Today just to show you how crazy this place is, we walked up the hill directly behind our hotel to a mountaintop village where close to 5000 Haitians call home.
We sang a few songs drew a big crowd and then I had the really cool experience of proclaiming the gospel through an interpreter.
When I was done we asked the crowd if there were any questions. One young man came forward and said “Why are you really here?” Again through the interpreter I said two reasons: To proclaim the message of God that I have just told you, and number two – we love you – we love you because God loved us first and we want to be your friend today. He then asked how are we going to help them with their specific needs – like for example they need water. I told him that we would talk together as a team to try and find a way to help them and promised them that we would come back. So for the last hour or so we’ve done just that, as a team talked about it and prayed about them and dreamed about how we can help them.
We’re going to work through our local contact here and also a local Baptist Church in order to try and build up the church trying to get them the water and food that they need. Also working on a plan to disciple those that professed faith in Jesus today. Needless to say our hearts are very heavy. There were many children that literally followed us all the way back down the hill to the hotel so we had to tell them that we had to leave.
It’s astounding here how are seeing many of the same things that we see in the United States. People are convinced that what they do will earn them salvation. If they do more good deeds than bad deeds then most likely God will let them into eternal life. One of our translators named Thomas spent well over an hour carefully clarifying the gospel through many illustrations to several young men. They looked at him and said “What must we do to be saved?” How awesome that God still saves thru Jesus! We pray that these men grow strong in The Lord and that His church in Haiti and the US is rooted in faith, not works.
Now when they heard this they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?” And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself.” (Acts 2:37-39 ESV)
