How one short-term mission team dug deeper to get to know a Haitian community – and found a sustainable way to help.

By Andy Olsen, NWHCM Media Director

They listened for days, scribbling on pads of paper. In the hot ocean air of La Baie des Moustiques, the church group from Rockford, Illinois, walked door-to-door to nearly every house in the small town. They asked questions about everything – about who lived where, about who did what, about health and about livestock.

A short-term mission team from Rockford, Illinois, conducts a community needs assessment in La Baie des Moustiques. Photo by Dustin Waller / Contributor

It was Northwest Haiti Christian Mission’s first-ever community needs assessment, a town-wide survey intended to paint a picture of the strengths and weaknesses of the town.

It was the beginning of something big.

Such survey work is the foundation of NWHCM’s Neighbors Project, NWHCM’s new approach to community development. The Neighbors Project facilitates meaningful cross-cultural church-to-church relationships that are dynamic and transformational for both churches and their communities.

With the Neighbors Project, we partner American churches with Haitian churches. They work together to serve people in the Haitian community, sharing physical and spiritual resources with the mutual goal of spreading the Gospel through holistic ministry – that is, by addressing both spiritual and other needs.

The primary goal of the Neighbors Project is to encourage community development projects that are thoughtful, planned, and born out of the real needs of Haitian communities.

The Rockford group is one of a handful of churches working with NWHCM in community development (they actually began their partnership with the La Baie des Moustiques community before the Neighbors Project was conceived). The group quickly recognized that “La Baie” is a fishing village, yet many people there lost their fishing boats in the hurricanes that slammed Northwest Haiti in 2008.

The group decided to work side-by-side with community members to begin replacing those boats. Funded initially by the group, the boat project is designed to eventually be self-funding. Fisherman who receive a boat are expected to take a portion of their profits from selling fish and contribute it toward building another boat.

The concept is simple, but it has significant ramifications. Community members learn and practice biblical concepts of caring for one another, and members of the group learn to invest through service and relational ministry, in addition to providing financial resources.

At NWHCM, we believe that all ministry must be done in Christ-like love, which will show itself in demonstrated respect for both Haitians and foreigners.

And at the center, that is what the Neighbors Project is all about: Listening first with compassion, then acting with wisdom and respect.

Learn more about the Neighbors Project by clicking here, or by contacting Curtis Rogers, NWHCM Community Development Coordinator, at curtis.rogers@nwhcm.org.