Last week I had the distinct honor of visiting Haiti and the Dominican Republic. The later I have been to many times and love, the former…never.  The reason was to pay a visit to Julio and Suzette
Volcy.  They are church planters with Christian Associates.  His intention is to start a church in Petionville, a part of the massive city of Port au Prince. I believe the official numbers for residents of the city are around the 5 million mark.  Most say it is about the size of Chicago – an immense city (some estimate many more).

I know Haiti has gained a substantial amount of international attention since the earthquake in 2010.  It was a gigantic quake with literally scores of aftershocks.  The Haitian government estimate at least 316,000 died in the catastrophe.  The multiplied tragedy is that Haiti was the poorest country in the western hemisphere before the mindboggling natural disaster occurred.  The city is enormous  without a central sewage system.  The road system is quite undeveloped and transportation is arduous, and that is an understatement. If you think the roads are bad in your city, quit complaining. For many of the roads in the city you need to think of driving through a wheat field, only about 10x worse. I needed a kidney belt just to drive around. The picture to the left is the highway just before the Haitian / Dominican border. Also, the poverty is pervasive (I just read over 50% unemployment, some say it is up to 60%).

Into this context Julio and his wife Suzette (and 3 beautiful kids) are seeking to establish a church with a missional/incarnational approach.  The percentage of churched in the country is quite high (I heard up to 40%), but in many ways it is an institutional model tethered to traditional mindset. It appears that the church is mostly insular in its approach relegating Christianity to obeying rules (many which are church established) and going to worship services.

The work we (CA) are doing is based upon a premise that the church is for the world. Julio and his team get this.  They are involved in clean water projects, health care, education and discipleship of young men (Julio runs a Teen Challenge ministry mentoring up around 50 young men). What I discovered while there is Julio is an incredibly influential leader in his community.  It seems that he is looked up to by most folks and is poised to make a tremendous impact. I got the distinct impression while there that this group is not only planting a church, but preparing to re-Jesus the city, even the country with a fresh recasting of the Gospel…a whole Gospel.  They are not only planting a church, but praying and working to change their country. 

That is what I am in this for. The transformation of the nation with the transcendent hope of Jesus.  God’s plan?  I am persuaded that it is through establishing a different kind of church…Kingdom outposts doing the King’s work throughout the world.

I am grateful.

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