Good Morning Everyone,

Our theme for this month: “Getting through tough times”

Our Bible verse for today: “Finally, brothers, pray for us that the Lord’s message may spread rapidly and be honored, just as it was with you, and that we may be delivered from wicked and evil men, for not all have faith.” 2 Thessalonians 3:1-2 (HCSB)

Our thought for today: “Pray for our mission team in Haiti.”

As I write this I am less than twenty-four hours from leaving the USA to lead a mission team to Haiti. At 2:30 tomorrow morning eighteen of us (9 from Tennessee and 9 from Indiana) will leave our homes and begin the trip. We will be there September 19-27.

Our ministry site will be in the Carrefour region northwest of the city of Port-au-Prince. We will be working in partnership with a Haitian Christian ministry called Grace International. Our team will be working on construction projects to help complete a new building on the Grace International campus for young adult women who grew up in one of the orphanages, but who cannot stay there any longer because they are now too old. This transition home we will be working on will serve as a safe haven for the young women to live in until they are married. Our team will also be conducting daily Vacation Bible Schools for children in the orphanages and in the surrounding communities, and we will be helping to provide a hot lunch for over 2000 children every day.

There is currently a great spiritual awakening and revival taking place in Haiti. The Holy Spirit is doing a tremendous work there. The churches are full, Christian schools are being established all across the island, and even the secular television and radio stations broadcast Christian programming. We’re excited about being a part of it.

But at the same time the situation in Haiti is desperate. It is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere (the poverty is overwhelming). There is also still a lot of rubble and destruction from the great earthquake which occurred more than five years ago. And there is a lot of crime. Armed gangs of thugs continue to be a problem. (Our team will be staying in a walled missionary compound and we will have armed guards 24/7).

Haiti also has a long history of political instability, especially around election time. While our team is there, the country will be preparing for the next Presidential election which is scheduled for early October. Although the last two election cycles have been fairly peaceful, the potential does exist for demonstrations and unrest.

However our team members are not fearful in the least, nor should we be. Our Haitian partners at Grace International are very experienced at hosting mission teams from the USA, and they have the logistics well developed in order to ensure the safety of the team. But more importantly, we are going in the power and the protection of the Holy Spirit. This is a humanitarian mission in the name of Jesus Christ and we have faith that He will protect us.

I tell you all of this so you can pray for us. This will be the last devotional message in this series until Monday September 28^th. Therefore I want to ask you to hold onto this one and use it in your daily quiet time to pray for us every day while we’re in Haiti.

I’ll be sending reports and pictures all throughout the course of the mission and will post them on the Oak Hill Baptist Church Facebook page, the CERT International Facebook page, and on my personal page as well.  I look forward to telling you all about the wonderful things God is surely going to accomplish through the work of our team.

God Bless,

Pastor Jim