Christopher Columbus brought Roman Catholicism with him to Haiti on his first voyage to that island. Because of that fact, Roman Catholicism is deeply entrenched there. The Protestant Reformation was introduced into the country by Frenchman Etienne de Grellet and his friend John Hancock, at the initiative of the Society of Friends. They arrived in the harbor of Les Cayes (southern Haiti) on July 16, 1816. The next year, two missionaries of the Weslyan Church of England arrived in Port-au-Prince. In 1818, a small Methodist Society was formed, but they were forced to go underground. Baptist Mid-Missions began church planting efforts there in in the early 1930s.
Bibles International adopted the Creole New Testament project in 1990. Hantz Bernard was the main translator. The first BI New Testament was published in 2002 with 13,000 printed. It was revised and reprinted in 2007 with 35,000 printed. Those are nearly sold out.
Profile of the Haitian Creole
Location: The major speakers of Haitian Creole are those living in Haiti, which comprised the western third of the island of Hispaniola in the Caribbean. Although this is the main area in which this language is spoken, it is also spoken in many other countries such as the US, Canada, Bahamas, Cayman Islands, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, etc.
Language Family: This is a French-based creole language.
Speakers: 10,000,000 in Haiti in 2010 according to the World Bank. There are believed to be 1,000,000 Creole speakers in the US, the largest number of speakers of this language outside of Haiti.
Religion: Nearly everyone born in Haiti is baptized into the Roman Catholic Church. In addition, at least 70% of the people practice Voodoo, with some practicing both Catholicism and Voodoo at the same time. It is believed that about 16% of the people are Protestant with about 10% of that number being Baptist.
Literacy: Bibles International has done nothing for literacy in this language, since the government is actively promoting literacy there.