Two Age Development is a small Christian non-profit organization established to provide development support services to the church. We currently work with several congregations in Northwest Haiti. Our purpose in Haiti is to assist the church to use the development process to help lift its members out of the grinding poverty that currently characterizes their lives. We believe that this development, alongside sound biblical preaching and teaching is vital in order for the church mature into what Christ calls us to be. Namely, communities of believers that can provide for their own households (I Timothy 5:4 & 8), their pastors (I Timothy 5:17-18), the other needs of the church, and care for their poor, widows, and orphans (James 1:27, Job 31: 13-23, I Timothy 5:3-7). You can find more details about our approach to church development on our Asset Based Church Community Development (ABCCD) page. Additionally, in connection with our work in Haiti we are seeking to begin doing similar culturally appropriate development work with several churches in the States who desire to become “sister churches” with our congregations in Haiti. See our Current Projects and Opportunities page for more details on our sister church program.
As a non-profit corporation, we are currently still awaiting IRS approval for our 501.c3 application as we have opted to go through the longer and more comprehensive IRS approval process. However, our 501.c3 status will be retroactive back to our date of incorporation once it receives final IRS approval.
Our current work in Northwest Haiti
Northwest Haiti consists mostly of the western tip of the northern peninsula of Haiti. The area is isolated and almost entirely rural. The few towns that exist such as Bombardopolis, Mole St. Nicolas, Mae Rouge, and Jean-Rabel are very small and are connected to each other and the rest of Haiti by badly eroded tracks that reduce the most rugged of four wheel drive vehicles to speeds barely faster than a donkey’s pace. In the entire region there are no gas stations, no grocery stores, no banks, and no proper hospitals. The people live off the land as best they can. The primary export from the region is charcoal and the only imports are the most basic staples like flour and rice. The charcoal industry has first deforested the region and now is well on the way to totally denuding it as even the remaining scrub brush is being steadily turned into charcoal. The predictable results are soil erosion, failing water sources, drought and failed crops.
However, the isolated and underdeveloped nature of the Northwest does have its benefits. Crime is very rare, communities are still very close knit, and the people have not been thoroughly corrupted by the spirit of dependency that permeates most of Haiti. A foreigner out for a walk in the Northwest has virtually no concerns about personal safety and while they may still hear the occasional, “Blan, give me something” more often than not it will be accompanied by a sheepish smile that says “I know it was wrong to say that and I’m only half serious but you never know….” This request would almost never be accompanied by the rude and even demanding attitude that is so common in Port-au-Prince. Many of the Church communities that Two Age Development has encountered in Haiti over the years have only been interested in working with outside organization that are willing to give them things and do things for them. It is partly because this kind of attitude has not yet completely muddied the waters in the Northwest that we believe the Lord has opened a door of opportunity for development work here.
Two Age Development first came to The Northwest in 2014 at the invitation of Mont des Oliviers (Mount of Olives), an association of churches in the region. We were invited to come through a direct long term friendship with a member of the community who had moved to the Kansas City area.
Our mission in Haiti is to do Asset Based Church Community Development (ABCCD). This means that we seek to come alongside church communities and assist them in the process of fostering a sustainable and permanent development process based on the assets with which God has blessed their community. For a more comprehensive explanation of ABCCD see our Asset Based Church Community Development Page. For more details about our current development work with Mont des Oliviers please see our Current Projects and Opportunities page.
Getting involved
Two Age Development is intentionally a small organization with limited plans to grow and expand. Brian Miner, assisted by his wife Angela, is our only current staff member. Currently, Brian and Angela support themselves through Brian’s work for his small IT firm based in Kansas City. For more details on the Miners please see our Two Age Development Staff and Board of Directors page.
Two Age Development would like to eventually be able to provide partial support to the Miners in order to allow Brian to devote a greater portion of his time and labors to the work of Two Age Development. However, for our staff members who work in Haiti, we try to avoid full dependence on donations. This is not because it would be illegitimate for staff members doing full time development work in Haiti to be fully funded by donations. Rather, we have come to this position in direct response to past and present abuses of this model in Haiti.
Haitians in general and the church in Haiti in particular have become very familiar with the idea of Americans coming to Haiti to do various forms of ministry and living an American lifestyle funded by donations from Americans. In many cases the work of these Americans has been of inestimable value to Haiti and her church but in far too many cases their “ministry” has constituted something less than good stewardship and a good example for the Haitian church. Thus it is very common today to find what we call the Big Man Syndrome in the church in Haiti. Typically, this consists of a “Pastor” who has gone to the States and gotten some sort of often very dubious education but more importantly has recruited a collection of often naïve Americans who support him in his “ministry” in Haiti. His American supporters normally lack a proper understanding of exactly what that ministry consists of. This Big Man “Pastor” then returns to Haiti and simply follows the example set for him by the Americans. He founds a church and usually a school and orphanage because it is much easier to part Americans from their money if there are Haitian children involved. He lives the lifestyle of an American keeping most of the support money for himself while dolling out just enough money to the Haitians to build and support a small personal empire. But one may ask “what if this pastor is a Godly man who really does want to serve the Lord and His church?” In this case he will live very modestly and use almost all of the resources given to him to help those he ministers to. But even in these very rare best case scenarios he is still the Big Man. Without him and his American connections nothing gets done. This model just reinforces the evils of dependency, paternalism, fatalism, the inferiority complexes of the Haitian church members and the god-complexes of the Big Man and his American supporters. And the proof is in the pudding. Once the Godly man and his American connections are gone, and nobody lives forever, everything comes crashing down.
It is for these types of reasons that we believe it is so important for our staff members working in Haiti to provide at least a significant portion of their own support through their own labors in much the same way that Paul provided for himself by making tents.
Lest you think this unusual approach to ministry in Haiti is the whole story, there is another huge difference between our approach and the usual approach of NGOs in Haiti. We always strive to avoid giving anything to the churches we work with or doing anything for them that they can do for themselves. Giving things to people and doing things for them is so central to the mission of most organizations working in Haiti that they actually use it as one of the chief measures of how effective they are. How often have you seen such organizations touting the very high percentage of their revenue that goes directly to those they are seeking to help? Because we strive, in all but a few very specific situation, to avoid giving things to people or doing things for them we will not be able to assure you that a very high percent of our revenues go directly to those whom we minister to. On the contrary, we strive to assure our donors that very little if any of what they donate goes directly to those we serve and if any of the money does go directly to those we serve we regard it as our duty to justify this to our donors who should be skeptical when they here that an development organization like Two Age Development gave something to somebody that they serve. See the Hurricane Matthew Recovery project on our Current Projects and Opportunities page for an example of a project in which we are giving things directly to those we serve along with a thorough justification for this action.
Hopefully, at this point you are asking “Then just exactly what will Two Age Development do with my monies they receive?” We are glad you asked. First, we use donations to help cover the cost of travel and project work for our staff. It is one thing to ask a staff member to work part time to help cover their personal financial needs while working for Two Age Development in Haiti. It is quite another to ask them to cover the costs that they incur while doing this work out of their own pocket. These costs consist of such things as airfare, ground transportation, supplies for use in pilot projects and training programs, etc. Along these same lines, we would eventually like to build one or more tiny houses and a maintenance garage for our staff to use in the Northwest as a base of operations. We need to establish and maintain satellite service which requires hardware, a service plan, and the electrical and physical security infrastructure required for such a system. Such a system is required so that our staff can work and communicate while they are there. Additionally, while we strive to avoid giving things to those whom we serve there are still some specific occasions when it is necessary to give some things to the community in order to get the ball rolling or address urgent needs that the community cannot meet on their own. For example, we hope to bring a local para-veterinarian online in Northwest Haiti to provide a resource for basic animal preventive healthcare. We will make every effort to use available resources in the community to make this happen but we may find that once the community has provided all that they can it still is not enough to reach their goal. Meanwhile, the threat of Newcastle’s disease, among others, has the potential to wipe out all of their efforts to date vis-a-vie improved chicken rearing. In such a case it would be better to provide the lacking resources rather than to make the community wait until they can provide the resources themselves and run the risk of such a devastating setback.
Thus most of the donations given to Two Age Development go to covering the cost of delivering our services to those whom we serve while we actively and intentionally try to minimize the percentage that goes directly to those we serve. But this is very much intentional and justifiable and it also explains why we do not require large amounts of funding to carry out our mission.
As a non-profit corporation, we are currently still awaiting IRS approval for our 501.c3 application as we have opted to go through the longer and more comprehensive IRS approval process. However, our 501.c3 status will be retroactive back to our date of incorporation once it receives final IRS approval.
Our current work in Northwest Haiti
Northwest Haiti consists mostly of the western tip of the northern peninsula of Haiti. The area is isolated and almost entirely rural. The few towns that exist such as Bombardopolis, Mole St. Nicolas, Mae Rouge, and Jean-Rabel are very small and are connected to each other and the rest of Haiti by badly eroded tracks that reduce the most rugged of four wheel drive vehicles to speeds barely faster than a donkey’s pace. In the entire region there are no gas stations, no grocery stores, no banks, and no proper hospitals. The people live off the land as best they can. The primary export from the region is charcoal and the only imports are the most basic staples like flour and rice. The charcoal industry has first deforested the region and now is well on the way to totally denuding it as even the remaining scrub brush is being steadily turned into charcoal. The predictable results are soil erosion, failing water sources, drought and failed crops.
However, the isolated and underdeveloped nature of the Northwest does have its benefits. Crime is very rare, communities are still very close knit, and the people have not been thoroughly corrupted by the spirit of dependency that permeates most of Haiti. A foreigner out for a walk in the Northwest has virtually no concerns about personal safety and while they may still hear the occasional, “Blan, give me something” more often than not it will be accompanied by a sheepish smile that says “I know it was wrong to say that and I’m only half serious but you never know….” This request would almost never be accompanied by the rude and even demanding attitude that is so common in Port-au-Prince. Many of the Church communities that Two Age Development has encountered in Haiti over the years have only been interested in working with outside organization that are willing to give them things and do things for them. It is partly because this kind of attitude has not yet completely muddied the waters in the Northwest that we believe the Lord has opened a door of opportunity for development work here.
Two Age Development first came to The Northwest in 2014 at the invitation of Mont des Oliviers (Mount of Olives), an association of churches in the region. We were invited to come through a direct long term friendship with a member of the community who had moved to the Kansas City area.
Our mission in Haiti is to do Asset Based Church Community Development (ABCCD). This means that we seek to come alongside church communities and assist them in the process of fostering a sustainable and permanent development process based on the assets with which God has blessed their community. For a more comprehensive explanation of ABCCD see our Asset Based Church Community Development Page. For more details about our current development work with Mont des Oliviers please see our Current Projects and Opportunities page.
Getting involved
Two Age Development is intentionally a small organization with limited plans to grow and expand. Brian Miner, assisted by his wife Angela, is our only current staff member. Currently, Brian and Angela support themselves through Brian’s work for his small IT firm based in Kansas City. For more details on the Miners please see our Two Age Development Staff and Board of Directors page.
Two Age Development would like to eventually be able to provide partial support to the Miners in order to allow Brian to devote a greater portion of his time and labors to the work of Two Age Development. However, for our staff members who work in Haiti, we try to avoid full dependence on donations. This is not because it would be illegitimate for staff members doing full time development work in Haiti to be fully funded by donations. Rather, we have come to this position in direct response to past and present abuses of this model in Haiti.
Haitians in general and the church in Haiti in particular have become very familiar with the idea of Americans coming to Haiti to do various forms of ministry and living an American lifestyle funded by donations from Americans. In many cases the work of these Americans has been of inestimable value to Haiti and her church but in far too many cases their “ministry” has constituted something less than good stewardship and a good example for the Haitian church. Thus it is very common today to find what we call the Big Man Syndrome in the church in Haiti. Typically, this consists of a “Pastor” who has gone to the States and gotten some sort of often very dubious education but more importantly has recruited a collection of often naïve Americans who support him in his “ministry” in Haiti. His American supporters normally lack a proper understanding of exactly what that ministry consists of. This Big Man “Pastor” then returns to Haiti and simply follows the example set for him by the Americans. He founds a church and usually a school and orphanage because it is much easier to part Americans from their money if there are Haitian children involved. He lives the lifestyle of an American keeping most of the support money for himself while dolling out just enough money to the Haitians to build and support a small personal empire. But one may ask “what if this pastor is a Godly man who really does want to serve the Lord and His church?” In this case he will live very modestly and use almost all of the resources given to him to help those he ministers to. But even in these very rare best case scenarios he is still the Big Man. Without him and his American connections nothing gets done. This model just reinforces the evils of dependency, paternalism, fatalism, the inferiority complexes of the Haitian church members and the god-complexes of the Big Man and his American supporters. And the proof is in the pudding. Once the Godly man and his American connections are gone, and nobody lives forever, everything comes crashing down.
It is for these types of reasons that we believe it is so important for our staff members working in Haiti to provide at least a significant portion of their own support through their own labors in much the same way that Paul provided for himself by making tents.
Lest you think this unusual approach to ministry in Haiti is the whole story, there is another huge difference between our approach and the usual approach of NGOs in Haiti. We always strive to avoid giving anything to the churches we work with or doing anything for them that they can do for themselves. Giving things to people and doing things for them is so central to the mission of most organizations working in Haiti that they actually use it as one of the chief measures of how effective they are. How often have you seen such organizations touting the very high percentage of their revenue that goes directly to those they are seeking to help? Because we strive, in all but a few very specific situation, to avoid giving things to people or doing things for them we will not be able to assure you that a very high percent of our revenues go directly to those whom we minister to. On the contrary, we strive to assure our donors that very little if any of what they donate goes directly to those we serve and if any of the money does go directly to those we serve we regard it as our duty to justify this to our donors who should be skeptical when they here that an development organization like Two Age Development gave something to somebody that they serve. See the Hurricane Matthew Recovery project on our Current Projects and Opportunities page for an example of a project in which we are giving things directly to those we serve along with a thorough justification for this action.
Hopefully, at this point you are asking “Then just exactly what will Two Age Development do with my monies they receive?” We are glad you asked. First, we use donations to help cover the cost of travel and project work for our staff. It is one thing to ask a staff member to work part time to help cover their personal financial needs while working for Two Age Development in Haiti. It is quite another to ask them to cover the costs that they incur while doing this work out of their own pocket. These costs consist of such things as airfare, ground transportation, supplies for use in pilot projects and training programs, etc. Along these same lines, we would eventually like to build one or more tiny houses and a maintenance garage for our staff to use in the Northwest as a base of operations. We need to establish and maintain satellite service which requires hardware, a service plan, and the electrical and physical security infrastructure required for such a system. Such a system is required so that our staff can work and communicate while they are there. Additionally, while we strive to avoid giving things to those whom we serve there are still some specific occasions when it is necessary to give some things to the community in order to get the ball rolling or address urgent needs that the community cannot meet on their own. For example, we hope to bring a local para-veterinarian online in Northwest Haiti to provide a resource for basic animal preventive healthcare. We will make every effort to use available resources in the community to make this happen but we may find that once the community has provided all that they can it still is not enough to reach their goal. Meanwhile, the threat of Newcastle’s disease, among others, has the potential to wipe out all of their efforts to date vis-a-vie improved chicken rearing. In such a case it would be better to provide the lacking resources rather than to make the community wait until they can provide the resources themselves and run the risk of such a devastating setback.
Thus most of the donations given to Two Age Development go to covering the cost of delivering our services to those whom we serve while we actively and intentionally try to minimize the percentage that goes directly to those we serve. But this is very much intentional and justifiable and it also explains why we do not require large amounts of funding to carry out our mission.