He is Mighty to Save

***this one's a bit gruesome. and beautiful. just warning you***

I love my job.

This might not be a highly sought after position, and maybe OMS just took me because no one else was applying, but the weather is gorgeous and the work is SWEET. Not in a modern sense, but rather SWEET water to my soul, to live and eat and study and work alongside of other men and women He is calling to bring radical change - "God Only" change - to Haiti.

I got to sit with one such man today, a new student from Port-au-Prince. He has been in my English class since last week, but having never had an opportunity to learn our language before, he is quiet lost and mostly there to gain what he can while waiting for his Bible classes to start.

But today I started doing interviews with these new students, gathering their testimonies to use to help raise support for their food, lodging and tuition.

And Alex? Sign ME up.

After telling me a bit about his background (no wife, family lives in La Victoire, a few hours from here, 27 years old), I asked a question that excited him.

You come from a Christian family?

No. No one in my family is a Christian except for my mother, who I led to the Lord in 2007.

So how did you become a Christian?

Radio 4VEH.

(Brett and Kate, knew you'd be thrilled. Radio 4VEH, the Evangelistic Voice of Haiti, is a ministry of OMS and is broadcasted throughout all of northern Haiti to pre-set, solar-powered radios.)

Someone on there was talking about Jesus and you came to the Lord?

No. I became a Christian because I didn't want to be eaten.

I have no idea what you're talking about. Start from the beginning.

OK, here goes. One day, in 2001, I was listening to Radio 4VEH, even though I wasn't a Christian, but just because it was on where I was. And on the radio, there was this young man telling his story. He was a young Christian man, from a Christian family, and he told this story on the radio:

"I lived in Grand-Rivier (near EBS) and my family sent me into Cap-Haitien to go and buy a goat. So, I went into town to find a good goat, and I bought one. I was on my way back home and I was crossing the big bridge in Cap-Haitien. As I was coming across, I saw a huge spiraling wind coming toward me. It picket me up, and while I was up inside the tornado, I looked down, and I could see all the people still on the bridge.

Ok, time out. I know that our culture isn't very accustomed to "spiritual interference" in daily life. We tend to think of God and Satan as doing spiritual things and man doing physical things. However, in Haiti, angels and demons, God and Satan and the things that they do are very much so a part of the physical world, not just a part of the spiritual world. You can believe this story actually happened, or that it was more of a dream or vision. Whatever you believe, it's the POINT of the story that matters here...

"So I was looking down at all the people, wondering what was happening, and a strong voice spoke into my ear, "Today, you are going to Leogane, and you will be killed."

"I began to pray, Lord help me, Lord help me, and in a moment, I was in the middle of a plain area, and there were hundreds of people there having a voodoo ceremony. The moment I arrived there, men grabbed me, and tied me up next to 7 other people, most of them children and young people like me. I saw that I was to be killed and sacrificed to demons and eaten by these people.

"I prayed and prayed, Lord save me, and then I watched while the men grabbed the first child, a young girl, killed her (I'm going to spare you all the details Alex shared with me) and began to roast her. As soon as they began to eat her, the men grabbed the second child and did the same thing. I was sick and crying and praying, Lord save me, save me as I watched the first seven people killed, roasted and then being eaten by the hundreds of people there.

When it came to me, they reached to kill me, and someone said, "I think the first seven will be enough. We don't need this little boy."

I continued to pray, and sat to the side while everyone ate and spoke with demons. Finally, when the demons were not satisfied, a witch doctor brought the knife and began to kill me. He raised his knife and thrust it at my chest. I prayed out loud: LORD, SAVE ME. I opened my eyes, and saw the tip of the knife touching my flesh, but unable to penetrate my skin.

The witch doctor was angry, and called another man. Three different men tried to stab me through the chest, but as hard as they tried, the knife would NOT go through my skin. Save me, God, Save me.

Angry, they brought a mirror (often used in voodoo ceremonies to look into the spiritual world) and forced me to look in it, hoping that I would be overcome by demons and that they would be able to kill me.

But in the mirror I looked, and I saw my mother, my father, and my brother. Only them, and they were praying, praying, praying in the mirror. Lord, save him, save him.

The witchdoctors were so angry that they grabbed me and slammed me into the ground.

My goat bleated next to me and I was on the bridge in Cap-Haitien. Everyone was walking past me, shopping and going places. I had returned. God saved my life."

"WOW" was all I could say when Alex finished telling me the boy's story. "So," I asked again. "How did you become saved?"

"The second I heard that boy share his story," Alex said, "I said to myself: If that had happened to me, I would have been sliced down the middle, chopped into pieces, roasted and eaten. If that had been me, I would have no God to save me. I know nothing bigger than demons. I would be eaten. So, that very moment, I said, "God, being a Christian might bring many sacrifices and many struggles, but please be MY God. Lord, save ME."

"So I have followed the Lord every since that day that He saved me."

"Wow" I said again, blown away. I wanted to quit right there and have a little praise service, but looking at the fresh scars on Alex's hands, I wanted to hear more. I wanted to hear about Port-au-Prince.

So, why did you go to Port-au-Prince if you're from La Victoire?

I went to study God's Word. God put on my heart, before I was even saved, to be a missionary, before I even knew what that meant. He made me to be a missionary, so I went to Port to study the Bible.

Were you in Seminary when the earthquake happened?

No. I was teaching. The only way I could pay for seminary was to teach. So all morning I would go to class and study theology, hermeneutics, Bible courses, and then all afternoon I was a teacher for first and second graders. At 4:49 on January 12th, I was standing in the third story classroom of the school, explaining the homework to the kids, because class would end at 5:00.

I felt the shaking begin, and I pushed towards the door, but everything was shaking so much, that I couldn't get anywhere. I pushed towards the door, towards the window, but I didn't get anywhere, and I saw the ceiling caving in, the walls cracking. I could do NOTHING. I kept my eyes on that doorway, but saw that the opening was getting smaller and smaller, blocks were falling, all was black, except the shrinking light of that doorway.

I knew then that I was dead. I knew I would die in just a few more seconds. I didn't want to die afraid, you know? I wanted to die at peace. So I closed my eyes, and I stood straight, and I raised my hands to the heavens, and I thanked the Lord for my life.

At this point, Alex has gotten up from his chair and is standing in the middle of my office, straight, with arms lifted and hands open...yeah, I was crying.

I praised the Lord, and was just waiting to be dead. And I opened my eyes, just to see, and the door, it was RIGHT in front of me. I hadn't moved, and it had been far off, but suddenly it was right in front of me. Blocks were everywhere, things continued to crumble and fall, so I just jumped.

"You jumped? out the door? of the third story???"

Yeah. I thought, "God has given me an open door. GO." So, I jumped. I cut my hands, my knees, but just cuts. I stood up. And I walked home. My home was gone, everything was gone. For six nights I slept in the streets until I could get enough money together to come. For the first four days, there were no cell phones, so my family was sure that I was dead. On the fifth day I called them, and on the sixth I came home.

"Wow" I said for the tenth time, a word he's probably wondering about.

And so then you came here?

Well, I knew there were two places to study God's Word in the North. Limbee and Emmaus. And I have NO money, and now, I have NO seminary, and now, I have NO job, and now, I have No home. And then I hear on Radio 4VEH that Emmaus is helping people like me. They said on the radio that even if you had nothing, to come, and Emmaus would give you Bible teaching and food and a place to stay. I called the number that day. Then I came.

"Praise the Lord," I kept thinking, SO EXCITED to be a part of what he is talking about.

"So," I said, wrapping up so I could go home and tell Matt his story, "what do you think?"

"It's good" Alex said. "Classes are good, teachers are good, the campus is good. But it is different than where I was. It is good."

In what way?

"I feel when I come on this campus, there is a...a spiritual ambiance here." Alex paused while I silently prayed Thank You, Jesus.

"Yeah, that's it. I can feel the Spirit here. I don't think He'd done with me yet."

I think He's JUST getting started.

The LORD your God is with you,
he is mighty to save.
He will take great delight in you,
he will quiet you with his love,
he will rejoice over you with singing

Zephaniah 3:17

I LOVE this picture, from Port..."Jesus, the only solution."