The rain came at the worst possible time. Every Saturday afternoon at precisely 2 p.m., the Chery family drags amplifiers and mic stands and folding chairs and extension cords out the front door of their house, loads them into all the trunks and back seats they can round up, and then they drive across town to a rented storefront in the Philadelphia suburb of Lansdowne.
This Saturday, they loaded their cars in a downpour, they unloaded in a downpour, and then after drying off, spent the next several hours turning a rented karate studio into First Haitian Metanoia Baptist Church.
NAMB missionaries Noelson and Edna Chery spend lots of time walking the streets of their West Philadelphia neighborhood. They talk to people they meet about the gospel and tell them about the new church they’ve started, First Haitian Metanoia Baptist Church. (NAMB photo by Ben Rollins)
Rain or shine, this is Noelson Chery’s weekend routine. The fact that he does it every weekend, rain or shine, is noteworthy because Noelson is already a busy man. Monday through Friday, Noelson works remotely as a university academic coordinator.
“An academic coordinator is someone who has the responsibility of guiding a student from enrollment to graduation,” he says. “I also work as an adjunct professor teaching French and Spanish. So, it’s a lot of work and it’s draining, and it’s more than just 40 hours a week. Sometimes, I’m so tired I can’t even rest, let alone find time for other things.”
Noelson already had one full-time job. He didn’t need another.
It started innocently enough. Like most Christian parents, Noelson and Edna Chery wanted to raise their boys to know and follow Jesus.
Monday-Saturday, Noelson Chery not only works as a college academic coordinator and adjunct professor, but in his spare time, he prepares for Sundays. “It’s draining,” he says. “And sometimes, I’m so tired I can’t even rest. But still, I’d rather do nothing else than this. This is what endures for eternity.” (NAMB photo by Ben Rollins)
“That’s why we were always in church,” Edna says. “I taught Sunday school, and my husband was a youth director. But in the churches we were in, often the children were neglected.”
When Edna says “neglected,” she means this: the Cherys are Haitian immigrants, and when they arrived in Philadelphia, they found good, strong Haitian congregations there. But most of those churches worshipped in Haitian Creole, and for families like the Cherys, whose children were living Monday-Saturday in an English-speaking world, that was a problem.
“Everything was done in Creole, whether the kids could speak it or not,” says Noelson. “That created frustration for the youth, and we didn’t want our kids to come to church and just sleep. So that’s why we began to pray and ask God, ‘How could this be done differently?’”
Sometimes the best answer to a question is the simplest answer. That’s where the Cherys began — with something simple.
“I never said, ‘We’re going to start a church,’” Noelson says. “Never. We just started a Bible study here at home with our kids.”
From simple beginnings come great things. When word got out what the Cherys were doing, something completely unexpected happened.
“We didn’t invite him, but one parent was just passing by when we were in the middle of doing Bible study with our kids,” Edna says. “And he said, ‘Oh, you guys have a Bible study?’ And then he totally spread the word, and even though they were not invited, families just started to show up at our house. Our street was filled with cars.”
The next and final step seemed almost obvious and natural.
“People were coming and saying, ‘If we are bringing our kids to Bible study, why don’t we just have church for everybody?’” Edna says. “We could see they wanted this. And we couldn’t say no, because I guess they saw something that we were able to give that they couldn’t find in our area.”
NAMB missionary Noelson Chery wanted to share the gospel with second-generation Haitians in his community, so he started a church. Now, people of all ages and backgrounds are showing up. “This is huge,” he says. “There are so many immigrants in this neighborhood, you draw people of all different nationalities when you start something here.” (NAMB photo by Ben Rollins)
First Haitian Metanoia Baptist Church was born in August 2020. It’s a congregation that’s different from almost every other congregation in the Cherys’ community, because not only do they worship and preach the gospel in a language their children can understand and embrace — but they also give young people unique opportunities to participate in ministry.
“We don’t say, ‘Kids are the church of tomorrow if that tomorrow ever comes,’” Noelson says. “No, the youth are a part of everything we do right now. We pair them up with adults so they can learn how to do ministry right now, and their parents are overjoyed to see that. I mean, they are so proud of their children. So, for the youth, this is a training ground for them. They sing, they lead, they’re even learning about how to preach. And we see that they’re becoming leaders. God is still raising generations. And it’s amazing to see.”
Now, the Cherys and their friends have planted a Haitian church that’s making Jesus known. They’re training up young people to be the church of today and the church of tomorrow. And Noelson has a second job he didn’t even know he needed.
“It started with that burden of wanting to see something different,” he says. “And now, the Lord has blown my mind. God used us to start a new church that is raising generations of children, of servants, of ministers. And we would rather do nothing else but this. This is it. This is what endures for eternity.”
The Annie Armstrong Easter Offering provides half of NAMB’s annual budget, and 100 percent of the proceeds go to the field. The offering is used for training, support and care for missionaries, like Noelson and Edna Chery, and for evangelism resources.
— Tony Hudson writes for the North American Mission Board.