SEE WHAT RALPH HATH WROUGHT!

Ralph Jean-Mary

This blog site and everything it describes about Forest Hill Church in Haiti is a product of a vision from Ralph Jean-Mary, a Haitian member of the congregation.  I want to share how this all got started.

Ralph and I were part of a small group of people who went through a 26-week course of exploring and developing faith.  The program is called Faith Leaders and in 2011 we were in the 5th annual class.  At the end of the course we were all invited to develop a vision for a personal ministry that would express what faith meant to us at that time.  

Ralph announced his vision of starting a program of medical service in Haiti, a program that would be developed in partnership with Haitian people committed to building the capacity needed to sustain it.  This was at a time when criticism of the relief and redevelopment of Haiti after the earthquake was pointing out that well-meaning efforts from outside Haiti ignored the people and the realities of conditions in Haiti.  (I wrote in an earlier blog about the problem of helping people in ways that hurts and about "toxic charity".)

This vision electrified me and many others who heard Ralph describe it; things began to happen.  Within the year, the initial exploratory trip to Haiti by eight of us was organized.  For obviously practical and logical reasons, we went to L'Ermitage, the home and hotel owned by Ralph's parents in Pandiassou, near the city of Hinche, in the Central Plateau region.  This mountain region is several hours drive from Port Au Prince and the area devastated by the 2010 earthquake.  It was a haven for many refugees from Port Au Prince who has lost their way of life.  It is poor, to be sure, and severely challenged by disease, poor living conditions, poverty, a lack of civic life and organization.  Yet it has potential to grow good food and to provide a good home and be self-sustaining.

Ralph's family were educated and were practicing professionals in the US for a number of years before his parents moved back to Port Au Prince where his father, a physician, practiced and taught medicine and his mother became a successful businesswoman.  They developed inherited family land near Hinche used initially as a camp and retreat from urban life in Port Au Prince to a guest house, a hotel and a nearly completed 24-bed conference facility.  Dr. Kyss and Nicole Jean-Mary, Ralph's parents, are well-known and highly respected people in Haiti.  What they are developing in the country near the third largest city in Haiti is an amazing expression of their faith and resilience.  It embodies a hope for what Haiti can become.

Ralph, Nicole and Dr. Kyss Jean-Mary

With Ralph as a guide, our team visited several places where community health and development institutions near Hinche with track records of success were presented to us.  When we returned at the end of April last year we began a process of discernment about whether and how we might add our support to one of those groups.  That was not easy.  Ultimately, we committed to reaching out to the Little Brothers and Little Sisters of the Incarnation.  We began planning for a "working trip" and a fundraising campaign to offer both a personal presence and financial resources to our Haitian partners.

In June while we were firming up our plans for these two big efforts, Ralph informed us that the Cleveland Clinic, where he is employed as an administrator, had invited him to move to its new hospital in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.  He is leaving with his wife, Michelle, in September.  Panic!  Could we act on this vision without him?

In the end, with some help that is nothing short of miraculous (More about that another time.), we are persevering and the vision lives on.  In fact it thrives!  There are 18 of us headed for Haiti in October and the fundraising campaign proceeds, now amounting to more than $7,000, are still coming in.  

The vision of one man, Ralph, is spreading to many here and in Haiti.  Who can predict how it will turn out!  It is gaining in strength as it is shared with more people.  Those of us who see it consider ourselves blessed and follow it in gratitude.  Yes, we feel we are going to Haiti in a spirit of gratitude! 

Thank God for Ralph Jean-Mary!

--kjl