God's Hand at Work

Some of you may have seen the recent post on the RMI blog.  If so, I will let you know that this post was written with the thought that many of our family, friends, and supporters may not see that blog post, but read ours.  We wanted each of you to rejoice along with us in what God is doing in the lives of individuals that we have come in contact with over the past year. 

We realize that it has been another long wait for a blog update, we apologize for that, somehow, the blog posts always seem to get pushed to the bottom of the to-do lists...have you ever read Tyranny of the Urgent by Charles E. Hummel?  As much as I hate to admit it, I believe that book was written with me (Tina) in mind...

Since we arrived back in Haiti last summer, we have served alongside 21 teams as they have come to visit their sister church and/or spend time with RMI.  It is always a blessing to be able to spend with our brothers and sisters from the US as they serve alongside the churches here in Haiti.  

In this post, we want to share two different stories of lives that are changing because of the ministry of the Haitian church, in combination with the American churches that come alongside them.  

First of all, we want to introduce you to Markenson, who I (Tina) met a year ago when I visited Cote de Fer church with a team from Walloon Lake, MI.  On our last morning in Cote de Fer, we spent some time visiting individuals in their homes. We delivered food boxes and spent some time in prayer for individuals and their families.  One of the homes that we visited was Markenson's.  At that time, he was in a wheelchair after losing his left leg, below the knee.  The individuals from the team shared the gospel with him, his family, and friends; but no one was ready or willing to make a commitment to Christ at that time.  Following is a picture taken during that visit. 

In October, Lee and Josiah returned to Cote de Fer with a team from McGregor Baptist Church (FL) and participated in some home visits, once again.  Josiah visited Markenson with a group from the McGregor team, who again shared the gospel with him.  This time, Markenson accepted Christ as his personal Lord and Savior.  After leaving the home, the team learned Markenson's story.  He had been a well known criminal in the Cote de Fer community and was shot by the police in February of 2017, at which time, he lost his leg.  Eight months later, after two contacts from RMI teams and the ongoing ministry from the church leadership in Cote de Fer, Markenson recognized the need for Christ in his life.  Our prayer is that God would continue to mold and shape Markenson into a man after God's own heart.  Following is a picture that was taken of Markenson with a team member from McGregor Baptist Church during our last visit with him.

Some of you have heard a portion of the second story from when we were in the States last summer.  Lee met Ti Mayi in January 2017 with a team from Lifehouse church in DE, who came for the first time to experience what RMI is doing in Haiti.  During their visit, Lee and some other RMI staff accompanied them as they went to visit the home of a young man and his family, who were faithful in their service to God.  Again, the team was delivering a box of food or a water filter (Lee isn't sure which one), but more importantly, they wanted to spend some time in prayer for this family.  After a brief conversation with this young man, they learned that his father, Saint Clair (nicknamed Ti Mayi - little corn - by the people of the community) was not a believer.  In fact, he was very involved in practicing voodoo.  He feels it is his responsibility to pay his debts to the evil spirits on behalf of his family.  The team shared the Truth with him and prayed for him.  It was breaking his son's heart that his father would not spend eternity with him, if something would happen.  Following is a picture of Ti Mayi and his son from that first visit.

In the spring of 2017, we had some seeds donated in our name that needed to be distributed.  Perguens (one of RMI's partnership facilitators) and Lee felt the need to take seeds to this family.  When they arrived at the home of Ti Mayi and his son, with the bag of seeds in hand, they shared the Gospel with Ti Mayi, once again.  Then they walked to see the fields where the seeds would be planted.  This is where God began to show his plan . . . Perguens and Lee noticed that the fields were already plowed.  When they inquired as to why, Ti Mayi and his son said they had plowed the fields, but did not have the money to plant them.  When asked how much of the field the seeds would plant, they opened the bag and said that it would be the perfect amount to plant the entire field.  The other amazing part of God's plan was that when our staff were loading the seeds, they felt led to give him the same type of seeds instead of giving them several different types and they added an additional "scoop" to the bag . . . God was leading.

Before leaving that day, Lee and Perguens reminded Ti Mayi that this God that his son serves knows our needs and provides for them in advance, just like he had in this instance.  They prayed for him, again, and he responded that he felt like God was tugging at his heart, but he wasn't ready to make a commitment to him, yet.  

In February of this year, the Lifehouse team returned, again, to minister alongside of their new sister church in another part of Haiti.  As they sat around the table reminiscing about their trip in January 2017, they looked back on the time that they had spent with Ti Mayi and caught up on what had happened last spring.  At that time, Perguens had yet another update; he had been informed that Ti Mayi had willingly attended special services at his son's church over the Christmas season and as of today, we understand that he has been attending church regularly for the last month or so! He still hasn't made the decision to follow Christ, but God is at work in his life!  We are confident that one day soon, Ti Mayi will come to know Christ as his personal Lord and Savior.  Following is the most recent picture that we have of Ti Mayi, his family, and Perguens. 

Although we may not have stories to share every day of the week, or even every month, we are thankful to see God's hand at work in the lives of the people around us.  Thank you for your role in this work that touches the lives of the people that we have the privilege to minister to; alongside our Haitian and American brothers and sisters.  God continues to do new things ... for this, we are thankful!