The Lamb's Book of Life
I would like to tell you about a list of Baptized members I put up in the church. On the top of this board, in French, it reads: "The Lamb's Book of Life." These are the names of each person who has accepted Christ as his Savior since we began going on mission trips in 1993. In Revelation the Bible says that God puts our name in the Lamb's Book of Life when we are reborn as stated in chapter 3 of the book of John.
To become a member a person must first come to Christ and leave behind all of his Voodoo religion. This in itself is a huge decision. It would be like a Catholic denouncing his church. Next after attending church services for a year (they have services six times a week), a person may ask to be water baptized, at which point he or she would enroll in a class for six months. Since most people cannot read, they memorize many scriptures and hymns.
At the end of this time the elders of the church call the entire community together and stand each person, one at a time, in front of everyone. They ask the congregation if they have seen this person being bad at any time. If the candidate has been doing anything non-Christ-like, and this could be a number of things: gambling, dating a non-Christian, fighting, or going to Voodoo ceremonies, the candidate must wait six more months to take the class again.
When we moved to Caesse in 2000 the church had some 50 baptized members. When we left in 2001 there was over 20 more members added, including my 3 daughters. P.T.L. There is no way this could have been done without those of you who have helped us or without North Haiti Mission.
THANK YOU,
Dan Slocum