Covenant Presbyterian Church in Springfield, Ohio, ministers to its community, including its Haitian siblings
November 8, 2024
The Rev. Jody Noble (Contributed photo)
The eyes of the world have been on Springfield, Ohio, following untrue allegations that members of the city’s Haitian community had been capturing and eating other people’s pets. Dozens of bomb threats have been made, all of them hoaxes, and schools and universities have been using online education to keep students, educators and staff safe.
“We didn’t know what was coming, but God did,” said the Rev. Jody Noble, pastor of Covenant Presbyterian Church in Springfield, who organized a news conference featuring her colleagues in ministry.
To date, a three-page list of people and groups — including the Rev. Margaret Towner, the first Presbyterian woman to be ordained as a minister; the Iona Community; First Presbyterian Church of Dallas, Texas; and the Presbytery of New York City — have contacted Covenant with offers to help. “It is crazy cool how God is connecting us all,” Noble said. “We are reaching across lines to say that this is not who we are as a community.”
A church of 261 members, Covenant Presbyterian Church has four Haitian families who have found a home there. Of Springfield’s nearly 58,000 residents, up to about 15,000 are Haitian migrants, Noble said, attracted to the southwestern Ohio community by its relatively low cost of living and ample employment opportunities.
After two years of serving at Covenant, Noble has baptized children of the Haitian families attending the church, who are present for worship nearly every Sunday. “If they’re not here, I get a text to say they are working,” Noble said. “They are beautiful people.”
Pastors, including at least 15 pastors from Haiti, “are working very hard to meet the needs,” she said. “People are showing up for us in the most beautiful and unexpected ways.” A woman who’d been a social worker all her adult life and who is a member of the mission committee at a PC(USA) church in Cincinnati called to offer a significant donation from the church. The woman told Noble, “We have a fledgling Haitian community here, and so we are going to split our donation.” The Springfield portion will go to a food pantry that’s run by a couple at Covenant and staffed by many community volunteers, including Noble. “People are calling and saying, ‘What can I do to help?’ like Margaret Towner did,” Noble said.
Members and friends of Covenant Presbyterian Church have welcomed and ministered to their Haitian siblings. (Contributed photo)
On the flip side, the Ku Klux Klan has been in town, distributing flyers in the southern part of the community, where many Haitian families live. The flyers “threaten mass deportations” and are designed “to create and to stoke fear,” Noble said, but “we have a Haitian radio station pushing back on that and encouraging people not to leave.”
“We have been a welcoming community, for the large part,” she said. Still, “it will take the government doing all they can do and everything that we [as churches] can do” because “it’s God’s abundance that we believe in. We have the capacity for everyone’s basic needs to be met.”
To a person, employers will tell you that Haitian migrants “are fabulous to employ. They show up on time with good attitudes,” employers have told Noble and others. Clark County Commissioners also released a five-page frequently asked questions on the Haitian community’s employment rates, crime rates and other concerns.
When “our brothers and sisters” from Haiti began coming to church at Covenant, deacons would drive them to church every Sunday, Noble said, because “they didn’t have cars at the time.” Since then, two families have purchased cars and learned to drive, and two are yet to. One family that drives often provides rides to another that doesn’t. The church also provided the families with everything from car seats to bedding and food, as well as other household needs.
With the influx of so many people over the past three years or so, rents in Springfield are up significantly, and some families have been displaced. Covenant has helped displaced individuals find affordable housing and has aided by paying an occasional bill.
“We are welcoming Haitian neighbors and supporting Springfield neighbors who have been here for a long time. We are standing with them,” Noble said. “Those are the ways the church has been able to help.”
View livestreamed services at Covenant Presbyterian Church here.
Mike Ferguson, Editor, Presbyterian News Service
Daily Readings
Today’s Focus: Covenant Presbyterian Church in Springfield, Ohio
Let us join in prayer for:
PC(USA) Agencies’ Staff
Staci Wihelm, Vice President, Finance, Board of Pensions
Aniria Williams, Administrative Assistant I, Special Offerings, Ministry Engagement & Support (A Corp)
Let us pray
Loving God, as we seek to serve you wherever we are planted, we ask you to help us bear fruit, to proclaim your good news and to share your love with others. Bless us, we pray, as we seek to be faithful in word and deed. Amen.
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