HAITIANS IN RONDONIA ATTRACTED BY EVANGELICAL CHURCHES

[Reproduced from www.amazonia.org.br]

Haitians in Rondônia attracted by Evangelical churches, is a new reality for those poor immigrants.

A temple of the Assembly of God in Porto Velho, at least one hundred faithful sing in chorus, listen to sermons and pray together

Attracted by jobs in the Madeira river hydroelectric dams, from 2011 at least 3 thousand immigrants from the Caribbean country moved to the capital of Rondonia, according to the local government. And in the State with the highest percentage of evangelicals in the country (33.8% against the Brazilian average 22.2%), some churches catch a dispute over their "souls".

The  "Assembleia de Deus" (Assembly of God) was the first in the city to erect a temple only for the group. Most of the faithful began to frequent it after moving to Porto Velho, seduced by cults in creole, the language spoken in Haiti.

Who conducts the ceremonies is the Haitian Pierrelus Pierre. Before moving to Brazil, he was pastor of the Assembly of God in the Dominican Republic. "I came to Brazil to work, but when I got here the story has changed," he tells BBC Brazil.

A few weeks after moving to Porto Velho, Pierre met the leader of the Assembly of God in the city, the pastor Joel Holden. The pastor invited him to take the preaching to their compatriots in the Church that was erected for the group.

At the same time, says the Brazilian pastor Evanildo Silva, there is a job to make them abandon the traditions of Voodoo, worship brought to Haiti by enslaved Africans. "They arrive with an African culture of candomblé, but in the Church are indoctrinated to abandon such practices.

An Assistant, fellow Brazilian, is tasked to collect the tithe. The pastor says, however, that Haitians "are struggling to make it there". "We are trying to adapt them to this our culture, contribution, not least because the Church needs to pay light, telephone, air conditioning.