Partnership brings about a home for Haitian believers

Sherri Brown

French is the spoken language at the Haitian Baptist Church of the Redeemer in Lilburn. The church began more than a year ago in a motel until the pastor could find a sponsoring church.

They were a church without a home.

A room at the Super 8 Motel on Highway 78 was the best they could do. It cost the dozen or so members $75 a week to gather in a room where they could sing and pray and worship in their native tongue.

But Tider Exume refused to give up the search for a sponsoring church and a place to plant the beginnings of the Haitian Baptist Church of the Redeemer.

In 2004 Exume started the church in Lilburn.

He came from a ministry in Jonesboro. First Church Jonesboro wanted to help a church get started locally and Exume headed south to lead that ministry. However, it soon became too difficult for Exume to continue the commute. Living in Lawrenceville, the father of six boys and an operator for Gwinnett County Transit, the distance was too much for him.

Tider Exume

Besides, many of the members of the church were traveling from Gwinnett County to Jonesboro to worship.

In 2004 he started the Haitian congregation in Stone Mountain.

Although his parents practiced Voodoo, Exume became a Christian at 16 while living in Haiti.

Sherri Brown

Esperencia Jacob reads scripture during a worship service. The church meets three times a week in the fellowship hall at Lucerne Church in Lilburn.

“My aunt was a Christian. At the age of 10 they sent me to live with her so I could study. We had prayer meetings twice a day at their home. During one of those prayer meetings I accepted Christ,” he said.

When he migrated to the United States more than 30 years ago, Exume lived in New York City. For years, he was a leader in a Brooklyn Haitian congregation, helping with Sunday school and mission work, including taking trips to do mission work in Haiti.

When he retired from his job as a plant supervisor, the family decided to move south to retire. But with six sons – including two in college – Exume decided to return to work, while also pursuing the ministry God called him to do.

“We started to grow and we decided to look for a sponsor church,” Exume said. He went to local associations, but still couldn’t find a sponsor.

One day, driving past Lucerne Church in Lilburn, Exume’s wife encouraged him to approach the pastor to see if they could meet at that location.

“We were praying and praying,” he said.

Larry Burgess, pastor of Lucerne, still remembers that meeting.

Sherri Brown

Young men pray during a worship service. The congregation has about two dozen members, many of them young men.

“He was impressive. The church was already giving to the Cooperative Program and doing well, but they couldn’t find a place to meet,” Burgess said.

But it didn’t seem to be the right time for Lucerne Church, although Burgess couldn’t say no to Exume.

A few months later, Burgess was at the church on a Saturday morning. He still remembers walking into the church’s new fellowship hall and seeing chairs set up for a worship service.

“I just felt God telling me it was time to act,” he said. “I called Tider that moment and told him to come over. He and his youngest son came and we prayed and walked over the building and claimed it as a meeting place.”

The congregation, deacons and leaders of the church welcomed the new congregation.

“It went beautifully. This is the first mission this church has ever been involved in and it has been wonderful,” Burgess said.

“We have a good partnership,” Exume said.

GBC provides training and support for Tider Exume and the new church through the Language Missions Ministries, which also provides pastoral assistance to Haitian work in Jonesboro, Smyrna and Roswell.

You and your church may send your gifts to:
Dr. J. Robert White
Executive Director, GBC
2930 Flowers Road South
Atlanta, GA 30341-5562