BOYNTON BEACH — The 15 computers now housed in St. John’s United Methodist Haitian Mission’s computer training room were at one time destined for a South Florida landfill. Now, they are helping members of the mission and people in the surrounding community get the skills they need to find better jobs.

The computer learning ministry is a joint venture between the mission and Christians Reaching Out to Society (C.R.O.S. Ministries), an outreach ministry in West Palm Beach supported by the Florida Conference. The free computer class ministry is now a little more than one year old, but it has already outgrown its space.

The Saturday morning class attracted a few church members, but most of the students were from the community, according to the Rev. Jocelyn Adhemar, pastor of the mission. Most were Haitians, but two Anglos participated.

Karen Mills, office administrator at C.R.O.S. Ministries and organizer of the ministry, said the computer class was started to help Haitian immigrants in the area develop the skills they need to find better work. “We felt like they didn’t have access to computers in their homes or weren’t financially able to take commercial computer classes,” Mills said. “Some of the people have jobs that require they use computers, or they bought a computer so they could get a better job, but didn’t know what to do with it.”

Adhemar said it is difficult to find employment without computer skills. “If you try to find work at Office Depot, for example, they put you in front of a computer to fill out the application,” he said. “People who come from Haiti usually do not have any knowledge on computers.”

Without computer education, many Haitians have to work at minimum wage jobs, Adhemar said. “The minimum wage is not enough for them to live. When they get this knowledge, it helps.”

The class began with Mills and another volunteer going to the church and teaching a few students how to type on a keyboard. The two teachers also used that time to determine the area’s computer training needs.

St. John’s computer learning ministry now has a network of 15 computers all running Microsoft Windows and Office software. The computers were donated by local businesses and individuals, including the local Solid Waste Authority. “Companies want to throw away these computers,” Mills said. “The Solid Waste Authority warehouses them and gives them away to non-profits.”

Nerva Jasmin, a member of St. John’s and a professional computer trainer, repaired, networked and loaded the software on the computers. He also mentored several students and taught them computer repair and networking skills.

Jasmin also does a lot of the training, Mills said. His ability to speak English, French and Creole helped the students, many of whom speak limited English. “Teaching in the Creole language helped them learn at their own pace,” she said. “The classes have taken longer because the students are working with English as a second language.”

The first group of 11 students graduated from the computer learning ministry last October. They received training in basic Windows operation. “At most, we had 20 students in class at any one time,” Mills said. “There were some days when we had two people at a computer, because we didn’t have enough computers.”

The next class will teach people how to use the word processing program Microsoft Word, according to Mills. She also hopes to open the training room during the week so students can practice what they learned.

Adhemar said there is now a waiting list for enrollment in the class.

In addition to benefiting the students, the church is also seeing some blessing from the class. Adhemar said all of the teachers are Christian and invite the students to attend special events and worship services at the church. “Three people have joined the church because of the class,” he said.