Haiti’s Restavek System and Preaching on Adoption to Haitian Pastors

From Dan Cruver, Together for Adoption

At the Haitian pastors conference (sponsored by HORT) on Wednesday (April 21) Jason Weber (Hope for Orphans) and I tag-teamed as we presented Scripture’s teaching on spiritual adoption and its implications for indigenous orphan care and Haiti’s current restavek system. Our talk to the Haitian pastors developed three headings:

1.  Creation/Fall
2.  Redemption (Israel/Jesus/church)
3.  Restoration (New Creation)

Here is the bullet point outline of my part of the Creation/Fall heading:

• The story of human history is God’s story of redemption. Yes, it’s our story, too, in that we are the ones being redeemed. But it’s God story in that he is the one who redeems. God is the one who initiates and accomplishes our redemption. We don’t initiate or accomplish anything in redemption’s story!
• The story of redemption really began in time when God created all that is, and he did so, ultimately, in order to display his glory.
• The climax of God’s creative work was the creation of man. In The Gospel of Luke’s genealogy of Jesus, Luke refers to Adam as a “son of God.” That’s not to say that Adam was divine or a god in any sense whatsoever. For Adam to be a “son of God” meant that he was graciously created to know the fatherly love and care of God,  to enjoy and participate in the love that God the Father eternally shared with his eternal Son.
• By creating man, God amazingly enlarged the circle of his family so that man might be loved and cared for even as God loves his eternal Son. As far as God the Father was/is concerned, he would have no second class children. Adam was created to share in the fullness of love that God the Father has forever shared with his eternal Son.
• But then the Fall happened. Man rebelled against the fatherly love and care of the God who created him in his image. As a result, man was cast out of the circle of God’s family. Suddenly, man found himself, not only outside the Garden of Eden, but outside God’s family of love. Tragicaly, man became an orphan of cosmic proportions.