HOME

                                          ARCHIVE 

____________________________________________________________________________

March 2006

From Winnipeg to Haiti

By Peter Molloy

While most of the world has been keeping an eye on the elections in Haiti, Dr. Pierre Plourde of St. Margaret’s Anglican Church in Winnipeg is praying for the community of Haitian saints that he has come to know and love.

Dr. Plourde’s relationship with Haiti goes back 24 years to an internship which he elected to take there. His friendship with his language tutor at the time has grown into one of the closest relationships he has. Since then his friend has become a pastor, and has worked with Dr. Plourde and his team.

Due to the instability and threat of violence in Haiti, Dr. Plourde’s friend must remain anonymous. An armed patrol surveyed the church where the doctor ran his makeshift clinic. Random gang violence is a major problem, as are well-orchestrated kidnappings.

“Kidnapping is the new economy in Port-au-Prince,” says Plourde. “There are about 12 a day, mostly prominent Haitians who have linkages to money, especially through their white contacts.”  Plourde had the opportunity to meet with a pastor who had been kidnapped and released. “Much like Paul, this pastor took the opportunity to share the gospel with his captors.” One of his kidnappers was subsequently caught, and the pastor is preparing to visit him in prison and bring him a Bible.

Dr. Plourde likens his work to Christ’s call to visit the imprisoned. Haiti is imprisoned by poverty and by a political structure that seems to incur
instability. Since its independence in 1804, Haiti has had a coup d’état on average every 7 years.  And the disparity between the rich and the poor is only getting worse. Dr. Plourde says that despite these problems, Haitians don’t want to flee their country, but rather want to help change it. They face their trials with courage.

With a medical and dental team drawn mostly from St. Margaret’s, Dr. Plourde ran a three-day clinic in Port-au-Prince and lectured 60 nursing students. “I always try to leave behind an improvement in their skills,” he said. He also delivered much needed medicine and medical supplies donated by Canadian health-care companies and packaged in Physician Travel Packs by Health Partners International of Canada (HPIC), a Canadian medical aid organization.

He has brought a team with him for the last four years. It is a risky venture, so he tries to limit it to just a half-dozen workers for a week. One team member described the experience as “having never been so
close to hell, yet feeling so close to heaven.”  Although Dr. Plourde has spent a total of less than 8 months in Haiti, he speaks Creole remarkably well. While he admits that being Francophone helps, he regards his ability to speak Creole as a gift of tongues. Much like the Early Church was gifted to preach the Gospel in other languages, he has been given the gift for his ministry. He explained to The Anglican Planet, “Sometimes I make it up as I go along and it is almost always right. How else can you explain it?”

Dr. Plourde prays about two things for his ministry in Haiti: that he and his team “will grow in faith as they go” and that the community they work with “will continue to face their fears with courage.”  When asked what he meant by courage, Plourde said that the way he had heard it described recently suits the situation of the church in Haiti. “Courage is fear that has said its prayers.”

     TAPintoCanada

     EdibleThoughts

     TAPintotheWord

     OntheFrontline

     EditorialTAP

     theTAPinterview

     Bookreviews  

Copyright The Anglican Planet © 2006