If you’ve been to HCM’s campus and traveled the road to Fonds-Pairsien, then you’ll be able to picture how difficult the past few weeks have been. The road has been blocked by armed gangs with ransom demands, preventing us from traveling to and from Port-Au-Prince. Thankfully it is free for now, but such has been the situation on and off for a couple of months. It is this way throughout Haiti, as rogue groups of dissatisfied citizens take to the streets. They set fires to ordinary stores where families shop, destroy random people’s personal property, kidnap for ransom and fire machine guns into innocent crowds. The police are weak and corrupt and the government is dysfunctional, and no one knows how to end it.
It is in this chaos that we continue to share God’s love. God’s word tells us that He is a consuming fire (Hebrews 12:29), and that, like gold is refined by fire, our faith is refined by the trials of life (1 Peter 1:7). So we will not let the fires of the corrupt keep us from ministry--instead, we will light holy fires in the hearts of Haitians. Our schools are in session, and our PIF program is back on, disciplining young men and women through the discipline of sports. I think about the time I talked a young, displaced boy named Rosemond into joining PIF and playing basketball, despite his insistence he would like it. Now, he is one of our PIF head coaches and leads Bible studies for young, lost boys just like he was. Thank you to those who have given already to help with the needs of sports equipment, food, mentoring resources and a vehicle for this program. Please consider a gift if you haven’t already. We can’t light holy fires without your help!