Haiti June 28, 2015

Report by Danielle Wood

We started our morning today with a Haitian church service. We’re on Haitian time here, so our signal to walk over to church was the sound of singing. It was so wonderful to hear familiar songs sung in Creole – we just joined right in! The highlight of the morning service was seeing the voodoo priest Oceania come forward to accept Christ. The ministry team here has been witnessing to Oceania for many years and he finally made the decision to commit his life to Christ. What a blessing! Pastor Do preached a sermon from Zephaniah and reminded the church that we should make it a priority to live our lives for Jesus.

After lunch and a brief time of rest, our group left the mission house/compound to visit some of the local Haitians. We took food and solar lights to hand out. Our first visit was to the former voodoo priest Sylvest’s home. He and his wife invited us inside to see their house. How humbling an experience! Why would any American complain over the size or condition of their home?

Next, we walked down to the voodoo village and met the voodoo priest Daniel. Daniel is still a practicing voodoo priest, but he allows Brother Chuck and his ministry teams to come in and play the Jesus film with a projector right in front of his home! One of Daniel’s sons, who is a former voodoo priest, has already come to know Christ, and we have faith that God will continue to spread through the hearts of that family.

On our trek back, we stopped in several homes to hand out food and solar lights. The Haitian people were so grateful and we enjoyed seeing the families, especially the children! We took a short break from the heat at the mission house, and then we made our way to a local orphanage. On our way up the mountain, Roberta spotted a sick puppy. We gave the puppy some water, and then Blanco brought the puppy back to the mission house. (She is currently being bathed and given much love and affection!) We walked about 20 minutes uphill to our destination. When we got to the orphanage, we sat in a circle while the kids sang familiar praise songs to us … in English! We heard “How Great is Our God,” “Yes, Lord,” and “Oh Happy Day.” It was beautiful!

After singing, we handed out the gifts we’d brought to the orphanage – some food, a few toys, and kid’s toothbrushes and toothpaste. Vicki gave a lesson and demonstration on proper dental hygiene and taught the kids how to brush their teeth and use toothpaste. This particular stop on our walk touched a lot of our hearts. It was very difficult to see children dehydrated and lethargic. It’s hard to know that there’s not much that we can physically do, but there is always power in prayer! What we cannot do, God can always do!

The views from the orphanage were breathtaking! We stopped several times to take pictures, but pictures don’t do the views justice. I never realized the beauty in Haiti!

We are currently finishing up some planning for our Teachers Conference tomorrow and Tuesday. After dinner, the Jerusalem IV church will be here for an evening worship service. We’ve heard that this will be a service we will never forget! Praying for many more blessings! Thank you for the prayers from home!