I’d like to introduce you to our new ministry team member. Modie (pronounced “Mo-dee-ay”) embodies what we teach about church leadership in Haiti. I met Modie four years ago in Cap-Haïtien. He participated in PPI Course 1 along with 111 other church leaders, but I noticed him right away. For starters, Modie dresses impeccably in bright colors – yellow, red, blue suits. You can’t miss him. More importantly, he seemed to know everyone there. During our break times and at lunch, he moved among the crowd of pastors, smiling, shaking hands, patting shoulders and speaking to them. Our ministry team met him and liked him immediately.
Modie brought several other church leaders with him to the next PPI course. He began helping our team in any way he could – passing out water on hot afternoons, organizing Thompson Bibles for the day’s training. He has volunteered at nearly every PPI course in northern or northeastern Haiti since then, quietly but energetically, expecting nothing. On top of that, Modie champions our training in northern Haiti. He has invited scores of church leaders to our courses.
I talked with our team last year about asking Modie to join our ministry team “officially” for our training in March. They agreed without hesitation, and Modie helped us lead Course 3 (two times) and Course 1 in Limbé and Cap-Haïtien in early March. His servant’s heart and stellar work ethic have shone through every day – even on a day he (and our entire team) wasn’t feeling well.
One evening in our team meeting, I asked Modie to tell us more about himself and share how he met Christ. He began quietly:
I was born in Ferrier [a village in northeast Haiti]. My father didn’t take care of me so I was given to my uncle, but he treated me badly. I ran away to Cap-Haïtien when I was 12, but I didn’t know anyone there. I just tried to find something better. A pastor took me in and helped me. He sent me to school and had others teach me how to build. I started building when I was 14 years old.
Modie smiled as he told us how the pastor and his wife included him in their family, introduced him to Christ and discipled him. After finishing high school, he attended a building trades school and two years of Bible college. He is an accomplished designer-builder and has built houses, churches and businesses across Haiti and the Dominican Republic.
He continued, “I thank God. Street kids in Haiti become criminals and die young. The Lord rescued me. He has a purpose for me and I want to follow it.” Modie’s pastor-mentor died from complications of diabetes in late February. Modie helped the family plan his funeral over the two weeks of our training, paying for much of it himself.
I was moved by Modie’s story. I couldn’t help connecting it with the content of PPI Course 3, which we led two times over the two weeks of training. Course 3 is our first course on church leadership, in which we focus on the mission and strategy of the church. We study and discuss foundational truths about the church in Scriptures such as Matthew 16:13-18 (Jesus’ first teaching on the church), Matthew 28:16-20, Ephesians 4:11-16, etc.
We spend a lot of time in Matthew 28:16-20, where the Lord made clear His mission for the church and His strategy for fulfilling it. “Make disciples of all nations,” He commands us, by going, baptizing and teaching them to obey. We answer from Scripture questions such as:
- What is a “disciple”?
- How does Jesus intend for us to “make” them?
- How can our churches be more effective in fulfilling the Lord’s mission?
We tell pastors that making disciples is Job One for the church and that church leaders must exemplify disciple-making as well as teach it. Modie’s pastor did that. He opened his heart and his home to a boy from the streets. He loved him, won him to Christ and discipled him over many years. That boy was Modie. God changed his life and now he loves Jesus and serves faithfully in His mission – a perfect picture of what we teach church leaders in Course 3. May God use this course to inspire and equip church leaders to devote themselves to making disciples in Haiti!
How uncomfortable am I willing to get to be part of Jesus’ mission?
How uncomfortable am I willing to get to be part of Jesus’ mission? The question returned. I thought of Paul’s words in 2 Corinthians 4:17-18: “For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.” What Paul calls light-weight problems would level most of us. A few verses earlier, he says he is “hard-pressed . . . perplexed . . . persecuted and struck down.” Later in this letter, he tells us:
How could Paul call these high pressure even life-threatening situations “light and momentary troubles”? He doesn’t believe for a moment that he’s paying for his sins through hardships, nor is he bragging about his latest episode of suffering for Jesus. He only shares these hardships to combat the super-spirituality of false teachers unwilling to get uncomfortable for the mission of Christ. 
We exited the plane, helped unload our 900 lbs of Bibles and training materials, then scanned the crowd. Which one is Pastor François, our host pastor, and where’s the van we reserved? Both Isaiah and Jasmin, key members of our Haitian ministry team, were on their phones. They have it under control. Within minutes, an older, distinguished looking man and two younger men walked toward us smiling. The two younger men looked familiar to me. Where had I seen them before?
The two younger men stood by patiently. We had met but hardly spoken to them. As we organized our materials and luggage, they talked more to me. I was sweating. “It feels hotter than usual for December,” I thought. They told me they were pastors in Hinche. “Do you remember us?” they asked me. I told them I remembered their faces and asked if they had taken a PPI course in the past. They had attended PPI training a few years before in northern Haiti. They had another question for me: “Do you remember that we asked you to come to Hinche to train many pastors in our city?”
I stopped in my tracks and wiped the sweat from my face. I was reminded again that our God works through the faithful, fervent prayers of His children. “Thank you for praying for us so faithfully,” I told them. “The Lord is answering your prayers.” And He certainly did! Course 1 in Hinche overflowed with church leaders, eager to learn and grateful for the training. During our recognition time on the last day, pastors expressed how much they needed and appreciated PPI training and the Thompson Bibles. They gave our team a certificate of appreciation (pictured) and asked when we could return to offer our other courses. We plan to return to Hinche and Pignon in late April. 
In October, we introduced Spread the Word 2024 and challenged all of you to help us fund the purchase of 2,024 Creole Bibles by the end of the year. Friends of PPI put up $20,000 to match dollar for dollar all donations given in November and December. 
Don Carson said, “At their best, Christians have saturated themselves in the Bible. They say with Job, ‘I have treasured the words of his mouth more than my daily bread’ (Job 21:12).” But it’s a growing challenge to make Bible reading, learning and living a priority in our lives. Not only do we battle the usual obstacles of laziness, lack of self-discipline and pride, but now more than ever our pace of life and constant connection to media pull us away for what’s most important. The Lord Jesus told us (quoting Deuteronomy 8:3), “Man does not live by bread alone but by every word that comes from the mouth of God” (Matthew 4:4).
Speaking of Bibles, we will have specifics shortly after we close the books on 2024, but I can tell you that