Dear friends of the Mission,
Christ is risen!
The poverty of the people in our small Caribbean country is beyond description. The wealth of the rich is increasing. Heavy weapons are growing in the hands of guerrilla groups, which are spreading day by day to the four corners of the capital. One fears the other, there is no public leisure, everyone hides in their homes. When someone goes out of the house, God only knows whether he will come back or not, because he could get hurt, because some areas are considered dangerous and are controlled by the lads with heavy weapons. Unfortunately no one is exempt, lawyers, priests, journalists, police officers, young pupils and students have been kidnapped and murdered, doctors on duty, pastors with congregants in a church have been kidnapped by the rebels and are demanding exorbitant ransoms for their release, religious priests have been kidnapped on the street with members of their families moving for their religious duties. The result has been the continued migration of young people and adults to countries such as St. Dominic, Brazil and Chile.
We have been living in a crisis for about forty years now, so our ministry is not easy at all. We are facing incredible difficulties, we have no electricity, no water on tap. Everyone has to produce their own energy, either with a generator or with solar panels. We don’t have the means to buy these and we spend weeks without light and use regular candles for lighting. For water we regularly pay to have a quantity brought in to fill our underground tank.
Our poor spiritual children are often kicked out of their schools because they can’t afford the fees. Some have finished high school and their parents have no money to continue them in a vocational school or university. Many times they have nothing to eat and knock on our door hoping we can help them.
My dear brothers in Christ, our heartfelt thanks and gratitude, my fervent request: that you pray for our country Haiti that God will deliver us from all evil, because we are in serious need of your blessings and prayers.
We hope that God will strengthen us to hold on to his love and that we will remain unscathed by spiritual and physical viruses, because our times are difficult.
π. Paul Petit-Homme
