God's Kingdom at Work in Haiti

Pray for Haiti and the many people working there to help God's children!

"Eternal God, send forth your Sprit to encourage and strengthen the people of Haiti in these difficult times. We pray especially for those impacted by the recent earthquake. Encourage and strengthen those who help and support others. In your mercy, receive the souls of those who have died; comfort their families and loved ones. Surround with your presence the sick and suffering. Aid the work of those who still search and rescue. Empower the medical and aid workers and all who labor to heal.

Likewise, inspire and empower the resolve of the nations and peoples of the world to be your instruments of help and healing. Stir up the might of your love and compassion among the nations to rally resources and stay the course until the humanitarian job is accomplished.

Lastly, enfold and uphold the people of Haiti—from the youngest newly born to the oldest among us—in the arms of your love and the strength of your might. This we pray in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, amen.

– The Most Rev. Michael Bruce Curry, Presiding Bishop and Primate, The Episcopal Church"

Haiti: Day by Day

Video from Connecticut Public

"Oct 18, 2022

From one man’s promise to his father to a group of medical volunteers, Haiti: Day by Day captures the essence of human kindness. In 2014, Connecticut filmmaker Scott Sniffen started following a team of doctors, nurses and other medical volunteers to rural Haiti as they try to bring basic healthcare to areas where there are none. One leader of the group is Guinxe Gabriel, a Haitian American who never forgot the words of his father when he left Haiti at a young age, “Remember the others.” Haiti, the poorest nation in the Western hemisphere, has a long history of unrest, corruption and bloodshed, which continues today. The filmmakers are witness to life in the mountainous regions of the small Caribbean nation, where some areas compare to life during the 17th century. Despite impoverished living conditions and little to no support from their government, the smiling, friendly islanders meet the volunteers with open arms and are more than accepting to wait in the heat to be seen by a doctor, perhaps for the first time in their lives. The film also reports on other sustainable efforts in Haiti, programs which incorporate Haitian doctors and volunteers into long-term efforts. And the film follows the group back to Guinxe’s childhood home in the mountains where his father ignited the dream so many years ago. In the end, filmmaker Sniffen hopes to shine a light on a different Haiti than the one often seen in the media; a Haiti with smart, vigilant, capable and most of all friendly people, all with hopes and dreams like us all." from video introduction

What is being done to help the people of Haiti? | Inside Story

Video from Al Jazeera English

"Murders, lynchings and kidnappings have increased in Haiti. More than 100,000 children are at risk of starvation. The impact of natural disasters in recent years including earthquakes is still being felt. Political instability continues. So can Haiti offer hope to its people? And what is the international community doing to help? Presenter: Laura Kyle Guests: Harold Isaac, independent journalist In Port-au-Prince Eugenia Charles - Executive Director of Fondasyon Mapou, a faith-based organisation, host/executive Producer of Konbit Lakay, a Hatian radio show." from video introduction

What Evangelicals Owe Haiti

"To understand the island nation’s crisis and what the church must do now, start with what we didn’t do.

Right now, the Western Hemisphere’s second-oldest republic is collapsing. Militant gangs in Haiti control most of the capital, Port-au-Prince, and significant territory in other cities. They extract bribes at gunpoint for every case of diapers, bag of rice, box of gauze, and gallon of gasoline that moves in or out of its seaport. They set fire to neighborhoods and mount coordinated attacks on police stations. They drag rivals from emergency room beds and execute them outside.

Thus, Haiti’s economy is in free fall. Its annualized inflation verges on 50 percent. Fuel in some areas fetches $10 a gallon on the black market. The nation is slipping into famine—a term, believe it or not, rarely before used there. Thousands of its people are swamping boats bound for South Florida and marching across continents and piling up against the US-Mexico border.

To face these crises, there is no government. Haiti’s putative head of state, prime minister and acting president Ariel Henry, took office after the brazen and bizarre 2021 assassination of an unpopular president. But Henry is also unpopular. He has long overstayed the constitutional limits of his term. To replace him, Haiti would need to hold elections; its last elections were so long ago that every chair in its legislature sits empty..." from the article: What Evangelicals Owe Haiti

'Pray': 165,000 Haitians Flee Capital as Haiti Overrun by Hundreds of Violent Gangs

Video from CBN News

"The nation of Haiti is being overrun by criminal gangs raping, killing, and starving the population. Haitian police have failed to stop the violence, so citizens are resorting to vigilante justice as Haiti spirals into its biggest crisis in more than a decade. The head of UNICEF in Haiti tells CBN News that 80% of the Caribbean nation's capital city is in the hands of more than 200 criminal gangs. "Right now the humanitarian situation is really catastrophic," Bruno Maes, UNICEF's representative in Haiti, said. "Actually, it's one of the worst crises Haiti has been through in the past decade." from video introduction

History of Christianity and Missions in Haiti

"Its been said that Haiti is 70% Catholic, 20% Protestant, and 100% Voodoo. While this may be true it only partially tells a riveting story.

The story of God working throughout the history of Haiti to spread the life saving message of his son is an utterly fascinating one. The following is a non-experts attempt to tell part of this story.

During Haiti’s early history the Spanish and French both imported slaves from Africa to maximize productivity on the sugar plantations in the colony of Saint Dominique, modern day Haiti. As slaves arrived in the “new world”, they were exposed to new Catholic doctrine and belief. Many adopted aspects of the new catholic practice and combined it with their traditional African spiritualist beliefs, voodoo. Voodoo comes from the Fon language of Benin, West Africa, and means “spirit.” [1] Throughout the early history of Haiti, the slaves endured tremendous hardships at the hands of their captors. As time went on, the slaves african spiritualist beliefs became more a point of pride as Catholicism was increasingly viewed as the religion of the brutal slave holders. Voodoo became a means to communicate and organize to fight for their independence. This peaked during an infamous event in in 1791. According to Haiti’s official bicentennial website the Haitian revolution began on a night in 1791 when “A man named Boukman … organized a meeting with the slaves in the mountains of the North. This meeting took the form of a Voodoo ceremony in Bois Caiman in the northern mountains of the island. It was raining and the sky was raging with clouds; the slaves then started confessing their resentment of their condition. A woman started dancing languorously in the crowd, taken by the spirits of the loas. With a knife in her hand, she cut the throat of a pig and distributed the blood to all the participants of the meeting who swore to kill all the whites on the island.” The revolution that began on this night ended in 1804 with the formation of the world first free slave republic.." from the article: History of Christianity and Missions in Haiti

Resources:

Aid for Haiti (link)

The Haitian Times (link)

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God's Kingdom at Work in Haiti