The church in Haiti will celebrate 30 years of faithful service to Christ this summer on Labor Day weekend from Friday, August 30th to Sunday, September 1st,2019. The theme for this remarkable milestone is ‘Gratitude’ as we express our sincerest thanks first to God for his grace and favor toward us and for the love and faithful support received throughout the years from our brothers and sisters worldwide. The church has grown to fourteen (14) congregations and over 1,000 disciples despite the ongoing economic and socio-political challenges in our country. Our dear sister, Margarette Vernet, the first convert in Port –au-Prince when the church started in 1989, shares her personal journey.
“Thirty years have already passed. Unbelievable! For me, it has been thirty years of battles, struggles, failures, ups and downs, but most of all, thirty years of blessings and victories. My conversion is a wonderful love story, my love story with God, a story worth telling. It is a perfect illustration of the omniscience of God, of his unconditional love for us, and of his faithfulness. Yes, God’s love for us is so perfect, so compelling, and strong, that he is willing, sometimes, to stir Heaven and earth to come to our rescue.
In 1989, the year the church started in Haiti, I was at a point in my life where I was spiritually lost. I was trying very hard to find this “good God”I have been taught about by my parents since I was a little girl. My dad was baptist and my mom was Catholic. So I was raised in a very baffling and unhealthy spiritual environment. I remember my bad taunting every now and then “I am the head of the household where I go to church everyone goes” and my mom retaliating “I was born Catholic I will dieCatholic” so I grew up confused about God, but with a burning desire to serve him and to have a relationship with him.
When I reached my adulthood, I started really searching for God. I went on a spiritual hunt for several years, going from church to church, from denomination to denomination, trying to find “that good and merciful God” people were claiming about. But, despite my spiritual performances, I was feeling very unsatisfied and unable to really connect with God. I knew it had to be more than what I was getting from my hunt and I started praying for God to show me the way to him.
God heard my plea and came to my rescue in such a mysterious way. In August of 1989, The New York City church of Christ sent a team to Ivory Coast to plant the church there. My youngest sister, Nadia Odjo, who became a disciple in New York, was part of the team. For some reason, there was something wrong with their papers, and they were not allowed to board the plane. While they were waiting for their papers to come through they were told that the plan had changed; they ought to go planting a church in Haiti first, and then go to Ivory Coast. . (Perfect repetition of Act 16:6-15).
The team arrived in Haiti the second week of August and my sister asked me to study the Bible; three weeks after, on September 7th, 1989, I got baptized. We had our first church service on September 10th; we started to have our meetings in my garage. My real spiritual journey began then, the first page of my love story with God was written that day. God is still writing our story, with me as a pencil in his mighty hands, one page at a time, and one day at a time. My thirty-year journey has been like a roller-coaster bumpy at times, sometimes rolling fast, sometimes rolling slow, but very fulfilling and full of joy.
Why couldn’t they board that plane that day? Why did it end up opening the door for Haiti? I would never know the answer to these questions. But I believe without a doubt that it was God coming to my rescue, it was him unfolding his plan of salvation for me and for the people of Haiti. I am amazed and humbled by his majesty, his power, his sovereignty, and most of all by his unconditional love for me. I would be forever grateful to him for having changed the course of my life with Heaven now as my final destination.
Praise and glory to him forever and ever Amen!” —– Margarette Vernet.
Please feel free to join us for this glorious occasion! If you wish to receive more information about the church or how you can support the ministry in Haiti, our primary contact information is as follows:
Danie & Jean Lesly Cadet
7(bis), Rue AudantCanapé-vert Port-Au-Prince, Haiti Tel: (509) 3701-9484 | 4894-4270 E-mail: [email protected] | [email protected]
Peace and love to you all!
