International Church uses Mercy League's Name: Not a Good Scenario

IGLESIA CRISTIANA LIGA DE LA MISERCORDIA

literal translation:

Church Christian League of Mercy (our Dominican Republic arm of Mercy League)


During one of our sojourns to the Dominican Republic we were invited to attend a Haitian Church near the children's home project in Puerto Plata. Our group was introduced to three pastors and one lay minister all of whom worked at the church. I was invited to speak that night. To my surprise, which later turned to dread, I was introduced as the "president of the denomination" for the church. The board members from Mercy League and I exchanged some glances, but nevertheless, we continued.

We noticed many things about this little building which I was apparently responsible for... It was a metal roofed cinder block building (about 600 - 700 square feet.) with holes in the roof. The water leaked through when it rained. The rent was about $60 per month which was paid by the congregational members. Of the three pastors, only one was paid. The other two were sickly thin and penniless. The head pastor worked as a contractor (construction) and also received %100 of the offerings.

At the evening service the board offered the congregation a free medical clinic the following day. The pastors were asked to invite the sick in their congregation and neighborhoods.

The following morning, as we called out number 1 on the list, Guess who showed up in the front of the line. The head pastor's wife and child. He was unable to come that day because he was working. Numbers 2-7 we also members of the staff in the church. They put themselves in front of the sick at the end of the line. How do you think that made us feel as apparent sponsors of this church.

Let me return to the beginning of this story for a moment. When we were first informed about a church called after our name... we were confused. We are not a church planting organization. We work with churches that are performing a service to their community, but that is as far as it goes. We wondered why the previous director would offer our name and credentials to a congregation without our consent... or knowledge. The answer from the former director was, "because the people wanted to have a legal church so we simply offered them our name. We don't support them, we just let them use our name."

At the end of the day... literally... this didn't sit right with the board. Why would we want to let a congregation that allowed its senior pastor to horde donations, allow associate pastors to starve, and put themselves at the front of the line during medical clinics... to use the name of Mercy League?

We had a talk with two of the pastors and informed them that this would not stand. We will be checking up on this congregation on our next visit to make sure that they are not using the name of Mercy League any longer.

What do YOU think about this?

If I may take a moment to wax philosophical... The longer I journey on this path, the more it occurs to me that this work will never be easy.

Thanks for reading!!

Shane Mattenley

p.s. please notice that we now have recurring billing options for those of you who would like to donate monthly! That's for you Judy!!!

Stick-to-it-iv-ness and Other News!

From point A to B.

It seems fairly straight forward, doesn't it? The problem is that getting from point A to point B isn't always a straight line.

When we left Haiti with our family in March of 2003, we left with a vision... To help the helpless and hurting in the world by partnering with local people (the church) in the developing world. The methods used in mainstream NGO's, at the time we lived in Haiti, was to bring "experts" into the developing world and throw programs and money at issues and programs. We thought that there might be a more natural and sustainable way to be involved in humanitarian and cultural solutions to people's problems. This was always meant to be holistic, not band-aids and top down politics.

Well... Its been more than six years, and progress has been slow and tedious. Many, many things have thrown us off course along the way, but still, we press on.

Whenever people are involved there is the capacity for things to "go sideways" and if it can, it usually does in some form or another. Just because people are interested in doing there part to help doesn't mean that there are no issues attached to the scenario.

Recently, and throughout, there have been people within our affiliation who have made mistakes, including yours truly, that have brought difficulties to process of developing our programs. While everyone has been well meaning, it must be said that there have been many steps back to get to where we are now. Ask any founder or director of an organization and you will likely hear similar sentiments.

What is the point of this monologue, you say? It is simply to say this. "take heart and continue the journey with us! We will get there, and do some great things along the way!"

News:

We are in the process of developing a recurring payments option for donations. Please email and ask to be included in this new program. We are doing this because of you Judy! Thanks for asking!

We will be hosting a fundraiser dinner in Mid November in the Eugene area! Please email for more information is you are interested in attending!

Thanks for following along with us!

Shane

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