Service at Grand Goave

Early in the trip, we held a service at the church building on the orphanage's property. In attendance was a pastor visiting from about an hour east who asked if we would come have a service at his church. We had never been to this church and always want to expand our ministry into new places, so Pastor Winston agreed and made arangements. When the day came, we all piled into a truck and drove to Grand Goave to this church.

This was not a normally-scheduled service, but the church was nearly full before we arrived. They ushered us up to the front to sit on the platform. After a short worship time, the service was turned over to Pastor Winston. He greeted everyone and then several of our team members gave their testimonies. Then our UCLA Chi Alpha intern, Mitch, got up to preach. This was only his third time to preach ever - it was also the third time in a month's span and the second time during the trip. He said that he was really nervous before getting up to speak, but God assured him that when he did everything would be fine. Once Mitch started speaking, he said, the nerves went away. I could tell he was anointed because this was his best presentation and had the best response from the audience. After the message, Winston got up and gave an altar call and the majority of the church responded. Before he sent the team to pray for everyone, he asked specifically for those who came up for salvation to make their way to the very front and led them in the sinner's prayer. There were at least a dozen in that group. A couple of the church leaders spoke English and were telling us how thrilled they were and that it was an absolute miracle that there were so many unsaved people who had decided to come to the service that evening.

We then prayed for the rest of the people. Everyone on the team prayed fervently and with great faith. While praying, some of the church leaders brought a few more people up to Uwe and Winston who wanted to pray for salvation. Both the kids and the adults seemed to have a great expectation that God would do something in their lives. Parents brought their babies for prayer, and after someone finished praying for one child another would immediately jump in. One old woman in particular was determined to receive a touch from God. She was in pain and had just recently lost her daughter. She had several of the team members spend time in prayer for her.

As the time was coming to a close, a guy I would guess to be about 17 or 18 years old came up to Pastor Winston. He had accepted Jesus during the altar time and was so excited about it that he wanted to tell us that and say thank you. Jesus made an immediate difference in this young man's life and he couldn't keep it in.

In the first couple of days of the trip, Pastor Bob told us about a dream that Poppy had recently... There were street lamps being lit along the valley from east of the orphanage to the west. Though this would be a nice civil improvement for the region (especially if they worked - electricity is very unreliable), that's not what it was about at all. Pastor Bob explained that this was a vision of the Holy Spirit moving throughout the region. Grand Goave is to the east of the orphanage and God did a significant work there. I just have to wonder if that's one of the lamps lighting...

Praise reports

Before we left, I sent out five prayer requests and asked several people to spend time praying for me and for the team throughout the entire duration of the trip. Every time I've been to Haiti in the past, I've gotten sick at some point. One of my great desires for this trip was to be healthy the entire time and that prayer was answered! It was and is a great blessing.

God used our team. We saw more than 20 salvations throughout the trip. We were able to encourage the church. We were able to bless 11 families with clothing and supplies of rice and beans. We also gave the biggest offering of all the trips from one of the smallest missions teams. That money is currently being put to use to finalize the chicken coop and handle several other needs around the orphanage.

I was really encouraged to see the ministry the churches and people of the orphanage are doing without us. One church was holding a big multi-day crusade (500+ in attendance a night) and basically allowed us to come share one night. We aren't even involved in the orphanage's feeding program any more because they have it running smoothly and we would only disrupt the program.

Some of the older kids are stepping up to take on ministry roles. Lenee was saved a few years ago and we were able to attend his baptism on a previous trip. He is now studying to be a pastor and God's touch on his life is obvious. Mariage is blessed with an amazing singing voice and leads worship at the church.

Wrapping up

It's always a little strange to transition out of a missions trip back into normal life. There is a stark contrast between life in Haiti and life in the U.S. Once that transition is made, though, the memory of what you experienced begins to fade. That's why I started writing these trip summaries. They are far from full accounts, but they are at least a reference point. I want to remember what God has done. I also want others to know.

Winston, Uwe, Jessica, Sara, Brian, Clint, Dave, Kayla, Adam, Flo, Mitch and Jonathan - a missions team to Haiti over 12 days in July of 2007. A lot of things are happening in our lives, but we decided to sacrifice a couple of weeks and some of our resources to put God's agenda first. I'm confident that God is more fully aware of our needs over the coming months than even we are and already has plans to take care of all of them. We're trusting His faithfulness and goodness. Even if, though, He decided to not answer some of them, we can still look back at this trip and remember what He did. Realizing that over 20 people changed their destination in eternity puts things in a new perspective. God is good...