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Histoire de

HaitianConsulting Ministry

 

Eglise Rocher de Jacob est l'Unique Assemblée Méthodiste Haitienne en Polk County. Les membres et amis Haitiens viennent de partout et notamment de Winter Haven, Lake Alfred, Lakeland et d'Auburndale. Fondé le premier Mars 2012 dans la ville de Lakeland, The Haitian Consulting Ministry limita ses services au niveau de références et consultations éducationnelles, écclesiastiques et de cure d'ame spirituelle jusqu'à Décembre 2013. Son siège social fut dans le Sud de Lakeland, en Floride, dans des locaux situés ci-devant Lake Miriam. En Janvier 2013, son bureau fut transferré au centre-ville de Lakeland en vue d'élargir le cadre de ses services à la communauté haitienne. Haitian Consulting Ministry fonctionna jusqu'à Juillet 2013 comme une assemblée indigène de théologie wesleyenne. Le premier dimanche du mois de Juillet 2013, après m'être démis de mes autres responsabilités et fonctions à l'Eglise Baptiste d' Indwood, Je me suis depuis lors consacré à temps plein au développement du ministère de Haitian Consulting Ministry, et du ministere methodiste Haitien. Peu de temps après, soit en Aout 2013, Nous joignimes Lena Vista United Methodist Church d’Auburndale, pour fonder le seul Ministère Méthodiste Haitien en Polk County. Le Ministère Haitien au sein de Lena Vista United Methodist Church avait connu une croissance proportionnelle à l'échelle de valeurs numériques et progressives conformement aux anticpitations de l'étude démographique faite du milieu. Il existait une étroite et sincère collaboration entre nos frères et soeurs Haitiens et Américains. Les Haitiens jouissaient de tous les privileges accordés aux Americains, et partageaient egales responsabilites à part entière. Le ministère Haitien, tout en conservant son identité culturelle et ethnique, s’opèrait dans l’unité avec Lena Vista United methodist Church qui l'accueillait. Tous les services Haitiens etaient en Créole ou Français, et les services Americains en  Anglais.  En Mars 2015, Haitian Consulting Ministritry trouva bon de centraliser toutes ses activites et prit l'initiative de loger son ministere spirituel dans des espaces d'un batiment longeant les bureaux du pasteur.  

 

Notre Horaire

Dimanche Matin

 

9:30am- Ecole Du Dim. 

10:30am- Adoration

 

Dimanche Soir

8:00pm- Service du Soir

 

Mercredi Soir

8:00- Etude Biblique

 

Vendredi Soir

8:00pm- Priere 

 

 

 

 

In Pastoral Ministry since 1979  

 

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Meet the Pastor

I am an American of Haitian descent. I credit my spiritual growth to the Church of the Nazarene which, at a very young age, rooted and shaped my Wesleyan Faith. My father was a Lay Leader in the Church, one of my brothers is an ordained Elder, and one of my sisters was married to an ordained Nazarene Elder. To my advantage, my educational formation took me across a wide religious spectrum ranging from Nazarene, Episcopalian, Adventist, to Wesleyan Institutions. My Wesleyan faith has been tested and has always stood firm. I am a Wesleyan and I am grateful to the church of the Nazarene for introducing my parents to the Wesleyan Faith. In preparation to fulfilling my calling to parish ministry, my early years at the Nazarene Bible College of Haiti (1975-1979) gave me the basic ministerial preparation required for ordination in the Church of the Nazarene. From 1979 to 1991, I ministered both in Haiti and in St. Lucia as a minister of religion. I was licensed to preach by the Haiti Central District Church of the Nazarene in 1982, and ordained an Elder in 1983 by the General Superintendent of the Church of the Nazarene in jurisdiction over the Windward Islands District which comprised then of St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, and Dominica, all Caribbean Islands. I met my wife, Victoire, in a Wesleyan church in Port-au-Prince. We were married at the same church in May of 1982, and were, shortly thereafter, assigned to St. Lucia for pastoral ministry. Due to political unrest in Haiti, many Haitians fled the country to immigrate to the US. This exodus created a great need for Haitian clergy to minister to those in Diaspora. In the 1980s, the Church of the Nazarene applied for religious status for Haitian pastors to come to the US for ministerial work. I was granted work permit and permanent resident status as a minister of religion. Knowing that I would settle definitely in the US, I acquired citizenship by naturalization a few years later. Our oldest son, also a Haitian American, was born in St. Lucia. Our oldest daughter, a Haitian American was born in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Our two youngest children were born here in the US. Many Haitian pastors from different denominations affiliated with the Church of the Nazarene here in the US and served for some times many small Nazarene churches in Central Florida. Polk County saw an emergence of such, followed by Orlando. In the South, the Miami area saw the first and oldest groups who migrated from Haiti. Miami, due to its climate and its proximity to Haiti has attracted the largest Haitian groups. By the 1990s, many of those pastors would join hands with the Florida Baptist Convention, because of their policy on church planting. Whereas the church of the Nazarene policy focused on one church per town, the Florida Baptist Convention policy set no limit or boundary. Some districts in the Church of the Nazarene were hesitant to having more than one Haitian Church per town. This strategic planning created a reversal shift from Nazarene to other Denominations in search of Haitian clergy to plant new churches. Wherever the opportunity presented itself, many of the Nazarene pastors would minister to serve their brothers and sisters who migrated from Haiti. This explained how I would spend almost two decades as a Wesleyan Pastor in a Baptist pulpit (March 1994-June 2013). My Wesleyan faith, root, and background brought me back to Wesleyan ministry. First my oldest son and his wife felt at home among the Wesleyan, so they joined a United Methodist Church in the Tampa Bay area. My other three children asked for our blessings to also join the Lakeland First United Methodist Church in late 2012. They later transferred to Lena Vista United Methodist Church when we made a ministerial move to laounch a Haitian Ministry at Lena Vista United Methodist Church in Auburndale in July 2013. We have found the warmest and most loving atmosphere at Lena Vista United Methodist Church, in Auburndale where we serve the Haitian Methodist Community at Lena Vista. We had Creole Sunday school classes for all ages, and Creole Morning and Evening Worship services, until we moved back to Haitian Consulting Ministry to expand the scope of our our the ministry in response to cultural and linguistic needs of our congregants.  We have four children. Elisha, a civil engineer; Vickie, a doctoral student and Adjunct University Professor; Nancy, a college junior, and Jeremiah, an IB senior student. Victoire,my spouse, who also grew up a Wesleyan, did her undergraduate and graduate studies at the following institutions: Polk State College (AA); Florida Theological Seminary ( B.Th); University of South Florida (BA); Webster University (MA-candidate) I did my undergraduate and graduate studies at the following institutions: Seminaire Theologique Nazareen d’Haiti (Dip.TH), Haitian American Institute, Port-au-Prince, Haiti (cert.), Mount Vernon Nazarene University (B.A.), Florida Theological Seminary (M.A.), Florida Metropolitan University (MBA), Asbury Theological Seminary (M.Div. student). I also did some doctoral studies. I am the Minister to the French-Creole speaking members at Lena Vista United Methodist. I am the Haitian Liaison Minister to the Haitian community of Polk County, Florida.

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