The Inspiration

There is a picture on the bookshelf overlooking my desk of a Haitian man standing on the crest of a mountain with a bright blue sky as the backdrop. His hands are on his hips in a determined stance as he looks across the peaks and valleys of his beloved country.

Fr. Andre Lozama, the Haitian in the picture, had reason to look determined. There was work to be done, a lot of work. He was in charge of pastoring five Episcopal missions in the rural southern region of Haiti near the town of Les Cayes. Each mission had a school, food program and church building with operating costs that well exceeded each congregation’s meager resources.

Despite this, he was never deterred. He was an energetic visionary with a practical side that knew how to put those visions into actions. He was always thinking of new ways to do things. On one of his rare trips to the United States, he once asked his host to stop the car so he could talk to a farmer who was out plowing the fields. Fr. Andre and the slightly surprised farmer chatted for an hour or so about agricultural techniques he might be able to apply in Haiti. Fr. Lozama didn’t know much about farming, but he knew that many of his congregation were subsistence farmers. He told his host that any bit of information that could help those farmers feed their families was worth asking about.

He preached the gospel on Sundays and lived it the other six days, rarely taking a rest.

And that’s how he died - working.

He was making the rounds of his missions before finally taking a much-needed vacation. He had diabetes and high blood pressure, and he had battled cancer into submission several years before. His doctor had told him he needed to take a rest.

When I gaze at the photo, I imagine him traveling up into the mountains to the remote villages to make sure everybody and everything was taken care of before he left for vacation. I am sure he was looking forward to spending time with his wife, Edith, and his children, who lived in Port-au-Prince most of the year.

But one night, a blood clot unexpectedly formed in his leg. One of his friends put him in his truck and sped into the darkness of the night over the unpaved and bumpy road to Port-au-Prince. I imagine, too, Fr. Andre’s pain. It must have been excruciating and having to be a passenger in a truck that was careening over rocks and skidding around large potholes must have made the pain almost intolerable.

Fr. Andre never saw his family again. He died before his friend reached Port-au-Prince. An unceremonious death for someone I consider a living saint. I think all saints should die performing God’s work. Fr. Andre had that privilege.

His example made me determined that one day I would find a way to ensure those pastors and priests on the frontlines on the war against injustice and poverty were not fighting a lonely battle.

By Craig Cole, the executive director of Five Talents International, an Anglican microfinance nonprofit, a member of Diocese of Virginia's Mission Commission and an EGR board member.