Haiti

     I returned about a week ago from an 18-day trip to Haiti, Chile, and Argentina, and thought I would send you a trip report. Our team was made up of Geoff Ward, Pastor Loren and Lynn Widrick, and Fred and Cyndi Langworthy, who sit on the Word of Grace Board of Directors.  

     First, we went to Haiti on January 2nd, in order to teach a three-day Leadership seminar for pastors in Port au Prince. Geoff Ward, who has made several mercy trips to Haiti in recent years, had arranged this lag of the journey. He and his wife Kathy have done several things to try to help the Haitians reach out to the lost and create co-operation between pastors. This was also the purpose of this trip as well.

     As for the rest of us, it was our first trip to Haiti and we really enjoyed the people. God is really doing something among those pastors and church workers across the island. They told us that something began about two years ago that has created a great openness in the people. Nobody can explain what brought about such a change, but all the churches are reporting real growth. One Sunday, while driving to church, I was shocked to see so many Christians going to church at one time. Thousands were on the street, dressed up and carrying their Bibles. I have never seen anything like it. Once, as we passed a street choked with people as far as we could see, I asked what was going on there. Our driver simply said. “There’s a church down there!”

    We were warned by a notice posted at the State Department website that there was much unrest and anti-American sentiment in Haiti because of their recent elections. While we did not experience any difficulty, the brothers were very careful for our safety. To be truthful, we were all somewhat relieved to get out of Haiti because of the potential for problems that existed there. But as we looked back upon the city from the safety of our airplane, we all felt it was a truly worthwhile time there. Geoff felt that the Lord exceeded his goals. We are all very grateful for having gone and feel that it was actually a great privilege to be able to go there and would love to go again.

    This is a photo of pastor Fred, who was our host for the seminar in the basement of his church. His church is located just outside Citi-Soleil. From the top story we could look into the slum and we heard gun shots. When we asked why he was building such a large church building, he told us that when the city improved the road in front of his church, they raised the surface about 10 feet, which cause all the rain to run off into his church. The sanctuary was always being flooded. He also expected revival to happen in the large slum across the road. He felt that he had to build it bigger and higher. We met  but was amazed at his efforts to build such an enormous structure without any major financial backing. The construction had all but  stalled around the time we were there. I wondered how much progress one man could make against such odds, but a few years later, I was travelling through this area and I took this photo to show the progress pastor Fred is making.