In January 2010, Haiti suffered from an earthquake; this past week, Haiti experienced a spiritual earthquake.
I traveled with a team of 27 Bible school students to the Caribbean nation for a massive gospel festival. Their ministry impacted thousands of lives in Kawdá Bouké, a suburb of Port-au-Prince. In addition to conducting a five-day crusade, the team visited orphanages and poverty-stricken villages and conducted a women’s conference, a pastor’s conference, a kids’ fest and a healing conference.
Thousands of people made a commitment to live for Jesus.
One life that was changed is a 27-year-old man named Wilnack Saint-Fort. One month before the gospel festival, he saw team members putting up posters around the city. He asked if he could help. At first, the team refused his help because he was obviously drunk.
Something about the team’s attitude attracted the young man. Every day for a month, he followed them. After several days of building a relationship, they allowed him to pass out flyers and glue posters to the walls. After the festival platform was built, he volunteered to sleep under the platform to help guard the sound equipment.
Wilnack says, “One night, I dreamed a dream. In my dream, I was in a beautiful place, and I saw many beautiful houses. I saw a Man in a white robe walk toward me, and just as He opened His mouth to speak to me, I woke up. I knew that Man was Jesus, and so I decided to live my life for Him.”
On the second night of the gospel festival, Wilnack gave his life to the Lord. When he heard the question, “Do you want Jesus to forgive your sins?” he responded by raising his hand. He prayed the prayer of salvation, and Jesus became his Lord and Savior. Wilnack now plans to attend a branch of Victory Bible Institute that is being planted in his neighborhood.
Follow-up for new believers is extremely important to me. We work closely with the local pastors, and we distributed 10,000 Life of Jesus books to the new believers. My home church, Victory Christian Center, led by Sharon Daugherty, wants to plant Bible schools in every town in the nation of Haiti.
One night, I preached on the story of the paralyzed man who was let down from the roof. In Matthew 9, Jesus says three things to him: Be encouraged, your sins are forgiven, and take up your bed and go home. Jesus healed the man emotionally, spiritually and physically. I announced that Jesus wanted to heal the people of Haiti in the same three ways.
I invited everyone who needed healing to come to the front, and the team laid hands on them. God touched many people and they testified from the platform. Arms, eyes, necks, backs, stomachs and emotional problems were healed by the power of God.
The earthquake in 2010 devastated Daniel Vallon, the translator for the crusade. His house was severely damaged when the earth shook. For several months, his family was forced to live in a tent. Due to the generosity of a Canadian church, I was able to send him money to rebuild. He used the money to fix his house and the house of his neighbor. Now, two years later, he served as a translator for the outreach.
Haiti is the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere. After the earthquake, millions of dollars were poured into Haiti to help people. But the nation continues to need help. The pastors of Haiti need encouragement, the people need an outpouring of compassion, and the children need food. After the earthquake, the world’s attention was focused on Haiti for a short period of time, but now many have forgotten to care.
Please don’t forget to pray for Haiti or stop giving to the ministries that are working there.
Daniel King is a missionary evangelist who has preached the gospel in over 60 nations. He has led more than 1 million people to Jesus in the past 10 years. Daniel and his wife, Jessica, live in Tulsa, Okla.
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