The time here is just seeming to fly by. It feels like I have been here for three weeks, but I have just been here a little longer than two. Great progress, my beard is now about half an inch long! Hahaha...
Okay, now back to more important things.
I have been working steadily between the maintenance department here on the base and my new job (greeting the new comers and briefing them on the history of Haiti). Many of these things have given me insight into how I can pray for Haiti. Did you know that Haiti was the first place to receive the gospel of Christ in the Western Hemisphere? It was. Columbus landed here on December 6th of 1492 looking for riches to bring his Spanish queen. The Spaniards nearly annihilated all of the natives of the island within 25 years of establishing their presence on the island. In the early 1600's the French established a presence on the island and were ceded the western third (which became Haiti). They started to pour in the slave labor and soon the number of slaves outnumbered the French. The slaves were mistreated and this lead to their rebellion, which proved successful after a prolonged struggle. The leaders of the rebellion declared that the nation would be dedicated to Satan for 200 years if they gained their independence, and in 1804 they finally got that. Haiti became the first black republic to gain independence. Today, the nation has been stripped of its former glory "the Ruby of the Caribbean". It is largely deforested which has lead to nearly all of its 26 feet of top soil to wash away in the many tropical storms, and poor farming habits over the years. Since its conception Haiti has been known as the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere as well as a nation plagued with violence. The French also forced their slaves to practice Catholicism, as they "Christianized" the nation. Today, nearly 80 percent of the nation considers itself Roman Catholic, and nearly 19 percent Protestant Christian. However, as in the days of the past, many still hold onto their traditional African beliefs and practice voodoo on the side. They estimate that nearly half practice voodoo. Many Haitians view God as distant. This lines right up with the voodoo beliefs. Voodoo belief says that Creator God is distant and unreachable. They also believe that he distributes his power to Loa (lesser gods [demons]) which have dominion over things like trees, rocks, mountains, and water.
The spiritual climate of Haiti is different, it is in your face. People here see the spiritual realm daily, and it is usually the sorcerers of voodoo showing it, not the prophets of God. Maybe this is why so many follow the practices of voodoo. Even the Christians seem to have a "healthy fear" of the voodoo god, but the Fear of the Lord is often lacking. As YWAM Haiti, we long to see this changed. Please join me in prayer.
-Love, Kyle.
Thursday, May 6, 2010
Saturday, May 1, 2010
Let Us Unify As One!
This was one exciting week in Haiti, and man did it seem to just fly by! On Monday I worked with the maintenance crew building a porch on one of the YWAM apartments here. It is going to cut down on their cooling bills so much and offer shade and a place to take off their muddy shoes during the rainy season. Which is due to start in a couple of weeks.
Tuesday I went to Paris with Matt. (Paris, Timonet, and the Clinic are the three tent communities that YWAM St. Marc is working with.) Matt put on a seminar and photographed it and helped him where needed. I must say he did a great job. It was also really cool to see the way that God had mended a conflict there between the pastor and YWAM. The community was pressuring the pastor for free water, but Haitians charge Haitians about 50 cents for a bucket of water. So Matt explained that if we do not charge a fee for the water then we will not have money to repair the pump when it breaks. He also explained that while we charge the outer community, the victims of the earthquake should not be charged (for a length of time I cannot remember). He used this illustration, that the victims are like people with a broken leg whom we must help across the water, but once they are healed, it is not our job to carry them anymore, they must do it, and if we continue to help them, we will make them beggars for life. This is a growing concern of the long-termers here in Haiti, and YWAM in general. A lot of the west thinks that you can solve the problem by just throwing some money at it, but I have noticed that all this does is creates dependancy on man and not on God, and we wonder why Haiti is returning back to their former lifestyle! Our strategy must change if we are to reach the people of Haiti! Okay, so I will stop preaching now, but feel free to leave comments, email me, skype me, whatever if you want more information.
On Wednesday I worked with YWAM’s Homes of Hope ministry. We set the posts to a small duplex for the poor in a community here is St. Marc that YWAM has been investing in for some time now.
On Thursday, me and Matt went out to Timonet, another one of YWAM’s tent communities, and we started the construction of a squatty potty of the children, since the latrines were not working out for them. They were just too tall and the wholes proved too intimidating as the children thought that they might fall into the whole. The latrines though in general are a brilliant concept promoting sanitation, and conserving precious water at the same time.
Yesterday and today I started a new phase of my ministry here in St. Marc. I am now on the “Welcoming Committee”. Which means that I go to the airport with our driver (whoever that turns out to be) and I pick up the teams, keep the Haitians off of their luggage, and brief them a little bit on Haiti, and what YWAM is doing here. Tomorrow I will try to update this again with some of that information.
Please keep praying for us, if there is one thing that I learning it is that prayer in unity rends the heavens and allows God to minister among us. So, the base is doing back to back 24/7 prayer days to see the power of God break loose in the our tent communities. The first session will be at the clinic and the second here at the base. Please be praying for us. Thank you!
Tuesday I went to Paris with Matt. (Paris, Timonet, and the Clinic are the three tent communities that YWAM St. Marc is working with.) Matt put on a seminar and photographed it and helped him where needed. I must say he did a great job. It was also really cool to see the way that God had mended a conflict there between the pastor and YWAM. The community was pressuring the pastor for free water, but Haitians charge Haitians about 50 cents for a bucket of water. So Matt explained that if we do not charge a fee for the water then we will not have money to repair the pump when it breaks. He also explained that while we charge the outer community, the victims of the earthquake should not be charged (for a length of time I cannot remember). He used this illustration, that the victims are like people with a broken leg whom we must help across the water, but once they are healed, it is not our job to carry them anymore, they must do it, and if we continue to help them, we will make them beggars for life. This is a growing concern of the long-termers here in Haiti, and YWAM in general. A lot of the west thinks that you can solve the problem by just throwing some money at it, but I have noticed that all this does is creates dependancy on man and not on God, and we wonder why Haiti is returning back to their former lifestyle! Our strategy must change if we are to reach the people of Haiti! Okay, so I will stop preaching now, but feel free to leave comments, email me, skype me, whatever if you want more information.
On Wednesday I worked with YWAM’s Homes of Hope ministry. We set the posts to a small duplex for the poor in a community here is St. Marc that YWAM has been investing in for some time now.
On Thursday, me and Matt went out to Timonet, another one of YWAM’s tent communities, and we started the construction of a squatty potty of the children, since the latrines were not working out for them. They were just too tall and the wholes proved too intimidating as the children thought that they might fall into the whole. The latrines though in general are a brilliant concept promoting sanitation, and conserving precious water at the same time.
Yesterday and today I started a new phase of my ministry here in St. Marc. I am now on the “Welcoming Committee”. Which means that I go to the airport with our driver (whoever that turns out to be) and I pick up the teams, keep the Haitians off of their luggage, and brief them a little bit on Haiti, and what YWAM is doing here. Tomorrow I will try to update this again with some of that information.
Please keep praying for us, if there is one thing that I learning it is that prayer in unity rends the heavens and allows God to minister among us. So, the base is doing back to back 24/7 prayer days to see the power of God break loose in the our tent communities. The first session will be at the clinic and the second here at the base. Please be praying for us. Thank you!
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