Haiti Trip
Just returned from our annual trip to Gonaives, Haiti, located about 90 miles north of Port-au-Prince and am happy to report that Living Water Christian Mission, the onsite ministry there with which we work, is growing and is blessed of the Lord. Our team—led by Pastor Cody McDaniel, accompanied by team members: Mrs. Debbie McDaniel (teacher), Mrs. Debra Fairless (APN), Diane and I (CTF), Miss Kylee Witt (RN), Mr. Ashley Butler (minister) and daughter (student), painted, plumbed, preached and taught for 10 days sunup to sundown. The resident director of missions: Pastor and Mrs. Salonique Adolph, native Haitians, were very pleased and happy for our visit and work.
My task for the past three years has been to train the ministerial students in Creation apologetics and Biblical Worldview (consistently about 20 young men between the ages of 25 and 40 years). To date we have covered verse-by-verse Genesis 1:1 through Genesis 7:24 (about 60 class hours of instruction).
The three greatest needs of the Haitian people are: Jesus, education, and economic management skills-in that order. The task is spiritually overwhelming because the Haitian people opened their country a long time ago to satanic control and manipulation through voodoo spirituality, animism, witchcraft and all sorts of demonism. This, I believe produced, or help to produce, the deplorable level of poverty, which is accompanied by the obvious social and domestic despair seen everywhere.
Nevertheless, the Blood of Jesus, His Gospel, the authority of His Word, anointed by His Holy Spirit, all in the presence of Holy angels, is attaining many victories there—Praise the Lord! Pastor Adolph has only been involved in this work 12 years (since he was 30), but during this time has built four churches (and is planning a fifth), a medical clinic, with an on-site MD, a day school, two functioning farms for raising all sorts of vegetables for the children in the school.
Just to give you an idea of the effectiveness of this ministry, the past Sunday, January 10, the home church had an attendance of 906. There are 600 or more children in the day school, and the average combined Sunday attendance for all four churches is about 1,600. The medical clinic is open daily. This Sunday, after a brief sermon by one of the visiting Americans, four women came forward for special prayer: one wanted to be delivered from the terrible darkness in her life and home, one needed her marriage strengthened and her children saved, one wanted to be set free from the bondage she felt in her mind, and the other wanted to know more about Jesus. I am sharing this anecdote with you for only one reason that you can realize the desperate need in this country, and understand that many of the people will respond to the Gospel if given the chance.
The spiritual hunger among the remnant is mindboggling. For example, the students of the Bible college want me to come every four months to teach them instead of once a year, and I am considering this because their hunger for Biblical truth is so great (and I have more time now than I used to have), and the hour is growing late— but I must be sure this decision is the Lord’s will. Moreover, I would need some of you to take this up as a spiritual and financial goal, and tell me of your intention in the next couple weeks or so because each trip would take an additional $2,500 of support, and I would need exceeding prayer cover for each trip and for the time in the country.
God bless you all for you continued prayer and support. I remain yours in the thrill of serving Jesus…so until next month, I pray God’s best for you and your family. Isaiah 40:28-31
GTS
