Posted on 02/26/2010 8:34:11 AM PST by Between the Lines
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (BP)--A reported 40,127 Haitians have made professions of faith in Jesus Christ since a major earthquake hit the impoverished nation in January, according to pastors and directors of missions within the Confraternite Missionaire Baptiste d'Haiti (CMBH).
"Haiti is ripe for a spiritual movement from God," said Craig Culbreth, director of the Florida Baptist Convention's partnership missions department, which coordinates the work of the CMBH, upon his Feb. 22 return from Port-au-Prince.
During a Feb. 16-17 citywide holiday observance in Cap Haitien, Haiti's second largest city, Culbreth saw "thousands upon thousands filling the streets where people are seeking God and asking Him to spare them from what happened in Port-au-Prince. For me, it was a New Testament expression of what it looks like when the Spirit of God shows up. I have never seen anything like it."
The CMBH is the Florida Baptist Convention-funded partnership of nearly 900 Haitian Baptist churches throughout Haiti. Through the partnership the Florida convention employs seven indigenous missionaries in six regions.
Since the earthquake, the CMBH pastors have distributed 51 tons of rice, which provided 437,750 servings to Haitians in Port-au-Prince and outlying areas where refugees have fled. Additional feedings are expected.
During the week of Feb. 16-22, Culbreth was on his third trip to Haiti since the earthquake to determine how Florida and Southern Baptists could reach beyond Port-au-Prince and meet needs of refugees who left the capital city.
Together, he and Dennis Wilbanks, an associate in partnership missions, have visited five of the six associations, conferring and praying with the directors of missions and Haitian pastors in the associations.
Culbreth compared the window of opportunity where the people are hungry for the Gospel to the United States after 9/11 when hundreds flocked to churches.
He cited recent events in many of the 110 churches in the Port-au-Prince area where throngs of people have been seeking spiritual guidance in church meetings, which have been held outdoors because Haitians feared to enter buildings. Church leaders have reported 28,000 salvations in the Ouest (Port-au-Prince) association.
Many conversions took place during the three days of prayer and fasting called for by the Haitian government Feb. 12-14, Culbreth said.
"People were in the streets, literally begging God for forgiveness and mercy," said Wilbanks, who was in Port-au-Prince at the time.
Professions of faith also have been reported by Florida and Southern Baptist medical and disaster relief teams as volunteers shared the Gospel.
The upsurge in the reported conversions appears to fulfill a pre-earthquake vision by Louis LaBranche, CMBH director of ministry.
"Pastor LaBranche said he had a vision of God telling him that 1.5 million Haitians will be saved in the next five years. He believes it and so do I," Culbreth said.
Culbreth traveled to Leogane, the epicenter of the earthquake which is located 18 miles west of the Haitian capital.
"Reports said that 90 percent of the buildings have been destroyed, but I did not see a house that was not damaged. The roads are buckled and people are pouring out in the streets," he said.
Culbreth was in Port-au-Prince during the 4.7 magnitude aftershock Feb. 22, and he said Haitians continue to live in fear for their lives.
The next three months will be crucial to reaping a spiritual harvest in Haiti, Culbreth said. CMBH leaders are planning 14 area-wide crusades, including two each in five associations and four in Port-au-Prince. The Florida Baptist Convention has authorized $53,000 to purchase Bibles and tracts and to rent sound equipment for the Haitian leaders.
"This is their dream and vision," Culbreth said. "They are making the plans. We are only providing funding to make it happen."
Thank God and may it grow like wildfire across that nation.
“Scratch a Christian, find a jujuman”; old West African saying.
I’ll take this revival seriously when I see them publicly reviling and defenestrating their voudon ways and paraphernalia.
They’re just adding another loa to their alter.
People often ask Christians the purpose of hardship and suffering in this life ... and here we have a possible answer.
There is a reason for everything.
God Bless them, and those that brought Christ into the lives of the suffering. It is good to know that money donated to Christian charities has brought both physical and spiritual benefit.
SnakeDoc
You've got it:
Voodooists gathered in Cite Soleil where thousands of quake survivors live in tents and depend on food aid, AP writer Paisley Dodds reports. Praying and singing, the group was trying to conjure spirits to guide lost souls when a crowd of Evangelicals started shouting. Some threw rocks while others urinated on Voodoo symbols. When police left, the crowd destroyed the altars and Voodoo offerings of food and rum.
Why do Christians let themselves get scammed so easily?
Bookmark
So what is the scam?
Don't worry about the Haitians. They will find a way to steal. They do every time.
Sola Deo Gloria
Ray Comfort has a great talk called Hell’s Best Kept Secret. In short, he doesn’t put much stock in this type of profession of faith.
Firstly, whenever I see figures like this quoted, I get the same feeling I get when I see throngs of people streaming forward to the stage at Billy Graham Crusades; "at this rate, the entire country will soon be Christian". Yet it never seems to happen. In fact, we seem to regress. There are less believers, not more. Homosexual marriage marches inexorably forward.........abortion is still with us. The word "mushroom" comes to mind. It springs up suddenly, grows rapidly......then vanishes.
Secondly, I'm always struck by what appears to be a "corporate" approach to conversion; the bottom line. How many? Did we exceed our target? Were the figures bigger than last year? This seems to be a peculiarly American approach to the faith and is reflected most clearly in the mega-church phenomenon; butts on seats. It appears in the headline....."40,000 Haitians..........", then it pops up again in the article......."Pastor LaBranche said he had a vision of God telling him that 1.5 million Haitians will be saved in the next five years........".
The reason this bothers me is because true evangelism is often barren and seemingly without results. Great saints have labored for years with few conversions and then after they die or are martyred, the harvest blooms. Man, however, wants to see it all happen right now. If it doesn't, then he starts asking "OK, what are we doing wrong? Something has to change!"
And sometimes something does change; the Gospel that is preached. Exhibit "A" is the so-called "Prosperity Gospel" designed to get people through the door. "Tell 'em they'll be prosperous..........yeah, that'll drag 'em in!"
I have no problem rejoicing over the numbers of true conversions; the Acts of the Apostles says that several thousand were baptized in one day, for example. That's cool. However, these sorts of stories are too commonplace for them all to be authentic. Acts doesn't say that this happened every day. On the contrary, Paul was on different occasions run out of town, imprisoned, shipwrecked and even laughed at when he preached in the Areopagus.
This story smells, from my point of view.
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