The Christian Reformed Church in the Dominican Republic (ICR-RD) began with missionary contacts there in 1975 and 76 and since then has grown dramatically. Missionary involvement has increased from bi-annual visits in 1976 to the presence of 11 missionary families, 1 long-term volunteer and 1 short-term volunteer; church expansion and the increase of missionaries have gone had in hand.

   

1. The Initial Visits (1976–80). An illiterate lay pastor of an independent Haitian evangelical church near Sabana Grande De Boya, after listening to the Christian Reformed broadcast, La Hora De La Reforma, had his church secretary write a letter of invitation to the Christian Reformed Church. Arnold Rumph, Christian Reformed missionary in Puerto Rico, made the first visit in 1976. After that bi–annual visits were made until the fall of 1980.

The initial contacts were made among the Independent Pentecostal groups, of which, says Dario Platt in his book Nueva Esperanze Para Santo Domingo, there are more than 10,000 adherents. Some of the groups are affiliated with foreign mission boards, but the rest are not.

George Lockward in Protestantism in the Dominican Republic tells us that Protestantism came to the Dominican Republic during the Haitian invasion of it which lasted 22 years until 1844. Protestant groups came from Haiti and U.S. slaves from North America used Haiti as a spring-board to enter the Dominican Republic. After Independence came Protestantism grew. Pentecostalism entered during the 1930s and has tremendously increased during the last decade.

Dominican historians inform us that Haitians came to cut sugar cane during the early part of the 20th century.

Even though Trujillo (the dictator) killed thousands of Haitians in 1937, the desperate need of the Haitians forced them to cut sugar cane again. In 1976 there were an estimated 450,000 Haitians in the Dominican Republic.

The Haitians were mostly illiterate, especially because they had to work in an environment in which the people spoke Spanish while they spoke Creole. Many of them are illegal immigrants without proper documents, having come to the country illegally or having been denied the proper documents (such as birth certificates for children born in the country). Many are illegitimate; more than half of the Haitian marriages are common–law.

In this situation the Christian Reformed missionaries came to minister. Some preaching was done, visits were made, some used clothing and small amounts of money were given and some church organization took place. Not until May, 1981, were the groups officially organized.

The type of Haitians which drifted toward the Christian Reformed Church were those who were looking for help. Some were sincerely concerned for the welfare of the church and fellow human beings, but others were dressed-up evangelical crooks, who robbed the missionaries blind. It was through these imperfect contacts that the work was developed.

2. Second Phase: The Church is Organized and the World Mission Board is Established (1980–1982).

Ray Brinks and his wife, Gladys, were the first of our Board missionaries to arrive. He had had 21 years of experience in Argentina, and he and Gladys were hardworking, dedicated missionaries. His gift lay in church organization and hers in primary education. Ray showed genuine concern for the needs of the Haitian brothers and the Haitians spoke highly of him. He was generous in helping out with emergency needs and in looking for solutions to social problems. The second missionary family to arrive were the Hegemans. Neal applied himself to leadership training, church organization and social work while Sandy helped Glayds in the primary schools.

The missionaries in their initial approach recognized lay leadership and did not require seminary education (considering that many leaders were illiterate or functionally illiterate). The method of training them was on an extension basis. The Christian Reformed missionaries had learned from the TEE literature of such people as Winter, Emery , Rowen and McKinney and from projects such as the Guatemalan Presbyterian Seminary, Jorge Patterson‘ s work in Honduras, and our church’s own CITE program that extension was a good alternative to seminary training. However, the leadership trainers, Hegeman, De Young, Martinez , Veeneman and Oostendorp, had to go one step further, and that was to incorporate non–formal education techniques in order to meet the multiple and complex educational needs of illiterate and functionally illiterate people. The work of Pablo Friere, although from a liberationist view, was incorporated methodologically in some of the literacy training. The literature on Oral Tradition and Black Worship and Christianity was also used to develop some of the leadership training.

Our missionaries used an open–door method. Taking the cue from the Church Growth research, that it is important to respond to responsive fields, they encouraged church planting. The missionaries did not do the church planting, but encouraged Haitians to seek contacts, start worship services, do evangelism and build the church.

The missionaries used a multi-ministerial approach, integrating both word and deed of the gospel. Such wholism is much closer to the Haitian and Third-World world–and–life views. Western societies feel more comfortable in categorizing and specializing. Such an open approach also helped the church to meet immediate needs and incorporate the services of other evangelical agencies.

By May, 1982, the ICR-RD had grown to 27 groups, of which 13 were organized as churches. However, the greatest growth came in the next year when the number of groups shot up to 67. By April, 1984, the number stood at 93.

3. Mission Consolidation and Continued Church Growth and Development (1983–84).

From the 2 missionary families in early 1982 the mission force grew to 11 families by the middle of 1983. Christian Reformed World Relief also came into the field with 4 families, with a director, literacy worker, nurse and agricultural workers. The World Mission doubled its team by sending the Martinezes, Veenemans and Oostendorps for leadership training.

The church continued to grow. Local church leaders were being trained and local churches have daughter-churches. Some additional independent groups affiliated, but the largest number of new groups were “campo blancos”, new preaching points. All of the World Mission Board missionaries encouraged this movement. The World Relief people felt differently, however. At one point they even asked the missionaries not to encourage more church growth! They felt that they could not keep up with the diaconal needs. But, since the World Relief organization has since shifted its concerns to larger programs rather than local diaconal matters, it is not yet deeply involved in the ICR-RD.

The primary school education program continued to develop with the addition of Jeff and Kathy De Young to the mission staff. Covenant training, so lacking in the churches, would find its roots in the small schools.

Neal Hegeman developed a ministry center in which evangelical resources such as literacy-training, clinics and other programs were centralized in a region in order to benefit the maximum number of people. Other missionaries are planning ministry centers in their respective zones.

The number of groups, now over 90, continues to increase. Dominican works are being started and Dominican leadership is being raised up.

Conclusion

What is the Relationship Between the Increase in the Number of Missionaries and the Development of the Church?

1. Mission literature and theory speak about the “three-self-movement”—self-government, self-propagation and self-support. These are worthy goals, if they are possible. The question the missionaries confronted was: “Is it possible for economically marginal people to become self–sufficient?” The great failure of Pentecostalism in the Dominican Republic (failure, in the sense that so many church groups have been abandoned and that there are very few 2nd and 3rd generation churches) is connected with this question. In Pentecostalism, the local church had been made self–sufficient, and we have often seen them suffer because of it. Self–sufficiency is good up to a point. We are still, by the nature of the church, a catholic church, a body which goes beyond the local to the regional, to the national and to the international. Those relationships will somehow have to be well-defined and established in the “three-self formula.” On the other hand, what we see developing in the Dominican Republic is an over-dependence on the missionaries. That problem needs to be overcome by training national leaders to take over their functions and improve on their own. Eventually the nationals must do their own training , even though some resources will come from better equipped churches. 2. Missionary influence will depend on what type of missionaries are sent. The Lord can use a sanctified person in any situation. A rebellious, reactionary and offensive Christian can do a lot of damage in the Lord’s vineyard. The quality of missionaries sent to the field will seriously affect the quality of the work that will be done. 3. Missionary influence will depend on what mission the missionary is on. If the missionary comes just to help the poor help themselves, perhaps the deeper spiritual needs will be overlooked and neglected in pursuit of those material goals. If the missionary comes to help the nationals in all of their needs, balancing spiritual and material, a lot more long-term results may be anticipated.

Finally , in our overview of the ICR-RD developments we must recognize that it is the Holy Spirit who is at work. Christ will build His church. May He continue to use all of His people to do so, and may we be ready to participate in this important part of His work.

Bibliography:

Neal Hegeman, “A History of the Christian Reformed Church in the Dominican Republic”, Santo Domingo, 1982

Neal Hegeman, “An Accurate Picture of the Christian Reformed Church in the Dominican Republic”, Santo Domingo, 1982.