Haiti (MNN) — The Israel-Hamas war may have replaced Haiti’s gang violence as front-page news, but that doesn’t mean the gangs have gone away.
Greg Yoder with Christian World Outreach says violence is spreading beyond Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince. “We’ve even seen it go out into the countryside. We had one of our pastors get his motorcycle stolen from him at gunpoint when he was going to one of the mountain churches.”
Christian World Outreach supports eight churches in Haiti with biblical leadership training. Nearly a hundred church leaders gathered at CWO’s training conference in early January.
“Three of our pastors are seminary trained; the others are lay leaders,” Yoder says. “This is one time when they can come and receive ‘mini’ seminary training. We address different topics; this year, the main topics were faith, tithing, and offerings.”
A church in Haiti (Courtesy of Christian World Outreach via Facebook)
Port-au-Prince church leaders could not attend because the gangs made travel impossible.
“This is the first leadership conference we’ve held since 2020; they (leaders) were ready to risk anything to come this year.”
Pray for wisdom as church leaders implement what they’ve learned from CWO.
“That’s the one word I heard over and over; they were being ‘equipped’ and able to go back and equip their churches for ministry in their communities. They will make a strong effort to get to the school, to get to church, because they see the importance of it.”
Pray believers in Port-au-Prince will not be overwhelmed by the circumstances around them. Click here to learn more about the ministry of Christian World Outreach in Haiti.
Header photo is a representative image courtesy of Carlin Trezil via Unsplash.
