Haitians Learn of Chaplains, Christians in Military

A short article at Army.mil details the sermon of a US Army Chaplain to Haitians during his humanitarian deployment.  Chaplain (Maj) Brad Baumann was invited to preach in a devastated church in Port-au-Prince.  His Chaplain assistant, Spc. Midine Beauvais, grew up in Haiti and was able to translate much of the sermon to Creole.

The most interesting part of the article, though, was the Haitians surprise at the presence of a Christian Chaplain in the military:

The locals don’t expect people in the military to be Christian and take time for God while on a mission…so they appreciated that the soldiers attended the service at their church.

Though there is often an emphasis on the “risks” of associating Christianity with the US military, people often forget that there can be cultural advantages to the mission, as well.