By Jesse Blaine
In a country still recovering from the earthquake, our staff and U.S. church partners are constantly amazed by the faith and resilience of our Haitian church partners.
For some time, one of our Haitian church partners has been worshipping in a makeshift tarp church – without real walls or proper seating – where many people stand in the hot sun during services. It also effects the way the church uses it’s “facility” for clinics and school during the week.
Seeing the need, a group of faithful partners in New York began to think and pray about ways they could help to rebuild some of the structural components of the church building. They decided to send a husband and wife team on a trip to assess the effectiveness of their ongoing partnership and have a better understanding of how they could assist in the future construction process.
I don’t think they were prepared for what they saw.
As a result of caring for children, conducting medical clinics, and faithfully spreading the gospel in their neighborhood, the Haitian church has experienced amazing growth over the last six months. The children are being cared for well and given access to love, food and education. The clinic the U.S. church sponsored is helping alleviate the issues of hundreds in their community. Most importantly, people are being baptized and discipled!
Thisvibrant community is really living out what it means to “let your light shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father who is in heaven!”
Another result of all this amazing activity is that the church is now receiving more tithes. Guess what they used the money to do? Buy the pastor a new cell phone? No!, They used their own extra money, faithfully given by some of the poorest people in the world, to rebuild their church!
What a privilege it is for us, and for our U.S. church partners to be apart of these amazing stories God is unfolding all around the world.