray that God will keep blessing Journey Church in everything they do,” Clerhomme says. “Nothing can be done without prayer, and we want to pray for Journey Church as much as we can. [Beyond that] there might be something else God wants us to do for Journey Church. We can preach the Gospel and then one never knows.”Jason Denison, worship pastor at Journey and a member of the July visit team, said his church needs their Mission by Faith partners because of the Haitian believers’ faith. “If we need something, we go to the drugstore and buy it. If they need something, they ask God for it. I think you have a different connection with God when you have to rely on Him like that.“Both churches are entering this partnership for the long haul-and not only for the more immediate earthquake recovery season. “When you go down there and begin to form relationships like we did, high-fiving and saying, ‘We’ll see you in heaven!’ doesn’t feel right,” Denison says. “This is an until-kingdom-come kind of deal. We need them just as much as they need us, and that will be more realized in the future.”
To learn more about how your church can partner with a church in Haiti in this kind of way, please visit our Church-to-Church page.
