On the Ground in Haiti

When we arrived yesterday, our bags did not. Travel these days... There is not much that you can do about it...

First day in Haiti has been a good one. We drove to the festival ground to begin planning the layout of things. The site is part of a camp for displaced people, people who lost everything in the earthquake. They are from almost all tiers of life and different backgrounds - some are well educated and others have never been to school. Yet now they share this - that they lost everything and are now living in a tent camp. The authorities have begun to erect small houses that they can move into but it is going very slow.


This process has brought some challenges for us. The main area where the festival was to be held is now a construction zone - they are building houses. Now you cannot be mad and angry at them for building theses houses ... they are desperately needed for the people. But we on the other hand need a large open area. So we walked around the camp today without finding anything. Just before leaving we talked to one of the officials and he got in our car and took us deeper into the camp where there was an open area that can hold 40,000 - 50,000 people. PERFECT.


In this camp there are 7,000 families living and when I asked the normal size of a Haitian family the answer was 5-6 children. Doing the math, we see that we now have a base of around 50,000 people to draw from. These people do nothing. They just roam around. It is time for them to hear the good news of a risen savior - Jesus loves them so.


As we were walking around the camp we saw 5 guys in our around their twenties looking at one of our posters. They were talking to each other. Pastor Hudson walked up to them and asked them what they were talking about. Their reply was simple: we cannot vote for this man because we do not know him. They were referring to the man on the poster, Johannes Amritzer, and the upcoming presidential election at the end of November. What was this about? None of the five could read what the poster said. They had never been to school. So Pastor Hudson talked to them asking if they had heard the speaker cars announce the upcoming festival and they all said yes of course and now understood who the man on the poster was.


I do not think that we have been in a place this urban before where the literacy rate is so extremely low... No wonder that the country is the poorest in the Western Hemisphere... They need education. They need hope. They need a Savior. Let's give them Jesus!

Continue to pray for me as we prepare the ground.

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About The Almqvists

Hi, my name is Peter Almqvist and I am a minister of help. I work with setting up large outdoor evangelistic festivals all around the world, primarily in Africa. Currently we are on what we are calling the African Capital City Tour, or ACCT for short. We preach the gospel to those that have not heard or have yet to respond. The cry of the lost has been heard and we are responding to their SOS.