We Have Not Forgotten

By the time you read this, I will be en route to Haiti for the rest of the week.  How all this came about is rather remarkable.  Like many of you, we felt an urgent need to minister in Haiti after the earthquake, especially since is located in our backyard (globally).  We had already planned a mission trip to Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic to work with a church planter who was starting Haitian churches.  However, after the earthquake that mission trip had to be canceled since his work was need more in Haiti than where he was currently serving.

Flights in and out of Haiti were severely limited, and so we were wondering what in the world we could do (other than support the disaster relief efforts through the IMB and Churches Helping Churches).  Within a matter of a couple of weeks, we received an email from a Haitian pastor who recently arrived in our city looking for a church to attend.  We welcomed him to come and join us at Grace, and he spent the next three months with our church family.  We call him “Pastor Joseph.”

Pastor Joseph is a church planter in Haiti who has helped start eight churches and four orphanages with little to no money or outside help.  He did not come to our church asking for money or help the entire time he was with him.  However, the majority of the structures were destroyed, and the primary givers supporting the ministry were killed in the quake.  When he left at the end of May, we were able to take up an offering allowing him to provide temporary housing for orphans as well as food supplies for the needy children they have taken in.  Since then, his own two children have come back with him to the states on with a medical visa due to poor health and malnutrition and is now being cared for by one our families here at Grace.  It has been a wonderful display of the gospel.

So I along with one of our deacons are on our way to meet Pastor Joseph and visit the churches and orphanages he oversees.  It is a quick and demanding vision trip, and we are excited to see what is happening there in Haiti.  Nearly eight months after the quake, it is good to let the Haitians know that they are not forgotten.

Another wonderful providence has been our new acquaintance with Mission of Hope.  They are a mission organization that has been in Haiti for twelve years and have a massive operation (they have served 6 million meals since the quake).  They are currently relocating to Ft. Myers and just this past Friday had the privilege of meeting with their president, Brad Johnson.  Two of their leading executive staff have been attending Grace in recent weeks and are considering what God might have us do together.  Later today we hope to have the opportunity of visiting their headquarters in Haiti and connect with their team as well.

If you read this sometime this week, please pray for us.  We earnestly desire to be an encouragement to our Haitian brothers and sisters and also seeking God’s guidance in how we can have long-term investments among these people living and ministering in a desperate situation.  Thank you!