Today in the Mission Yearbook - ‘My faith grows when I am with the people of Haiti’

On ‘Between Two Pulpits,’ mission co-worker Cindy Corell discusses kidnappings, earthquakes — and Haiti’s remarkable people

March 19, 2022

Cindy Corell

Even as she’s been working stateside during the pandemic, mission co-corker Cindy Corell continues to walk alongside her Haitian partners. As a recent “Between Two Pulpits” broadcast made clear, Corell’s heart is very much in Haiti, especially following the kidnapping of 12 adults and five children connected with a U.S. missionary organization.

“It speaks to the security crisis in Haiti. Kidnapping is a lucrative industry,” Corell told “Between Two Pulpits” hosts Bryce Wiebe and Lauren Rogers. Wiebe is the former director of Special Offerings and the Presbyterian Giving Catalog, and Rogers is project manager for digital fundraising.

For young people in Haiti, which has been plagued by an earthquake and the assassination of its president, “there are no jobs, and their purchasing power has gone out the window.” People 25 and under comprise about half of Haiti’s nearly 11.6 million people, Corell noted.

“What fills in for a job? Gang activity,” Corell said. The church had been immune to threats of violence and kidnapping because spirituality, especially Christianity, is held in high esteem there, Corell said. But now, “a vanload of foreigners driving through, it just looked like an opportunity,” she said. “So many things in Haiti snowball. You have a totally chaotic and horrifying situation.”

“I am in deep prayer for these folks who have just been kidnapped. I hope there is a resolution that brings everyone back,” Corell said. “But this is an everyday experience for the mothers of Haiti. They fear when their children go to school. They deal with everyday stresses of living in a tough situation.”

It is “kinship around the harm that we invite the world to see and engage and be a means of grace within,” said Wiebe, who has traveled to Haiti and worked with Corell there. “I know that’s what our partners have asked from us.”

Corell said she still marvels at the trust given her by people in Haiti.

“People will ask my opinion about things. When I am wrong, they will tell me I’m wrong,” Corell said. “I am a white American who represents a large church and a lot of partners and friends. It would be easy for them to say, ‘We need to keep her happy.’ At FONDAMA [a network of farmer organizations where Jean works as executive director], I heard one time, ‘That’s the dumbest idea I’ve ever heard.’ They knew I wouldn’t get mad and storm out, but it takes time [to reach that point in a relationship].”

“This is a place,” Wiebe said of Haiti, “where our faith teaches us is due honor.”

It was Frederick Douglass who once said that Haiti was never forgiven for being Black, Corell said. “It is nuanced and complex,” Corell said, adding that Simón Bolívar, who played a crucial role in the South American independence movement, once visited Haiti “to learn how to bring freedom to his people.”

Ever since the Aug. 14 earthquake rocked Haiti’s southern, less populated region, FONDAMA and Presbyterian Disaster Assistance have of course been responding. However, “criminal activity has really slowed a lot of the response,” Corell said. Donations to PDA, which can be made here, will go toward mid-term and long-term response, Corell said.

But when gangs slowed help following the earthquake, “guess who brought the aid?” Corell said. It was Haitians helping Haitians. “They gathered food and produce. Local markets offered food,” Corell said. “People got on their hands and knees to dig their neighbors out, and it happens every day.”

Asked by Rogers about her hope for the Church, Corell said it’s that “we listen closely to Scripture and follow the spirit of the New Testament” and that we “look to and love one another and see within the other ourselves. Jesus is a great promoter of that kind of reflective theology,” where one finds grace, mercy and love.

She also prays “we can find the energy to push for that mutuality we need and truly follow Jesus. The people of Haiti do this well. My faith grows when I am with the people of Haiti. Let’s keep it simple. Let’s steep in it like a teabag, and I think we will all come out of it better.”

 Mike Ferguson, Editor, Presbyterian News Service

Let us join in prayer for:

PC(USA) Agencies’ Staff
Karl Mattison, VP of Planning Giving Resources, Presbyterian Foundation
Jessica Maudlin, Associate, Sustainable Living & Earth Care Concerns, Presbyterian Hunger Program, Presbyterian Mission Agency

Let us pray

Gracious God, thank you for mission and ministry. By your Spirit guide all your people that your love and grace may abound as we faithfully follow where you lead. In Christ’s name we pray. Amen.

Today in the Mission Yearbook - Land use in Latin America and systemic poverty

Asking good questions moves us to solidarity

March 15, 2022

Erlinda Quesada (right), an activist from an area in Costa Rica with large transnational farms of pineapple production, shares about her community’s struggles for environmental justice at Chapel in the Pines Presbyterian Church in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Mission co-worker Karla Ann Koll is translating. (Photo courtesy of Chapel in the Pines Presbyterian Church)

To end systemic poverty, we first must understand its root causes by asking good questions. In Latin America and the Caribbean, two good questions to ask are, “How is the land used?” and “How are the people who live on that land treated?” 

In Nicaragua, Indigenous groups who live along the coast and extensive rivers in the eastern half of the country struggle to control their land, despite laws passed in 1987 and 2007 that recognized their land rights. But policies and attitudes of the government encourage encroachment on traditional lands as well as outright confiscation of land for mining, lumber and cattle ranching. At the same time, global warming led to two hurricanes in fall 2020, Eta and Iota. These historically powerful hurricanes devastated many of these same communities. National and international aid to help these remote communities recover has been minimal.

In Haiti, the 2010 earthquake set the stage for massive international investment in a Free Trade Zone along the northern coast. It’s the same coast where many small communities have traditionally used state land for irrigated crop production, and their proximity to the ocean for fishing. To create the large tracts of land to build factories, international investors moved the families away from the coast into poorly constructed housing surrounded by semi-arid soils. In the end, the complex provided a small fraction of the employment that had been promised, leaving many families with almost no means of support. 

In the Dominican Republic, sugar cane production has long been an important product for export. But standard sugar cane techniques require large expanses of fertile land and an abundant supply of cheap labor. In the Dominican Republic, this labor is typically provided by Haitian immigrants. These essential workers often are in danger of deportation. Sugar cane companies commonly use glyphosate, a cancer-causing product used to control weeds that has also been implicated in a deadly epidemic of kidney disease among workers.  

In northeastern Costa Rica, Del Monte produces pineapples using toxic chemicals that contaminate the groundwater, making it unsafe for people in surrounding communities to consume. Waste products from pineapple harvesting have also been implicated in breeding flies that affect local farmers’ livestock, so farmers sell their land to the companies and move into dilapidated urban centers. 

Understanding root causes moves us beyond pity and compassion to indignation and solidarity. Mission co-workers throughout Latin America and the Caribbean are witnesses to these situations and many others. More importantly, we accompany local networks denouncing injustices and fighting for environmental and social justice for their families, their communities and for all of God’s Creation.  

Would you care to join us, and them?

Mark Hare, mission co-worker promoting environmental sustainability with the Latin American Biblical University, an ecumenical seminary on the eastern edge of San Jose, Costa Rica.

 Mission co-workers Jenny Bent (Costa Rica), Cindy Corell (Haiti) and the Rev. Dr. Karla Ann Koll (Costa Rica) also contributed to this article.

Let us join in prayer for:

PC(USA) Agencies’ Staff
Victor and Sara Makari, Mission co-workers serving in Israel & Palestine, Presbyterian Mission Agency
Troy Marables, Vice President, Director of Human Resources, Presbyterian Foundation

Let us pray

Father, thank you for your love that enables us to love others. Help us to reflect the free gift of your grace to all who cross our path. Amen.