Just as expected, we heard from Alfonso first thing this morning. After yesterday’s Sunday church services, He, Pastor Pierre and Tiffany rose bright and early, leaving the village of Boucan La Marre at daybreak, headed to the Port city of Anse A Galets to catch a small motorboat that would take them on the 2 hour journey to the fishing village of Point Sable. While in Anse A Galets Alfonso and Tiffany took advantage of the available cell signal to send us an update and some pictures along with some audio from the first day of the Women’s Conference. To quote Alfonso, the conference “could not have gone any better”. While every day in Haiti is difficult, the village of Boucan La Marre is facing new challenges, as many of the men have left their wives and children to find work in other parts of Haiti, and in some cases, in other countries. The women have been left to hold down the household while the husbands work to send money home. This situation has left many of the women feeling overwhelmed and frightened. God used our team to strengthen the women and encourage them to continue to trust God, seek Him, and remember that women have a mighty role in the work of the Kingdom. During last year’s trip God used Alfonso to start talking to the people about a “missionary mindset”. Go continued to develop this concept through the messages that came forth during this conference. God is encouraging Pastor Pierre and the people not to worry about the fact that many people seems to leaving, They must trust that God will provide them with what they need to continue His work and they must focus on teaching and training those who are there so if they leave they are ready to represent Christ in a manner worthy of their calling. We have no doubt that God wants to use Haitians as missionaries that travel around the world reaching out to others and telling the story of how Jesus Christ delivered them… The victims become the victors!!! We KNOW God is using RTPI to help create these testimonies and we are so thankful for your prayers as we labor with our Haitian brothers and sisters in this effort!
Along with praying for our efforts, we hope you will take a moment to listen to audio that Alfonso sent, of the introduction to his first message of the conference. He delivered 8 messages in 3 days with Pastor Pierre interpreting. We also had the help of another translator by the name of Patrick. Alfonso said Patrick was a very good translator but the translation from English to Haitian Creole is crude meaning the translation when conversing is very different than the translation that is needed when preaching. Because of this, Pastor Pierre did most of the translating as he has a deeper grasp of the scriptures than Patrick and was better able to recognize when the people were having difficulty understanding a concept and in turn clarify it for them. Overall, the conference was a WONDERFUL time of worship and fellowship for the people who attended and for our team!
Moving forward, please pray for our team as they fellowship and worship with the people of Point Sable, which is a village that has even less materially speaking, than Boucan La Marre. Pray that the people will be encouraged by the team’s visit and that our team will be encouraged by the spirit of these God fearing people. It will be a short trip, as the team will be heading back tomorrow but we know that God can do whatever He wills in whatever amount of time He wants!
Along with praying for our efforts, we hope you will take a moment to listen to audio that Alfonso sent, of the introduction to his first message of the conference. He delivered 8 messages in 3 days with Pastor Pierre interpreting. We also had the help of another translator by the name of Patrick. Alfonso said Patrick was a very good translator but the translation from English to Haitian Creole is crude meaning the translation when conversing is very different than the translation that is needed when preaching. Because of this, Pastor Pierre did most of the translating as he has a deeper grasp of the scriptures than Patrick and was better able to recognize when the people were having difficulty understanding a concept and in turn clarify it for them. Overall, the conference was a WONDERFUL time of worship and fellowship for the people who attended and for our team!
Moving forward, please pray for our team as they fellowship and worship with the people of Point Sable, which is a village that has even less materially speaking, than Boucan La Marre. Pray that the people will be encouraged by the team’s visit and that our team will be encouraged by the spirit of these God fearing people. It will be a short trip, as the team will be heading back tomorrow but we know that God can do whatever He wills in whatever amount of time He wants!