Following an historic Board of Trustees meeting at the Séminaire Théologique Nazaréen D’Haiti (STNH), the first videoconferencing system for theological education was delivered. This meeting was historic because a new constitution was approved, and the District Superintendents dreamed of having theological education in Haiti connected through technology. The camera was a donation from the Escondido First Church of the Nazarene in Escondido, California. Former missionary to Haiti, Dr. Terry Read, presented the gift to Dr. Lucien Jean Baptiste, President of the Seminary.

In 2013, the Dean of Faculty Rev. Jean Robert Maitre had the first experience in videoconferencing using the software called Vidyo®. He taught a course from Haiti with students in French Guyana, and it was a great blessing. Now, this new system will allow professors from other French-speaking countries and territories to teach Haitians in a face-to-face experience, and the professors will not even need to leave their homes.

SENDAS has been a pioneer in Latin America in the use of this technology, and shared its experience in recent years with the other Spanish speaking institutions, with the English and Dutch Caribbean, and now with Haiti.

Dr. Ruben Fernandez, Regional Education Coordinator for the Mesoamerica Region and President of SENDAS said, “We celebrate this new step forward for the vibrant and growing Church of the Nazarene in Haiti and the STNH. The next French Antilles to receive videoconferencing equipment will be Martinique and Guadeloupe in January 2015, and we hope that more faculty resources can be exchanged in order to continue preparing with the highest excellence the largest possible number of pastors and leaders for the extension of the Kingdom of God.”

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