how you can share the Gospel with Haiti

Every Tuesday and every Thursday, they walk down dusty hills and across gravel roads with kids in tow and babies in arms and pencils and notebooks they've found here or there. They are freshly bathed and dressed in their finest and despite the fact that many of them have abusive husbands or absent husbands or no husbands at all and nearly all of them have at least one mouth to feed and body to clothe besides their own, they are smiling. And despite the fact that they have walked to the water pump a half a mile away in the incredible and relentless heat of the Caribbean sun at least 3 times that day most of them with too-small shoes or broken shoes or no shoes at all, they are smiling. They are sick and they are poor and they are tired.. they are the victims of the third world and all it entails, yet they are smiling.

And they come, always.

They excitedly greet us and they climb aboard the school bus where we meet them. The once-school bus turned classroom, where they sit on shelves because their chairs were stolen, and we write on a chalkboard that is difficult to erase. And we meet them their to teach them. Although, we have learned, what usually happens is they teach us.

We initially began these classes to teach English because the ability to speak English is a doorway for Haitians into a "better life." That is what they want, so that is what we offered. And then we used the English classes as a gateway for Bible studies. We teach them verbs and nouns and sentence structure and pronunciation, and then we transition and we say if anyone wants to go, that is fine, really. And we are almost surprised when they don't move and they sit and they wait expectantly for the Word of God to be discussed and dissected and explained and lived.

When we began the classes, the ladies came as individuals. It is the Haitian way to keep to yourself, to get your own, to take care of your needs and there is rarely any time or energy or means left over to even think about your neighbor. And who can blame them, when it's all they know? For almost a year we have been meeting them in the bus. And we are unashamedly amazed at how God has transformed these women.

They care about each other. They lift each other up in prayer. They share their lives with each other. They protect each other. They look out for each other and cry with each other and rejoice with each other. They love each other. And it is a miracle of only God's kind.

They come to study English, so someone donated money for English books. They were beyond thankful. They come to study the Bible, and some of them bring their tattered and torn and water logged copies of the Word [it's hard to keep anything in good condition in a tent, you see]. Most of them don't have a copy of Scripture. They take notes and they drink it in as we read it out loud, because that is the only time they hear it, and when we write verses on the blackboard, thats the only time they see it. And they love it.

Sometimes we will get a Bible in Creole donated from someone, and we will give the ladies a passage of scripture [sometimes up to 10 verses] to memorize as a competition for who gets the new Bible. They scramble and scurry and ladies who have never been to school a day in their lives and may not even be able to read or write do everything in their power to memorize these verses so they can own a copy of the Word. If only we in America had this kind of hunger for the Love Letter Christ wrote to us.

So what can you do? How can we help? We have a need for Bibles in Creole, and as you can imagine they are hard to come by in America. So what we need is for people to donate money. One Bible costs $10 [American money] in Haiti. We have over 100 students [including the men and children's class as well]. We have a lady traveling to Haiti on September 30th to visit Chadasha. She is willing to take down any money that anyone would like to donate toward this cause. $10 could be the chance someone needs to hear the Gospel, or to share it with their family. Thats like one trip to Jason's Deli on American soil. Will you be willing today to step out and step up and donate $10 to further the Gospel? Today could be the day you change a life forever.

The best and easiest way to donate is to mail a check [made out to Cheyenne Summers] or cash to the following address:

Cheyenne Summers

520 Summers Road

Camden, TN 38320

 

You can also drop any donations by Calvary Baptist Church in Knoxville or mail them to

 

Calvary Baptist Church c/o Cheyenne Summers

3200 Kingston Pk

Knoxville, TN 37919

 

And finally, if you have a paypal account, you can enter the email address: kendracheyennesummers@gmail.com, specify that it's for Bibles, and send funds that way.

 

 

Any way works.. whatever is easiest for you. September 30th is when she's flying out! We will report back with how God uses this to further the Kingdom! Thank you so much for your prayers and support.

 

And as always... love and prayers from Haiti!

Until next time....