Haiti Cheri News - October 21, 2011

By: Pastor Preston Porter, Revolution Church

In my 11 or so years in ministry there have been a small handful of moments where I knew God was not just working heavily around me but He was also working in ways where I just knew His best was about to happen. This happened several times for me in Haiti but no way was clearer than with a man I met on the street in Phaeton.

Having grown up in and out of church and being in ministry for a while, I must confess that while I love to talk about Jesus and what He has done, I much prefer it to be on my terms and in familiar settings, namely the church. When the night came for our team to do an evangelistic walk, I was honestly a little apprehensive but just prayed, "God, I want to make a difference and I want this village to know we love them, but I am scared I might mess up what you are doing or make a fool of myself, so You gotta show up in a huge way cause I know I am a dummy." Or it was something to that effect.

It made me feel better when my team had Gethro (the Program Director in Haiti) as our interpreter and that Jenna Ellis was on the team too. This was her second trip so she knew the deal and they both just took off kinda leaving me a few paces behind which is hard since I have the stride of a giraffe. I was not by myself for long though as a few kids started walking with me (as is usually the case) and we were joking and laughing even though neither of us really understood the other.

Jenna and Gethro had talked with a few folks and I spoke with a few too, including a man who had a family, loved Jesus, and was appreciative of all we were doing in the village. So I was like, "man, this is a piece of cake." No opposition, no anger, no mocking of the silly Americans, especially the tall frightening Pastor who got stung in the face and head by bees earlier in the day and ran around hitting himself with his t-shirt he had just torn off. (It's a long story for another time.) This was awesome!

On our way to the next area of the village, Gethro was telling Jenna about a man he had met earlier in the day while out running an errand for our team. Gethro said he had asked the man to come to church that night, and had asked him if he knew God and if he would like to put his faith in Christ. The man had basically responded that while he thought God was good and everything, he could not commit his life to Him yet because his cow had been stolen and that he was in the process of finding who had stolen the cow and was going to get his revenge. He said he was going to "handle it" in a way that God would not approve of. Basically the man had told Gethro, "I have been wronged and maybe once I murder this cow stealer, we can talk about God then." Uh... wow.

Jenna being her ever helpful and encouraging self (we both work on staff at Revolution Church) replied (after we had finally began to shake off the shock of what Gethro had just told us), "wow, that's a messy one, that would be one for you Pastor Preston." Half joking, half serious, she was basically alluding to the fact that while this was her second time in Haiti, and that even Gethro couldn't reason with this dude, we didn't really have a "how to deal with Haitians who want to murder cow stealers out of revenge before they accept salvation in Jesus Christ" section in the helpful pamphlet Pastor Oris had given us at the beginning of the trip.

As we were just wrapping up the story and I was again flashing back to my prayer earlier where I felt so inadequate and unprepared and was thinking, "God you have taught me much and I have seen some crazy things, but I would have no idea what to do in that situation. Thanks for letting Gethro handle it and I pray that you continue to chase after this revenge dude until you get him with your Grace." As soon as these thoughts and prayers left my head, we walked up to our next house and there was a tall man there wearing a bright yellow shirt and he had to be in his late 50's or older. (Haitians are beautiful and age really well so I am still not sure.) We began to talk with him just as the sun had disappeared and while there was an awesome sunset, it was really dark too, so it was a few moments in to the greeting and chit chat when Gethro more or less just blurted out, "This is the guy!!! This is the cow guy!!!"

This is the guy!!! This is the cow guy!!!

There are so many unbelievable things about that moment and the few moments that followed that I don't really have time here to go into all of them but just a few were...

God had answered my prayer immediately; little did I know it would be me/us He used. God was like, "yeah, I'm gonna get him, and I am going to use you. Complaining, scared, doubting you." Our God's mercy is mindblowing.
The fact that God moved in Gethro to tell us that story RIGHT BEFORE we walked up to the man's house. (Gethro had no idea he lived there.)
There was NO WAY to be ready to talk to that guy, but being prepped on his situation DID make my heart burn to see Jesus in his life no matter what. While I still had no idea what to say, I darn sure wasn't going to give up because God had arranged this meeting and there was no doubt about it.

We talked briefly and he still was feeling like he was not only unforgivable but he wanted to wait. He also was scared to come to church because he didn't have any "nice" clothes. I will never forget the intensity of Gethro and Jenna as we were there with a message that could literally save this guy's life. Not just eternal implications but Jesus could change his heart, and he would not continue on a path that could end with someone being dead. It was an out of body experience for me and it was just surreal. One of the only things I really remember saying was in response to his feeling that he didn't belong in church because his clothes were not nice. I told him the truth, that he was welcome and wanted at church that night and I also played on the Haitians' high regard for Pastors and said it would be an honor for me to sit next to him tonight as my friend. He reluctantly agreed to come and it felt like he was trying to leave a loophole to not come so then I played a Pastor card that he probably hadn't heard before. I told him that if he didn't come tonight I would pray that God would not let him sleep until he went to church. I think that actually scared him and I am not proud of it.... but it worked.

He came to church and while he didn't sit next to me, he greeted me warmly. Pastor Oris gave me an opportunity to preach for a little bit and I talked about how God has a plan for each of our lives that can not be avoided. He WILL use us, the only question is, how. I spoke about Revolution Church and our love for the people of Haiti and how God had done so much already. I gave everyone a chance to place their faith in Christ at the end during my prayer, and was literally exhausted when I got done, even though I had only talked for 10-15 minutes or so. I had almost forgotten about cow man when he worked his way through the crowd and came to me and Pastor Oris and told us he was ready to trust Christ. I had never felt such an exhilarating, grateful, humbling moment like that in my 33 years on this earth. We prayed. We gave him a Bible and I looked him in the eye and made him promise me that he would use the Bible, that he would tell others, and that now he was expected to lead others in studying the Word since there weren't a lot of Bibles in the village. My friend had come so far but I still wasn't sure he wasn't doing all this just to get something, even though in his condition and living situation, I would not have blamed him for one second. I spoke very directly and even a little confrontationally and asked him if he was serious about "Swiv Jezi." (Following Jesus.) He looked at me with tears in his eyes and his hands joined together and arching skyward as if in prayer and when Pastor Oris translated his response I lost it... He said, "Jesus is my life, His word is my life, I will not stop following Him." It's just one of many amazing moments we had in Haiti.

I read these verses while teaching that night:

II Timothy 3:14 - 17 [NLT]

But you must remain faithful to the things you have been taught. You know they are true, for you know you can trust those who taught you. You have been taught the holy Scriptures from childhood, and they have given you the wisdom to receive the salvation that comes by trusting in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives. It corrects us when we are wrong and teaches us to do what is right. God uses it to prepare and equip his people to do every good work.