We traveled out of Cap to a
remote village near the Dominican border.
The trip took about two hours. I
don’t remember the name of the village, but it was something like Laramure
(?). The pastor who was from the
Dominican had come to this village after having a dream that he was to go to
this village and be their pastor. He had
never pastored a church or community before.
But he went. Teams reaching out
into Haiti discovered the village in their efforts of handing out solar-powered
radios. We would be the 2nd
team to go into the village as a part of the evangelizing effort to reach every
person in the village for Christ.
We pulled up to the village
church first and when we got there, the people of the church had gathered and
they were singing and praying for this evangelizing effort. Some would stay at the church and pray while
we went.
The village is very remote and
has no electricity or running water. The
homes have dirt floors, but the people are receptive to listen even if they
politely refuse.
Our group plus Zenobia separated
into three teams. Each team had three
members plus an interpreter and a technician from the Radio station who keeps
records of who receives a radio and what decision they make or don’t make for
Christ. Their intention is to only hand
out one radio per family so as not to waste the resource since they are
limited.
By my count, the teams talked to
26 people total. Of those 26 who were
witnessed to directly, nine accepted Christ, 12 said they already knew Christ,
and five said they couldn’t or wouldn’t.
The reasons those who said they couldn’t gave: they would do it later,
they had too many problems right now, or they owed a debt to Satan (witch
doctor).
The local witch doctors, knowing
a team was coming in to witness for Christ, left the village for the day. The Haitian pastor I was talking to said that
the witch doctors know that Christ is the most powerful God, but they don’t
want to give up on their source for livelihood or they don’t want to give up on
their style of living (they want to do what makes them happy). He said they don’t want to have to wait on
God or live by His rules. Sounds like
he’s talking about most Americans to me.
Brett and Angie had a bible
study in the home late in the afternoon for other missionary families. Julie, Jasmine, Reed, and Jack went while
Thomas, Dan, and I walked the entire campus to locate all the underground
pedestals that we hoped to soon be powering up.
We also wanted a look at what it would take to “cut over” some of the
campus buildings to the new system.
Julie described some of the
missionary stories to me. She said the
missionaries get very tired of the need because the need is just so great. Many times the Haitians require an emphatic “no”
before they quit asking and that is so very difficult to do as it is not part
of the personality of the missionaries.
They don’t want to say no but sometimes have no choice. One example was the school and who they can
accept as students. They have many, many
more applicants than they can accept and maintain their academic rigor and
performance. Some just can’t be
accepted, they may have discipline issues or be academically incapable. You would like to say yes, but you have to
say no. In the U.S., this isn’t so much
of a big deal because there are usually many other options, but here, there are
no other options for schooling at this level.
That’s just one example. Many
would like power, many would like work, and many would like _____ (fill in the
blank). Most of us would consider these “likes”
as needs.
Thank the Lord that we serve Him
who said “Yes” to us before we knew the question. Our God is the only God who can say “yes” to
everyone who is willing to say “yes” to Him!
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