Men’s Ministry Growing Amid Haiti’s Violence

A group of men gather and sit together in prayer during an Every Man a Warrior (EMAW) meeting in Haiti. The wives of men attending EMAW groups were so struck by the positive change in the lives of their husbands that they decided to form an EMAW group for women as well. 

Obed and Dierf* knew a pastor who was gunned down in his church, and they helped pay for the release of a pastor’s wife who was kidnapped. They’ve seen hundreds of families displaced and churches closed.

Such is life for those involved in ministry in the gang-dominated Caribbean nation of Haiti.

But the men, graduates of the same Bible college in the Haitian community of Port-de-Paix, are fighting back. Their weapons, to borrow from 2 Corinthians 10:4, “are not of flesh, but have divine power to destroy strongholds.”

Obed, now 40, came out of Bible college with “a burning desire for discipleship,” he said. Looking for materials, he came across Every Man A Warrior (EMAW), the curriculum developed by Lonnie Berger that is part of the ministry of TWR (aka Trans World Radio).

“One of the things that impressed me was that it shows how men can succeed in life, and I want to succeed in life,” Obed said.

The three books show men how Scripture can help them in practical areas, such as money, marriage, rearing children, sex and going through hard times. Men memorize Scripture as they go through the program.

Obed contacted Berger, who sent him PDFs of the EMAW texts. That same day, Obed began translating the material into Haitian French because the men whom he wished to disciple didn’t understand English. He also messaged his friend Dierf, now 28, who at the time was ministering in the Dominican Republic.

“I … started reading and going deep into the materials, and I realized that this was really what I wanted to learn and know about,” Dierf said. “This is the practical teaching I wanted to have, and this is what I wanted to share with other men as well.”

That was 2021, and the groups got off to a slow start because of pandemic-related lockdowns. But since then, Dierf and Obed have discipled men who have formed other EMAW groups in three island countries. Obed counts two groups in the Dominican Republic, 10 in Haiti and two in Cuba. Dierf currently knows of seven groups in the city of La Romana, Dominican Republic, and five in his hometown of Arcahaie, in Haiti.

“I had the opportunity to travel to Cuba,” Obed said. “And I’ve met some incredible people. There’s a burning desire. There’s a hunger for God.”

At Dierf’s church in Arcahaie, there’s also a women’s EMAW group.

“These women are the wives of the men attending an Every Man A Warrior group in my church,” Dierf explained. “They decided to be part of it because of what they see in their husbands, the change. And they say: Oh, OK, if their husbands can change that way, they want to see the same change in their lives as well.”

That’s not as unusual as it might seem, said Carl Willis, who coordinates EMAW groups in Latin America and the Caribbean. “It’s happening all over the world. We’ve got women using our books everywhere.”

Willis told Dierf a women’s group could form, but they had to agree to two rules. First, there would be no coed EMAW groups. Second: “Women cannot use the books as a club to beat their husbands up and say, ‘You’re not doing it right.’” 

The women’s group continues to meet.

Dierf and Obed talk about EMAW every chance they get, and those chances are increasing. Obed is scheduled to speak to a thousand people at a megachurch in the Haitian city of Jacmel this month, he said.

All of this in a beleaguered nation beset by violence. About 2,500 people in Haiti were killed or injured by gang violence during the first three months of this year, according to a United Nations report. The report said that between the beginning of March and the middle of April, 95,000 people fled Port-au-Prince, the capital city. Armed gangs control about 80% of Port-au-Prince, the BBC reported earlier this year.

EMAW groups are persevering. Two of the groups continue to meet in the same area where a Haitian man and a U.S. missionary couple were killed in May, Obed said. Another group keeps meeting in an area where one of the most dangerous gangs is based.

Dierf sometimes needs to travel the 26 miles from Arcahaie to Port-au-Prince, but he takes public transportation. That’s because gangs blockade the roads, demanding payment if not kidnapping the driver and stealing his car.

“When you feel like you are not safe in your own country, it’s a problem,” he said. “But at the same time, it teaches us to have faith and hope in the midst of hardship, in the midst of difficulty.”

Obed agreed.

“It affects us a lot,” he said, and then added with a shrug: “But, you know, we only have hope in God. We still believe. Even though it is unbearable, we believe God has a way for us.”

*Because of security concerns, we are using only their first names.

Images: (top, banner) A group of men gather and sit together in prayer during an Every Man a Warrior meeting, (middle, left) A member of an Every Man a Warrior group in Haiti reads from his curriculum.