Anyone who has been to Haiti, or have lived here for an extended period   of time understand that there is some serious spiritual oppression and bondage at play.  For a place that has the potential for such beauty, warmth, and simplicity, it is a place characterized by poverty, disease, hunger, voodoo, and political instability.  With this in mind it is easy to want to retreat and leave the problems for someone else, or feel like change is impossible on a micro level without change first on a macro level.

However, what we have found to be true, recently, is that in such an oppressive environment the only real way to survive is by the grace of God through the power of prayer.

For any Christian this truth seems like a no-brainer, but I (Kyle) think the difference in our journey is that we have finally started taking prayer seriously as a couple.  It is easy to pay lip-service to Christian practices like prayer, fasting, etc., but it is another thing to truly make time to do – to approach it with discipline and intentionality.

Now, I realize that I have talked about this a lot recently, but I do so with good reason.  Our first trip to Haiti was an amazing experience, which prompted our return.  During the last part of our initial encounter with Haiti, one of my students Simprius asked me to specifically pray that his wife and children be moved to Port-de-Paix to be with him while he attended Sonlight Bible College and planted a church with Sonlight.  Instead of paying lip service like I might have in the past, I actually prayed regularly for this to happen, and sure enough, by the end of the summer, his family had been moved to live with him.

Last year, one of my Bible College students and his wife were really struggling with trying to have a child, and he opened up about it and asked me to pray for him about it.  Once again, I felt honored to join him in petitioning God for something as wonderful as a child, and so I faithfully started praying for him from December through June.  Vital then took a semester off and did some traveling to and from Port-au-Prince to see a doctor, and the news that he got from the doctor was that there was  a problem with him, which prevented it.  When I returned a few weeks ago, I asked our Bible College Director, Lenny, if Vital was going to be back in school this year, and he said yes; and then he added, “His wife is pregnant.”  This was amazing news for me to hear, because God truly worked a miracle in him and with his wife.

If that isn’t enough; one of my other Bible College students regularly came to my house for a Saturday Discipleship group.  At one of our first meetings he asked me to pray for him and his wife.  The problem was, like many Haitians, Hudson lives apart from his wife; she lives in the Bahamas and he lives here in Port-de-Paix.  Hudson missed his wife and longed for a chance to be with her, and so we started praying for this to happen.  Last year, Hudson was a Senior and so was graduating from Sonlight Bible college.  Well sure enough, I showed up to the graduation with little thoughts of anything except the graduation, and Hudson came up to me so excited, because his wife was there with him to watch him graduate.  Truly exciting stuff!  To make it this answered prayer even better, when I returned a few weeks ago, I received the good news that Hudson’s wife is pregnant.  Prayers is a powerful thing!

In a place of such bondage it is hard not to be overwhelmed and retreat; however, if a person stays firm and approaches prayer seriously, God is guaranteed to show up.  God wants to destroy all the bondage around us, and he just need faithful people who are willing to accept the call to pray.  Lorraine and I have accepted that call, and as it is changing others it is changing us.

Kyle