Paraphrase and Application of James Two

Paraphrase of James, chapter two.

"In your churches, you are honoring the rich and discriminating against the poor.  How stupid, how evil, can you be!  It is the rich who oppress you, exploit you, humiliate and batter you.  Are you a bunch of spiritual idiots?  This is NOT God's way!

Here is God's way.  God has a special concern for the oppressed poor.  God choses and honors the poor as the first citizens of his kingdom, with full rights and privileges.  But you are abusing these special citizens of God's kingdom.

God wants you to go down-and-in, to live among the down-and-outers; think: "a generation, in one location."  Under local leadership, minister to the poor, release the oppressed.  Do works of Jubilee justice to release the oppressed.  Combine faith and works; incarnate the kingdom of God."

Application of James two to Haiti.

Jean Thomas, in the fall of 2012, began to train six Haitian young men how to do Christian Community Development in poverty-stricken rural Haiti.  They would be trained, challenged and inspired to go down-and-in to minister to the oppressed poor.

This is a very tough and demanding assignment; Jean Thomas expected two or three to drop out; but all six graduated and are doing CCD in their chosen communities.  Quickly the Riceville Haiti Mission, the Covenant church and the Cumberland Presbyterian church became their partners in ministry.

Enter the Riceville Haiti Mission, January 2013.  The Riceville Haiti Mission team had the good fortune to live with, work with, and hang out with, the six Caleb interns as they were called.  In a short period of time, a week, a remarkably deep bonding occurred.  The Caleb CCD'ers/pastors are now settled in their communities, starting the long and difficult task of rebuilding their communities.

Two Riceville couples, Paul and Janet and Darwin and Leola, have expanded their bonding to partnership; I think this partnership will be lifelong.  When doing CCD in rural Haiti, we must think long term; short term projects won't do the job.  The damage done by 500 years of oppression is deep and pervasive.  Think of staying in one location for a generation, a lifetime.

One way to put it to think of the three "C's":  call, comfort, and commitment.  Paula and Janet, Darwin and Leola have responded to God's call, to the enormous need of the Haitian poor.  And they feel comfortable, at home with the oppressed poor of Haiti.  And they have made a long term commitment; one couple even revised their will taking the needs of the Haitian poor into consideration.

Pau Thomas, Jean's Haitian brother, started many projects in Haiti but not under the umbrella of CCD; these projects failed.  Only wise, carefully designed CCD ministries, will get the job done.