UPDATE: March 2025: Empowering Partners has now completed the translation of Experiencing God into Haitian Creole and printed their first batch of books. If you are interested in obtaining any books please reach out to Daniel and Empowering Partners.
THIBEAU, Haiti – In a nation that has long been plagued by natural disasters, civil unrest, and poverty, Empowering Partners, Inc. (EPI)—a charitable organization founded in 2021 by Dan and Madel Beck of Crosspoint Church in Whitesboro, NY—is infusing some much-needed hope into the small community of Thibeau in northern Haiti.
A major component of the ministry is a cooperative business, which begins by providing international-level training in commercial sewing and screen printing. Dan explained that offering high-quality technical skills instruction is an important and intentional element of EPI’s ministry model. The cooperative business training leads to graduation and full-time employment. Dan and Madel said success is working their way out of a job!
“In everything we’ve seen in Haiti, we’ve never seen people be given enough free stuff that they suddenly became independent,” Dan said.
Dan believes that by equipping participants with marketable skills, graduates will have better chances of achieving long-term economic success through the cooperative business or self-employment.
The ministry is also striving to meet its community’s spiritual needs.
“[Haiti] is overwhelmingly Catholic and Voodoo,” Dan explained. “There are Voodoo spirit houses in most villages. We have one that’s 500 feet from our security gate. Putting Voodoo at bay is really important to us.”
EPI hosts a Bible study three mornings per week. Madel teaches in Haitian Creole, and the meetings often extend well past the allotted hour.
“These people are really excited and hungry to know the truth,” Dan shared.
Recently, a Haitian pastor Dan and Madel have known since 2011 joined the EPI staff.
“Pastor Samuel Succes will lead EPI’s evangelism and discipleship efforts alongside Dan and me,” Madel explained.
For several years, EPI has been working to have Experiencing God translated into Haitian Creole. EPI plans to use the translated study as a discipleship tool to help Haitian Christians strengthen their relationship with God.
“We intend to start in our village and in the organizations and churches we know in the surrounding villages,” Dan said. “We expect opposition from the pastors in the communities, but we want to do it in a way that draws them closer to us and doesn’t push them further away.”
Experiencing God holds a special place in the Becks’ hearts, as it played an instrumental role in leading them to where they are today.
“This study breathed life into our personal life and our ministry in ways nothing else has,” Dan shared. “Experiencing God taught us how to have a much deeper relationship with God. It opened my understanding of how God speaks.”
The couple has already taken a group of English-speaking Haitian Christians through the study with positive results.
“We have not met one Haitian who has seen the study who doesn’t think it’s a real eye opener for them,” Dan shared.
Though the language barrier previously made the material inaccessible to many Haitians, thanks to EPI’s persistent efforts, the Haitian Creole translation of Experiencing God will begin printing later this month.
“We have a lot of people awaiting this [translation],” Dan said. “We are going to take it as far as we can.”
Dan explained that, despite experiencing early pushback, EPI has steadily been building bridges of trust within their community. The Becks are looking forward to seeing how God uses this new Experiencing God translation—in conjunction to EPI’s other ministry efforts—to continue impacting their region.
“It will only succeed in God’s hand,” Dan shared. “[But] we have no doubt that God will continue what he started.”
While choosing to leave their comfortable life in New York state to minister in a small village in northern Haiti may seem like an unusual choice to outside observers, the Becks are confident that they are exactly where God desires them to be.
“As Experiencing God teaches, if it doesn’t make sense to you, it’s probably from God,” Dan chuckled. “As a result of Experiencing God, we decided that if God would call ordinary people like us—and, of course, we know that is who God uses—then we would go.”
If you would like more information about Empowering Partners Inc. and the important work the organization is doing in northern Haiti, please visit https://empoweringpartners.org/.
Write a comment: