Missions Report

Haiti Travels Part 3
Pain, difficulty and a harvest in Haiti.
Posted by Joey Kelly

I've always considered myself an evangelist, but I've done a lot of teaching along the way as well. I seem to be gifted in both areas, and when in Haiti I usually get a chance to do a little of each.

My first trip with Pastor Gabriel Wilcinot to the villages of Montagnac and Lagonbri was an eventful one. We made several hikes back and forth to Lagonbri (our quarters were in Montagnac, where the main church and school had already been established). It takes half an hour or so to get from one to the other, and the trail is treacherous, with loose stones and a steep cliff to navigate. The normal route to Lagonbri is a long, moderate climb along a tiny footpath to the head of the ravine, but after that there is a series of stone steps that someone long ago had taken the time to put in, so the descent is quite easy. From there, it's but a quick dip through a small valley, and we're at our destination.

There is another route, one I took only once and will probably never take again, which cuts diagonally across the ravine, but the climb back up to the trail is over large boulders, up and up and up. The day Twin and I took the shortcut, it was raining very heavily, and stepping up two feet at a time while trying valiantly to keep my balance proved too much for me… I spent the next day either lying in bed or sitting in a chair next to the kitchen with my feet propped up, unable to move my legs. The next morning, Pastor Gabriel lent me a tube of Ben Gay, and sure enough, by lunch my pain had mostly subsided and I was able to move around pretty good, but I wasn't able to make any more treks to Lagonbri that week. It always seems to happen this way when I'm on the mission field… I suffer for a day or two with some malady or injury, then someone eventually remembers he has some medicine in his bag or in a cabinet somewhere that perks me right up.

Missions work is often exhilarating (we saw over a hundred people surrender their lives to God that week), but it's also very difficult at times. Paul's words are apropos: thou therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. – 2Timothy 2:3