Todd Family Haiti: January 2014

I went back to Sodo (Saut d'Eau) on Tuesday, the voodoo capital of Haiti and some say the world. Last time I was there I had a life changing experience to say the least; I couldn’t get out of there fast enough, an evil place. We don't talk about evil very much back in the states, but here it's out in the open. Voodoo is evil. I've personally witnessed how awful it is. It's not some "culturally" different ritual or some legitimate form of religion, it's the worship and practice of evil. The best way I can explain it is by giving examples: children will come for the treatment of cholera but will be beaten from head to toe because their parents took them to the voodoo priest first and he tried to beat the sickness out of them. We had a mentally ill lady who had been severally burned with a hot iron, they tried to burn out her sickness, unfortunately there was nothing we could do and she passed away. Horrifically, these are not unordinary. The challenge isn't if you or I believe it or think it's crazy, it's that they believe in it and until they stop believing it, this country will never change.

A few years ago a gentleman came down to Haiti and visited our mission and during his time here he fell in love with the Haitian people. Tragically that man passed away recently, but his family remembered his love for the people here and has raised the money to build a church and I am honored to help in the process.

So Tuesday we traveled out to Sodo to drive some stakes and mark where this new church will be planted. We joined in prayer that it would be a beacon of light in that area, a place where people would be loved, a place of refuge for the hurting and a place of strength to those that are willing to stand and face evil. We'll be heading out there everyday over the next few weeks, please keep us in your prayers and I promise to post some updates.

We also started a new well in a pretty rough place on Wednesday. A couple weeks ago there were some land disputes, lots of tires burning/gunfire, but we're hoping that's all past. It's in one of the new villages that have popped up after the earthquake, thousands of squatters move in so fast they kind of take ownership. There is no water there now for the thousands of people living there so please pray that we get clean water for them. It's a sad place to be while you are there because it's right next to one of the mass graves located near us, if you look at the picture below you can make out the fencing blocking people from building on it. But maybe someday soon, with clean water, schools, soccer fields and the love of Jesus Christ ,this can become a welcoming place.

Grace & Peace,

Barrett

I share the story my experience in Sodo in this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AGHMuKGD5Ms

The old makeshift tent church we are replacing.