CMI ministers in the Caribbean
A special CMI outreach to a special influential group
Dr Robert W. Carter
Dr. Robert Carter
Published: 10 August 2010(GMT+10)
I recently returned from a ministry tour of Dominica (not the Dominican Republic!),
a small, impoverished Caribbean island in the eastern Windward Island chain. A historical
backwater, with no beaches to speak of, it has failed to attract many tourists.
With almost no flat ground, it has also failed to attract much industry. However, they do have a medical school (Ross University), two major towns, and about 70,000 residents. Dominica has a predominantly Christian population, most of whom are descendants
of African slaves. Not including the diverse collection of medical students, there
are scattered people of European descent on the island and a few hundred Carib natives
in isolated villages on the eastern shore. Few people have much money. In fact,
they have learned that if they did not have something (like air conditioning or
an automobile) to simply do without it. Surprisingly, the people were very up-to-date
on world events and nearly all of them have Internet access through the local phone
system. At least, this is what the kids at one youth group said, after snickering
good naturedly at ‘Dr. Carter’ for not knowing this.
We were asked to come to Dominica by the Ross Christian Fellowship (RCF), who organized
three island-wide radio appearances for me with a variety of talks. The events began
with an open-invitation talk on the medical school campus on biblical genetics.
Most of the attendees belonged to RCF, though there was one Sikh and several other
non-Christians present. This was followed by additional talks on
genetics,
Darwin’s legacy,
dinosaurs, and
creation evangelism. There was a tremendous outpouring
of support for the messages, with several people volunteering the names and addresses
of churches in the United States who they thought would like to hear the material
for themselves.
Wow! I had no idea the case for creation was so strong,’ and, ‘It’s
funny that they never taught me anything like this in college.
We received many comments like, “Wow! I had no idea the case for creation
was so strong,” and, “It’s funny that they never taught me anything
like this in college.” There were, however, (and we were grateful that they
came) several who were not initially persuaded by the evidence. One young doctor-to-be
asked a series of questions about mutations and whether or not they support long-term
evolution. Sadly, he seemed not to want to understand the answer and ended up asking
the same question in several different ways, even though the answer was always the
same: a high mutation rate means
all human genetic diversity can be accounted for in a very short amount of time.
Our hearts go out to such people, who, trained in the best evidences for evolution,
cannot see the forest for the trees when presented with a clear answer that is contrary
to the reigning hypothesis of evolution.
Interspersed with this busy schedule at the med school were several talks at local
churches. These open-air churches were full of life, and the people were very appreciative
that someone came all the way from the States to share the creation message with
their congregation. They had questions about basic Bible issues like,
“Where did Cain get his wife” and
“Where did black people [races] come from?” Afterward, we got a
range of comments. Perhaps the most inspiring was, “Oh, how lovely are the
people of God [referring to the strange white guy that just spoke at their all-black
church]!”
… to see a culture poised on the edge of the spiritual abyss into which most
of the Western world has fallen was sad.
To see a culture with a strong Christian heritage was a delight. At the same time,
to see a culture poised on the edge of the spiritual abyss into which most of the
Western world has fallen was sad. Evolution was everywhere—in the schools,
in the media, and, sadly, in many of the churches. And every worldly pleasure is
easily accessible to them. Drug use and prostitution are luring some people away
and they can find anything else with just a few clicks on the Internet. As the anonymous
person in the last paragraph indicated, God’s people are beautiful, no matter
where they are in the world, no matter what color they come in, and no matter how
rich or poor they may be. But, without a solid grounding on basic biblical tenets,
the trend is for people like this to fall away. What is to keep them from following
Europe and America down the slippery slope of unbelief? Pray for these beautiful,
brave, and noble people, that they would remain true to the word and that the Spirit
would work mightily in their lives.
A reader’s commentDave G., Dominica
Had the pleasure of experiencing Dr Carter’s visit here in Dominica; and many of the med-students still talk various aspects about this information which was completely alien to them before-hand. These are people who were already strong Christians before, but were raised in a “science” background that left no room for biblical creation (as far as they knew!) It’s different now. |
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