From February 7th thru 14th, 19 guys from America set out to serve the Haitian people by providing food and medical care. We had secured 50,000 meals through Kids against Hunger and had a doctor, two EMT’s and a pharmacist on the team to head up the medical clinic. Our main objective was to minister to both their physical and spiritual needs, to the glory of God. Our cry to the people was, “We know you are hurting, and so we wanted to bring you food and medicine. But eventually, it’ll be gone. We want to leave you with something eternal, something everlasting; hope of an eternity with our Heavenly Father. A place of no suffering or pain. A place of glory.” We often lose sight in our wealthy condition that heaven is something to be longed for. Let me tell you, these people are longing for it. They are living on the streets either because their home has been destroyed or because they are too afraid to sleep inside. Most of them have lost family members or friends. Most of them don’t know how they are going to eat tomorrow. There is no running water, no electricity. In terms of comfort, they sleep on the ground under tarps. I would like to ask many of the prosperity “non-gospel” preachers if their problem is lack of faith...
“Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.” James 1:2-4
“In this you greatly rejoice, even though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been distressed by various trials, so that the proof of your faith, being more precious than gold which is perishable, even though tested by fire, may be found to result in the praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ” 1 Peter 1:6-7
“Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal among you, which comes upon you for your testing, as though some strange thing were happening to you; but to the degree that you share the sufferings of Christ, keep on rejoicing, so that also at the revelation of His glory you may rejoice with exultation.” 1 Peter 4:12-13
No, prosperity “non-gospel” preacher, it is not a lack of faith that has caused this suffering, it is a test for the believers in Haiti. It is an opportunity to respond to a trial with rejoicing, praise, glory, and honor. So how is the church doing in Haiti? Are they walking around with glum faces? Are they cursing God? Are they asking, “Why God, why?” I’ll let the pictures explain for themselves.
The church in Haiti is alive and well friends. They worship with a charisma that is unmatched. In the midst of death, poverty, witchcraft, political corruption - the church of God is lifting up the name of the Lord.
“The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the LORD!”
My heart was stirred and encouraged. I felt a bit of shame toward my attitude towards God and the church. I want you to imagine if everything that you have is taken away. Would you say, “blessed be the name of the Lord?” Sometimes I wonder if I would. Thankfully the Bible tells me that God would give me the strength that I need to overcome all trials and tribulations in the moment. Praise God for that.
With regard to the logistics of the trip, God showed up and provided exceedingly, abundantly more than we could ever have asked or imagined. It was told to us that never has food made it through a Haitian port as fast as we were able to obtain it. Two of our team members, Alex Sisson and Jeremy Sanders spear-headed the operation. They had to bounce between several government workers over the course of a few days and over two cities separated by at least a few hours. God certainly blessed their persistence. We were also blessed by Youth With a Mission (YWAM) in Port Marc by letting us stay at their compound a few nights and providing flat bed trucks to help unload the food from the port. They even sent several people to help load. Again, I was so encouraged to see the body of Christ working together to glorify our head, Jesus. We distributed all the boxed food that we could carry from Port Marc in our 5 SUV’s (about 37,000 meals) and the rest were going to be distributed by YWAM in an area that has not received any aid since the earthquake.
The medical team saw hundreds of patients over three days and the prescription medicine that we had left over was donated to a local hospital. After the people were seen by the doctor, we were able to share the gospel with many of them. Speaking through a translator, I was able to share the gospel with many, many people. I forgot to mention that we were working out of a local church building there, which became very beneficial. There were several people that professed to place their faith in Jesus and repent of their sins. I was able to then encourage them to pray to God directly as if He was their friend. They did not need anybody else to pray for them as if that were the agent of salvation. I encouraged them to begin to fellowship with the church body we were functioning out of. This way, they could be baptized and discipled right out of the local church we were working out of. God had all of this already planned out! It was so amazing. There were several other guys on the team that got involved with evangelism. We even encouraged the local deacons and elders to evangelize their own people. I was also given the opportunity to preach at an evening service. Starting with creation, I explained the fall of man and the need for a savior. I used the redemptive analogy of the fig leaves and the animal skins. I then took them to the cross and the resurrection of Jesus and the reason why there is no other way to be reconciled to God. The more times I preach the gospel, the more I love doing it. It truly is a privileged to be a minister of the gospel. This picture is a picture of a young boy praying to God for the forgiveness of his sins. When he looked up at me after he prayed, he had tears streaming from his eyes...a moment I will never, ever forget.
I came away from the trip with a renewed perspective: God is everything, I am nothing. Pray for the church in Haiti. Pray for the nation of Haiti. Pray for salvation and deliverance. Pray that you would worship with the same zeal that Haitian church does. To God be the glory.
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