Florida Baptists pastors/other leaders collaborate on serving Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio

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Pictured above: Florida pastor Keny Felix, far left, and a delegation from Florida enjoyed a meal at a Haitain-owned restaurant in Springfield, Ohio, on a mission trip to meet with Southern Baptist, other evangelical, city and community leaders to discuss outreach to Haitian immigrants there. Members of the Florida delegation include, second from left, south Florida civil rights attorney Marc Brumer, Senior Pastor David Eugene of Haitian Evangelical Baptist Church in Miami, and Patrick Jules, senior pastor of Bethel Evangelical Baptist Church of Fort Lauderdale. Submitted photo

SPRINGFIELD, Ohio­–A delegation of Florida Baptist Haitian pastors–including David Eugene, senior pastor of Haitian Evangelical Baptist Church in Miami; Patrick Jules, pastor of Bethel Evangelical Baptist Church in Fort Lauderdale, and Keny Felix, president of the Southern Baptist Convention National Haitian Fellowship and senior pastor of Bethel Evangelical Baptist Church in Miami­–recently met with Southern Baptist denominational leaders, pastors, ministry leaders, and community and civic leaders to discuss ways to serve as many as 15,000 Haitians living in Springfield, Ohio.

Because the Florida Baptist Convention and the State Convention of Baptists in Ohio launched a partnership in November 2022, leaders in both state conventions “already have been collaborating on how best to serve Haitian immigrants in Ohio,” said John Voltaire, Florida Baptists’ Haitian multicultural catalyst. Recent conversations are an extension of those already-established partnership collaborations, he said. At the time of the partnership launch, Jeremy Westbrook, Ohio Baptists’ executive director, noted that Ohio is the seventh largest state in America, and 90% of its 12 million residents are lost.

“We’re better together, stronger together. Our best days are ahead,” he said.

Spotlight represents ‘opportunity’

The city of Springfield, with a population of about 60,000, recently was thrust into the national spotlight as presidential candidates debated allegations of Haitian immigrants there committing crimes and draining social services.

That spotlight represents a “great opportunity to further mobilize Florida Baptist Haitian pastors and churches to serve Haitian immigrants in Ohio, reaching out to the Haitian community there, preaching the Word, planting churches,” said John Voltaire, who traveled to Ohio earlier this year to explore how the state-to-state partnership can best meet the physical and spiritual needs of Haitian immigrants.

Christopher Wilson, senior pastor of Northside Baptist Church in Springfield, has worked to minister to the Haitian community since he began his pastorate there in March 2023. He hosted a meeting Sept. 17 with the Florida delegation as well as Greater Dayton Association of Baptists Associational Missionary James Risner, Cincinnati Area Baptist Association Director of Missional Leadership Mark Snowden, State Convention of Baptists in Ohio State Catalyst for the West Region Chad Keck, and others. The group focused on how to combine resources to meet the humanitarian and spiritual needs of the Haitian community.

“It was just great to sit down with all of them, to have the desire to help coming from a lot of Baptist churches around the country,” Wilson said, “and to have especially the expertise and insights of the wonderful Haitian pastors that were able to join us.”

About five Haitian churches serve the migrants, but none of those churches are Southern Baptist. Northside began English as a Second Language classes about eight months ago, Wilson said, and has made some inroads through the class. The church has Haitians in worship most weeks, he said, with those attending having varying degrees of English fluency.

Planting Creole-speaking churches, sending Creole-speaking ministers to join Springfield Southern Baptists in ministry and raising financial support among Southern Baptists in Florida and elsewhere are among many ideas being considered.

The pastors plan to meet with other Florida Baptist pastors to collaborate on ways to combine resources to help, Eugene said.

“We plan to meet with the other pastors that are a part of this network to debrief them on our visit,” he said, “and together come up with a plan of intervention based on what we’ve observed.”

Creole language speakers and cultural sensitivity training are prime needs, Eugene said, as well as a mentoring program “to ensure we have Haitians in that population who are equipped and can provide some guidance and will help the assimilation of the Haitian immigrants in that community.”

The leaders described their work as ongoing.

With reporting from Baptist Press

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