I'll Never Be the Same

I was profoundly moved this the weekend of November 1st by a man who would go into a literal valley of death and preach the Gospel to a bunch of spiritually dead and almost physically dead people. On a very special Lord’s Day a few weeks ago (November 1, 2008), I got to spend the entire day with a pastor, a native from the country of Haiti by the name of Lucian Saul. Haiti has a population of nine million people. Pastor Lucian has absolutely nothing. The whole island has been destroyed by hurricane after hurricane. Any land that they had is unusable. All they have now is mountainous rock. They hardly have clothes. They hardly have food. There is a 96% unemployment rate. And yet Bro. Lucian is there preaching the Gospel, giving the Word of God. He is seeing God work in many churches that he is establishing. He is training over two hundred men every year in the Bible Institute. Hundreds and hundreds of children come to him in his day school, and he clothes them with a uniform. People from the states send him enough funds to purchase uniforms from the Dominican Republic (not far from them). What he said to me was “I’d rather build children than repair men.” He’s able to get meals of beans and rice and cornmeal for these children every day. And the children never complain about eating the same thing each day. Lucian is there giving the Word of God out to every creature. He’s seeing them spiritually raised from the dead and coming to know Christ. Lucian Saul is the son of a witch doctor. An American missionary went over there and gave him the Word of God. Voodoo witch doctors call demons down to work on their behalf. Now when Lucian gives the Gospel to the people of Haiti the witch doctors have no power. The demons have no power to hurt Lucian. The Word changed Lucian’s heart when he was ten years old. The Gospel is the power of God unto salvation unto everyone that believes. Now instead of coming back to the comparative paradise of the United States and staying here like most Haitian people would, he has returned over and over again to that sort of hell on earth called Haiti. He is driven to go back there, and so is his twenty year old son Royden. Now why would a twenty year old want to go back to such a horrible place? He says that when you step off the plane you smell poverty, and it stinks! It just stinks. There’s no electricity, no running water, nothing. Why would he go back to an island of nine million people and live that way? Because the Gospel is the power of God to everyone that believes. Lucian was the son of a witch doctor. Now he’s a child of God! He knows Christ. And he is giving the Word of God to many who have been caught up in voodoo all their lives. And God is calling them in their hearts through the Word of God to come to Christ. Dead, dry bones are now living (Ezekiel 37)! The Gospel is the power of God to those who believe.