“And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.” ~ Galatians 6:9
We just finished our second seminar to more than 60 church leaders here in Zorangé. As I listened to the pastors sharing their vision for the Church here in Haiti, my eyes overflowed with tears of joy, tears of Hope, and tears for these servants of God. God is up to something big here in this country, and I can’t wait to see how God’s going to use these men and women.
Yesterday the seminar was about Christian leadership and there was great discussion, good teamwork, and we had many questions that challenged everyone in the room. We tried to make the seminar interactive for the participants, and that was awesome to be a part of. Hearing each group share what they learned was a blessing, and to see them working together was even more exciting.
Elade was overjoyed to see these pastors talking about impacting their country for God’s glory by making disciples of those He’s entrusted them with. As the seminar went on we had a few of the college-age people share their testimonies with the group about what God has been doing in their lives. Luke, Mike and Liz each did a great job!
Today the seminar was on the Church. We wanted today to be all about what God could do with the church here in Haiti, and how God could use these men and women to change a country. During the more informative parts, we shared about the need for the Christian Church as a whole to come together and work together to make a difference for God’s glory, and this seemed to resonate with the people.
We had a staff member and a couple of the college-age people share their stories, and they also did a phenomenal job. One of the college-age people, Rebecca, told her story. Rebecca told everyone how her dad had not been the loving father she longed for him to be – we were all moved. Since Elade and I are both the fathers of two girls, we wept as we challenged the fathers in the room to love their daughters and to be their biggest fans.
The day ended with us splitting back into their groups, and we had each group come up with what the purpose of the Church in Haiti is, what the vision for the church should be, and goals for the Church in Haiti for the next six months, one year, five years, and 10 years. With each group comprising of individuals from different churches all over the area, it was awesome to see them working together. As they shared their plans for the future, they all mentioned how they needed to work together more as a body of Christ.
The best part of this whole trip for me was seeing the joy on Elade’s face. These pastors were dreaming, envisioning, and planning on making a difference in Haiti…and they wanted to work together to accomplish this daunting task. They are energized to disciple others, to evangelize those that are lost, to plant new churches, to impact the government, to send missionaries overseas and to live out their faith for the glory of God. To see Elade’s smile as they shared…that is something I will never forget.
Pray for these pastors. That what they learned this weekend would stick with them and that God would continue to unify them and that they would impact this country for the glory of God!
– Brett Durham