Haiti (MNN) — Plagued by unrest and poverty, Haiti’s infrastructure is in shambles. There’s a cautious optimism as the political situation seems to be changing with the inauguration of Haiti’s new president. But, for the hope of real stability, many are taking a “wait and see” attitude.
Living Water International’s Dennis Anderson recently returned from Haiti, where they have people repairing broken wells and pumps and also drilling new wells in the Haitian cities of Leogone, Jeremie and Cap Haitian.
To reach the world with water and the Word is Living Water International’s goal, and they’re currently doing that in 21 countries around the world. Anderson says Haiti is a place of real need, “In Haiti itself there’s thousands of bad water wells, some reasons being that the government programs or lack of same, and the organization, and the general disarray, lack of infrastructure, the spiritual situation the country finds itself (in).
But the problems are much deeper, continues Anderson, “Water wells are only a small fraction of it. The roads, bridges, etcetera, are in serious need of repair, but we as Living Water International believe that no ongoing relief and development and community development work will be sustainable without first clean, safe drinking water.”
There are also deep spiritual troubles, in the form of Voodoo worship. It oppresses those who live there, and Anderson says, “It’s a very, very serious, very predominant problem in Haiti, so we would like to see a revival, nothing short of a revival in Haiti. What’s encouraging is that the church is alive in Haiti. Evangelism, witnessing, church attendance are not discouraged, they’re not prevented.”
Anderson says LWI is working with local pastors, to help build up the church in Haiti. They are seeking to network more with other Christian Non-Government Organizations (NGOs) in order to be more effective in their goal of training, consulting and equipping nationals to do the work. The end result, says Anderson, is the desire to see the Haitian people become self-reliant. LWI wants to diminish the nationals’ dependency on outside help and instead provide them with their own tools, expertise, knowledge and wherewithal to fix the pumps themselves.
The ideal is to have a national evangelist who could also drill wells and fix pumps, says Anderson. “Our desire is to work with the local pastors, the local evangelists. My experience in the past, has been in another country after the tsunami. Our goal was at each well site there would be some evangelism that went on, possibly a Jesus movie, maybe a crusade would go on later. But basically turn that type of work over to the local pastor and local evangelists, so that’s what we’d like to do.”
Working through a local radio station in Cap Haitian, LWI has produced a public service announcement that is asking people in Haiti to help them identify wells that need repaired. This is being done in hopes of identifying where some needs are and hopefully being able to mobilize response.
Pray that God will break the spiritual bondage that holds Haiti captive. And pray that Living Water International and other groups would help build up the Haitian church and people to become self-reliant.
