Here are some pictures I was able to get while at Jacmel.

Whenever we hold evangelism it seems that our great enemy does everything that he can to discourage, disrupt, and cause difficulty. I arrived in Port Au Prince on Monday, April 7, and was met by the Union President, Theart St. Pierre, who announced to me that there was some difficulty in Haiti. We would be unable to go to the hotel where we had made reservations because of a disturbance in the city over the matter of food for the people of Haiti. He reported that there were thousands marching in the streets—the streets were blocked by vehicles, and there were many places where they had some fires.

I discovered later that most of the burning was the burning of tires. I could see the smoke and smelled the burned rubber. I met with the Union brethren and asked if we should cancel our evangelistic meetings. They encouraged me not to cancel the meetings, but felt that we would all be safe. We would be unable to start our meetings on time in at least one of the sites. Later, we discovered that the road to Jacmel was blocked in a number of places, and it was impossible to travel there.

I considered phoning back to the US and asking all the team members to delay their coming, but after prayer together and much discussion with the Union leadership we decided to allow the participants to come; and we prayed that the commotion would subside. Two of our missionary families who teach at our college asked to be evacuated. They were concerned about their families’ welfare. (They were in a more dangerous place than where the Union office is located.) The Division and the GC were consulted, and the two families were evacuated. At the same time, we had seven Quiet Hour evangelists coming to preach. When they arrived, I consulted with them as to whether we should cancel the meetings, and every one of them enthusiastically responded that we should continue our plans to preach!

Miraculously, the Lord calmed the situation in Haiti. The burning of tires ceased; crowds dispersed, and the streets were open again — and, after several days, we were able to travel to the city of Jacmel and preach.

The churches where we had our meetings were all filled to capacity. We held a Bible class at each site, and then we had our preaching service. The people enjoyed the colorful PowerPoint presentations immensely. We had excellent translators at each location, and had strong pastoral and lay support for the meetings.

We felt the Lord’s guiding hand each day as we continued preaching. One hundred and eighty-three people were baptized at the sites where we preached. The Union brethren have asked us to return and bring more evangelists.

Haiti is a very needy country. They have had a series of disturbances in recent years. So much so, that the United Nations have 8,000 soldiers scattered throughout the country. They are extremely visible with their white vehicles and the UN logo printed on them. Their presence makes for mixed feelings among the Haitian people. Some are thankful that they are there as peacekeepers, but others are embarrassed that it has been necessary to have the United Nations forces in their country.

The bright spot of the entire country is the membership of the Seventh-day Adventist church. One out of every 30 people in the entire country is Seventh-day Adventist. We have a nice college, a radio station, a bakery, and at the market I bought Adventist-made bread. Our people do not have a lot of this world’s goods, and they come from very humble living conditions; but when they come to church they are dressed beautifully and come early for worship service. You can tell they enjoy the fellowship of the church. I met Adventists everywhere. The police at the airport, the man who checked my baggage in at the airport, the manager and the front desk clerk at the hotel in Jacmel where I stayed were all Seventh-day Adventists.

Please pray for our church family in the country of Haiti.

Blessings,

Mauri

Pastor Maurice Bascom
Evangelism field director
The Quiet Hour

April 15 | April 22 | April 29