Haiti (MNN) — Thousands of Haiti’s quake survivors fled the disaster zone and headed north or to the central plateau.
Joseph Richter with FARMS International says their two programs are coping with the huge influx of refugees. “Our hope is to help some of those relocated families get back on their feet. Some of them have absolutely nothing after losing their home, their business, or everything they had in Port-au-Prince.”
Those that are catching a vision for a self-reliant church in Haiti are seeing unbelievable things happen. “Churches are very involved in helping their own people with the influx of refugees. I’m happy to report that there’s a tremendous explosion of people coming to know the Lord.”
The foundation for FARMS’ response was laid a little over four years ago. They began working with The Evangelical Church of Haiti, an association of 55 churches in northern Haiti.
This group of churches decided that in order to grow, they needed to become indigenous by withdrawing from the founding mission agency. This meant not accepting any further foreign support. FARMS’ micro-enterprise loans help believers in a church congregation toward independence. Today, giving is up 2,000%.
When Christians give sacrificially, God brings revival. Richter says, “Haiti, for their long-term survival, really needs to look to their own people, to their own resources, to see a Haiti that will be strong in the future, especially through the Christians there.”
Pastor Megy, the pastor of one of the churches that has a FARMS program, has seen the need to help the believers in his congregation develop a source of livelihood and to disciple them in the area of stewardship.
The funds that FARMS has provided to this church enable them to develop an interest-free loan program for very needy families. There are more details about the program here.
