Spiritual Life at HAFF

From the time of its inception, the Executive Committee (EC) in Haiti has strongly desired to foster a deeper spiritual life in the staff of HAFF. As the Wilsons reported in a recent quarterly report to the HAFF US board, the Lord has already helped the EC create a number of activities geared to spurring the staff on to greater spiritual depths.

For example, a chalkboard has been placed by the gazebo at the front gate. Each week 2 different Bible verses are written on it and staff and members of the community can write prayer requests on it. From time to time, the HAFF mission statement is written on it as well.

Derold Mompremier on Guitar

Also, the ongoing Wednesday staff prayer meeting has been lengthened from 30 minutes to 45 by popular request. The meeting now includes a Bible study through Colossians. Also to everyone’s joy, the singing (with song sheets so everyone has the words) is now accompanied by executive assistant Derold Mompremier on guitar. More people are coming now, and attendance is more consistent.

A further goal that the EC has been achieving is to meet quarterly with each branch of the staff for a Bible study/discipleship time, prayer, and a “business” meeting for their specific concerns. The EC wishes to help each group deal Biblically with challenges and to get and give insight into how God is working and would like to work in the ministry. The staff members have met these meetings with great enthusiasm.

HAFF Daytime Workers Meet for Bible Study and Prayer

There is likewise a weekly Bible study in which three members of the EC meet with the daytime workers at HAFF to study Genesis. Participants include Genius, who carries water at HAFF, the security guards and the more permanent or frequent agriculture workers including a newly converted witch doctor who works on the HAFF farm for 2 weeks out of every 6. The time will also be used to guide the agriculture staff in prayer and intentional thinking about how to do agriculture in cooperation with God.

Finally, the EC is seeking God’s will on how to provide discipleship opportunities for the IPB teachers. There has been a meeting with them about raises, and one month they were offered in-service training. Scheduling is complicated since several of the teachers live farther away than other staff or only work 4 to 8 hours at IPB, and have commitments to teach at other schools the rest of the day. There is not a time during the week when all the teachers are scheduled to be on campus at the same time. Please pray that the EC can consistently spend time in prayer with the teachers, that the teachers will also meet with each other to pray before classes begin.

Clockwise from upper left: Claude, Paulers,
 Telius and HAFF water carrier, Genius. 

Recently, Carla became aware of a spontaneous Bible study! One day as she was leaving HAFF, she offered Claude Souffrance (Project Healthy Family coordinator) a ride home because he had a fever. He declined with an eager smile. “No,” he said, “some of us are having a Bible study and I want to be a part of that. “ This took place in the gazebo at the front gate of HAFF and was open to anyone who passed by. The group included Claude, Milius (agriculture education coordinator), Telius (HAFF office manager), and the two main security guards, Jacob and Paulers, plus a few others. It was a spontaneous event that went on for at least an hour. During the other scheduled Bible studies, not everyone gets to speak, or to speak as much as they would like, but in this case, everyone who wanted to had the opportunity to speak. This meeting showed that many on the HAFF staff are eager for more opportunities to discuss God’s word.