day 5

Day 5 - Sunday 14^th

I can’t believe we were able to be here for this day in Haiti.  God had wonderful things in store for us.  We decided to divide and conquer as a group.  Half of the group went to church at Christianville and the other half went to Absolon’s church close to downtown PaP.   Linda and I went with the downtown crew.   Once again, as we drove, we saw many people walking to church and saw groups praying or singing under tarps.   We also saw a common sight here, long UN distribution lines for food.   We arrived at Grace Church, Absolon’s growing community, and found around a 100 people there.   God’s people worshipped with such exuberance.   Numerous men took turns leading the service.   During the 4 and half hour service (Yes, 4 and a half! - And it would continue after we left) people would come forward and kneel down to surrender their lives to Christ.  We don’t understand Creole, but having Portuguese and Spanish as a base we could pick up that they cried out constantly for mercy and pity from God, while declaring over and over that He is good.  And man is He ever!  It was clear that His Spirit was present in a special way and people were responding.   One of our teammates here, Brian Bennetch (missionary to Rome, Italy with his wife Sarah, who is also here serving) gave the message.  He preached mostly from Matthew 22:1-12, but concluded with a powerful text from Luke 13:1-6 (I highly recommend that you read it).   The message of the text is so important.   Are people that suffer catastrophes more guilty than those who don’t?   “No”, Jesus says.   We all need to repent or perish (eternally).   After he spoke 5 more people came forward to follow Jesus.  We counted a total of 28 people come forward to turn to Jesus.   Can you believe that!  We sense that this is just a piece of what the Lord is doing in Port au Prince and beyond.  

There was a break for a cracker and a glass of water.  We sat and talked with Absolon and the young pastor who organized our crisis counseling training (O. Joseph).   They are clearly exhausted from the events of the past month and are overjoyed to see how the Lord is working.   They said that over 50 people came to Christ during these three days.   Praise the Lord!!   Then O. Joseph asked if we could repeat the training that we had done the day before for more pastors and asked if we could help train the pastor’s and potential leaders on a long-term basis.   We said that that is one of the things that we love to do the most and would count it a privilege.  We see this as a great opportunity from the Lord.   This is at the heart of what we love to do; to equip Haitian’s to do the work of the Lord.   We know that they can evangelize and plant churches better than we can. 

On the way back to the house we hit numerous road blocks and were detoured into the hills. Many roads were impassable, as so many people have tents and tarps stretched onto the road.   This detour took us by one of the orphanages that we have helped (led by Teresa).   We were so happy to be able to stop and see the orphans and the help they are receiving.   After meeting the little ones we saw a new, high quality water filtration system.  Mark Lewis, our Crisis Director, immediately began taking pictures and joyfully told us that he had made connections to have it delivered.   He was obviously pleased to see it there and working.   Over the past week a French Civil Defense team has built two large lean 2’s and a wooden structure, with a tin roof, for the children to sleep in.   We saw for ourselves the rubble, that our friend Steve Spellman had described, where 80 children were buried.   The stench was quite strong.   We just stood there in silence, imagining the horror.   We didn’t linger long.   I know I wasn’t expecting this.    This wasn’t an expected visit, so we didn’t have the things we brought for these orphans.   We were glad we stopped to see the progress that is being made. 

We walked our last half mile together back to the house and processed our day.   We spoke of possibilities, God’s gracious provision of amazing people to walk alongside and of our sense of helplessness.  There are so many people to help.  We held hands and prayed, asking for wisdom to know how to use the resources we have and asked our Lord to provide more.   We ended our day sharing our perspective on this amazing day.   The others had a great experience worshipping with our brothers and sisters at Christianville.   We ended the day with a great discussion, questioning the whys of all of this and affirming God’s sovereignty and thanking Him for His outpouring of grace on this country over this weekend.     

We know that you are with us in prayer,

Mike