Gretchen and Carmelo. 2000

Sept 1994

Dear friend,

Hallelujah! “This is the day which the Lord hath made, we will rejoice and be glad in it.” (Psalm 118:24) The verse before, verse 23 says, “This is the Lord’s doing, it is marvelous in our eyes.” We believe that the work in the last few days has been a witness to a marvelous demonstration of the power of prayer. As millions of prayers were lifted to the throne room of God for Haiti; God, in His mercy and grace, has responded. At almost the last possible moment, as the planes were in the air for invasion, God Almighty intervened in the hearts and minds of leaders and an agreement was reached to prevent the bloodshed of thousands of young men on both sides.

We can’t praise God enough. He is in loving readiness to hear the prayers of His people. Hallelujah! Truly the scripture 2 Chronicles 7:1 “If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves and pray…then will I heal their land.” and James 5:16, “The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.” have been made more real in our lives. Every day I live this life, and walk this walk, the Word of God becomes more genuine to me. The Word of God is the only thing that is solid to stand on, everything else is sinking sand.  Amen.

Now the real work begins of rebuilding a nation and society almost completely destroyed. This will not be an easy task or one without problems. It will take much prayer, time and work to restore a decent way of life to the Haitian people. The needs are overwhelming, but if we all do what we can and continue to pray, I know that what seems impossible will become possible. We serve a supernatural God and all things are possible to him that believeth. Amen! Our hope is not in the Haitian military or its leaders. Our hope is not the America military or its leaders. Our hope is in the Lord Jesus Christ.

I am sitting here writing this letter on the steps of Pastor Kelly’s church in Titanyen. Seven helicopters just flew over and caused quite a stir among the people. In spite of all the military activity, we are going on with God’s work. Yesterday, we delivered food to all the feeding programs and today we are having prenatal and infant clinic. There were many here when we arrived and many more have come since then. We’ve seen over 20 this morning and the overall conditions of the babies were better today. Only 4 were seriously malnourished. Last week, over 75% of the babies and some expectant mothers were severely malnourished. Today, we’ve had a 4 year old girl that weighed 16lbs, a 3.5 year old boy who weighed 18 lbs and a 9 month old baby who weighed just 8 lbs. God is blessing the clinic as we are seeing improvements and, Praise God, healthy babies are being born under our care and direction.

As the embargo is lifted and food and supplies become available, we can see that our work and areas of ministry will increase. We thank God for the opportunity to bring help and to meet some of the physical needs that are ever present, but now we look more so at the spiritual needs and of bringing the Good News and the love of Jesus to countless souls. We just completed a revival where we were blessed to declare God’s Word and show the Jesus Film, a tremendous evangelistic message in Kreyol. We know that it’s God’s desire that none should perish and it’s His will for His message to be carried to every person. We look forward with great anticipation to the work that lies ahead. His promises tell us we are still living in the Book of Acts. Jesus is alive and His work goes forward through His people. Hallelujah!

We love every one of you and pray that God richly blesses you. Ask not what God can do for you, but what you can do for God.

Your missionary in Haiti,
Gretchen