The Church of the Brethren Mission and Ministry Board held its spring 2024 meeting on March 15-17 at the denomination’s General Offices in Elgin, Ill. Board chair Colin Scott presided, assisted by chair-elect Kathy Mack and general secretary David Steele.
“The only hope many people have is the light of God in the church,” said Ilexene Alphonse, describing the desperate situation of the Haitian people. Living as the church in Haiti right now is “stressful and it is painful, but the most part is that everybody, they live in a limbo. They are never certain about what will happen,” he said. “There is the constant fear of being kidnapped.”
ASIGLEH (the Church of the Brethren in Venezuela) held its annual conference in Cucuta, Colombia, on March 12-16 with about 120 church leaders and families in attendance. The conference was led by Roger Moreno, who is president of ASIGLEH.
L’Eglise des Freres d’Haiti (the Church of the Brethren in Haiti) has sent a response to a pastoral letter from David Steele, general secretary of the Church of the Brethren. The pastoral statement for Haiti was sent to the church in Haiti on March 7. In related news, brief updates on the situation of the church in Haiti have been received from leaders in l’Eglise des Freres d’Haiti. Vildor Archange, who works with the Haiti Medical Project, reported.
The staff of Brethren Disaster Ministries and Iglesia de los Hermanos (the Church of the Brethren) in the Dominican Republic (DR) are working together on an effort to aid displaced Haitians. A grant of $5,000 is being requested from the Emergency Disaster Fund (EDF) to provide emergency food to Haitian citizens fleeing across the border to the Dominican Republic and away from the violence in Haiti. Haiti and the DR share the same Caribbean island.
Jennifer Hosler has been hired by the Church of the Brethren as part-time manager of the Global Food Initiative (GFI), in the Global Mission office. She begins working for the GFI as a remote employee from Washington, D.C., on April 22.
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Church of the Brethren general secretary David Steele has shared the following pastoral statement for Haiti during a state of emergency and widespread violence in the Caribbean island nation. The full text of the pastoral statement follows in three languages: English, Haitian Kreyol, and French:
During the early hours of a recent morning, I was awakened by the sound of bombs exploding some distance away. Across the border from us, in the Democratic Republic of Congo, there are frequent skirmishes between rebels and the government forces. It is not uncommon for us to hear gunfire and explosions. There is no imminent danger to us here, but knowing that others are facing death and destruction is disconcerting to say the least.
In November 2023, the executive directors of the Church of the Brethren’s Service Ministries and Global Mission departments, Roy Winter and Eric Miller respectively, visited South Sudan for six days. During that time, they met with Athanasus Ungang, who is country director of Brethren Global Services, the Church of the Brethren mission project there.
