Well, it has been a very turbulent last year for Joy and I, for Jameson and Jordan and for all our brothers and sisters in Haiti secondary to the protests, political unrest, hurricanes and of course the virus. Because it has been so crazy, I am afraid that we have not done a very good job of letting you know all that’s happening on the ground in Haiti. Although we have met with many trials and tribulations this past year, the followers of Christ in Haiti are resilient and many programs have been birthed through these hardships! We thought we would write this blog to fill in the gaps and to bring you up to date. Thank you for all your prayers.
A PEEK INTO WHAT IS HAPPENING ON THE FIELD IN HAITI:
1) A Bible Study in Haitian Creole via Whatsapp
On October 31, 2020 we started sending out short bi-weekly devotionals to our contacts in Haiti through the free international social media platform called Whatsapp. Naomi Stirbu, a dear friend, and nurse who has been to Haiti many times over the last 4 years, has graciously agreed to write the devotionals to both contribute to the ministry and to join us in serving our brothers and sisters in Haiti. We are sending these devotionals out to over 150 Haitians, in their mother tongue, Haitian Creole, every Monday and Thursday. We have asked each of the recipients to forward each Bible study to all their contacts in hopes that we can reach even more people with the Gospel of Jesus Christ! We started our Whatsapp devotionals by teaching basic doctrines supported by Scripture. Our goal is to further develop their personal understanding of the Bible.
We named the recipient group “Nap Etidye Pawol Bondye Asanm” which translates “We are Studying the Word of God Together.”
To our knowledge there has not yet been a daily devotional book written in the Haitian Creole language. Therefore, we are thinking that once we have produced 365 of these short devotionals, we would like to publish them in a small book to give out in Haiti, along with the New Testaments that we put in each person’s hand. Here are a few of the devotionals we have sent out already.
God is Great
God is Eternal
God is Omnipotent
God is Relational
God is Omnipresent
God is Holy
God is Faithful
God is Love
God is Three in One
Jesus is God
The Holy Spirit is God
Satan and Man are Both Fallen Creatures
The Fall of Adam
The Result of the Fall of Adam
Relationship Between Satan and The Fall of Man
Sin
Acknowledging Sin/Asking for Mercy
What Happens If We Do not Seek God?...
2) A Pioneer Program to Facilitate Annual Group Weddings
Over the past few years, God has been helping us identify a very real need in Haiti. There are very few marriages between couples in the church. This problem exists secondary to poverty and the inability to pay for a wedding. When it comes to choosing between eating and getting married, buying food will be prioritized over marriage.
To circumvent this problem God has placed it on our hearts to come alongside under-resourced Christian Haitian couples in Haiti who want to honor God through marriage and assist them in making their dream of marriage a reality. There are SO many Haitian couples in our villages right now who are living together despite the fact that they have been saved. After coming to know the Lord, a deep desire to get married is birthed in them and they want to honor God and respect the church. The program we have initiated is going to make it possible for these couples to get married. We know that once married, these Christian couples will not feel shamed anymore by their community and will no doubt be empowered to live more boldly and passionately for Christ as they serve Him together as husband and wife.
There is more to this program than simply supporting the new believers in their walk with Christ and their pursuit of holiness. This program will also meet a need that WE, CHARIS, have had for a while now. That need is for more Haitian leaders to serve in our churches in Haiti. There is currently a shortage of Christian leaders within our churches in Haiti. Although many people in the church have leadership qualities and want to serve in leadership roles, our pastors cannot Biblically put them in a position of leadership while they are living together unmarried. When we talked with many of these couples, we found that there was no lack of desire to be married and fulfill the requirements of "living right before God through the marriage covenant", but rather there were no "means" for them to get married. I believe this program we are starting is going to have a tremendous, long-term impact physically and spiritually in our communities. The couples who participate in the group weddings will feel "clean" before God, enabling them to serve, as the Lord calls them, as leaders, deacons and overall role models in our communities.
We requested donations this past year from all our churches in the States for any and all items associated with a wedding - wedding dresses, wedding veils, men suits, artificial flowers, wedding bands, etc. Can you believe we collected 42 wedding dresses, 49 men's suits, 103 wedding rings, not to mention all the decorations and accessories?! We currently have 15 couples scheduled to get married in April of this year once all the wedding dresses make it to Haiti. (Pray for our mission team who will be carrying these dresses into Haiti in suitcases so that they will not get stolen at the port!. It takes a village!)
Ecclesiastes 5:11 says "A threefold cord is not quickly broken.' (We see the three cords representing a couple, male and female - bound together in love by the Holy Spirit of God in order to serve God, by the power of God.)
We would like to say a special thanks to Beth Boven, Maria Black, Linda Henderson, Naomi, Ruth, Becky & Aurica Stirbu, Amy Black and Johanna Nieblas. These women have all come together to form a committee that has planned, collected funds, procured donations, and coordinated all the details on this end to make this dream a reality for the 15 Haitian couples. This committee will continue to support the efforts of future Charis group weddings and for this we are so grateful.
3) Composting/Urban Farming and Motorcycle Taxi Program
We are working with our good friends Dan and Mary Coughlan, to create and develop a new program that will further support and sustain former vodou priests after they have come out of vodou and are now walking with the Lord.
We are rolling this program out in 2 forms: a motorcycle taxi program and a composting/farming program. As most of you know we have already started the urban farming program in our village of LaRoca. Through this pioneer program, we are learning what works and what does not work, but the gardens there are doing well.
For the motorcycle taxi program, we are looking to buy 1 or 2 motorcycles and lease them out to a few former vodou priests so that they can earn money now, while “leasing to own” their motorcycle. The money they pay in leasing the motorcycle will be compiled until there is enough to purchase 2 additional motorcycles for 2 additional former vodou priests and this is the way we plan to sustain the program. We are very thankful for all the research and time Dan and Mary have put into developing this program. Charis will have assistance that is more sustainable as we come alongside our brothers and sisters in Christ.
4) A New Haitian-Run Clinic for the Village of Peredo/Savon de Bois
Some short but sweet news to all you medical professionals that have served with Charis in Haiti through the years: Charis currently has 2 Haitian doctors and 6 Haitian nurses working alongside us. Job and his wife, Evania, the two doctors mentioned above, have had a dream to one day open a clinic in Haiti. At the end of 2020, they rented a 5-room building, near the village of Peredo, and with Charis’ support will open their clinic this year, God willing.
We have purchased a huge generator and all our nurses have agreed to rotate days staffing the clinic. We purposely have decided to remain behind the scenes on all of this, as we want it to be a clinic run by Haitians for the Haitians. However, because we are supporting the clinic, we will also have a clinic where we can perform surgeries and small procedures when our medical mission teams come, as well as a location to keep all our medical tools and supplies. We praise the Lord for His direction and provision in this.
5) A Letter from our CHARIS missionaries, Jameson and Jordan Supan
Greetings and blessings friends and family:
It has been a year since we first left the United States with the mind of moving to Haiti to preach the gospel and equip the church full-time. My what a year it has been! What started out as a normal January and February, quickly turned into a year of waiting like we had never expected. Now, we have come to a time of reflection on this past year and planning for the next, and I think it is appropriate to share with you in that process.
What have we been doing for the last year? Back in February of 2020, our plan was to travel to Haiti and begin our circuit of travel for three-month stays while we work to acquire our visas. Things were going exceptionally well at first, as we were diving headfirst back into the ministry in Haiti, but then COVID-19 hit the United States, borders were closed, and the rest is history. When we heard rumors of the United States closing its borders to international travel and the uncertainty of what would happen in Haiti during a pandemic, we made the difficult decision to come back to the States and wait for everything to calm down. And here we are still waiting for everything to calm down.
In the meantime, Malcolm and Joy kept plodding on and working hard as always with supporting the church in Haiti and keeping in constant contact with our brothers and sisters on the ground, while also working on making some small changes to Charis as an organization, to be better equipped to fulfill its role in aiding the body of Christ in the mission of the gospel. Jordan and I, returning to Indiana, lent our hands of support in those areas as best we could with our limitations in Haitian Creole. However, Jordan and I also began putting our hands to work back in the States.
Over the last year, since our plans for Haiti were providentially halted, Jordan and I made some adapting changes to our lifestyle back in Indiana. We moved into a different house (generously provided by family) to cut-back on our cost of living, and so we can be prepared to leave for Haiti when the time properly arises. We also went back to work in a full-time and part-time capacity, so that we can continue to plan to return to the field in Haiti, but also be able to provide for our own cost of living while we are away.
During the last year Jordan and I changed our membership with our church body of fellowship. About June of last year, we made the decision to leave the church family I grew up in and take up covenant fellowship with a small body of brothers and sisters at a reformed fellowship in Pendleton, Indiana. We left that fellowship in good standing and with a loving familial relationship. In fact, that brings me to my next point; in October of 2020 I was ordained as a minister of the gospel by my local church body, and both my current pastor, Kamaron Gray, and my pastor from childhood growing up, Roger Kinion, took part of my examination council.
The last year has been full of many changes, but just as much fruitful labor. Jordan and I worked in our local church body to equip and encourage the saints in that place. I was given the chance to preach on several occasion at different church bodies locally, we joined our church in ministering to our preborn neighbors at our local abortion mills, went downtown to preach the gospel during the Black Lives Matter rallies, and we were invited to represent Charis at the annual Cruciform Conference in October. Finally, to cap off the year in review, we were blessed to welcome our firstborn child, Kaydence Harper, on January 14, 2021. All glory to God for choosing us to raise up this little arrow for the Kingdom! May she be used mightily for her King!
Now, following that announcement, of course the most common question we have been asked of late is what our plan is for this next year, since we have Kayda. Are we still planning to return to Haiti? The short answer is, yes. We still have every intention to return to the labor set apart for us in Haiti. Apart from a providential hindrance to our being able to work in Haiti, we have no intention of changing our plans at this time, and no friends, our infant daughter is not a hindrance.
“Children are an heritage of Yahweh: and the fruit of the womb is His reward. As arrows in the hand of a mighty man; so are children of the youth. Blessed is the man whose quiver is full. They shall not be ashamed when they speak with their enemies at the gate.”
Psalm 127:3-5
We will raise up our daughter, like an arrow in the hand of a mighty man. We will train her up in the fear of the Lord, and a part of the Lord’s Kingdom work, all her life, until the day she is sent out herself. In having children, and expanding our family, we came to another crossroads of our loyalties.
“If it is disagreeable in your sight to serve Yahweh, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served which were beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living, but as for me and my house, we will serve Yahweh.” Joshua 24:15
We will not turn back in fear to the old gods of security and comfort, of materialism and anxiety. As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. We will serve Yahweh.
So, what is our plan for this next year? Well, that’s a harder question to answer at this point. While I just said Kayda is not a hindrance to our returning to the mission field, it is also true that as her father and Jordan’s husband, my duty as their head is to provide for them and protect them, physically and spiritually. Before I am a missionary, minister, elder in the church, I am Jordan’s husband and Kayda’s father, and I will answer to the Lord with how I treat them in that role. I am sternly convicted that the man who sacrifices his family for a ministry should have little hope for reward in heaven, but has a harsh rebuke stored up for him.
With that established, using all prayerful discernment, we are taking a short season to allow Kaydence to grow and strengthen her immune system in these next few months. We are also hindered on another side, regarding travel. With much of the socio-political climate both in Haiti and the United States, and mounting travel restrictions, it is increasingly difficult to know when the proper time to return to Haiti is. My hope, together with Jordan, is to return to the mission field by the second half of this year, with Kayda in tow, and really begin working to strengthen the young church in Haiti. However, those are just my plans and, “many are the plans in the mind of man, but it is the purpose of Yahweh that stands.” (Proverbs 19:21).
It seems, for this short season, our plans for Haiti have been providentially halted, but by no means do we think we are being hindered or rebuked from taking to the mission field. Jordan and I prayerfully decided before we ever began telling people of our calling to Haiti, that we would not go unless we were certain the Lord were commanding us to go to this place. Neither would we leave, once we are sent, unless we are just as certain the Lord is calling us off. Our minds are set, and our faith is in our Lord, Jesus. He has sustained us this far, and He will not forsake us.
Please continue to pray for us. Pray for your brothers and sisters in Haiti. Pray for the glory of your King to triumph over the kingdom of darkness. May Christ Jesus be glorified in all the earth. May His enemies be a footstool.
Soli Deo Gloria.
Jameson and Jordan