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Ebook: The Kingdom strikes back — Signs of the Messiah at work
Historical note: This chapter describes Nazarene ministry in Haiti circa 1988. Program descriptions, statistics, and costs reflect that period.
David Livingstone. To many people, that name — David Livingstone — is synonymous with Christian missions, and for good reason. God used David Livingstone to focus attention on the appalling spiritual and physical needs of the African continent. Originally, Livingstone had dreamed of going to China. He wanted to go as a medical doctor. This interest in healing the sick once led him to write: "God had only one Son, and He gave Him to be a medical missionary."
Livingstone's words emphasize the importance of Jesus' healing ministry. While here on earth, Jesus did spend a lot of time teaching and preaching. People called Him "Rabbi." That was a term reserved for respected teachers. He was, of course, much more than an outstanding teacher. He healed sick people! Those healing miracles were inextricably intertwined with His preaching and teaching. The Gospel accounts make them almost inseparable. You could even say that Jesus' entire ministry was one of healing — sometimes physical and at other times spiritual.
The context in which Matthew places the Sermon on the Mount emphasizes this unity of the various facets of Jesus' ministry. Just before giving the text of that message, Matthew notes how Jesus healed "all who were ill with various diseases, those suffering severe pain, the demon-possessed, those having seizures, and the paralyzed" (Matthew 4:24). After the text of the message, Matthew tells how Jesus healed a leper and then the centurion's servant.
For His followers, Jesus modeled a ministry style aimed at dealing with both physical and spiritual problems. Part of the Kingdom's message is about our future destiny. It also expresses a burning concern for the quality of life in the here and now. Jesus modeled this concern for His followers. Then He went one step farther. He guided His close disciples through hands-on experiences in resolving both physical and spiritual problems. For example, before He talked to John the Baptist's disciples about His Messiahship, Jesus had sent His own 12 disciples on a preaching mission. In sending them, He "gave them authority to drive out impure spirits and to heal every disease and sickness" (Matthew 10:1).
Another time, "the Lord appointed seventy-two others and sent them two by two ahead of him to every town and place where he was about to go" (Luke 10:1). Their task? They were to have, like Him, a ministry of both preaching and healing. He told them: "When you enter a town ... Heal the sick who are there and tell them, 'The kingdom of God has come near to you'" (Luke 10:8-9). Here, as in His meeting with John's disciples, Jesus points to the link between the Kingdom of God and miracles of healing.
After Jesus' ascension to heaven, healing miracles were a conspicuous part of the apostles' ministries (Acts 5:12-16). For example, in the revival in Samaria led by Philip, healings were commonplace (Acts 8:5-8). Through the centuries, Jesus' concern for the sick has set the tone for His followers. Following in their Master's footsteps, Christians have been known for their deep concern for the sick and needy. Such compassion has shone most clearly in cross-cultural missionary thrusts.
Medical missions have made a remarkable humanitarian contribution. Where the gospel has gone, so has medical care. Medical missions, more than anything, disarm shrill critics of Christian missions. At the time described in this chapter, Christian organizations provided much of the medical care available outside Port-au-Prince. The Kingdom is striking back!
Across the cloud-capped mountains of Haiti and through its deep valleys, the Church of the Nazarene has planted churches. Nazarenes in Haiti have evangelized the lost. They have discipled believers. They have led them into the experience of heart holiness. There — where they work, witness, and evangelize — malaria and tuberculosis are widespread. Diarrhea, dysentery, scabies, tropical ulcers, and skin diseases are common. AIDS, sexually transmitted infections, intestinal parasites, and typhoid fever take a heavy toll. When someone in an isolated village gets sick, God is often the only available doctor. The Church of the Nazarene has been working in Haiti since 1950. Not surprisingly, through those years, there have been ample testimonies of God's miraculous healing touch. Praise the Lord!
Alongside these miraculous displays stand those healings resulting from the ministry of medical personnel practicing the healing arts in Christ's name. In Haiti, the Church of the Nazarene has an active medical ministry with qualified missionaries and Haitian personnel.
Bill Dawson, a physician assistant and certified X-ray technician, went to Haiti as a Nazarene missionary in 1986. Once, someone arrived asking him to make a house call not far from our main health center on the edge of Port-au-Prince. Normally, patients living close to our health centers were asked to come in for treatment. This saved time and gave the clinician access to the clinic's diagnostic equipment. On this day, however, Bill was told that the patient was too sick to move. So he grabbed his medical bag and took off.
When he arrived at the little house, he noticed coins scattered on the ground in front of the door. Startled, he stopped and looked around. He noticed other clear signs that a voodoo priest had been there before him. He realized that the family had called him as a last resort when the voodoo witch doctor's charms and spells had failed.
As he examined the sick man, Bill began to pray. The battle lines were clear: Voodoo had failed; Bill had come to bring healing in the name of Christ. Would he succeed? Bill treated the man and returned home. Then, he called the other Nazarene missionaries and medical personnel to pray. The tide of the disease turned, and the Lord got credit for a clear victory of healing.
The results aren't always that dramatic. Still, in Jesus' name, Nazarenes provide medical care in Haiti and scores of other countries around the globe. The Messiah has come. He is at work in the world!
Nazarene concern with the physical well-being of Haitians goes back to the beginning of our work. Paul Orjala was the first Nazarene missionary to Haiti. Less than two years after his arrival, he bought land near Port-au-Prince. It was to serve primarily as a Bible college campus.* At the entrance to the campus, they also built a small medical dispensary.
*The site purchased near Port-au-Prince to be used as an educational campus has had several name changes throughout its history. References in this book to Nazarene Bible Institute, Nazarene Bible School, Nazarene Bible College, and Haiti Nazarene Theological College refer to the same campus but reflect expanding educational purposes. Chapter 5 explains in more detail the latest program: TEE, Theological Education by Extension.
That original building has been enlarged three times. Missionary nurses like Lois Rodeheaver Ford, Carolyn Parsons, and Joan Reed worked there. Physician assistants Michelene Collins and Larry Wilson used it as a base for developing a Nazarene medical ministry in Haiti. Recent donations of equipment and supplies from U.S. hospitals and mission groups like REAP and Compassion International have turned the Nazarene Health Center into one of the best-equipped in Haiti.
It provides low-cost medical care for the people nearby. It also is a training center and base of operations for a medical ministry seeking to touch all of Haiti. Nazarenes in Haiti run 24 rural pharmacy dispensaries. Most of the health workers staffing these were trained in the main clinic near Port-au-Prince.
We now have a government-certified program that each year trains 6 to 12 village health workers. This means that each year 6 to 12 new villages will gain a qualified medical worker and a small but adequately stocked pharmacy. In addition, the medical staff there is working on an experimental project to try to make sure that every Nazarene church in Haiti has at least one person promoting good health, sanitation, and nutrition.
Jesus reminded John's disciples that wherever He went, the sick were healed. Such a ministry continues around the world today.
The battle is not always easily won. Satanic forces have transformed some modern healthcare advances into frightful nightmares. To many Haitians, the hypodermic needle is the ultimate medical weapon. One injection carries more psychological weight than bottles of pills. A medical person's reputation often rests on how many shots he gives. Unprincipled charlatans have seized on this mistaken notion. With no medical training, they pose as medical experts. They offer to cure any illness with injections. In their greed, they reuse unsterilized needles, transmitting HIV and hepatitis viruses. Even those who escape these infections often develop abscesses under the skin from dirty needles.
Nazarene medical missions provide a healing alternative to these quacks. Once again the Kingdom is counterattacking.
People often ask: "Why don't Nazarenes build a hospital in Haiti?"
Good question. After all, Haiti needs more medical facilities. We Nazarenes have experience in running hospitals in India, Papua New Guinea, South Africa, and Swaziland (now Eswatini). Why not Haiti?
There are good reasons for not building a Nazarene hospital in Haiti. It is not because we lack the money. It is not because we could not find committed people or lacked the organizational know-how. Rather, we haven't built a hospital in Haiti because it does not fit our long-range goals.
The Gospels show that Jesus did not sit in one place, waiting for people to come to hear Him. His ministry was an itinerant one that combined healing and preaching everywhere He went. Matthew tells us that "Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness" (Matthew 9:35). We're trying to follow a similar pattern. Our medical goal in Haiti is simple: health care for every village where the gospel of the Kingdom is preached. That's not original with us. Jesus showed us how.
Now, let's suppose Nazarene denominational leaders had decided to build a hospital in Haiti. Hospitals gobble up money and personnel. Still, had we wanted to build a hospital in Haiti, I believe we could have done it. We would have found the money to build it and equip it. No doubt dedicated Nazarenes would have given their lives to staff it.
Here's the problem: We would spend lots of money. We would put together a top medical staff. But we would be serving the healthcare needs of one limited area of Haiti. People in that one valley would have excellent medical care. That, however, would leave untouched all those other Haitian valleys where Nazarenes preach the gospel.
Our goal has been to meet healthcare needs wherever we're preaching the gospel. That's a lofty goal, given our limited resources. As Nazarene leaders have hammered out a workable strategy for Haiti, they've had to make choices. In medicine, we had two alternatives. The first was to build a hospital and center our medical work there. The second was to develop a workable village-based health care program.
A community-based health care strategy follows the advice given by a Nazarene Commission on Medical Missions in its 1953 report to the General Board. It concluded we could best reach our medical missions goals by focusing on small clinics and dispensaries. It cautioned against exhausting our limited resources in a few hospitals.
When this report came out, Nazarene work in Haiti was still in its early days. Noting that fact, the report gave some specific advice for Haiti. The commission proposed that we set up a dispensary in Haiti at once. It urged that mobile clinics become part of our Haitian medical ministry. That's the approach we've followed. From today's vantage point, what the commission suggested has proved to be a wise course of action.
Where Nazarenes have gone preaching about the Messiah, we've also taken health care.
Not long ago, I watched a red-and-white, four-wheel-drive Mitsubishi drive up on the Bible college campus. It parked in front of the Nazarene Health Center. Purchased for our medical work with a Canadian government grant, the vehicle was coming back from a rural trip. Dust covered every inch of it. The people getting out looked tired. A nurse, a tuberculosis agent, an M.D., and a couple of workers began unloading supplies and equipment. They had been out in an isolated valley on a two-day mobile clinic.
They were drained and wanted to get home. Still, they stopped briefly to tell me about their trip. As they talked, their faces began to light up. They had seen an unusual case or two. They were excited about the suffering they had helped relieve. They were also pleased by the many people who had come for consultations.
For a mobile clinic, our health center staff travel to an isolated village to provide medical care for one or two days. It is announced in the church and community ahead of time. Therefore, long before the Mitsubishi crammed with medical personnel and supplies appears around the last bend in the road, crowds gather at the church.
Charges for seeing the doctor range from 20 cents in some areas to a high of $1.00. Patients also pay a small fee for medicine. These charges help offset the costs of this medical care. Because of this, our resources stretch a bit farther. Charging something also keeps curiosity seekers from swamping the medical team with fictitious ailments. Of course, people with life-threatening problems get help even if they cannot pay the small fee.
Our dream is to make sure there is a minimal level of health care in every outpost where there are Nazarenes. With over 300 churches already organized and new ones being planted every year, that goal remains a long way off. Still, we're working at it.
One way will be through training what the Haitian government calls "health agents." We are working on government approval to train five or six of these at a time. Competent pastors and laymen will get five months of hands-on training in our main health center near Port-au-Prince. They'll then be qualified to open a small clinic and offer limited health care services.
The clinics will be an extension of the church's spiritual ministry. They mark the Church of the Nazarene as an organization that cares about people. They are signs of the Kingdom. Some of these men are planting brand-new churches in the areas where they open a dispensary. Clearly, medical missions are an integral part of the church planting and evangelism strategy for Haiti.
Nazarenes are preaching the gospel to the poor. The Lord is also using us to cleanse the lepers and heal all manner of other diseases. The Kingdom is striking back. And the Church of the Nazarene is part of it!
Disease prevention is an important aspect of community health. A chief thrust for public health agencies is inoculation against preventable killers and crippling diseases like polio, tetanus, diphtheria, and whooping cough. Immunizing people plays a key role in our medical ministry in Haiti.
Recently, the Haitian government's Health Ministry held a Polio Prevention Day aimed at immunizing as many Haitian children as possible. Our clinic on the Bible college campus helped give those immunizations. Coincidentally, that day came during the Caribbean Regional Council meeting. Nazarene leaders from all over the Caribbean flew into Port-au-Prince. They met on the campus of Haiti Nazarene Bible College. Together, they shared testimonies, looked at their shortcomings, and made plans for future outreach efforts in the Caribbean.
On one day of that conference, Nazarene doctors and nurses immunized 200 boys and girls against one of childhood's crippling diseases. That happened on a corner of the same campus where the conference was being held. Two signs of the Kingdom appeared together: disease being driven out of the bodies of people and reports of evangelistic successes in preaching the gospel to the poor!
Not long ago, World Vision joined us in a healthcare project on the island of La Gonave. That island is one of the more disadvantaged areas of Haiti. Most of the 35 Nazarene churches on that small island run an elementary school as part of their ministry.
One of the things World Vision helped us do was give a physical checkup to all Nazarene schoolchildren on La Gonave. We have a dream that one day, every Nazarene schoolchild in Haiti will get a physical checkup during the school year. With the approval of the new health agent program, we believe that this dream can become a reality.
One summer, a group of nursing students from Olivet Nazarene University planned to visit Haiti. They were going to help us open five new rural clinics. Unfortunately, some political tumult thwarted their plans. A few weeks later, however, things had calmed down enough for a group of nurses from Tennessee to come. We do not have as many medical teams visiting Haiti as we do construction groups. Still, there are medical people taking a "busman's holiday" to spend their vacation using their medical skills for free in Jesus' name.
The Lord also uses people without special medical training to heal the ravages of sickness and disease. A group from Dallas saw some real miracles of healing during an evangelistic campaign in Port-de-Paix.
A Nazarene Mission Team from Jacksonville, Florida, brought God's healing touch to Haiti. This team from the University Boulevard Church of the Nazarene came to build a prefabricated metal chapel in an isolated area in the northwest corner of Haiti. That village where they built the church, St. Matin, is at the end of the worst road I've ever traveled. Missionary Bill Dawson compared it to spending four hours driving up and down the steps of the U.S. Capitol building.
As with most Nazarene Mission Team projects, preparations began long before the team arrived. It looked as if Satan was trying to use mechanical problems to prevent the construction. Every trip to St. Matin was plagued by more than the usual number of flat tires. On one of the trips to ferry materials to the job site, a pickup broke down. The jeep towing that pickup for the return trip over the mountains burned up its clutch. Then, as the Jacksonville Nazarenes left Port-au-Prince and headed north, our large truck threw a connecting rod through the side of the engine block. We were forced to rent another truck to carry the team and materials. On and on, the list of problems grew.
In spite of all those obstacles, the team made it to the village. During the week there, the pastor of the Florida church, Rev. R. E. Zollinhoffer, did not do much construction work. Instead, he found himself running a first-aid clinic.
It began the first day. Our building sites often attract crowds of Haitian children. This one was no different. Among the children who showed up was a small boy with a foot slashed by a machete.
"Pastor Z," as his church warmly called him, saw the boy. He rummaged around in the Nazarene Mission Team truck until he found a first-aid kit. As the other men started to work on the building, he began cleaning out the wound, bandaging it properly so that healing could take place.
Word spread quickly in that rural area. "Pastor Z" became "Nurse Z." He cleaned old, infected wounds. He treated infections and dispensed aspirin. Most of it was simple first-aid work. Still, to those rural Haitians, Rev. Zollinhoffer was a miracle healer.
The rest of the team put together a metal church building. That was a real Kingdom victory. A new altar was built to give sinners a place to ask forgiveness. Those sheet metal walls and roof would soon ring with shouts of joy and praise. Over to one side of the building site, the Kingdom struck back in another way. There, under the shade of a mango tree, the lame began to walk again, and the sick found healing.
In Haiti, children suffer most from health and nutrition problems. Malnutrition is most devastating to children under five years of age. In children under five, prolonged malnutrition can have lasting effects on physical growth and cognitive development.
When He was here on earth, Jesus showed special concern for children. Through the years, they have continued to be of special concern to Kingdom people.
A Nazarene nutrition program aimed at young children got underway years ago in Haiti with missionary Carolyn Parsons. Right now, we have five centers in operation. Severely malnourished children under five years old get two nutritious meals daily for up to three months. During this time, their mothers must also spend five mornings a week at the center. There, they learn to prepare balanced meals for their children using very limited resources.
We are trying to set up an ever-expanding network of village health agents. Dr. Judy D'Amico came and spent four years working with a program to put a "health evangelist" in every local church. This would make sure that at least one person in every local Nazarene church had some training in proper sanitation, preventive health care, and good nutrition. We are also trying to give basic health education to every Nazarene pastor in Haiti.
Our extension training program for licensed ministers features 48 classroom hours of health instruction. This particular course meets the science requirement in the Minister's Course of Study. The two-month health course gives the pastors some basic first-aid knowledge. It also covers recurring problems like tuberculosis, diarrhea, and childbirth complications. Inexpensive, locally available remedies are explained.
Young men studying in the resident Bible college also have a week-long seminar on health during their four-year program. This week of health studies, required for every student, features 25 classroom hours of instruction by Nazarene medical personnel.
Retreats for pastors and wives sometimes include first-aid classes. At the end of such retreats, each pastor and spouse takes home a box of first-aid supplies for use in their church. Our main health center in Port-au-Prince sells replacement supplies for these first-aid kits at or below wholesale cost. Our Haitian Creole publications program has produced some booklets on infant care in that language.
The Kingdom is striking back. The lepers are being cleansed.
On at least one occasion, Jesus approached a sick man and said to him: "Take heart, son; your sins are forgiven" (Matthew 9:2). That day, the man found both moral and physical cleansing. So, when Jesus spoke to John's disciples about cleansing the lepers, He could have meant both physical and moral cleansing! Sin is, of course, the most loathsome and chronic of diseases.
Around the world, in more than 165 world areas, the Church of the Nazarene boldly proclaims itself a "holiness movement." Pastors and lay leaders preach pure hearts and clean living. Biblical holiness radically changes the moral quality of people's lives. It also can make a striking difference in your physical health.
For example, in Haiti, we encountered cases in which unsanitary dressings applied during traditional religious treatments worsened wounds and infections. Such unsafe practices can harm health. Sexual behavior that exposes people to infection can also spread sexually transmitted infections, including HIV.
As people experience heart holiness and begin living holy lives, changes in their behavior can also reduce some health risks. The miracle of the coming of the Kingdom is a miracle of health. . . . [Continue reading]
This ebook is on world missions. It shows how the words of Jesus about Kingdom signs align with what was happening on the Caribbean island of Haiti during the period described. These six chapters plus a foreword and a conclusion demonstrate that the Kingdom is indeed in our midst.