Haiti Trip News/Prayer Letter (March 23, 2001 A.D.)
Dear Friends and Family,
I have been given the opportunity this summer to serve God and my fellow man. My church, Good News Bible Church, along with East/West Ministries is sponsoring a short term (approx. 1 week in June) Missions trip to the country of Haiti. At Haiti, we will partner up with a local pastor, Jean Bertrand Thoney, and the school that he has set up. There we will assist him in two ways:
- Help share the Gospel with his people.
- Share/Teach important skills to the school's teachers.
Over 200 years ago, the Haitian people made a pact with voodoo spirits (The Voodoo belief system is a mixture of Christian and african beliefs. In their religion there is a single God, and many spirits, and the people made a pact with the spirits. These spirits would correspond to demons in Christianity), promising to serve them if he would help them gain freedom from France. Because of this contract, the people have been controlled by the Voodoo priests, manipulated by fear and by evil, and consequently have lived their lives in spiritual darkness and without much hope. In the late 1990s, the 200 year period of this contract expired, and now Jean Bertrand Thoney hopes to reclaim his land from the Devil/demons for God. He has asked for help in this task, and so my church has agreed to help him in sharing the Good News of the Gospel to his people.
In addition to the spiritual darkness that these people live in, they are desperately in need of many things that Americans take for granted. Over 70% of the people are unemployed, and many people are not able to read. The people spend most of their day obtaining the food that they will eat. The financial contrast between the US and Haiti is great. Our poor are rich by their standards. The US is the richest nation in the Western Hemisphere, Haiti is among the poorest of the nations in the western hemisphere. In addition, disease and sickness are great problems in Haiti.
So in respect to these needs, various people from my church have been asked to go assist them. A pastor will go to give theological training, people with mechanical, agriculture, and hygiene/medical experience will also be going. In addition, I will be going to assist in training some teachers in basic computer skills.
Now to the crux of the matter. You will be relieved to know that I do not need money to go on this trip :) It will cost $1,100, but that money has been taken care of. However, I do have a few things that I need to ask your help in:
- I need people to faithfully prayer for me. Specifically, I need prayer for preparation, safe travel, and constant prayer while I am there. I would appreciate anyone who would like to commit to this (and can faithfully follow through) to please let me know. I will give you a special prayer list with greater detail.
- I am looking for your poor, your old, your slow computers. Specifically anything that is a 486 or faster and works (w/ an Operating System already installed). If you have an old computer that you would like to go to a good cause, then here is the place!
- Additionally, if anyone has introductory computer books, or software that you no longer need, please send them to me.
- If you would like to send money so that one of the above items can be purchased, please see below.
- If you find yourself disappointed that I am not asking for money to go on this trip, then you are very welcome to send some to help defray the costs of others who are going.
- Or, alternatively, if you desire to give towards a directly spiritual end, then there is a financial need for the pastoral training seminars. Basically, in order to get pastors to attend such things, they need to be able to find transportation to the location of the seminar and also they will need food provided for them. If you would like to contribute to this cause, please see below.
If you feel led or have the desire to give financially, then I would encourage you to do the following steps:
- Write me a letter with your intentions for the money.
- Make out a check to Good News Bible Church, and in the Memo, put Haiti - Sean.
Why to Good News, well, in all honesty, I want you to have any kind of charitable giving receipted so you have less taxes to pay:) Plus it helps keep the finances above board, and without reproach.
The trip is planned to be on June 14th through to the 21th. Please let me know if you are planning to send me anything (Computers, books, checks) or praying by the middle of May (and please don't delay too long in sending them either!) so that I may make appropriate transportation plans for the items (we have major weight constraints for the plane) I will be taking.
Thanks,
Sean McKay