Missions Report

Haiti Travels, Part 4
A missed airplane and a ministry call.
Posted by Joey Kelly

On one of my last trips to Haiti, I was privileged to visit Montagnac, a little village near the tip of the southwestern tip of the island. We fly from Port-au-Prince to Jeremie, then follow the river most of the way to Dame Marie, then take the trail up the mountain to the church and school compound. It takes about an hour to walk the trail, after an hour-and-a-half ride from Jeremie. I always enjoy the weeks' preaching at Montagnac and Lagonbri, the outreach ministry of Pastor Gabriel Wilcinot and his wife.

Our return flight back to Port was scheduled for 8 or 9 in the morning, and we got up early, ate a quick breakfast and beat feet down the mountain, jumped in the truck that was waiting for us, and hustled to the airport, but got there a little too late… as we neared the airfield, we saw our plane taking off. Dejected, we went into the ticket office and got new tickets for the next morning's flight. We then went to find a hotel to spend the night, dropped off our bags, then Pastor Gabriel took my wife and me on a tour of the town.

After a little sight-seeing, we went through the open-air market and began to pass out tracts, and, as usually happens in Haiti, we were received quite well and quickly ran out of tracts (a refreshing change from the usual responses we get in the States). I found myself weeping for the people there, and realized that the Lord was directing me to minister in Jeremie. The rest of the group were still disappointed at missing our flight and viewed our unexpected overnight stay in Jeremie as an unfortunate occurance, but God used our tardiness to put a burden in my heart to reach the people there.

I haven't been back to Jeremie (my only trip to Haiti after that one was limited to the area around Port-au-Prince), but I pray often that God would send an awakening to that entire region. Since Jeremie is the only city of note on the peninsula, everyone has to come to town at some point, so it's a strategic place for evangelistic campaigns, tent revivals and whatnot.