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Some of the faithful in Marseille
“…how shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation?” Hebrews 2:3
Summer 2010
Dear friends,
On June 23, I.B.T.F. (the S. Florida Haitian Bible school where I have been teaching for 11 years) had a graduation ceremony for the four students who had successfully completed the three-year program. As the key-note speaker, it was my privilege to remind them that theological education does not consist in the acquisition of a diploma but in learning the Word with its implications for both this world and the next. Those who understand the Creator’s “directions for use” instructions are invariably better prepared to get by in the world He designed. I also reminded the 100% Haitian audience that there was hope for their motherland if only she would embrace the gospel and allow it to transform the mentalities of her citizens.
By way of comparison: there are about as many Jews in the world as there are Haitians (ca. 12 million of each) —and many of both in S. Florida. Jews have won 26% of all the Nobel prizes that have ever been awarded (126/750). What’s more, though surrounded by determined enemies, they have taken a small tract of Middle Eastern desert and in 62 years, transformed it into a minor superpower. Surely the residual grace from the biblically-based work-ethic inherited by their ancestors has something to do with their worldly success.
Consequently there is hope for Haiti, a country with more Christians and fertile land to work with. There’s no reason that the Caribbean nation need remain a basket-case as she can—through the transforming power of the gospel—become self-sufficient, if only her people will renounce voodoo obscurantism and learn to apply basic biblical principles to everyday life. Unlike Israel, Haiti’s only enemies are within. Everything is possible with the transforming power of the gospel!
We arrived in St. Martin on July 3 for the next leg of our teaching program for our devoted Haitian students on that island. Unfortunately, our suitcase, containing my clothes, books, and other teaching material, never arrived. Meanwhile, some of the Haitian students—for whom physical appearance seems quintessential—could not stand to see their professor in shorts and a T-shirt and bought me a pair of new trousers and a spiffy shirt and tie—a touching gesture indeed.
We arrived in Marseille (with our baggage this time!) on July 17th for our annual month-long stint at the Reformed evangelical assembly we helped plant twelve years ago. Most of you realize that the spiritual climate in Western Europe (France in particular) is glacial, and the radical beauty of the gospel message remains obscured to the eyes of the vast majority. Even the believers struggle against the spiritually blinding influence of the surrounding culture, often forgetting how great a salvation is offered them. Many churches close their doors in the slower summer months for lack attendance! That would be unthinkable for our devoted Haitian brethren.
Our goal in Marseille, as always, was to communicate something of the depths of the love of Him who saved us from eternal separation from the Father. That diabolical monster of Indifference has thrown sand in the eyes of so many and the faith often seems quaint and irrelevant to the French. So it’s a spiritual battle to emphasize the truths of the gospel message by reminding them of who Jesus is and what He came on earth to do! That was the motivation behind five sermons I preached from July 16 to Aug. 16 for a handful of believers and seekers.
Preaching on a regular basis requires a special vocation. I walked around restless all week like a caged lion, struggling with my text and its practical implications, grateful for commentaries and some of my favorite American preachers who unknowingly helped me with my work. Things went better than I had expected. Alleluia. As for France:
Many of us baby-boomers are distressed by the exponential acceleration of the decadence in post-Christian society. Having grown up in the 50’s in an “Ozzie and Harriet” /”Father Knows Best” society which lived by residual Christian values bequeathed to us by more godly ancestors, it is breathtaking to witness the total lack of moorings of the children of Generation X’ers who never even had those values to reject! Now fast-forward, as if a couple of decades to modern France where incredulity is often several generations deep, and what do you get? A frightening dearth of moral restraint, of which we had a vision on a trip to visit a French family in Alès, 100 miles west of Marseille. God-fearing, if not Christian parents, have given birth to three succeeding generations of non-believers, each more depraved than the previous one, and progressively more hardened to the gospel. [Ironically, it was during that visit that the French government proposed a law according to which parents could be subject to both a fine and even prison time for the actions of delinquent children!]
The last generation includes twelve-year-old Renaud, the illegitimate son of a single mother (who has two other out-of-wedlock children by different fathers). Little R. has already been arrested for breaking and entry and armed robbery using his biological father’s pistol, for which he received a legal slap on the wrist. While we visited the family, he even pilfered a $20 bill from Aline’s unattended handbag. Still, we pity him as he has no real father nor any love from his mother, who lives in idleness on the French welfare system, has been caught stealing from her own hard-working mother!
We considered the lamentable plight of that family as we fiddled with the car radio on the midnight drive back to Marseille and stumbled on a call-in program where a perverse homosexual was casually asking the radio host for advice about forming a threesome with a ‘gay’ couple. “I’m not abnormal…” he insisted to the host’s compliant agreement. Whew!
Back in Marseille; our routine consisted of morning study and sermon preparation at a local outdoor café (we don’t like being cooped-up in an apartment), careful to choose our seating upwind from the ubiquitous cigarette smokers. A few afternoon visits and “pétanque” sessions with some neighbors of MTW missionary Stephanie Pike provided more opportunities to share the Word. Such opportunities are numerous in France for one who is used to seizing them. Fruit from these encounters is both rare and slow to produce. Some sow. There will be a harvest some day. The Lord’s Word does not go out in vain (Isaiah 55:11).
Blessings,
Marc+Aline
Praise:
1-For the apparent spiritual progress of son Calix, more receptive than in the past of the gospel truths.
2-For multiple opportunities to share the faith with non-believers in France, including Yaro, a Malien law-student working as a security guard in a park where we picnicked with the Marseille church; and Françoise, André, Coco, Françis, Alain, Willy—all ”pétanque” buddies.
3-For the joy of Christian fellowship with members of the Marseille church including many old friends. 4-For the Lord’s amazing patience in withholding His judgment from our decadent Western civilization.
Prayer:
1-For health of son Justin who returned home from his teaching job in the Dominican Republic with stomach problems (amoebas?). A trip to the local S. Florida emergency room (he has no health insurance and earns all of $500./month) for medical tests resulted in a whopping $2300. bill and a refusal to communicate the test results without another expensive medical visit! So he returned to the D.R. on Aug.11 to resume his teaching, still sick, and under a mountain of debt to boot! Something must be done to make medical care affordable in the U.S. the way it is in France.
2- For the growth (spiritual and numerical) of the Marseille Reformed evangelical assembly, still seeking a pastor.
3-For new support to compensate for the loss of three supporting churches in the past year.
4- For my next teaching trip (church history) to Gonaïves, Haiti (Aug.28-Sept.4).
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“Acknowledge the Lord in all thy ways and He shall direct thy paths” Proverbs 3:6
Dear friends,
Our son Justin (28 and still single) teaches grammar school in the town of Cabrera on the north shore of the Dominican Republic. It pays poorly ($500. month) but he can go surfing when he’s not working—a priceless compensation for him. The fact that he hasn’t found a full-time teaching job in the U.S. limits his options. Still, all the money in the world wouldn’t lure him to Nebraska—much too far from the waves!
As he has searched for his vocation, Aline and I have tried to offer him guidance and encouragement. “Seek the Lord, and figure-out what you like to do that has redeeming social value“, we told him. Ideally, one should do what the Lord has given one a love for, regardless of the pay—or lack thereof. That philosophy runs parallel to J. Piper’s “Christian hedonism“: God is most glorified when we are most satisfied in Him. Enjoying one’s labor is indeed a gift from God, says Ecclesiastes (3:13).
Our younger son is gifted for working with children, and the test scores of his S. Florida students improved significantly when he taught them. But how proficient must one be at something to earn his livelihood at it?
Justin was a budding jazz aficionado when he was only 12 years old and the youngest student (by nine years) in the Marseille conservatory piano jazz section. To encourage him, we got him some recordings of the great piano jazz masters (including Art Tatum, Oscar Peterson etc.) for him to emulate. It backfired. He stopped playing quite suddenly. When I asked him what happened to his fledgling love of piano-boogey, he called me to his room and put on a recording of Tatum‘s “Elegy”.
“Listen to this dad,” our son marveled. “I could practice 24 hours a day for the rest of my life and still never play like that!” Perhaps. But how many pianists have Art Tatum’s talent? One mustn’t fall into the trap of Salieri (the Italian composer, contemporary of Mozart, of the semi-fictional “Amadeus” film) thinking he needs the genius of Mozart to please God. It’s not necessary to be the best at something to do it as a career to the glory of God. Otherwise, all baseball players would throw in the towel when comparing their skills with those of a Willie Mays. The fact is Justin didn’t love the piano enough to invest in the practice it takes to become proficient and to play for his enjoyment, let alone his livelihood. So find another way to earn a living. We cherish your prayers on his behalf, as well as for our son Calix (who turned 30 on May 15), still seeking his vocation in Marseille.
We pursue our own occupation [mostly teaching] with its rewards and frustrations, sharing the Word with the French-speaking Antilleans. With the majority of the Quebecois gone home for the season, most of our radio listeners and students are Haitians. However, I’ve been given free air time on a Saturday morning program (run by an eccentric lady from Ivory Coast) which caters to the French-speaking West African population of S. Florida.
My recent (April) trip to the church of Rev. Esaïe Etienne in Gonaïves, Haïti (to teach Dr. Rich Ramsay’s “Christian worldview” course) was encouraging as the students—mostly school-teachers themselves—were assiduous, enthusiastic, and of good caliber academically. I’m still honing my theological-pedagogical skills, learning from the work of several masters (T. Keller, R. Rayburn, R.C. Sproul etc.) whose spiritual insights and intellectual acumen are inspiring. If those ‘exegetical cowboys’ might be compared to John Wayne, swaggering through the perilous ‘Far West’ passages of the Word, then I’m a bit more like Barney Fife, shuffling through the placid streets of Mayberry. Apparently, I didn’t do too badly as they’ve asked me to come back in August to teach early church history. I’ll be spending some time with Eusebius until then. As for Haiti: it’s a horrendous mess—as always—but the Spirit is moving and there seems to be somewhat of a spiritual awakening in the wake of the earthquake. Alleluia! The Haitians remain desperate for teaching and their needs are ever so great!
Aline and I have one more session (July 3-10) in the Old Testament course in St. Martin. After that, who knows? Should we start another program? Will we have the funding to continue there? Also, we need discernment as well as prayer for the plight of our ever-fragile Haitian Bible school (I.B.T.F.) here in S. Florida.
With the station director—one of my I.B.T.F. students—I do a weekly (Sunday) radio broadcast on a Boca Raton based station. “L.G.” interviews me for 30-40 minutes on a selected biblical topic (everything from marriage to slavery, to regeneration to repentance etc.) followed by calls from the listeners. It’s quite animated and we’ve even received calls from internet listeners as far away as California. We take advantage of the air time to promote French-language films we show at Coral Ridge PCA including the French version of “Les Dix Commandments”. Imagine God and Charlton Heston with Parisian accents…
In His service,
Marc
PRAISE:
1- For continued health and joy and the Lord’s faithful provision for our work.
2-For signs of revival in Haiti.
3- For new opportunities to witness in the French-speaking world.
PRAYER:
1-For new support to make up for recent the loss of three supporting churches.
2-Our children’s welfare: Anaïs’ move to another part of L.A. ; Justin ( in the D.R.) and Calix (in
Marc with Gonaives students
Marseille).
3-Forthcoming trips (St. Martin, July; Marseille, July-Aug; Haiti, Aug.-Sept.)
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”O death, where is thy sting?” I Cor.15:55 (‘Death playing chess’ by Albertus Pictor 1440-1507)
“One thing is necessary” Luke 10:42
Dear Friends,
I was sitting next to Raymond who recalled what I had said a couple of years ago when asked to speak at the grave site of colleague Alfred’s wife (I was elaborating on John 11). Unfortunately, I wouldn’t get the same opportunity this time.
By the time we drove to the Catholic Church for the funeral Mass, the spirit had lightened up somewhat. Familiar rituals of burning incense, holy water dispersion, and a chorus of “Ave Maria” seemed to reassure the mostly nominal Catholics that everything was fine. The presiding priest, a 60-year-old Polish fellow with athick accent, based his homily loosely on the beatitudes, adding a new one for the deceased: “Blessed are those who have a sense of humor as Jean-Jacques did ….” Sadly, not a word was said about the saving work of Jesus.
After the funeral Mass, all were invited for a snack at a nearby country club. By then most preoccupations had fallen far from heaven as conversations descended to the realm of life’s usual banalities. A couple of drinks later and suddenly, the pairings for the next petanque tournament seemed more important than one’s eternal destiny. The little transcendence had dissipated … perhaps until the next funeral.
On the Haitian front: Aline and I had an “epiphany” moment while teaching in St. Martin a while back. Questioning the students before the start of an Old Testament course, we were dismayed to learn that not one of them (including several pastors) had ever completely read through the Pentateuch! “Too difficult,” they said. The same survey produced similar results with the students of our S. Florida Haitian Bible school. So I’ve insisted that they purchase French study Bibles (with illuminating explanatory notes) and we’ll continue lugging suitcases full of them on our trips to St. Martin.
I leave for Haiti (March 27) for a week of teaching a course on comparative world views … We alwaysappreciate your prayers for travelling mercies. Haiti is unpredictable in the best of times…
Blessings,
3- For a new group of eager students.
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“You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons too; you cannot have part in both the Lord’s table and the table of demons. Are we trying to arouse the Lord’s jealousy? Are we stronger than He? I Cor.10:21-22
Dear friends,
Aline and I were teaching in St. Martin when the quake hit Haiti on January 12. All our students there are Haitians, save for Marie-Ange, (from Martinique). Most of them lost friends and/or relatives in the disaster including Hippolyte F. (in his 60’s) who lost several nieces and nephews. It’s so sad. Haiti is a difficult place to live in the best of times. Fortunately, there are hundreds of missionaries there doing some great work. Now they really have their hands full!
J-Husson, one of our longsuffering students living in St. Martin who has worked in construction in Haiti, said he was not surprised by the magnitude of the disaster given the generally shoddy construction techniques in his home country: skimping on the amount of cement and even using sea-water in the concrete when no fresh water is available! So it should probably not surprise us that a 7.0 magnitude quake produced tens of thousands of casualties in Haiti (vs. 73 fatalities for the same force tremor in San Francisco in October ’89). Even with millions of dollars pouring in, it will be a long time before there’s any significant improvement in the Haitian economy where 90% of the population survives on less than $2/day and unemployment is around 70%. On one trip there, I asked and American pharmaceutical representative who travels the world if he knew of any place as destitute. He thought a minute and said: “Somalia… and perhaps Angola…But Haiti is by far the worst of the Western hemisphere.”
How Haiti became so impoverished is a question that generates passionate debate amongst our students. At the end of the 18th century, Haiti’s GNP was apparently superior to that of the 13 original American colonies! Called “La Perle des Antilles” by the French, Haiti’s late 18th century population of 500,000 (vs. 8.5 million today) produced impressive amounts of sugar cane, coffee, indigo, bananas etc. A long, bloody and destructive slave revolt started in 1791 led by Toussaint Louverture culminated in the overthrow of the French colonists and independence on January 1, 1804. However the French government demanded and obtained some 150 million gold francs (the equivalent of roughly $21 billion in today’s currency) in reparations for the loss of their colony which Haiti dutifully paid off from 1825 until 1922. During the long 19th century, this payment accounted for up to 70% of the fledgling democracy’s exchange earnings. The Haitian government would like to have that money returned. Fat chance.
The satanic pact of which Pat Robertson spoke on TBN refers to a gathering of voodoo priests on August 14, 1791—the famous “Cérémonie du Bois Caiman”. Led by Dutty Boukman, it involved a group of “houngans” (voodoo priests) who promised to serve Satan, the enemy of the French God (the French were at least nominally Catholic) in exchange for help in liberating the country from the hated colonial masters. The occult gathering included the consumption of pig’s blood to seal the deal.
This might appear quaint to modern skeptics, but the ceremony has been renewed periodically over the years even by the likes of former president Jean-Baptist Aristide, the defrocked Catholic priest elected in 1991, deposed in a coup the same year, restored to power by the Clinton administration in 1994, and then ousted by the military on February 29, 2004. In fact, Haiti has had a long history of corrupt dictators and over thirty coup d’états since 1804! Meanwhile, occult influences—specifically voodoo imported by the slave ancestors from Togo and Benin—are pervasive and continue to wreak havoc with the general welfare of that country where it is said to be ‘40% Protestant, 60% Catholic, and 100% voodooist’. ”An ancestral religion, Voodoo is an essential part of national identity,” said Aristide in a decree officially recognizing that pervasive pagan occultism. A few months ago, a Haitian woman returning from the homeland was stopped at the Ft. Lauderdale airport after customs agents found a fresh human skull in her luggage: “Mon outil de travail” (“my work instrument”) explained the voodoo priestess.
So while it’s true that Haiti has been victimized by the West (especially the French), it’s also true that the real enemy is interior corruption. On a trip to Haiti several years ago, I accompanied an American medical team with thousands of dollars of pharmaceutical supplies which were confiscated from us by unscrupulous customs officials at the Port-au-Prince airport. Over the years, billions of dollars have been poured into Haiti to almost no avail as the infrastructure remains stone-age. Once a victim of slavery, Haitians now victimize thousands of their own children (called “restavecs” from the Creole meaning to ‘stay with’) from the poorest families, who work as de facto slaves, forced to do menial chores in a country where labor-saving devices are non-existent. “We learned this practice [slavery] from the French,” insisted the embarrassed Haitian host of a radio program who was interviewing me when I broached this most taboo subject. “No, you learned it from Adam and Eve,” I replied. “It’s called sin…we’re all infected; and there’s only one remedy—the gospel of Jesus Christ.” I reminded them that America paid a heavy price for our own slavery sins in the 19th century with the bloody civil war. How much longer will Haiti suffer?
Praise: 1-For Marie-Ange from Martinque who lives in St. Martin and has become an avid child evangelist since she was inspired by a visiting children’s EE group led by Coral Ridge member Elise Stimpson last summer.
2-For the continued health (physical, if not spiritual) of our boys (Justin in the D.R., Calix in France) and Anaïs in L.A. 3-For a new crop of enthusiastic Haitian students at our Ft. Lauderdale Bible Institute this semester.
Pray: 1-For our endearing Haitian students, many of whom have lost loved one in the earthquake. 2-For our colleague Rev. Jean Petit and the ever-struggling Haitian Bible school. 3-For the spiritual welfare of our children, especially Calix (who is now reading R.C. Sproul—alleluia) 4-For our next travels: S. Carolina (Feb.14; March 20-24); Haiti (March 29-April 2)
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“All men will know that you are my disciples if you love one another.” John 13:35
Dear friends,
We’ve been getting a lot of free radio time since September as one of our Haitian Bible school students (Lesly J.) is the CEO of a Haitian radio station (WHSR 980AM) in Boca Raton. Every Sunday from roughly noon until 1 o’clock, ‘L.J’ interviews me about various ‘religious’ issues followed by a thirty-minute segment when the listeners call-in their question for live interaction. It’s been a most revealing experience.
We’ve spoken about creationism, the Jews, the role of women in society, the Trinity, Sabbath observance, etc. Callers with very strong opinions have come from every possible viewpoint. Our overwhelming impression is that the Reformed faith is rare indeed, even amongst Haitian believers. We had suspected as much from interaction with our students at the Haitian Bible school.
At one class in November, I was teaching a course in doctrine (using Paul Wells’ simplified systematic theology called “La foi chrétienne en libre accès” as our textbook). We were in chapter 21 (“Dieu rassemble son people”) which deals with the nature of the church. I asked the students to name the most distinctive mark of the church. I waited a few seconds but my question was greeted with only blank stares. Remember, I’m dealing with committed Christians (including several pastors) who can quote long passages of Scripture by heart. Still no answer. I was perplexed.
Perhaps the question wasn’t clear? I gave them a hint—indeed, the answer—by quoting the Lord’s words in John… where He says: “The world will know you are my disciples by….” (John 13:35). Still no reply!
Finally, Jean-Claude N. timidly interjected: “….by our obedience to His commands…?”. Not exactly, I said. It was an answer nonetheless, but one that revealed how far even these biblically knowledgeable students are from what one would think is very basic to the doctrine of grace.
Regrettably, it seems that there is very little notion of love and forgiveness in cultures where legalism is the dominant mind-set and judgment of others in the church is all-too-common. It’s perhaps the main reason many of our students in the islands (especially the women) are so eager to speak with Aline when we visit. They pour out their souls in private conversation to my ever-discrete wife, confiding in her about things (usually marital and family struggles) they could and should be sharing with a sister in their own assemblies. When Aline once suggested to a woman in St. Martin to find a trusted friend with whom to pray about her problem, the woman recoiled: “I could NEVER do that. For if it became known, I would be looked down upon by the others…”
While such lack of confidentiality and compassion is not absent in American or French churches either, it seems more characteristic of the islands where the culture doesn’t enjoy the residual grace inherited from more godly ancestors as we do in much of the U.S.
Likewise, I was shocked to learn from a missionary working in a Muslim country in Africa how many men even in the church regularly beat their wives (as authorized by the Koran: Surat IV: 38)! This is a significant problem in the Antilles as well. We’ve seen glimpses of this hardness of heart occasionally through the pages of our students’ academic work.
For instance, one of the questions on a homework assignment (revolving around the sexual immorality issue addressed in I Corinthians 5) concerned the procedures to follow in dealing with such a problem in the church today. Aline and I were flabbergasted by the answers of many of the students (including several pastors) who seemed all-too eager to excommunicate the offender without first exhorting him and giving him an opportunity to repent (as did the guilty party in the aforementioned text)! We took advantage of that question as we went over the homework assignments in class to remind them that the church is more a hospital for the sick than a museum for saints.
Another culturally revealing trend in the Antilles is the debasement of the status of the women; a reality which spills over into the church. We’ve discovered that it’s not rare for professing believers to have mistresses! The host of a Haitian radio program with whom I was discussing the situation of women in society and in the church told me point blank that 90% (a questionable figure) of Haitian men had more than one wife—legally or in practice. “It’s our tradition,” he said. Whew!
That helps to explain why one of our students in Martinique was excluded from her assembly for denouncing the preacher’s adulterous relationship. Or that Jeanette, Aline’s best friend on that island, was accused by her husband—a former pastor—of being selfish for not being more willing to share him with his mistress! We’re indeed a long way from Kansas, Toto.
On a more positive note, we’ve yet to meet a Haitian atheist, if such a person even exists? Unlike the generally more “sophisticated” Europeans, the Haitians are not so foolish as to look at a clock and deny the existence of the Clockmaker. Still, they are often uneducated (75% illiteracy rate in that country), and woefully unaware of even the most basic intellectual trends shaping our post-Christian society. Even their pastors are often barely literate. This can result in some rather truncated view of what the Scripture teaches. Their theology is often less-than-reformed, to put it politely. But they’re often very teachable and usually accord a significant (often unearned) respect to a French-speaking white man as we open the Word with them. It’s an opportunity to seize.
With regards to teaching; I’m still learning. I’ve never seen myself as a good teacher, though I usually manage to keep the students’ attention, which is half the battle. Fortunately, with a bit of translation and adaptation, we benefit from the work of some of my favorite teachers (R.C. Sproul, Robert Rayburn, Tim Keller, the late D. James Kennedy) whose ministries now extend to the French-speaking world, whether they realize it or not. Pray that I might be half as anointed as these men.
Blessings,
Marc
Email: MMailloux50@comcast.net
blog: www.MarcMailloux.wordpress.com
Praise: For the aforementioned free radio time, and encouraging feedback from our broadcasts. For Alan B. (a Delaware Frenchman) who, in addition to supporting our work, now contributes occasional radio broadcast on ”Radio Floride” (www.radiofloride.com). For the forthcoming visit of all three children over the Christmas holidays.
Prayer: For the spiritual welfare of son Calix, now managing a government subsidized “café-théâtre” in Marseille. For son Justin, teaching in the Dominican Republic, and daughter Anaïs, working and studying in California. For the continued French language video presentations at CRPC. For Moïse J., a devoted Haitian student whose used car business has recently folded.
N.B. Looking for ideas for Christmas presents? My book “God Still Loves the French” is available at www.amazon.com.
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OF MOZART AND MANGOES
“…whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.”Philippians 4:8
Dear friends,
While a student at seminary, I remember reading somewhere that the famous 2oth century Swiss theologian Karl Barth once referred to the above verse (perhaps tongue-in-cheek) as evidence that God must certainly approve of the music of Mozart. Though I tend to agree with Barth on that, the anecdote surely says more about aesthetics than theology. Likewise Aline is convinced that heaven’s sound system will surely include—in addition to Handel’s “Messiah”—a number of Mozart’s arias sung by Maria Callas or Barbara Hendricks. Indeed, how many have been elevated to the heights of aesthetic ecstasy through such sublime sounds? I’m reminded of Christine M., an old agnostic friend in Paris who once confessed to me: “If there is a God, He’s the God of Bach as I hear his voice in the music.” Surely she was on the right track…
Paul wrote that “God’s invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived…in the things that have been made…” (Rom. 1:20). Having said that, not everyone is equally sensitive to the different sensorial evidences of God’s goodness and greatness. Some, with more visual sensitivity, see His awesome grandeur in the overwhelming beauty of the heavens. Have you seen the recent photos from the newly refurbished Hubble telescope? They leave one aghast and breathtakingly aware, like the psalmist, of how the heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament his handiwork (Ps.19:1).
We’re attempting to exploit this angle of the visual wonders of creation (both microscopic and macroscopic) showing a series of apologetic films (on creationism, in French) to a mostly Haitian audience on Saturday nights at Coral Ridge PCA. Attendance has been enthusiastic. None of the folks in attendance have ever been exposed to any creationist instruction, especially in French, necessary for teaching the older ones whose often minimal schooling was done in that language. Even their pastors, with their limited and often pre-enlightenment education, are generally clueless, alas, about the Darwinian theory now presented to their children in American high schools as scientific fact and wreaking havoc with their erstwhile evangelical faith. A Haitian pastor who phoned me after hearing a Haitian radio announcement for our program, urged me to speak about the issues with his youth group. Pray that their faith would be strengthened as they consider the cosmic wonders of His universe, the “theatre of His glory,” in Calvin’s words.
Getting back to the subject of man’s sensorial sensitivity to God: others—more Frenchmen than Americans I think—taste the presence of God through their palates. Indeed, as a student in Paris, I remember reading works of 16th century French poets who waxed lyrical about fruits and vegetables, with ecstatic literary reflections on the marvels of a melon! One even wrote an “Ode to a cantaloupe…” “Taste and see that the Lord is good,” is surely a good verse for evangelism amongst the French.
Then there are other well-know sensorial delights which speak of the Lord’s goodness. What husband hasn’t been taken to the heights of earthly transcendence in the arms of his spouse, a vision of total delight, yea a preview of paradise (cf. “Song of Songs”). In every case, the beauties of things we experience with our senses (hearing, sight, taste, smell etc.) should lead us to see the glory of the Lord who created them all and provide us with a foretaste of the goodness He has in store for His elect.
Though I personally tend to gravitate towards the visual evidences of the Lord’s grandeur (those photos from the Hubble telescope!), Aline and I grew again this summer in the olfactory and gustatory appreciation of His munificence through the “ministry” of our backyard mango tree which produced a bumper crop of that succulent fruit—surely one of the finer things the Lord has put upon our planet. For those of you in climates unsuitable to that tropical delight, know that it’s one of the few things we can grow here in the sandy soil of S. Florida and, like most fruit, has nothing to do with the insipid store-bought version from your local supermarket picked long before it was ripe.
After all these years, I have finally understood what an old Dutch hippie (“wise old Art” cf. Discovery on the Katmandu Trail) was telling me back in 1973 in Goa, India when I announced to the old sage of the of “Chopra beach” in early February, that I planned to leave India to go trekking in Nepal. “What? You would leave India before the mango season”! he exclaimed incredulously. “Are you mad?” I had much to learn. Here I was searching for the meaning of life, and he’s telling me about some fruit in which he’d apparently found his own little transcendence. At the time, it seemed ridiculous to me. Our recent experience with mangoes has taught us otherwise. Taste indeed, and see, that the Lord is good.
In His service,
PRAISE: 1- For the way the Lord is opening doors for us, providing numerous opportunities in the S. Florida Haitian community to contribute to the edification of this largely uneducated people which includes many believers. We’ve been given over an hour and a half/week of free air time, by the station director (a student in our Bible school) who interviews me each Sunday afternoon on a variety of predetermined subjects (evolutionism, Islam, the Jews, UFO’s, faith vs. the law, etc.)
2-For a new contract with “Radio Floride” making possible, again, the evangelization of the Quebecois snow birds etc. starting in November. Thanks to those of you who make this effort possible!
3- For the start of a new academic year at the ever-struggling Haitian Bible school where I continue to teach twice/week.
PRAY: 1- For the spiritual and professional welfare of our older son Calix, down and out in Marseille; Justin, teaching fourth grade in the Dominican Republic; and Anaïs, working and studying in Los Angeles.
2-For our next teaching trip to St. Martin Oct.3-10 and the future of our programs in the French West Indies.
3-For the Lord’s provision for new support. We’ve lost three supporting churches and as many individuals this past year.
.
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“Who has believed what they heard from us?” Isaiah 53:1
Dear friends,
We travelled to France once again this summer to fill-in for a vacationing pastor colleague, presiding at worship (four Sundays), preaching, and visiting some the church folk including some old friends. It was mostly enjoyable (though we did get robbed—a rucksack with some papers etc.), due in part to the delightful summer weather and the fact that things run at a refreshingly slower pace in France in August when fully half the country closes down for the annual month of vacation.
As in the past, our stay in the Marseille area included a lot of late nights around the table with friends and acquaintances and lengthy discussions on various subjects. Indeed, if there’s one element of French culture that should favor the advancement of the gospel, it’s these prolonged mealtimes when the blood sugar is high, the mood is relaxed, and the minds are running freely. It’s an opportunity to be seized! Curiously someone calculated that around 65% of Jesus’ words as recorded in the gospels were pronounced in the context of a meal; either just before, during, or after. Surely the Lord would approve of the French gastronomical tradition.
We were slightly dismayed, but hardly surprised, to see the spiritual temperature in France—in contrast with the dry daytime heat of Provence—still hovering around the arctic level. Most evangelical assemblies plod along with the same handful of folks from year to year with few new additions and little vision or zeal for evangelism. One might think that most French Christians, with regards to the gospel, have not really appreciated what’s at stake. In fact, many are frustrated—as we were—by the horrendous indifference of the majority of their compatriots to the questions of eternal life. Eventually, even the most stalwart believer tends to shrug his shoulders in dismay
We had a vivid reminder of that callous indifference shortly after our arrival as we helped MTW missionary Pete Mitchell move into a new office at the Luminy university campus just outside of Marseille. As we unloaded some cartons from the moving van, a twenty-year-old woman standing by the door of the office complex casually inquired as to which new business was moving in. I replied that it was the ‘Reformed evangelical church of South Marseille’ and attempted to hand her a handy copy (I usually keep one in my pocket) of ‘l’évangile selon Jean” with a friendly word of exhortation to read it. She reacted as if I had the plague and rapidly withdrew her hand.
[ “La religion ne m’intéresse pas du tout !” (Religion doesn’t interest me at all!) she exclaimed coldly. “OK, forget about the Church,” I pursued. “What do you think of Jesus as a historical character? Who was he?” “Je n’en sais rien et je ne veux rien savoir” (I don’t know anything nor do I care to know) was her parting reply.
One never sees that kind of reaction amongst the Antilleans of S. Florida or the islands who usually fear God even if their theology is often less than rigorously biblical.]
In addition to the usual visits in Marseille, we organized three “pizza/cinema” nights at the ecumenical chapel showing some edifying films (including Frank Capra’s 1946 classic “It’s a Wonderful life”) followed by discussions. The fifteen or so folks (average attendance) included a few church-goers and some non-believing acquaintances. Coincidentally, one had asked me shortly before about the Bible’s teaching on angels, of all subjects. Hopefully “Clarence” (the angel in the Capra film) didn’t leave a negative impression, Hollywood theology notwithstanding.
On our last night in France (Aug. 17), I did a conference (on “Creationism vs. Evolutionism”) at an evangelical gathering organized by Aline’s brother Pascal (a pastor in a fledgling Evangelical Methodist assembly) about 100 miles west of Marseille. Once again, attendance was less than one might have hoped, but one learns to work with small numbers in French evangelical circles.
Finally, a highlight of our time in Marseille was a couple of visits with David P., the 16 year-old son of a dear Christian couple who is dying of an inoperable brain tumor. David’s is an amazing case of the Lord using the weak to confound the strong. For several months, a steady stream of visitors has come to the family’s tenth floor apartment to see David. Clearly the Lord has been using him for the advancement of His Kingdom, even as the inoperable tumor growing around his brain stem has gradually reduced his corporal functions. Arriving at a point where he was no longer able to speak, David could only communicate by faintly squeezing the hand of his visitors to acknowledge the correct letters as they laboriously spell out what he would say. David asked one visitor (his French professor) if he were ready to meet his Maker. When the professor claimed to be an atheist, David spelled out: “You fool.” His serenity through this whole ordeal has been inspiring to many.
Back in S. Florida, we’ll be showing (in French, for the Haitian community) the excellent apologetic series “Origins” by the late Dr. A.E. Wilder-Smith. We’re grateful for the enthusiasm of a couple of key Haitian students including Moïse J. and Lesly J., the director of the largest Haitian radio station in S. Florida (with a potential audience of ½ million) who is giving us precious air-time to publicize our efforts—an answer to prayer. We’re also preparing for the next series of classes (on the book of Revelations) in St. Martin (Oct.3-10) and the start of a new academic year in the ever-struggling Haitian Bible school with our longsuffering colleague Rev. Jean Petit. Thanks for your prayers for all these concerns!
In His service,
Marc (email: MMailloux50@comcast.net;
(blog:www.marcmailloux.wordpress.com)
Praise:
1-For a blessed journey with multiple opportunities to share the Word in France.
2-For signs of progress in our son Calix: in Marseille; still without a full-time job but asking himself more questions, spiritually. He was reading Dr. Kennedy’s book Why I believe as we left him.
3- For the Lord’s amazing use of David P. in Marseille. Prayer:
1-For the continued work of the Spirit on Calix.
2-For the projection of the “Origins” series Sept.12, 19, 26 at Coral Ridge PCA
3-For the welfare of son Justin who has taken a teaching job in difficult conditions in the town of Cabrera on the north coast of the Dominican Republic. 4- For David P. and his family (parents and two sisters). 5- For administrative help (a tri-lingual secretary) for our fledgling Haitian Bible school.
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“My grace is sufficient is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” II Cor.12:9 JUNE 2009
Dear friends,
It was an inauspicious beginning to a long (32-hour) trip including flights from Ft. Lauderdale to N.Y., N.Y. to Paris, and finally Paris to Lomé, Togo, where I arrived exhausted and envious of people who can sleep on airplanes. Salomon, the Togolese program coordinator for the ITAO (“Institut Théologique d’Afrique de l’Ouest” or ITAO) and Moses, a church-planter from nearby Ghana, met me at the airport and drove me to the hotel “Minba la Licorne” where I’d be staying. I went right up to the room hoping to get some badly needed rest but instead was overcome with an allergic reaction to something in the room resulting in the asthmatic’s terror: I couldn’t breathe. In my panic I sent up a desperate, breathless prayer. Fortunately, I had an old “Ventolin” respirator I hadn’t used in years in my toilet articles from which I took a couple of shots. It helped. I still couldn’t sleep but at least I could breathe. As I lie looking at the ceiling, I prayed with the premonition that my aforementioned health issue might have been an Enemy attack to discourage me before even starting what I’d come to do. I came for a week of teaching (30 projected hours of classes) for a group of 11 Togolese and 2 Ivory Coast pastors eager to study some basic principles of biblical interpretation (hermeneutics), which I would be doing thanks to copious notes mostly from the works of R.C. Sproul and Bryan Chapell, translated and adapted for the course.
In my jet-lagged insomnia, I watched some Togolese television which featured a number of news programs from France (Togo was a French colony until 1960), including a surprisingly evangelical Roman Catholic broadcast, and even “Al Jazeera.” Alas, even the monotone voice of a mufti reading to the faithful the Koran in Arabic from a mosque in Jordan didn’t put me to sleep.
Salomon and Moses picked me up at around noon for lunch before Sunday afternoon worship. We ate African “Djekoumé” (a pasty corn flour concoction served with a spicy sauce; an acquired taste for sure) at the teaching center a little over a mile away up the road crammed with death-defying motorbikes and bicycles, in addition to the usual cars and trucks. African roads are unlit at night, and the fact that many vehicles have no lights makes driving hairy. “The drivers in Ghana are much more disciplined,” insisted Moses as he navigated ITAO’s Toyota-Previa through the sandy mostly unpaved roads. Must be the English influence, I thought.
I was up early Monday. No need for an alarm clock as the roosters in the street in front of the hotel inform you promptly when the sun comes up a little before 5:00 AM. I strolled around the already bustling neighborhood, on heavily travelled sandy paths already saturated with thousands of people going about their business, including hundreds of petty roadside merchants—men and women—selling a handful of peanuts, or a couple ears of grilled corn or whatever other sundries they carried here. Life is a hustle for most Togolese; a struggle to survive on a few cents’ profit gleaned from the rest of the mostly struggling masses. Togo (pop. 5 million) is of course dirt poor, though I doubt many actually starve in this part of the country at least, as the country is blessed with mango, coconut palms, and papaya trees, in addition to the bananas and corn one sees everywhere. The spiritual diet is another thing.
The country is about 32% Christian (mostly Catholic), 30% Moslem, and the rest a mixture of indigenous beliefs. The official language is French though most also speak “Ewe” as in neighboring Ghana and Benin. The students in the ITAO program (Organized in cooperation with New Harvest Mission and Mission to the World) are a refreshing group of Reformed pastors eager to learn anything that helps them as they labor in the Lord’s Kingdom in their part of the world. A couple of them (Pastors Nestor and Siriki) flew over from Ivory Coast for the course.
After Moses picked me up at the hotel at 6:30, we had a cup of coffee at the study center and started the day with a half-hour devotional that included joyful singing and dancing to the glory of the Savior. Pastor Siriki, a converted Moslem, expressed his bewilderment at the comparative inflexibility of the American worship he witnessed during a recent trip to the U.S. “Whites don’t dance,” I told him. “We didn’t get a rhythm gene; or perhaps it vanished from the gene pool somewhere along the way, along with our capacity to make melanin.” None of the others had ever been to the US nor even continental France, so they were understandably curious about life in the Western world and dismayed at what I told them of the pathetic size of the church in Western Europe. They all followed the course attentively, growing in appreciation for the radial nature of the Christian gospel in a legalist world, as underlined in Dr. Chapell’s Christ Centered Preaching upon which much of the teaching was based.
In spite of my fatigue and the extreme heat, the courses (6 hours/day) the first day of classes went surprisingly well. His strength is indeed made perfect in our weakness. Great is His faithfulness!
The rest of the week went without incident. We finished on Friday with an exam, after which the pastors (save the two from Ivory Coast) hurried home to their respective churches for the weekend as Dr. Tom Wright arrived from Senegal to teach the next week of classes on the Old Testament.
As for me, it was time to be heading back to the US to prepare my lessons for both the Haitian Bible school in Florida and our students in St. Martin. My Air France flight was supposed to leave Lomé airport on Saturday night, May 23 at 22h, but was delayed for “technical reasons” (in fact, two of the crew members were involved in an accident in Togo on the way to the airport) until 6AM. So I spent my last night in Togo talking with Eden (a forty year old nominally protestant, French-Togolese pharmacist) about the gospel. It occurred to me, that in God’s scheme, that might be the real reason for the flight delay. In any case, by the time we got to Paris, after a long sleepless night, I’d missed my Paris-New York connection. Air France put me in an airport motel and rebooked me the next day on their nine-hour flight to Atlanta, after which another two hour flight to Ft. Lauderdale still awaited me. It had taken me 32 hours to get to Togo and 52 hours for the trip home! That left a lot of time to read and write this letter. What I wouldn’t give to be able to sleep on a plane…
Blessings,
Praise: 1-For a blessed (healthy+ useful) Togo trip.
2- For the Lord’s protection on my wife and son in my absence.
3- For the delightful receptiveness of the African students.
Prayer:
1-For Christian host families for French adolescents (14-18) coming to the US this summer (mid-July to mid-August). For information in the Carolinas contact Rich Wagner: francorw@aol.com
2- For the next series of classes in St. Martin (scheduled June 29-July 5)
3-For the spiritual and professional welfare of our sons Calix (29) and Justin (27).
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Dear friends,
It was Rip Van Winkle revisited as we woke up in an erstwhile familiar place after a long absence. The purpose of our recent trip to France was to investigate ministry opportunities at Sophia Antipolis, the French version of “silicon valley” in hills above Nice and Cannes. It’s our conviction that the legions of uprooted scientists, both French and foreign, who sojourn in the area should go home with more than an enhanced appreciation of the beautiful Mediterranean countryside.
A few years ago, the French director of an international para-church organization, convinced of the strategic importance of the region, considered relocating in the area but couldn’t find affordable housing, so he shelved his project. Meanwhile Drs. Royce and Susan J., a couple of retired ophthalmologists from Arkansas, caught the vision and now share the gospel here with a growing list of mostly English-speaking contacts from the international community. The question is whether we should forsake our work in S. Florida and the Caribbean to join them? Is this a providential opportunity or, as a friend suggested, a satanic ploy to take us away from the ministry with the more receptive French-speaking Antilleans of the Caribbean? That was the question we hoped our trip here would answer.
It was fun being an ‘innocent abroad’ again, and I resolved to note right away contrasting cultural impressions which diminish rapidly as one becomes too familiar—like a fish in water—with his new environment.
Claustrophobia hit us as soon as we stepped off the plane in Nice: so many people in so little space. There’s no place to maneuver anything bigger than a Vespa, and our hotel room was roughly the size of an American’s wardrobe closet. But a month ago we were in Haiti where even running water and electricity are luxuries. It’s all relative.
Expensive was a second impression: the equivalent of $5.50 for a small glass of OJ; and almost $7. for a gallon of gasoline. Ouch. Worse still are housing prices which are on a par with those of New York City. If the Master of the Harvest wants us here, there will be significant logistical obstacles to overcome starting with new support-raising, which one looks forward to about as much as root canal work. Still, is there anything too difficult for the Lord?
It’s Sunday 7:00 AM and I’m writing this from the café across from our hotel while Aline catches a few winks of sleep undisturbed by her husband’s nocturnal snoring. I remember why I always preferred Sunday mornings in France. The tranquility of our normally congested street is disturbed only by the occasional passing car and devoted Sunday morning bicyclists. Today’s “Nice Matin” (the regional newspaper) has a feature story on Lance Armstrong who’s training in the region for this summer’s Tour de France. No one his age (almost 38) has ever won cycling’s most prestigious race. Can he do it? All of us over 40 are rooting for him.
More revealing than the depressing headlines in today’s paper are the forlorn looks on the faces of the few locals in the café as they puff on their ubiquitous cigarettes and sip their morning espresso. To say that there’s not much joy of salvation here is a gross understatement. Jay Leno once quipped that all seven of the dwarfs at Disneyland France are named “Grumpy”.
The morning’s headlines include the death (from lung cancer) of a noted French singer (Alain Bashung) who only a fortnight ago received several coveted music awards for his work. I wonder what those awards are worth to him now? “Vanity, vanity, all is vanity, says the preacher.”
Others, including our own son Calix—just two hours away in Marseille—seem more concerned by the immediate fate of their favorite soccer team than their eternal destiny. Tonight (March 15) is a big game with the “Paris Saint Germain” team hosting the “Olympic de Marseille”—roughly the equivalent of a Yankees-Red Sox rivalry, with even more potential for violent confrontations between the two rival’s fanatic supporters. 2500 additional Parisian police have been called to cover the match, which constitutes a major distraction for a nation of millions of disgruntled welfare recipients. Government allocations and soccer are the modern equivalents of bread and circuses, drugs of the decadent Roman Empire.
10AM: There’s not a single Reformed Evangelical church in the entire ‘Cote d’Azur’ region (almost three million people!); neither could I find any Christian radio station on as I lie awake in the wee hours due to jet-lagged insomnia. So we head off to worship at the “Eglise Evangélique Libre” (a congregation of a denomination formed in 1838 after a split from the liberal Reformed Church of France) near Cannes. The church (which meets in a building provided by the foresight of its 19th century Scottish founders we’re told) is a friendly group of around 75 believers of diverse ages and sociological backgrounds. The worship service was a well-balanced blend of traditional hymns and modern instrumentation with forty year old pastor Pierre playing the guitar. Aline and I went away encouraged but nevertheless convinced that the preacher would benefit from Dr. Bryan Chapell’s homiletics lectures we’ve been listening to via Covenant Seminary’s website. Christ-centered preaching such as one hears in many Reformed churches in the U.S. is virtually non-existent in France. A subsequent visit with the pastor revealed that his understanding of the Scriptures has been tainted, alas, by his evolutionist beliefs.
Sunday afternoon we did a bit of tourism, making the short drive up to nearby town of Grasse to visit the French perfume capital. We learned from Vanessa, the vivacious 25 year old “Fragonnard” museum guide, that it takes 3.5 tons of rose petals to make one liter of perfume essence. I couldn’t help but see the parallel between the manufacture of perfume and the making of disciples in France: both labor-intensive activities with the goal of producing a rare sweet fragrance.
A friendly conversation with her after the tour allowed us to share some Scriptural aromatic allusions, including the story of a prostitute’s magnanimous gesture, anointing the Savior’s head with fragrant “oil of spikenard” (Mark 14:3), and the Christians “olfactory identity” as the ‘sweet odor of salvation’ of which Paul speaks in II Cor. 2:14. She graciously accepted a copy of “l’évangile selon Jean” and promised to read it.
Tuesday March 17: We made some morning calls to speak with a few local pastors about our project. In the afternoon we boarded a small ferry boat with about twenty elderly French folk to visit the nearby St. Honorat monastery on the smaller of the two Lérins islands, a center of Christian learning since the 5th century. Saints Patrick, Hilaire, Césaire, Vincent and other great luminaries of the early church, all studied there. The monastery still exists, and is inhabited by about 30 monks who earn a living producing wine and lavender and selling some of their production to the few pilgrims to the island.
While visiting the monastery’s somber gothic chapel, we were absolutely blown away by an impromptu rendition of Gounoud’s “Ave Maria”, sung with soul-shaking reverberation (due in part to the chapel’s acoustics) by the sublime soprano voice of a visiting member of the Paris Opera. Noble for its aesthetics aspirations, but woefully misguided in its theology—it seemed a fitting metaphor for much of what we saw in France.
We capped off our trip with a visit to Marseille to meet with MTW church planter Pete Mitchell and our son Calix. Our older boy’s spiritual and professional welfare continues to be our greatest earthly concern. He’s been blessed with musical talent, better than average literary skills—he’s perfectly bilingual—and the strong-willed determination that allowed him to pass the difficult European aviation exams. But at 28, he’s still without a job, and more importantly, still not walking with the Lord.
March 22: We spend our last Sunday with a group of folk who worship at the Anglican Church in Cannes. It’s a convivial, cosmopolitan, if not visionary group comprised of about half Brits and half others. They appear to worship the Savior with a matter-of-factness which reminds one of how much residual grace still lingers in the Anglo-Saxon world. Lunch is at a golf course with Dr. Royce and his wife and a dozen guests who use the opportunity to plan an evangelistic outreach with some of their English-speaking golfing friends and acquaintances. My game is the more French proletariat pétanque. But I’m told that golfing is great for teaching humility; a precondition for accepting the gospel… That could open up some new opportunities to witness….
As for ourselves; the jury’s still out with the decision about the future of our ministry. We welcome any feedback from our supporters. We rely on His Word, a light for our path. We’ll continue to seek the Lord’s will even as we prepare for next week’s radio broadcasts, the next series of courses at our Florida Bible school as well as those in St. Martin (April 20-25) and in Togo (May 17-23). There is hardly time to get bored.
In His service,
Marc
email: MMailloux50@comcast.net
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Dear friends,
It was the last day of classes at the [Haitian] Baptist mission at Fermath (http://www.bhm.org) the cool air of the hills (4,300’) overlooking Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Even though our Air France flights regularly stop at Haiti’s “Toussaint L’Ouverture” airport on the way to teaching gigs in Guadeloupe and Martinique, it was Aline’s first actual visit here and my first in several years. It was an intensive week between preparation and four hours of lectures every day for 52 qualified students—pastors and teachers who’d come from all parts of the country—for a master’s level course on “Comparative World views.” Dr. Richard Ramsay had prepared the course in English. I had to learn it and transmit it in French thus avoiding the students the tedium of learning through a translator.
They were motivated, many having travelled long hours in grueling conditions from the most distant reaches of their impoverished, Maryland-sized homeland of 8.5 million souls. They were sharp too. As we went over the difference between the epistemologies of Plato and Aristotle, and the implications of Immanuel Kant’s “line of despair”, I was grateful for the analyses of the late Francis Schaeffer, and especially for the genius of R.C. Sproul’s in clarifying the arcane complexities of Kant’s thinking.
After a draining week of classes, Aline and I were delighted to get away from the mission compound on Friday accompanying Elsa Peterson (who heads up the mission’s child sponsorship program: bhmhati@bhm.org) for a couple of visits to sponsored children in nearby villages. Five of us piled into a 4-wheel-drive Nissan Pathfinder for a bumpy ride over some barely navigable trails with some basic foodstuffs (rice, beans, cooking oil etc.) , for the destitute families of couple of sponsored children: five-year-old Bérenice and six-year-old Antoine. The road along the way to their villages was littered with legions of barefoot and pregnant women of conspicuously elegant gait, trudging up the steep muddy trails from nearby water sources with five-gallon buckets precariously balanced on their heads. One has to walk straight and upright indeed lest his labor be for naught. Standing out like a sore thumb amongst the hovels along the road was an opulent walled-in mansion, built with the embezzled money of a generous foreign benefactor for the construction of a badly needed road. Alas, such corruption is all-too-common in Haiti and is manifest proof that any solution of a country’s ills—our own included—starts by the transformation of the hearts of the people.
The mission’s sponsorship program provides a refreshing exception to the usual graft: 100% of the $25/month sponsorship goes directly to the children’s families for food and education with no administrative deduction as the missionaries distributing the goods raise their own support. Not only that, but the foodstuffs are purchased from local merchants stimulating the needy Haitian economy. It’s a win-win situation that we can highly recommend.
We finally arrived at the village of Bérenice, a five year-old waif dressed in rags and barefooted, and left to tend to her two-year-old brother as their mother was off somewhere. When the latter arrived, Bérenice disappeared into the “house,” a one-room cinderblock shanty with a corrugated metal roof—no electricity or running water of course. A minute later she emerged wearing a spotless white dress—no doubt her Sunday best—which she displayed proudly as we snapped a few photos. While speaking with her mother, a thin, yet manifestly pregnant women of about 30, we penetrated slowly into the darkness of her one-bedroom hovel bereft of even a window and with a muddy mattress on the middle of the floor upon which all five family members sleep. The children all bore radiant smiles and were sincerely grateful for the aid.
Elsa, who’s been working in Haiti for 23 years and is clearly appreciated by the locals, expressed some frustration at the lack of response to the mission’s offer for aid in family-planning including free birth control pills for the women and vasectomies for the men. Amazingly, only a few (1%) accept the offer. Hungry children remain Haiti’s major product. Families of ten or more—none of them properly fed or educated—are not uncommon. Some send their ‘surplus siblings’ to live with wealthier friends and/or relatives as “restavecs” (literally, “stay with” in Creole) or de facto slaves.
The deplorable situation of Haiti is all the more amazing when one considers that, at the end of the eighteenth century, this crown colony the French called “La Perle des Antilles,” out-produced the thirteen American colonies! However as America was blessed with godly leaders like George Washington, John Adams etc., Haiti was literally consecrated to Satan worship in a notorious 1791 ceremony by a Voodoo Priest named Boukmann and since renewed by the likes of Jean-Bertrand Aristide! Even today, voodoo remains ubiquitous and is a major obstacle to the country’s spiritual and material development.
We returned home more grateful than ever for the tremendous blessings the Lord has bestowed on our increasingly unworthy country, and more eager than ever to remind the half-million Haitian refugees in S. Florida of the Source of those blessings. MMailloux50@comcast.net
www.MarcMailloux.wordpress.com
Praise: 1-For health and enthusiasm.
2- For the Lord’s continued provision for our work.
3- For the joy of returning home to a blessed country.
Praise: 1- For the spiritual welfare of our children, especially Calix (28) in Marseille, France.
2- For forthcoming mission trips including France (March 13-23); St. Martin (April 19-24); Togo (May 18-22)
3- For wisdom for major ministry-related decisions we’ll be making soon.
