Could you please pray for Cepres Church in Haiti?
Living Water has a team who goes every year to work with Cepres, a school, an orphanage, and a community in Haiti. The team and the congregation also have an ongoing relationship with these ministries in Haiti, through an organization called SMI Haiti.
Haiti is the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere, the twentieth poorest in the world. (By way of comparison, according to the World Bank, Kenya is the 30th. poorest nation; Bangladesh is 34th.; Laos is 48th.; Vietnam is 53rd; India is 55th.; and Iraq is 81st.
According to the CIA:
[Haiti is] the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere with 80% of the population living under the poverty line and 54% in abject poverty, the earthquake further inflicted $7.8 billion in damage and caused the country's GDP to contract. In 2011, the Haitian economy began recovering from the earthquake. However, two hurricanes adversely affected agricultural output and the low public capital spending slowed the recovery in 2012. Two-fifths of all Haitians depend on the agricultural sector, mainly small-scale subsistence farming, and remain vulnerable to damage from frequent natural disasters, exacerbated by the country's widespread deforestation.Government-to-government aid is often susceptible to Haitian government corruption.
But when church groups like Living Water and parachurch groups like SMI Haiti are able to take money and volunteers directly to places in the country, real progress is made, spiritually, economically, in education, and in food for kids who are fortunate to get one meal a day.
Of course, the real key to long-term change in Haiti is on the spiritual front. The country is afflicted and often held back by voodoo. When Christ comes to people, assuring them of their eternal value--God made them and has made a way for reconciliation and new life with Him through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, people gain the power for living.
Cepres Church has gained a strong foothold in Haiti. Its pastor is a convert from voodooism. After being given up for dead by voodoo priests, members of a church helped him and prayed for him. By the power of God in Christ, he survived and came to surrender to Christ as God and Lord.
He has been a leading hand in the establishment of an orphanage and a school and providing relief to the people of the area. Brought to life by Jesus Christ, Pastor Jean-Marie and his congregation, are bringing life to others. Please pray for Cepres Church and for Pastor Jean-Marie and his family. And if you feel moved to help the church with a place to worship and meet, check out the embedded post below.
Please share this post on your Facebook, Twitter, Google-Plus, Pinterest, and other accounts. Share the link in emails, if you feel so moved.
Some may read this and think: But it's just one church and one spot in Haiti.
True. But it is one spot.
And by your prayers, your sharing of the link to this post, and by the financial gifts of those so disposed, God can and will make a difference in that one spot. (He already is making a difference in that one spot.)
When God came into the world in the Person of Jesus Christ, He didn't refuse to heal or help one person because His humanity prevented Him from being in the presence of everyone in the world needing help. He helped those before Him.
In this post, I'm putting Cepres Church and the people of Haiti who live in its community before you. You can be the hands and feet of Jesus for these people who stand before you now (Matthew 25:31-46).
Thank you.
Below are pictures that show a bit of the life of Cepres Church in Haiti. It's the congregation with which our church's...
Posted by Living Water Lutheran Church (Dayton, OH) on Friday, June 19, 2015
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