The Christian Reformed presence in Haiti started when Rev. Joel Nederhood, director of what was then the Back to God Hour (the CRC’s media ministry, known today as Back to God Ministries International), visited leaders there in the early 1970s to investigate potential ministry opportunities.
Nederhood advised against Christian Reformed World Missions beginning a ministry in Haiti, but felt that the country’s needs made it an appropriate place for the Christian Reformed World Relief Committee (CRWRC) to work.
Synod 1975, the CRC’s annual leadership meeting, determined that CRWRC should develop programs because of “acute and deeply entrenched needs” and because there was good potential for a deed ministry there to complement the Word ministry of Back to God Hour.
In the years since, all three of the above Christian Reformed agencies have combined staff in Haiti into one team called Sous Espwa, Haitian Creole for “Source of Hope.”
