- THE MINISTERS ASSOCIATION & PARTNERS LOCAL AND GLOBAL ALLIANCE
Haiti Missions Trip – December 2013
Circle of Love, Global Alliance, and Fresh Fire International Ministries worked as a team on a missionary trip to Haiti. The purpose was to conduct ministry practices and leadership classes for ministers there. A few Haitian students attended also, and one gave us a note that read:
Dear Pastor, my name is _________. I was hoping you could help me because I have some problems. I don’t have money to go to school. I do not have a job and my mother is dead, so I have a big problem. Please if Jesus is living in you, please help me. I am waiting to hear from you.
He, like many other children there, could not attend school because they did not have the minimal fees required to attend the privately run schools—and public or free education was not an option because it did not exist in his area. We saw a great need in the areas where we traveled. But we also saw a great hunger for education and training among the ministers and youth we met. And we saw and heard testimonies to the power of God from nearly all the ministers. One said that God had called her to minister to people on the mountain, so she walked up the mountain every day to be Jesus to people who would not otherwise know him. Another pastor already had a vibrant church going in a town when God told him to start a church in an area where cars and trucks could not go because of the rough and rocky terrain, and there were no roads there. He too walks in areas where many people would not dare to tread to take the Gospel to a community that has been forgotten by society—but not forgotten by Jesus.
Another pastor set up eight churches in different locations. She said when she evangelizes, people come to the Lord, and although she would like to move on she does not have the heart to leave them because they have no teacher. So she sets up a church there and she walks miles every day to check on and lead the churches. In addition, she set up an orphanage in her home even though she barely had food for herself. There is no government support to help her but she said God always provides.
Another pastor has a church at the very top of a huge mountain. He had no roof on the church, so he put up sheet-type material to provide some shading from the intense heat of the sun and the elements. He thought help would come from a particular foreign donor, but it did not. The church prayed and fasted and God opened another door. Now they are getting material to construct a proper roof. God continues to walk through Haiti performing miracle after miracle after miracle. The new ministers know that they are going into a challenging position, but they have seen what God can do with little possessions and big faith. They are willing to take on a multitude of challenges to lead the people of God. In some countries of the world, pastors negotiate contracts. But in Haiti there are no terms to negotiate—you just preach the Gospel and believe God!
In the above letter, the student said “If Jesus is living in you…” That is a question we can all ask ourselves from time to time. What evidence am I showing that Jesus is living in me, especially to the poor? The Haitian ministers have learned what many people may never truly know: “I was young and now I am old, yet I have never seen the righteous forsaken or their children begging for bread.” Psalm 37:25
This season, please consider adding an organization that helps people in need to your list and send a gift of life to someone. And yes, please remember your neighbors, the needy in your church or other areas of your life, and those who are ill, or grieving. Go help somebody in some kind of way and make God smile today. Pray for Haiti, pray for your country.
God bless you!
Pastor Janice and the Fresh Fire Team
