DAY TEN

Matthew 19:24 "Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God."

The first Protestant missionary to Haiti arrived in July of 1816 on the southern shores of Haiti at the invitation of the Haitian president.  The primarily Catholic/voodoo nation opened the doors for Protestant missionaries to build hospitals, clinics, and schools.  Over 200 years later, Haiti, just 700 miles off the coast of Florida, has an estimated 40% of the 11 million population identifying as evangelical Christians. 

Despite this overwhelming growth there remain unengaged people groups in the small island nation.  The Gospel brought to Haiti was most often communicated by missionaries to the masses of poor and marginalized.  However, the wealthy, often referred to as the bourgeois in Haiti, have been largely unengaged and thus unreached. 

The richest 1% of Haitians own the same as 45% of the poorest population.  This class of people are unique in that many of them travel frequently to the US, France, or Canada for medical care, financial investments, weekend excursions, even sending their children abroad during the vacation months.  Often related through years of intermarriage and business dealings, they are rich, sometimes exceedingly so, educated, worldly and multilingual.  The bourgeois make up those individuals who are the leaders in the nation who affect policies and change.  

The only group described as an ethnic minority in Haiti are the Arab Haitians, people descended from Syrian, Lebanese, and Palestinian traders who began to arrive in Haiti and elsewhere in the Caribbean in the late nineteenth century.  They have integrated themselves into the Haitian middle or upper class.  Many of them are nominally Muslim or culturally Christian.  

Pray for this “other five” group, that the Lord would give missionaries and national church leaders/pastors Spirit-birthed strategies to reach, disciple, and plant churches amongst the upper class of Haiti.  

James Courter - Haiti

Prayer: Lord, we know that You love all people, rich and poor alike and that You gave Your life to save them all.  The rich are also part of The Other Five and we ask today that You send out a call for workers who can clearly declare the Good News of Your salvation to those who are highly educated and who are people of means and influence.  Let that call reach the heart of someone today who will respond and who will willingly go in Your name.  Amen.