Haiti (MNN) — An airport in southwestern Haiti opened last week for international flights. This good news comes a year after a massive jailbreak sharply escalated gang violence in Port-au-Prince.
Storly and Kate Michel serve with Radio-TV 4VEH, a partner of Trans World Radio based in northern Haiti.
“We know that the gangs are not necessarily in control of what they’re doing. They are working on behalf of others,” Kate says, “and we know that Satan is really the one behind all the evil that’s going on in Haiti.”
Storly says candidly that what Haiti needs is the Lord.
“That’s really the bottom line, and that’s why [a] ministry like 4VEH is so needed,” he says. “Because part of the problem, if it’s not the main problem, is a spiritual problem.”
Voodoo beliefs and practices breed fear, but Jesus Christ changes a person from the inside out.
“Part of the reality in Haiti is Haitians affecting Haitians, mostly,” Storly says. “So really, [change] needs to start with a change of heart that will bring the key word love — love for people, love for life, love for the country — and that will start changing how people make decisions in the political sphere.” That can only come from Jesus, he says.
Gangs control 85% of Port-au-Prince. But the Michels explain that outside of Port-au-Prince, life looks fairly normal for most of the country. Daily living costs have skyrocketed, but Kate says believers pray full of faith.
“They are calling on God for their daily needs. It’s that faith of believers, where they’re being crushed and persecuted and pressed in on every side, and they are not giving up,” she says.
(Photo courtesy 4VEH)
Ask God to bind up evil in Haiti. Pray for protection and provision as 4VEH staff broadcast gospel hope to fellow Haitians. The realities there are stark.
“People are really suffering with needing food, needing shelter, needing clean water, needing healthcare, needing an opportunity to work, needing ways to go to school, needing a brighter future,” Kate says. “So we’re praying for the Lord to provide for all of those things, and then we’re praying for God to provide for the needs of 4VEH, too.”
The three pillars of 4VEH are evangelism, discipleship and helping Haitians make a difference in their communities. Learn more here about this lifeline ministry to Haitians by Haitians.
Header photo of Port-au-Prince neighborhood courtesy of Heather Suggitt/Unsplash.
