The following articles are excerpts from papers presented by

BWA General Secretary Neville Callam at the BWA-sponsored Jesus Christ Bread of Life Conference in Haiti in February

Jamaican, I am aware that many of my fellow Jamaicans preceded me here. These Jamaicans had the privilege of serving alongside your countrymen and women here in Haiti. I wonder how many of these names you remember: Rev. George Angus from Second Baptist Church in Montego

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Bay, who served in St. Marc; Rev. Daniel Kitchen from Falmouth Baptist Church, who worked in Port de Paix and Trou de Nord; Rev. R. H. Rowe from Jericho Church, together with Miss Harris and Miss Clarke, who served in Jacmel and St. Marc; Rev. L. T. Evans, who arrived in Jacmel in 1893; Rev. J. Alfred Pearce who served at Grand Riviere and Port de Paix; Judge Clarke and Harold Wildish, who in 1933, undertook their evangelistic mission in Acul-du-Norde, Limonade, Petit Anse and Quartier- Morin; Charles Stanford Kelly and Mae Kelly from Brown’s Town who served especially at Trou; (Of course, Kelly was born in Jamaica of British missionary parents and, in his first years in Haiti he was not a Baptist). Leslie Harris from Brown’s Town, who came here in 1958

and has done outstanding work especially around Creve; Nurse Maisie Hall (Docteur Miss) from Sturge Town who worked in Cap Haitien and Ms. Edna Chang, who labored at Gonaives. And there were others whom I have not mentioned. I am tempted to include in this list

that great missioner,

Arthur Groves Wood. He was born in Agra, India, of British missionary parents. After returning to England, he received the opportunity to serve as a teacher at the Calabar High School, a Baptist operated school in Jamaica. Like some past Haitian Baptist pastors such as Solon Gabeau, he trained for the ministry at Calabar Theological College in Jamaica. After serving in two groups of churches in Jamaica, Arthur

Wood arrived at Jacmel on October 15, 1923. He came with sponsorship from the Sixth Avenue Baptist Church in New York City and under the banner of the American Baptist Home Mission Society. Later, he was joined by his wife, Alice, who was born in Jamaica, a granddaughter of a British Baptist missionary there. Alice was a graduate of the Westwood High School, the first High School for girls started by Baptists in Jamaica. After spending a year in Jacmel, Arthur Wood went on to

Cap Haitien, and what a vital contribution he made to the work in northern Haiti and, through his service as General Missionary

The Haiti-Jamaica Baptist Connection t is a real pleasure for me to be here in north Haiti. As a

for the American Baptist Home Mission Society in Haiti, to a much wider sphere in this country! Arthur spent 32 years in Haiti, leaving in 1955. We celebrate the memory of his work. And there are many others – John Turnbull, Wallace and Eleanor Turnbull and a vast company of other servants of God who did great exploits in ministry among you. During his retirement, Mr. Wood returned to Jamaica, and,

for a few months, he served as my pastor, when Ivan Parsons, my pastor was ill. Later, for a short time, one of Arthur’s adopted daughters was associated with a church in Jamaica where I served as pastor.

Origins of Baptist Witness in the Caribbean

W e celebrate the contribution of African Americans to the start

of Baptist work in several Caribbean countries. Frank Spence started Baptist work in Bahamas in 1780; George Liele did the same in Jamaica in 1783, and William Hamilton in Trinidad and Tobago in 1816. Shall we forget Thomas Paul who arrived here in Haiti in

1823, even if the work here is believed to have started in 1836? Thomas was sponsored by the Massachusetts Baptist Missionary Society. Soon after this, according to G. W. Smith, writing in Conquests of Christ in the West Indies, the American Baptist Free Missionary Society appointed Mr. and Mrs. William Jones who arrived in Port au Prince in 1844. You may recall that Mr. Jones became a Seventh Day Adventist and in 1847, the Society sent Rev. and Mrs. William Judd and Ms. Electa Lake as replacement for the Joneses. We offer thanks and praise to God. These men fulfilled their

calling and to them, the Baptist leaders and people of Haiti, and the many men and women after the pioneers, we owe a debt of gratitude for the work in which we are privileged to share today. In the 1800s, Baptist work started in Turks and Caicos Islands

(1836), in Dominican Republic (1843) in which Haitians played a role, in Cuba (1883), in Guyana (1878) the work of Baptists from China, in Cayman Islands (1885), and in Puerto Rico (1899). During the first half of the 1900s, Baptist work commenced

in Barbados (1905), in Bermuda (1932), in Martinique (1940s), and in St Lucia (1948). More recently, especially since the 1960s, Baptist work has

spread to many of the Windward and Leeward Islands in the Southeastern Caribbean. We celebrate all that God has enabled through this witness

across the Caribbean even as we remember that, today, there are more Baptists in Haiti than in all the other countries of the Caribbean combined.

Top: BWA General Secretary Neville Callam with participants at the Jesus, Bread of Life conference

Left: Participants at the BWA Jesus, Bread of Life conference APRIL/JUNE 2013 25