Missions Newsletter
11/23/2002 - back issues

Next meeting:
Monday, November 25, 2002 @ 7:30PM
New Mission Baptist Church Sanctified
New Orleans, LA
Pastor Gabriel Wilcinot

Next Haiti trip:
January 9-20, 2003
Lagonbri and Montagnac: 4-day revival, with AM services in Lagonbri, and evening services in Montagnac
Port-au-Prince and surrounding areas: services and meetings with various pastors, etc.

Dear friends and fellow-laborers,

I've just come in from praying (I pray best when walking, whereas kneeling or sitting while praying is very difficult for me) as I write this. For a couple of weeks now I've been seeking the Lord for sermon material for my upcoming Haiti missions trip in January. I believe He is leading me to teach on the temple of Moses, demonstrating how Christ is portrayed in the temple and its furnishings, a topic I have taught on many times before. My struggle has been with the fear that this material will be over the heads of the people in Montagnac and Lagonbri, but the Lord reminded me of the God-given yearning I've had for years now to take my time preaching the Old Testament to a church, bringing them along in the faith. I am now convinced I have the mind of the Lord on what to preach during these meetings.

My wife Cindy (St. Germain) will be going with me this time. This will be her first trip outside the US, and she is understandably apprehensive, expecially after hearing some of my stories (no running water, cold baths, etc.). She is looking forward to the trip, however, and prays that she can be used of the Lord while we are there.

This will be my second visit to these two communities. They are near the tip of Haiti's southern peninsula, about as far from civilization as it is possible to get in Haiti. Montagnac has no water available, so the villagers have to pack it up the mountain by hand or donkey. Lagonbri has a spring, so this is not a problem for them. Neither of the two communities has electricity, of course, and there is no cellphone service either. One of my projects the last time I was there was to locate a suitable site to attempt to dig a well in Montagnac. I am anxious to see the results of that effort.

To reach these villages, we have to take a 45-minute flight from Port (Port-au-Prince) to Jeremie. From there we travel by tap-tap (a pickup truck with the bed covered with a doghouse-like structure, with benches inside) on a very dusty and bumpy gravel/dirt road for almost 2 hours, stopping at Chambellan for refeshments along the way. Pastor Gabriel sometimes holds baptism services at Chambellan, as it is the closest place to Montagnac with a river suitable for baptism. Once we reach the trail that leads to Montagnac, we park and lock the tap-tap and begin an hour-long climb up the mountain. The last time I made this trip, we reached Montagnac and our church/school complex well after dark.

My itinerary for the revival will be as follows: we will rise each morning, pray and eat breakfast, then walk to Lagonbri, which is a very dangerous (there are steep cliffs along the trail that leads to Lagonbri) 50-minute journey to the other side of the mountain. We will hold a morning service there, then walk back to Montagnac, where we will eat lunch. Later that evening we will hold a service at the church in Montagnac. After the service, we'll eat supper and head off to bed. Lather, rinse, repeat, for three more days.

We are believing God for a great moving of His Spirit during these meetings. God answered our prayers in this regard the last time I preached there, and we are convinced that without the power of God these people will not come to Christ in the numbers we desire. To that end, please pray for my wife and me, and the rest of our team, and for these two villages, that Christ would be magnified and that the people would come to Him.