Haiti Mission Service
2012 Mission Trip Report

living faith ministries / our working vision / community door

The Church with Answers

Teaching the uncompromised word,
walking in faith and victory, where excellence is a way of life.

 

 

 

 

Haiti is a land of contrast. Still reeling from the 2010 earthquake that is estimated to have killed 250,000 to 300,000 people, political instabilities, abject poverty, and a lack of industry the Haitian people do not dwell in depression. 

Debbie and I just returned from our 2012 trip to Haiti (March 23 - April 2). We ministered God’s Holy Scriptures in churches in Port-Au-Prince, St. Mark, and the Pernal area, from crowds of 75 people to crowds of 3,500. 

Pastor Preval, President of Haiti Mission Service and a pastor, has had work teams in since early January building and repairing churches and putting roofs on existing churches. Even as we arrived Friday afternoon, one team had just left in the morning. 

Friday, after landing at 4:50 pm, we went through customs easily with Pastor Preval. Dropping off our suitcases at Preval’s house at 6:00 pm, we left for the 1 hour and 15 minute ride to the church at Bizoton (right), where we ministered three times during the week. The three hour service was comprised of singing and prayer. Debbie sang in Creole and Gordon spoke on Ephesians 2:19-22, “We are no longer strangers and foreigners of the Kingdom of God.” 

 

Bizotone Church receiving four converts

Bizotone Church Service, praying over four new converts.

 

Pastor Habacuc, wife Anali, and son Eleazar Saturday Pastor Habakuk, Anali, and their son Eleazar from the Island of Curacao came to stay with Pastor Preval. The Pastor has a Haitian church within a Haitian community on the island. It seems there are Haitian communities almost everywhere! Haiti Mission Service now has six or seven churches in the Dominican Republic! They also have churches in Haitian communities in Boston, New Jersey, Washington D.C., several cities in Florida in the U.S. They also have churches in France, (in St. Mark Gordon met a pastor from France), and several islands in the Carribean. 

Both of the pickup trucks that Pastor Preval uses broke down while we were in Haiti. Praise the Lord that it was not the same day. New batteries and a renewed radiator solved the problems! 
Sunday morning we returned to Bizoton for Sunday morning church service. Driving through Port-Au-Prince is, to say the least, an experience of dodging traffic and people. Turning off a main road, we traveled up a steep hill on a washed out single lane road. The picture to the left is the final turn into the Bizoton Church. The gate on the right goes into a small fenced in area of the church property. These shelters have been erected, next to existing homes, in the street itself! These people did not live in the area at the time of the earthquake, but in a crisis one does what one must. Bizotone Church road still partially blocked by earthquake victims

Here we are looking down the street from Bizotone Church where we had just driven through. The blue tarp stretched across the road had to be raised for us to drive under. The woman on the front left of the picture is doing laundry. 

Bizotone Chhurch service

Bizotone Church Service.

Sunday Church Service at Bizotone was from 10:30 am to 2:00 pm. Debbie sang, Gordon ministered on “Knowing the Name of YHWH.” Leaving the church at Bizoton at 3:00 pm, as usual, the pickup bed was loaded with people we dropped off on our way back to Pastor Preval’s. 


Monday morning the red truck was sent to the radiator shop for repair. Monday afternoon we went to a small church in the Chanjmond area. We first visited this church in 2010, a month after Haiti’s earthquake. It took an hour and a half to reach Chanjmond. We drove seeing not only the sights of Port-Au-Prince, but also the smell of Port-Au Prince. Garbage often fills the street (right) as there is little or no trash collection or clean up, and at times you have to drive or walk through it. 

In every church you can sense the faith of the believers as they stand against the tide of darkness that seems to be pervasive in Haiti that people in the U.S. cannot even imagine! Debbie sang, Gordon preached on living in the favor of God as opposed to hoping for a sporadic intervening act of God’s grace. 

Chanjmond Church service

Chanjmond Church Service.

Delmas is meeting under a temporary shelter since the 2010 earthquake

Delmas Church Service.

Tuesday afternoon we left for Pastor Lionel’s church in Downtown Port-Au-Prince in the Delmas area. Pastor Lionel had just returned this morning from Washington D.C. where he attended the funeral of Pastor Joseph’s wife. Pastor Joseph was one of the original founders of Haiti Mission Service. Their church was severely damaged in 2010, and has now been torn down. While they are preparing to rebuild they are now meeting under a tin and tarp covered brush arbor. The church has grown 1,000 people since the earthquake, from 3,000 to 4,000 people! 

There were about 1,000 people present. While Pastors Gordon and Debbie have ministered here for years, this may be the largest single crowd, except for a Sunday morning, they have seen. Debbie sang, Gordon ministered on favor and grace. The people received the word so well, Pastor Preval really encouraged the people in their exuberance! PTL! 
Wednesday all of us, Pastor Preval and Tulle, Pastor Habakuk’s family, AND Pastor Leslie and two others, left for St. Mark, a coastal city. We were headed for a Haiti Mission Service Regional Conference with Brother Dave from North Carolina. 

Pastor Roger of St. Mark (right) had organized the meeting, set up the brush arbor, prepared and served food for 200-300 pastors and guests, quite an operation. After checking into a hotel, we left for the conference. Needless to say we were overwhelmed at the size! It was MORE than we anticipated. There were between 3,000-3,500 in attendance for the afternoon session! For the evening session there were 5,000 people! In a brush arbor! 

For lunch Gordon and Debbie were served their favorite Haitian dish of rice & beans! Also they had a cole slaw that was spicy hot - wow! Of course chicken was served. 

 

Large brush arbor meeting at St. Mark

St. Mark Haiti Mission Service Conference.

Pastor Gordon speaking at St. Mark Service

Pastor Gordon at St. Mark Conference.

Thursday we attended the morning session where Gordon was able to address the 3,500 person assembly sharing that we are one in Christ in whom we are knit together as one new man, breaking down the barriers that divide us! Gordon was able to meet many pastors here that we have known for several years, including Pastors Lionel, Simeon, and Regala. 
The evening service at St. Mark was filled to the max! 5,000 people are believed to have gathered in the brush arbor which was complete with lights and a sound system. They were recording all the services and displaying them live on TV's set up around the brush arbor. Pastors and others were recording on their cell phones, I-pads, and computers!  

Evening Service at St. Mark

St. Mark Haiti Mission Service Night Service.

Gnanthier Church Service

Ganthier Church Service.

After lunch Pastor Preval and Tulle left at 4:30 pm, with Gordon and Debbie, for Ganthier, Pastor Simeon’s church, a three hour drive. It rained hard before and during the service. We have had hard rain on several evenings as it is near the rainy season. Debbie sang, Gordon preached that we are created to reign. After the service we loaded up the truck and dropped people off on the way back to Port-Au-Prince. 
Friday evening we returned to Bizoton. This night Debbie brought the Word. This is the first time Debbie has actually preached. In our first trips, beginning in 1988, Debbie would share regularly, before she started singing Creole, but never preached. Debbie shared about learning how to live receiving from God. 

Pastor Debbie preaching at Bizotone

Pastor Debbie Preaching at Bizotone.

Trench road block refilled to cross over

Trench Dug to Stop Traffic to Pernal. This trench has been partially filled allowing larger trucks to pass. We had to add some new rock for our smaller pickup to be able to cross.

Saturday we waited for the all clear to see if we could go to Pernal. This is the church Pastor Preval first founded. Friday the President of Haiti had traveled to the region because of unrest. Many, here and elsewhere, are very upset that the promises given by the President have not been fulfilled, specifically the promised road repairs. Although the roads have improved since the earthquake, many are left unrepaired from the damage during the heavy seasonal rains and have washed out! The President reassured the residents that the repairs would occur and that he ordered trucks Friday to come to the area. They didn’t leave till Saturday. 

The word came Saturday that indeed some trucks had made it through. Some local residents had dug trenches across the roads three feet wide and three feet deep. Above Pernal they had welded steel rods across a metal bridge to keep the transport trucks from getting through. As we traveled to Pernal, we passed one government truck with equipment, but did not see any others. When this truck reached Belladere they were turned back by the residents because they decided they didn’t want the road repaired, they wanted a new blacktopped road! 
Pastors Gordon and Debbie are always glad to be at Pernal. It is like coming home. They know so many families and have many friends here. Over the years Pastor Preval has built the large church from which many other churches in the area were started. He has built and remodeled a school, a building for housing missionaries, for here is often the starting point for their work in medical missions and such, and now an orphanage for 15 children is beginning to be built. 
Foundations for a new orphanage at Pernal

New Orphanage Construction at Pernal.

Carmen and her children, Julia, son unknown, Chmieka

Julia, Carmen, her son (name unknown), and Chmieka.

Carmen was one of two girls that cooked and did laundry for the first mission teams from Living Faith. She now is married and has three children! Other friends are pictured below... 
Sunday morning was church at Pernal. Debbie sang, Gordon ministered on the YHWH who keeps covenant with His people! What a place and way to end our ministry for 2012! 
Worship Service at Pernal

Pernal Church Service.

Modeline's baby dedication

Modeline's Baby Dedicated on Sunday.

At Pernal's Sunday Service Pastors Gordon and Debbie participated in Modeline's baby's dedication. They have known Modeline since she was a small child. 

 

 

Pastors Gordon and Debbie were able to minister in a variety of churches, rekindling relationships with precious Haitian Pastors, and spent time with precious friends.

 

Special new memories were made of the people and nation of Haiti. 

Here are some other sites of Haiti... 

 

Pastor Edner and Gordon

Madam Edner

El Shada Ducamel
Jermanie Chelen and her children
Little girls at Pernal Church Maulide, Husband Randy and son Armstrong
Scene from Port-Au-Prince Brightly Painted Transport in Port-Au-Prince
Street Scene in Port-Au-Prince Street Scene in Port-Au-Prince
Street Traffic in St. Mark New U.N. Housing for the Displaced Outside Port-Au-Prince

Haiti Mission Service is an organization of Haitian churches. Haiti Mission Service operates orphanages, schools, food programs, job training, and anything else you can imagine. But most importantly they preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ to a people trapped in voodoo. 

A board of native Haitian Pastors, with Pastor Preval as the President, oversees and coordinates the work of the various churches. Made up of hundreds of Pastors, Evangelists, and churches, HMS, in 2012, represents approximately 500,000 people in Haiti. Over the last few years HMS has established churches in the Dominican Republic, France, Caribbean Islands and in the United States among Haitian communities. 

Living Faith Ministries has been working with Pastor Preval and Haiti Mission Service since 1988. 


Haitian school girl at Pastor Regalas school.Make A Difference

If you would like to make a financial contribution to the rebuilding of Haiti through Haiti Mission Service, you may send your support, either one time or monthly, to:

Living Faith Ministries
1 North Main Street
Keyser, WV

 

 

 

 

Write your checks to Living Faith Ministries. Please mark your gift for HMS. This is tax deductible. 

If you are interested in joining in a mission trip to Haiti contact us. There are a variety of opportunities to serve the people of Haiti through preaching missions, construction missions, and medical missions. We would be glad to connect you with a mission that will change your life! 

 


 

Pictures of Haiti Trip from March 23-April 2, 2012

 

Pastor Preval

Pastor Preval

Madam Tulle, Pastor Preval's wife.

Madam Tulle, Pastor Preval's Wife

If your church or organization would like to have Pastor Gordon and/or Pastor Debbie share about Haiti with your group
you can contact them at Living Faith Ministries - 1-800-732-4841

Living Faith Ministries
1 North Main Street
Keyser, WV 26726