Haiti Kidnapping – the Inside Scoop

God bless you guys. Many of you have heard in the news, especially on the front of the Caribbean News about the 17 missionaries that were kidnaped in Haiti.

Before the Kidnapping

You know, not too long ago, the students at the Haiti Bible Training Center were bringing me YouTube videos. They were showing me these videos of this
area called Croix-des-Bouquets.

That was the area that the missionaries were kidnaped.

They were showing me the gangs, how they’ve completely taken over this area. Cars are burned in the road. Guys are walking around with guns.

They were showing me this has got to be the most dangerous place in Haiti right now, totally off limits.

We knew about this place and we knew to stay away from there.

What Happened Next

Well, one Sunday one of the pastors had asked me to come out to one of our churches and preach on Sunday morning. So we drove out there to this church. It was about a 45 minute drive.

I preached and when we are done with the service we started hearing reports that rioting was breaking out. Manifestations. That the streets are being blocked.

We knew when this happened that we needed to get out quickly because it escalates to the point where you’re going to get stuck. So we headed out to make it back from this church to the Haiti Bible Training Center.

We were driving down the road and we looked ahead of us and the road was on fire. People were running and we said, “oh, no!” We went down a dirt road to avoid that.

The next thing you know, there’s another road blocked with people running. We were in a chaotic situation. So for probably about 2 hours, we didn’t know where we where. Smoke was everywhere. We were driving down unmarked dirt roads. We were looking at the mountain, trying to figure out how to get back to the Haiti Bible Training Center.

Totally lost.

From Bad to Worst

All of a sudden we popped out into this area and I couldn’t believe it. It was Croix-des-Bouquets. It was the area where this gang was and where they later kidnapped those missionaries.

Within minutes the gang was in the back of our UTV. Armed guys. They took us over to where they all were. There was probably 20 of them. This is probably one of the worst situations we’ve been in in Haiti.

I was with our security guard. He was armed, but he wasn’t about to break his gun out because we were really outnumbered.

It got worse and worse. More people came. Chaotic. It was a really terrible situation. They were not going to let us go.

Light in the Darkness

All of a sudden this thought came to me, “preach the gospel because angels are ministering Spirits sent forth to those who will obtain salvation”.

I always knew if you ever get into trouble, preach the gospel, right? Because then angels are going to come and if you do get killed, at least you’re going to get the martyrs crown.

So, hey, listen, we’re going to preach, right?

I’ve been in Haiti for about eight years. And, you know, I don’t know, I’m not the smartest guy.

But you know what? The only real Creole in eight years that I’ve learned is the gospel and I can preach the gospel in Creole.

It’s pretty cool.

People will come up to me and ask for directions and I’ll just preach the gospel and then my wife will go, Hey, that’s not what they asked. I go, Well, that’s what they got.

And so what did Paul say?

I’m determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Woe to me if I don’t preach the gospel.

So here’s this totally terrible situation. Probably the worst situation we’ve been in.

This gang has us. All of a sudden I just said, OK, that’s it.

I looked at the main guy and preached the gospel to him in Creole.

Everything that I knew in the gospel, I just unloaded on this guy.

The most amazing thing happened in this situation.

There were 20 or 30 guys. It had been totally chaotic with guns. All of a sudden it got so quiet you can hear a pin drop and they were all staring right at me.

I told the guy Jesus loves you. Jesus died for your sin. He demonstrated His love for you. Jezi renmen ou. He loves you. Jesus rose from the dead.

As I spoke and I could just see the guy looking at me.

All of a sudden the main guy waved us on and he told the guys to move out of the way. They made a path and we drove through amen.

I got home and I laid on my bunk for about 2 hours saying, Lord, that was amazing. You saved our lives. You did that, Lord, no one could have stopped that and You did that. Praise God that we were able to do that.

It was a short time after that that same gang kidnaped those 17 missionaries.

Lord, you saved us. It’s your gospel, which is the power of God into salvation. We love you.

Just remember when you get into trouble, preach the gospel in Jesus name.

Amen.