CRC Agencies Plan Radio Ministry in Haiti

Lesley Millar has been crisscrossing Ontario in recent weeks to raise financial support for a radio ministry in Haiti that will involve several Christian Reformed Church agencies working together.

"I will be going to Haiti as an associate missionary for CRWM (Christian Reformed World Missions), but I will be working very closely with Back to God Ministries International (BTGMI)," says Millar.

Her new job reflects a growing trend in the CRC toward inter-agency collaboration through joint ministry ventures.

"I have a real love for Haiti,” says Millar, who spent 10 months there in 2007, doing accounting work, studying Creole, and helping missionaries. “I have a servant heart. I want to help put it out there and share stories of lives that have been changed by God."

Millar, who became a believer as an adult and now attends Brampton CRC in Ontario, is fluent in Creole and French. Her job will be to work with Haitians to approach local radio stations, asking them to air Perspectives Reformees, a BTGMI program currently playing on a limited basis in Haiti. This program is hosted by Paul Mpindi, French ministry leader for BTGMI.

In addition, she will set up a location that can serve as a follow-up center for Haitians who hear the gospel through the radio programs.

As an associate missionary with CRWM, Millar will be working with Sous Espwa (Source of Hope), the Haiti-based organization through which CRWM and the Christian Reformed World Relief Committee (CRWRC) and their partners work from offices in Port au Prince.

"My hope is that we will see people who hear the program coming in droves to the follow-up center,” Millar says. “I think there is a lot of potential."  BTGMI will provide people with a Bible correspondence course that has been very popular in parts of Africa where Mpindi's messages are broadcast.

Joel Hogan, director of International Ministries for CRWM, says he has high hopes for this project, which joins the media skills of BTGMI with the theological training provided by CRWM missionaries.

"The broadcasts of French programming in Haiti and the follow-up on call-ins give another way to link seekers with the body of Christ in Haiti," he says.  "It is a picture for me of how globilization can benefit the work of missions and reminds me that in the global context today we need to be thinking about making connections from anywhere to everywhere."

Mpindi met and spoke with Millar in 2007 about the project, which at that time was only a dream. But since then, says Mpindi, it has become much more than that.

Millar says she continues to see how God has worked miracles in her life. "I did not grow up a Christian and knew nothing of God’s love and his grace," she says. "I was searching for purpose….  God shook up my life with the end of a very serious relationship. It was not until I was at my lowest level that I began to seek the Lord."

By way of a newspaper ad she learned a little bit about a local CRC congregation and decided to attend and eventually became a member. "To put it simply, God transformed my life," she says in a Power Point presentation that she shows groups interested in her ministry.

Anyone interested in learning more about this ministry or supporting it, can call Millar at 705-429-954 or email [email protected].