Our Adventures in Haiti: 10 Adventures in 10 Days: #2- BIBLE SCHOOL

Family and Friends,

We joined forces with Mike and Pam Plasier and Mission Haiti almost two years ago. From the beginning there has been an understanding that we would work towards offering some kind of higher education for young leaders. Mission Haiti had been sponsoring kids for school and operating primary schools directly for many years, and it became time to think about what would come next for some of the older students who were approaching completion of High School. This fit well with our dream to be involved in some sort of theological instruction in a developing country. We have always talked about this future project simply as the “Bible and Ministry Training School.”

The time has finally come for that dream/vision to become a reality! In September of 2012 we will begin the first class of students in the new school. Some land has been purchased down near the ocean, one small house is already built there, and two weeks ago we began the construction of a small dormitory designed for twelve students. Before next fall we hope to complete a shower/toilet building, a cooking shed, an eating/gathering area, and an open-air classroom. Thanks to a sizable grant from First Reformed in Sioux Center, the land and the dormitory should be covered. We will continue to raise funds for the other buildings in the year to come.

What will the ministry training program entail? Young missionaries will come from around the world (probably just US and Haiti in the first year) and join forces for an intense 9-month program of Bible study, ministry, and personal spiritual growth. Visiting professors will teach one-week courses in a variety of subjects. Focusing on the model for ministry taught by Jesus, put into effect by Paul, and described in the book of Titus, students will be trained to enter a community, make assessments of how God is at work, lead people to Jesus, appoint leaders, and repeat this process. Upon successful completion of the program we will send students out to begin new ministries all over Haiti and all over the world. Students will do everything together and stretch themselves through a great deal of prayer, worship, ministry, service, accountability, study, and hard work.

So where is the adventure in all of this?

The adventure for us will be in seeing how God answers so many questions and needs in the coming year. Our current role with Mission Haiti is to direct all in-country ministries including youth group, Sunday worship, daily programs for children, evangelism/deliverance/discipleship in the village and mountain communities, and spiritual guidance of all staff. On top of that we will need to raise funds for the Bible School facilities, scholarships for Haitian students, recruit professors and students in the US and Haiti, organize all curriculum, and oversee the building projects. It should be quite a year!

One exciting bit of news we received recently was the verbal commitment of a godly, young couple in Sioux Falls to come and serve as Resident Directors in the first year of the Bible school. They will live in the house down there known as the “hurricane-proof house” and oversee every aspect of the students' lives, just like a resident director would at a college in the US. Praise God! Also, there is a spot on that property that would make sense for our family to build a house in the future, and Mike and Pam have encouraged us to think about that and raise funds. Three great professors have already agreed to come, many young Haitians have shown interest, and the building project is going really fast so far, so that is all good, too.

The Bible and Ministry Training School adventure will undoubtedly have many peaks and valleys in the year to come, so we would ask you to pray for this as you think about us. We truly believe God will use this to bring a great deal of energy and help to our current ministries and then later a huge impact on people all over Haiti and around the world. We will soon be putting out recruitment brochures and school applications, so if there is a young person you know in the US who might be interested in spending 9-months here, please let them know about this program. Also, if God puts it on your heart to contribute to the building project or the scholarship program, please feel free to ask more questions about that.

(enjoy a few pictures below)

God Bless,

The Grimm Family Adventurers