Mike and Brenda

Re-building Campaign - updated 27th May

with new photo in News section

Please send all and any donations directly to :

Haiti Disaster Relief

Cooperative Baptist Fellowship
P.O.Box 101699
Atlanta, GA 30392

Please mark the memo item of the check to “Haiti Disaster Relief: Grand Goave Church Project 86935”

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Welcome to the Temple Baptiste Church Building Campaign Blog page. It is the prayer of the congregation to rebuild the church campus, this year (2012). Since the devastating earthquake in January 2010, this congregation have worshipped in a "make-do" worship center. They have had to use other churches, within the community, for their own weddings and funerals. Our congregation wish to honor the Lord with a suitable sanctuary of their own.

Adult Sunday School, in the current sanctuary

Proverbs 3:9-10
9 Honor the LORD with your wealth,
with the firstfruits of all your crops;
10 then your barns will be filled to overflowing,
and your vats will brim over with new wine.

1 Chronicles 29:14-17

14 “But who am I, and who are my people, that we should be able to give as generously as this? Everything comes from you, and we have given you only what comes from your hand. 15 We are foreigners and strangers in your sight, as were all our ancestors. Our days on earth are like a shadow, without hope. 16 LORD our God, all this abundance that we have provided for building you a temple for your Holy Name comes from your hand, and all of it belongs to you. 17 I know, my God, that you test the heart and are pleased with integrity. All these things I have given willingly and with honest intent. And now I have seen with joy how willingly your people who are here have given to you.

Please note, the funds donated to the building of the church, no matter how big or small will allow the Church Council the on-going opportunity to “eat the elephant” in bite size pieces. We respectfully inform our generous donors that all funds, once received will be used 100% for the church reconstruction but at the discretion of the Project Manager, Moise Louis-Jean.

News updates

Sunday 27th May

The foundation is now complete. The week, starting tomorrow, the block building of the wall starts. It has only been 7 weeks since the crew started to dig the foundations!

The foundation, made mainly of river rock is about 8 feet deep wiht two horizonal beams. We did not have to buy any river rock - it was all donated by the congregation - no small task, that is approximately 30,000 cubic feet of rock!!

We have had another cash donation of $700US towards this project, thank you very much Gloria. We are are blessed, again, by you.

Adding the internal wall foundation

Sunday 6th May

North Stuart Baptist Church team helped with rocks and dirt piles; humor and smiles. Thanks guys for coming.

End of week three - first of two horizontal beams in the river rock foundation was poured.

Monday 16th April
Photos of our first week of construction

Moise shares the great news of re-construction with the church

Good Friday - together we surveyed in the lines of the new church

Work starts - day one the demolition of the small building - it was in the way!

Cooperstown and West Chester team - helping us dig the foundations

Every 10 feet there will be a pillar.

Wednesday 21st March
We have GREAT news. We have recieved enough money for materials that we now have sufficent funds to start the construction.

History of the Church

Pressior Pertil and Moise Louis Jean have provided the history of the Temple Baptiste Siloë Church, also known as Siloë Church.

The church is a member of the Convention Baptiste d’Haiti, CBH, and the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship are working with the Temple Baptiste Siloë church congregation as the focal point of our Disaster Relief. We have been here, in Grand Goâve, since February 2010.
The church was started by Pastor Julien Dauphin 1933 in his small home. The Grand Goâve church has been located in the same spot from day one.

This church was the second church in Grand Goâve and the first Protestant church. In the USA it would have been called First Baptist Church of Grand Goâve!

During the life of the church, in Grand Goâve, there have been three churches on the site.

The first church was the small house, where the Pastor lived; he started his church as a Home Church.
The second church was a church built between 1950 and 1952.
This was a river rock church, with a wooden gallery and a tin roof. The stairs were wooden; the gallery sides were wooden too.
The Siloë School was founded in 1962 by the pastor Ismael Pierre and was built behind the Grand Goâve church.
The “third” church was structurally damaged in the earthquake
This was a river rock church and was, in fact, the same walls as the prior church. In 1982-84 the roof and gallery were taken off and the block knee wall and new roof were added.
On 10th January, at 4.50pm, 2010 the earthquake damaged the structure to the point that it was felt to be structurally compromised. The Church Committee and the congregation now wish to reconstruct the church, for the Glory of God.

In 1963 the church created a satellite church in the mountain communities, close to Grand Goâve, in Norgaisse. This church in turn has two satellite churches at Monthabort and Mt.Sinai. The current Norgaisee church was built in 1985. It was funded by Haitian Baptiste Convention, the Church Committee, the community and the family friends in the USA.

Both the churches in Grand Goâve and Norgaisse have water wells on the church grounds that were sunk by the Haitian Baptiste Convention. These churches continue to play a central role in the community.

Current active participation in the churches

Church People Families

Grand Goave 160 85

Norgaisee 150 65

Mt. Sinai 45 25

Monthabort 260 100

Pastors

1933 - 1958 Julien Dauphin

1958 - 1963 Dalmond Nicolas

1963 - 1966 Celio Philippe

1967 - 1977 Ismael Pierre

1977 - 1985 Willierre Pierre Louis

1986 - 1988 Walter Joseph

1989 - 1992 Stephnson Doirin

1993 - 1996 Joel Papin

1997 - 2007 Fereste Pierre

2008 - 2009 Francios Desir

2010 - 2012 Committee d’eglise
2012 Pastor Luckner

Why do the funds need to come from outside Haiti?

Haiti is only 1 hour 30 minutes from Miami, however, in the world rankings it is the poorest country in the Western hemisphere. 80% of the population is below the poverty line (est. 2003). Unemployment, since the earthquake, has reached levels that range between 50 and 80%, depending on who you ask.

Trying to find the average Haitian’s wage is impossible; but we’ll assume $1,000US/year, that is $20US a week, {and that looks high, if you browse the web}. To put a child through school is about $150US a year ($850US) assuming only one of your three children attends school! A meal, at a street vendor, is about $2US so let’s assume a family can make that same meal for 25c. A family of 5 that is $1.25US per meal. Assume they eat one meal a day! 365 days = $456US ($394US). Now buy clothes, water, rent, something for the other two children to do during the day their brother is at school on the rest is $1.08c a day - The math simply does not add up; there is little to no chance the church will be built with local funds.

The average collection for a Sunday, at the church is, 500 gourde ($12.50US). This is not enough for the church to meet their current expectations, however, if they were to put 50% to one side, for church reconstruction, it would take them 16,000 Sundays to raise the funds, or 307 years!

Community / Congregational involvement

As the congregation will be unable to fund the church materials, we are proposing that they enter into the construction and auxiliary tasks with some sweat equity and possible sharing of their farm produce, to assist in the lunches for the construction workers.

The church sanctuary is likely to take approximately six months to build and complete. It is unacceptable to expect a work crew of, on average, 14 men, plus 4 other workers, to commit to this project on a completely voluntary basis. They are likely to be the bread winners for their families; so free labor is not being expected. However, we are proposing a “One free; Two paid” labor plan. We are hoping to get the crew to work Monday to Saturday and be paid for four days, having given two days for the glory of God.

As the church is being built for the congregation we will also be ensuring that the other sister church congregations have the opportunity to work on the building of this church. This will provide a network of joint commitment, additional labor wages going back into the mountain communities, community bonding between sister churches and, hopefully, an outward show of God’s love to the community as a whole as we share His providence to the wider community.

We will also be promoting church work days, when appropriate. This will allow the whole church to work at some point in the construction, moving lots of rock, digging lots of foundations, clearing, cleaning, general sweeping - all these tasks, when done by the congregation will hopefully keep them together and motivated.

We also need to be cognizant of the fact that for our Christian brothers and sisters the building of the church is "life". This is not an extra project that they do in their spare time it is what they do for a living. Sure there will be people that come and work alongside the team that can give a day or two as a volunteer and the congregation days will be well represented. But, in the end these people, working to re-build the church, will have this as their sole job and they are likely to be the sole bread winner for the family.

Budget and local advancement

CBF and ABC funded the building of the school with extremely generous funds donated by our USA church families. This allowed us and the local project manager to have an almost carte blanch access to the funds necessary to build the great school buildings that we have today.

The raising of the funds for this church will be handled differently; it will be necessary for the Project Manager, Church Council and Shift Foreman/boss to work a lot closer together to be sure that the project is brought in on, or hopefully, under the proposed budget. If the budgeted funds are spent and the church is not complete there is unlikely to be additional funds. This process will allow the local leaders a chance to grow in the fiscal management, their buying skills, budgeting skills as well as interpersonal skills for negotiation and compromise, if needed.

We see this as a great opportunity to continue to manage and mentor community leaders to be all the God wants them to be.

How, where and what!?

The text on the sanctuary wall Ta parole est une lampe à mes pieds

Thy word is a lamp unto my feet- Psalm 119:105

Dr. Daniel Vestal, Executive Director of Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, and Rev. Timothy Brendel, Disaster Relief Coordinator of CBF in Haiti Jun-Aug 2010, standing in the sanctuary of the old church; before it was demolished.

The Church Committee had removed the roof to save the material for use elsewhere. It ended up being used to roof the temporary sanctuary.

This church congregation truly is “the church” without the requirement of a church building. However, that being said the congregation is praying hard for external funds to re-build their church facilities. All the buildings were fundamentally damaged in the January 12th 2010 earthquake, which destroyed so much of Port-au-Prince and the surrounding area.

Tori Wentz, medical missionary, immediately after the earthquake, worships with the people of Temple Baptist Church, Grand Goâve in a make shift sanctuary behind the damaged church.

When CBF and ABC offered to support this church and its school the Church Committee requested that we re-build their school, before thinking about the church. They know that education is a vital link to helping this community to grow and prosper. Now the school is complete their minds have moved to the prayerful request for support for the building of their church.

The courtyard/basketball court of the re-built school. Completed January 2012. The Haitian flag is raised every morning, at school assembly.

Raising of the Haitian Flag, singing the National anthem, singing a hymn and reciting the Lord's prayer - a "grace full" way to start the school day.

Samaritan’s Purse removed the old, damaged church buildings in March 2011

The plan is to build the new church on the old site

The church committee and the congregation saw, not only the church, but the Pastor’s house and the additional church buildings destroyed in the earthquake.

They pray that these too will be able to be built with the funds raised for the church.

Who are the Church Council? What do they think of the building campaign?

Name : Jn. Moise Louis Jean

Age : 45 yrs
When did you give your life to Christ? When I was 10 years old
Length of time worshipped at this church? For 37 years
How long have you served on the Church Council? For 17 years
I am a teacher at the Grand Goâve government school. I am the Project Manager for CBF working alongside the CBF Disaster Relief Field Coordinators
Why do you want the church re-built? The church should be a place where those that feel tired, troubled, burdened, and they will find rest and the spirits revived (Matt 11:28)
Will the new church encourage more people to give their lives to Christ? Yes; the church is a place that can change a person where ever they are in life. It is a place where they can meet other Christians. We want to serve God in the proper manner. (Haggai 1:4)

Name : Pascal Ybsens Clark

Age : 36 years old
When did you give your life to Christ? 17 years ago
Length of time worshipped at this church? 7 years, now
How long have you served on the Church Council? On the council for 5 years
I am the school administrator for Siloë Baptist College School, on the Church campus, in Grand Goâve.
Why do you want the church re-built? It is necessary because the prophet Haggai said in Chapter 1 Verse 4 that we should not live is big houses when the temple of the Lord is in ruins. We need to rebuild our church because it says so in the bible.
Will the new church encourage more people to give their lives to Christ? Yes
Why? Reason 1 : We can continue to evangelize, Reason 2 : Because it is a good principle and this will attract more people, Reason 3 : We will be able to receive more Students at church, and everyone knows the heart of the church.

Name : Jean Lestin Victor

Age : 38 years old
When did you give your life to Christ? 28 years ago
Length of time worshipped at this church? I have been attending for 12 years
How long have you served on the Church Council? I have been on the Church Council for 2 years.I am the Siloë Baptiste School Educational Director.
Why do you want the church re-built? It is always good to have a place to worship God if this is a big space and especially beautiful you can get a lot more people. Our current church is not a good example of this. Our church is the center of the district sometime we will have to receive people from many different churches in the district. We have the space reserved for another church.
Will the new church encourage more people to give their lives to Christ? Yes
Why? With a new church we will be able to offer so many more activities, services, activities with the young adults, the Women, the older men. During these activities we can invite many people to the Christian faith. Our new church will be able to achieve this.

Who are the congregation? What do they think of the building campaign?

Name : Fanfan Marie Mislourdes

Age : 42 years old
When did you give your life to Christ? When I was 12 years old
Length of time worshipped at this church? I have been worshiping here for 10 years
Why do you want the church re-built? Because we cannot stay forever under a tarpaulin. We must build a new church to worship God to the best of our abilities. Without a new church we cannot do that.
Will the new church encourage more people to give their lives to Christ? Yes, because people are drawn to good things. This is why we ask to build the church.

Name : Cesar Jacqueline Rachelle

Age : 43 years old
When did you give your life to Christ? When I was 20 years old
Length of time worshipped at this church? I have been worshipping here for 19 years.
Why do you want the church re-built? It is a requirement that we build the church because God does not accept negligence. Because of that we cannot accept negligence. We need firm hearts to receive God. If we are negligent God will be angry.
Will the new church encourage more people to give their lives to Christ? Yes, we can give them encouragement and training.

Name : Jbanése Pascal Raton

Age : 35 years old
When did you give your life to Christ? 18 years ago
Length of time worshipped at this church? 4 years
Why do you want the church re-built? It is always good for Christians to have good construction. We cannot stay always under the special tarpaulin. We are not comfortable here. We cannot encourage many Christians to attend our church while it is in this place.
Will the new church encourage more people to give their lives to Christ? Yes, because Christians together is always a good thing. God says we need a sanctuary that is clean where we can worship Him.

Name : Mme Wilner Faublas

Age : 45 years old

When did you give your life to Christ? As a child
Length of time worshipped at this church? All my life
Why do you want the church re-built? Now the old sanctuary is down we want to build a new sanctuary to worship God and we cannot let the Devil in.
Will the new church encourage more people to give their lives to Christ? Yes, everyone likes good things. And that is why we are asking for a new church.

Name : Mme. Pressoir Pertil

Age : 51 years old
When did you give your life to Christ? 25 years ago
Length of time worshipped at this church? Since I gave my life to Christ.
Why do you want the church re-built? We would like to have a beautiful place to worship God. We want to worship God in a clean and tidy place. God loves a place that is kept well for Him.
Will the new church encourage more people to give their lives to Christ? Yes, we can attract many people, if we have the tools, the church; it is possible to change a person no matter where they are in life.

Name : Daniel Emmanuel

Age : 25 years old
When did you give your life to Christ? 10 years ago
Length of time worshipped at this church? For 6 years
I am training to become a dentist, at a university in Port-au-Prince.
Why do you want the church re-built? It is important for us to have a new sanctuary because we serve God. We owe it to God to have an agreeable and comfortable place as God loves us when we worship in a place like that.
Will the new church encourage more people to give their lives to Christ? No! We would like a new church to worship God and if we get new converts, good, we still would have a beautiful church.

Name: Jeanson CHERY

Age: 27 years old
When did you give your life to Christ? Many years ago
Length of time worshipped at this church? For 12 years
I am a Sunday school teacher at the church. I am in studying theology, at a university in Port-au-Prince. I am the volunteer coordinator working for CBF.
Why do you what the church re-built? It is necessary to have a new and a nice place to worship our Lord. Salomon wanted to build a place for the Lord he built a beautiful place for God he knew what God mean to him. We know how great, how worthy is our God; to have a new and nice place for this God it is extremely important.
Will the new church encourage more people to give their lives to Christ? When we have a nice and confortable home we are really proud to invite and receive people at our house, we will feel more comfortable to invite anyone to visit our church, we can invite more people as we know faith comes by hearing by listening to God’s word we can have more people converted.

Name : Loryeme Jean Borgella
Age : 47 years old
When did you give your life to Christ? When I was young boy
Length of time worshipped at this church? All my life
I am a carpenter, mason and construction laborer.
Why do you want the church re-built? Because we need a church to worship God
Will the new church encourage more people to give their lives to Christ? Yes, with a new church a lot of people will want to become Christians

Name : Jacques Rodnez

Age : 43 years old
When did you give your life to Christ? 18 years ago
Length of time worshipped at this church? Since 2005
Why do you want the church re-built? We need to construct a new church to worship God.
Will the new church encourage more people to give their lives to Christ? Yes, to allow new people to come to Christ.

Name : Destine Paul

Age : 32 years old
When did you give your life to Christ? 12 years ago
Length of time worshipped at this church? 12 years ago
Do you hold a position in the church? What is it? I preach the word of God, at this church, some times.
Why do you want the church re-built? Haggai 1:8 – It says we should not live in big houses when the house of the Lord is in ruins. We should show love and rebuild the temple.
Will the new church encourage more people to give their lives to Christ? Yes, many people will be converted.
Why? We can invite people to our church and they can see the new church; it will attract them.

Name : Morin Aniel
Age : 24 years old
When did you give your life to Christ? When I was 7
Length of time worshipped at this church? Since I was 7 years old
Do you hold a position in the church? What is it? I am a church monitor and service leader.
Why do you want the church re-built? We have lost the old church and it will not be normal until we have a new church. If rain is coming at the same time we are having service we will have to stand if not all of us will get wet. So it is important that we build a new one.
Will the new church encourage more people to give their lives to Christ? Yes, because every time a new church is built new people come. With more people coming to church we can support the conversion of more people.

What do we think about the re-building campaign?

Name : Brenda Harwood
Age : 52 years old
When did you give your life to Christ? When I was 14 years old
Length of time worshipped at this church? Since Sept. 2010
Why do you want the church re-built? It is sad to see the congregation now have a beautifully built school and the church is in ruins. It is difficult to grow a church when the worship center is so temporary.
Will the new church encourage more people to give their lives to Christ? Yes, if you make the Christian environment inviting people will come to see what others find so exciting. This buzz will allow the congregation to walk alongside these people, befriend them, and let them see what Christ has done for them, in their lives.

Name : Mike Harwood

Age : 47 years old
When did you give your life to Christ? 2004
Length of time worshipped at this church? Since July 2010
Why do you want the church re-built? I have seen such faith and Christian commitment in this community it often makes me to think hard about my own faith and commitment. This community made a huge sacrifice to ask CBF to rebuild the school before any thought was given to the church. Now the school is finished I can’t think of many better ways to glorify our God than to re-build His church. This sanctuary will be well used, well-loved and will be a tremendous asset to the Temple Baptiste Church in the delivery of God’s love to the community.
Will the new church encourage more people to give their lives to Christ? Yes, noted elsewhere people love new things! A new church will draw inquisitive people to attend, knowing, the church will be beautifully built with love and attention by many of the congregation themselves. A new church, built by donations from people that may never set foot in in the church, itself, is a huge example of God’s love to everyone, no matter where He is in the world.

The plans

These plans were drawn up by the Texas Baptist Men. It shows the plans for a sanctuary of 4,500 sq. ft. with a possible addition of a balcony and a total capacity for 550 people.

This new church is being built for growth. The Church Council have great faith, as do the whole church; they believe that with a larger church and better facilities they will be able to increase the Kingdom of God in Grand Goâve and increase their regular Sunday attendance.

Christian Education

Since the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship came to Grand Goâve we have seen the Sunday School classes expand from two classes to four classes. Now we have Children, New Believers, Young Adults and Adults classes. Sunday School is an hour and is held before the main Sunday worship.

Children's Sunday School, held in a Siloe classroom

Young Adults Sunday School class

Weekly use of the buildings

Baptiste Women meet every Monday afternoon.

There are activities at the church, or church planned events most days of the week.

Music

The original organ was broken when an interal wall of the church fell during the earthquake.

The Church have already been donated a 71 key keyboard, by a church in the USA

The music for the worship service is an electronic keyboard, tambourine, maracas and a cajon drum.

Can you support this campaign?

Prayer - NEVER under estimate the power of prayer
See if there is time for you to join a short term mission team. Please contact Brayden Huskey at bhuskey@thefellowship.info
If you come and volunteer you will have the opportunity to help with the actual construction of the church.
Financially support the re-building of the Temple Baptist Church. The church itself will cost approximately $100,000US.
A further $50,000US - $60,000US will be needed for the Pastor's house and church Hall.
No funds are too small, all the funds will go directly to the project - examples of the sort of things that we would use you contribution for are..
$1.00 a block – estimate need of 4,500 for the sanctuary
$2.00 one workers lunch
$2.00 pair of worker's gloves
$8.00 for a bag of cement
$9.00 average daily wage
$10.00 for a shovel
$25.00 for a cubic meter of sand
$20.00 for a cubic meter of gravel
$40.00 for a sheet of roofing tin
$725.00 average week’s wages for an average crew
$1,000 – $1,200 for a ton of re-bar depending on the thickness
Prayer - NEVER under estimate the power of prayer.

Please note, the funds identified above, are purely examples; allowing the “elephant” to be eaten in bite size pieces. We respectfully inform our generous donors that all funds, once received will be used 100% for the church reconstruction but at the discretion of the Project Manager, Moise Louis-Jean.

Please send all and any donations directly to :

Haiti Disaster Relief

Cooperative Baptist Fellowship
P.O.Box 101699
Atlanta, GA 30392

Please mark the memo item of the check to “Haiti Disaster Relief: Grand Goave Church Project 86935”

What is expected, in the end....?

This is an EXAMPLE of a recently re-built church that received funding from other churches in the USA.

The original church was destroyed in the earthquake.

This is the Philadelphia Baptiste Church in Petit Goâve, the town close to Grand Goâve. This church was re-built by local artisans with the majority of the funds from the USA.

Temple Baptiste Church would like to have a similar style church as this one.

Matthew 25:35-40

35 For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, 36 I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’

37 “Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? 38 When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? 39 When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’

40 “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’

Thank you for your prayers, thank you for bring the Word of the Lord to this corner of God's world.

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