A report on the recent Haiti Dunamis by Margie Van Meter:
After waiting 18-months since the last Haiti Dunamis Project event, it was good to return to our Haitian co-laborers and their country in early July 2011.
Over these last nearly 8 years, the Haiti Episcopal Church Evangelism Committee organized the series of six projects of the first Dunamis track :
- Pere Colbert Estil,
- Pere Jean Jacques Deravil,
- Pere Sadoni Leon, and
- lay leader Cedar Nelson
They did it all despite the 2004 presidential coup, the 2008 hurricanes, the 2010 devastating earthquake, cholera outbreak, and great political unrest just months before Dunamis Project 6: Listening Evangelism.
This year, the teaching on Listening Evangelism was especially meaningful due to the fact that reaching the lost with the Good News was the passion of Pere Octave LaFontant, the Haitian priest who brought Dunamis to Haiti in 2004.
Father LaFantant passed away three years ago.
As we met for Dunamis Project six, it was such a blessing to hear and see fruit from his vision in the reports of the Dunamis participants evangelizing. Especially as “70 plus” attendees went out in small teams into the streets and homes of Montrouis to share the Gospel.
The Holy Spirit was faithful working through the witness of these Haitian brothers and sisters.
As a result of the Spirit moving, many received personal prayer and at least a dozen people responded to the invitation to know Jesus as Savior and came to the concluding worship service – “A Celebration of Salvation“.
One by one the visiting PRMI team has gotten to know our Haitian brothers and sisters.
As relationships develop, we hear expression of great gratitude for what has been learned, stories of ministry impact including victory over voodoo. It’s so encouraging to receive first-hand accounts as to how the Dunamis teaching changes lives!
We praise God for how His Holy Spirit is working in, and through, people who are part of Haiti Dunamis Project.
As Haiti Dunamis track one ends, I anticipate that the Lord has great things in mind for the future. The Dunamis teaching will continue to be taught in Haiti, with the Haiti Episcopal Church Evangelism Committee as the directors supported by PRMI USA-based team members. The frequency in times and locations may greatly multiply.
The priests have been teaching select lay leaders from their parishes. The Episcopal Diocese of Haiti has a five-year goal to evangelize and plant many churches in the northern part of Haiti.
The material and experience of Dunamis will facilitate the recognition and dependence on the power of the Holy Spirit for this to be truly an expansion of the Kingdom of God. God will use this teaching to usher multitudes of unbelievers into the Kingdom and empower all those who believe. And, most importantly, God will be glorified.
This year’s PRMI USA-based team members included:
- Rev. Jon DeBruyn (Teaching Director, MI),
- Rev. Dave Weemhoff (IL),
- Rev. Allen Kemp (NY),
- Rev. Chris Bohn (MI),
- Father Norman Beale, an Episcopal priest and missionary (NJ),
- Gary Wybenga (MI),
- Marg Rekman (Prayer Coordinator, Canada),
- LeAnne Jansen (MI), and
- Margie Van Meter (Team Coordinator, MI).
