The Dirrim Family

Visit the Dirrim's Center for Biblical Training Web Site

The Dirrims are both Sunset exes. David began Sunset School Of Preaching in 1981. Sarah was in AIM in 1980, then went with a team to Sydney, Australia. After almost a decade as a cabinet maker and weekend preacher, David and Sarah returned to Sunset in 1990 and finished the preaching course and went through missions.

After preaching in Valliant, Oklahoma, for three years, the family moved to Cap Haitien, Haiti to work with an orphanage and church there. After four years at the orphanage and two back in the States, David was asked to be the director of the Center for Biblical Training, a preacher-training school in Cap Haitien where he'd taught since its opening.

They have six children, 3 adopted from the orphanage here who are all now in college in Oklahoma. Three younger children are still at home and Sarah teaches them.

The Center for Biblical Studies is located outside of Cap Haitien, Haiti. The school's mission is to educate and mentor Haitian men to be "servant evangelists" to the Haitian people. Twelve students selected from all over northern Haiti complete a three-year program. The school has graduated two classes and the third class will graduate in December of 2005.

The school campus is situated on 4 acres, with three main buildings: the main building containing student dormitories, the directors' home, visiting teacher's apartment, classroom and offices, the dining hall/dormitory building that also contains meeting rooms for seminars, and the guest dorm and maintenance building.

The CBT has begun a translation project to provide materials in 12 core classes in Haitian Creole to use in Satellite Schools taught by our graduates. The couses will also be available to congregations and for distribution to denominational leaders through the churches.

Haitian Christian Foundation

The first congregation of the church of Christ was established in northern Haiti in 1978 by Brother Joseph Albert (1938-1998), a native Haitian evangelist then from Port-au-Prince. The church in northern Haiti grew consistently to over 50 congregations with 5,000 members, and today is the fastest growing in Haiti. The need for trained servant evangelists and other church leaders was great, but opportunities were limited.

For years, Haitian church leaders, U.S. Missionaries, and supporters of the Lord’s work in Haiti had prayed about forming a foundation to establish a preacher training school in northern Haiti. As a result the Haitian Christian Foundation (HCF) was formed in 1993. That same year a 6.4 acre tract of land was purchased for the Center for Biblical Training (CBT) just outside of Cap-Haitien in the area of Galman-du-Plaa, and ground breaking occurred in 1994.

After raising the necessary funds, building the campus, selecting on-site U.S. missionaries, and selecting the first student body, the Lord blessed HCF with their opening ceremony in January of 1997.