The vast majority of Haitians are professing Christians. Many of them have a deep faith that can only be explained as being the result of knowing that God is the only one on whom they can rely. As difficult as their life is in Haiti, they rejoice in their eternal relationship with Jesus Christ. We have seen and heard, however, signs of their culture, including Voodoo, creeping in and distorting the gospel. While we are not capable or desiring to judge their culture or to impose our own on them, we are concerned that they may be missing all that God has in store for them. Over the past few years, we have discussed this with some of the local pastors. They have explained that most pastors in rural Haiti have little education at all and no formal bible or theological education. Young pastors simply work and study under an older pastor. As a result, both good and bad teachings are passed down. They have expressed that they would be interested in any bible and theological training that we could help make available to them.
There is at least one seminary, located in Port au Prince, and a few bible schools in Port au Prince and Cap Haitian, but none located within a four-hour drive of the area in which we work. There are, however, numerous sources of bible and theological study available on the internet. Now that the Taryn Educational Resource Center is operational in Larevwa, we are able to obtain the necessary training materials on-line. When the Taryn Center was in the early planning stage, we began looking into bible and theological training that we might be able to utilize. The criteria we used was 1. solid orthodox theology, 2. presented in Haitian Creole or French, and 3. affordable tuition. After looking at several options, we arrived at Christian Leaders Institute. We first became interested in CLI because their tuition is donation based and many of their classes are taught in both English and French. In order to test their theology, we monitored several of their classes. We have determined that the Christian Leaders Institute classes will become the core curriculum used in the new Pastor Training Center. It is our desire to be able to translate additional educational materials in the future. Pastors and aspiring pastors will attend online class lectures over the large monitor located in the Taryn Center they will then be able to attend discussion groups in the classrooms. Students will then take tests individually, online in the computer lab. Christian Leaders Institute will grade tests and maintain records of student progress. Bob Lichy has become listed as a Mentor Minister by Christian Leaders Assembly and will be guiding the students through the education and ordination process.