Missionaries return to Haiti after violence forces them out.

Haiti (MNN) — Violence forced them out of Haiti a few months ago, but relative calm is now allowing them to return. We’re talking about missionaries with OMS International, a mission organization that is working in 42 countries including Haiti.

OMS International’s Randy Spacht says they have a base in Cap Haitien. Spacht tells us why they had to leave in February. “One of the duplexes that some of our missionaries live in was actually broken into by a band of about eight armed men. And, we had previously identified violence against us as a missionary group, as a ‘trip-wire’ event in which if that were to happen our response would be to evacuate people.”

In order to return to the country, OMS had identified events that would allow them to return. “And, amazingly, by God’s providence those ‘trip-wire’ events to reenter the country were triggered less than three days after we evacuated,” says Spacht.

According to Spacht, they left in waves and they’re going back in waves. He says, “The first people in were a group of men. There was damaged threatened against our property, our radio station there, and yet the Lord protected the Haitians that were left behind. Nothing was done.” After a week OMS others returned and now families were allowed to return. Almost all of their workers are now back ministering in Haiti.

OMS believes there are serious spiritual issues in Haiti, even among Christians. Spacht says, “The church in Haiti is relatively strong and yet, in my opinion, relatively immature. It struggles to help people make a solid break with their own background and make a solid stand for the Lord, to live a Christian life without holding on to some of the voodoo fetishes.”