BROWNWOOD—Many students at Howard Payne University recognize Clay Tyner as the Baptist Student Ministry worship leader or the lead singer of Christian band One Less Stone. Others just recognize him by his distinctive dreadlocks.
Clay Tyner plays with the Haitian children during a "God is Love"-themed Vacation Bible School. (PHOTO/Courtesy of Howard Payne University)
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But some children in Haiti know him as an ambassador—a Hope Ambassador for the interdenominational ministry Hope for the Hungry.
Tyner, a senior practical theology major and music performance minor from Lampasas, made his first trip to Haiti with Go Now Missions, the student missions arm of the Baptist General Convention of Texas.
In the last 10 months, he has traveled to Haiti three times, and he plans to return in December.
Tyner has developed a deep love for the Haitian people and their culture, and he feels a special calling to ministry in the nation that has endured so much since a January 2010 earthquake left thousands homeless, and a cholera epidemic one year ago claimed more than 4,600 lives.
Tyner's travels to Haiti have focused on the same village each time, the small remote community of Guibert, home to one of two orphanages Hope for the Hungry sponsors in Haiti. Although he spent his first trip with his American team renovating a school in a nearby village, he was able to make a promise.
"Before I left, I knew I'd come back as soon as I could," Tyner said. "I told the boys at the orphanage, 'I'll be back.' I promised them, so then I had to go back."
Two and a half months later, he returned, this time building a mission complex from the ground up.
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"They were the most prehistoric construction techniques," he recalled. "We poured a huge foundation by one five-gallon bucket at a time, and leveled eight feet of ground and rock with just pickaxes and shovels. When we left, we were really proud of where we were with the project."
Tyner calls his most recent journey to Haiti "the dream trip." He and his team held a Vacation Bible School—centered on the theme "God is love"—for children in Guibert.
"I really like working and doing the construction, but at the same time this trip was about investing in people's lives, hanging out with kids every day," he said.
Clay Tyner raises support for Hope for the Hungry ministries in Haiti, and his band, One Less Stone Ministries, has partnered with the nonprofit organization.
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On the second day of VBS, when talking about all the ways God cares for his children, Tyner asked his class of 40 second-graders: "Can you tell me a time when God has taken care of you?"
"Some of them said different stuff," he remembered. "But there were several who came up and told about God protecting them in the earthquake and protecting their family.
"I know that all the children in that class know God loves them now. On the last day, I asked them if they are confident that God loves them and if they love God. They were all screaming, 'Yes!'"
Tyner, who anticipates graduation in December, credits Howard Payne University with providing him with his initial opportunity to visit and work in Haiti, as well as preparing him for mission work.
"My theology and especially my mission classes helped me know how to be culturally sensitive while working in and sharing God's love in a foreign country," he said.
As a Hope Ambassador, Tyner raises support for Hope for the Hungry ministries in Haiti, and his band, One Less Stone Ministries, has partnered with the nonprofit organization.
"We want to do more than just play music. That's something that everybody in the band is really passionate about—doing more and using what we've been blessed with," he said.
Any time One Less Stone leads worship or has a concert, the band offers sponsorship packets for the orphans and even some of the teachers in Guibert.
Tyner wrote one song, "Rebuild," after his first visit to Haiti, and another, "Berry's Smile," after his second. Both songs will be included on One Less Stone's next album, but the solo recordings can be purchased now on iTunes.
"My trips have really influenced a lot of the songs that will be on that album even though some of them aren't expressly about Haiti," he said.
Tyner's travels to Haiti have taught him many things.
"I learned a lot about having faith in God, especially on my first trip," he said. "This last trip was confirmation that I am supposed to be going to Haiti, and I will continue to travel there every few months.
"I learned that love is the only true agent of change—really the true hope for the world."
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