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Karen Pasquariello was CWO’s first missionary in Haiti. She was part of a recent team from Florida and Colorado who traveled to Haiti in early June. Read on for how this experience blessed her! 

It’s been 15 years since I was in Haiti.  This trip came with a lot of excitement for me.  I spent the last 5 months preparing the team to go.  So, when we landed in Haiti, I was thrilled to once again be in a country and with the Haitian people who I have loved for over 40 years.

In some ways, Haiti hasn’t changed at all.  Still the poverty, the broken infrastructure, the dogs barking at night, roosters crowing in the early morning hours, the steaming heat, the beautiful smiles of the Haitian people, the majesty of the mountains, the oppression from voodoo, the freedom through Christ, the sweet fellowship with the Church.

Our Lighthouse Bible Church team was joined with John and Casey and my dear friend, Greg Yoder.  What a blessing it was to minister in Haiti with Greg again and our team was amazing! I believe God specifically chose each of the individuals on the team.

Our week was filled with teaching at the local church, praying together, holding a VBS and helping with the feeding program and teaching, sharing and doing crafts with the 180 students at the Feminine Training Center.

God moved in a mighty way. Thirteen women accepted Christ and three of those women were set free from Satan’s hold on them.  Many seeds were planted to the Glory of God.

What next?  I have a feeling my trips to Haiti will be much more frequent, my prayers for Haiti will be more fervent and my commitment to help with the ministry of Christian World Outreach is so much stronger.

I am very thankful for the opportunity and privilege to be able to minister in Haiti and excited to see how God leads!

Marci and Bill Hoover are CWO missionaries working in Zambia. Here Marci tells of her passion and experiences working with the boys in the Deaf ministry.

We have now lived in Zambia for 17 years and we love the ministry the Lord has created here. If you had told me a year ago that I’d be working with Deaf boys in Zambia, I would have laughed heartily at the idea. I have never known a word of sign language, let alone a letter! Little did I know that God had already prepared the hearts of a group of Deaf boys that He would lead to us.

It all started when a sign language teacher approached us at a church in Wyoming during our furlough in November of 2017. He simply asked if we had any Deaf Nephews in our group. We stated that we did not and did not know any Deaf individuals in our area. He requested that we ask. So we did. All our Nephews quickly said they knew Edward, a 16-year-old Deaf boy in their area. We invited Edward to visit us along with a translator.

Edward came and said he and his Deaf friends from school would love to come to CWO. When I asked if the Deaf boys would be hesitant about interacting with us, he said, “No. They know Auntie Marci and Uncle Bill already!” When I asked how they could possibly know us, he replied, “For years we’ve watched the Nephews leave the township to go to CWO. We always felt left behind and wished we could come. But, we knew you couldn’t communicate with us.” I was in shock! They have literally been waiting to be invited!

Our Wyoming sign language teacher, Scott, then visited us and the boys and directed us on how to begin teaching them new English words and Zambian Sign Language. We have since hired a sign language translator and a teacher who is Deaf himself. Now the boys can participate in every program we run!

Most of the boys are malnourished and have therefore been added to our weekly nutrition program. The hearing Nephews have graciously included the Deaf in all of their activities and games and are even learning Zambian Sign Language themselves! This will help to create a more inclusive environment here and in the township for them.

I am learning so much from these young men and their teachers! I’m beginning to understand how very difficult it is to understand the Bible when your vocabulary is limited. As an example, all the boys learned to sign John 3:16 together. They were excited! When we could all sign it fluidly, I stopped and signed, “What does ‘believe’ mean?” They didn’t know. They knew the sign for believe, but not the meaning. “What does ‘eternal’ mean? Who is ‘the world’ referring to?” They did not know. After an hour of explaining the true meaning of the words, their eyes lit up as they suddenly understood why Jesus died for us! I cannot express the joy teacher Lombe, Mr. Chanda the translator, and I felt at that moment!

I am learning to trust that God has better plans for His ministry than I could ever dream up! Scott is now leading a team to work with us, the Deaf boys, and their school in August and we invite you to be a part of that or future annual teams. You do not need to know sign language to be effective! Just have a teachable heart and a desire to love….God takes care of the rest! For more information about our Deaf program, feel free to email us at cwozambia2@gmail.com.

Our National Director in Zimbabwe, Onias Tapera, recently shared with us the joys and challenges of serving in Zimbabwe. We’re thankful for his heart for ministry, devotion, hard work and desire to do God’s work every day with all who he meets! 

The Joys:

Serving in Zimbabwe is very exciting and fulfilling, knowing that we are making a difference in the lives of pastors, children and communities in general.   The joy comes from knowing that we are touching lives for eternity.  The pastors are open, ready and hungry to learn God’s word.  They have a genuine desire to grow in their own faith and leadership journey and also to disciple their congregations.  In our follow-up seminars pastors have testified that they seek to implement the teachings we provide in their communities.

The children we serve are a group of those who are vulnerable and marginalized.  We feel our ministry is serving as the hands and feet of Jesus, serving these least ones.  It is joy to see the children come to Christ, grow in their self-esteem and learn some life skills from the negativity they’ve seen in their journey of life.  Some children who have graduated from college would not even have completed primary school if it were not for the help we have provided.  We are so overjoyed that these children have been empowered for life.

Another component of joy comes from serving in a country that allows us the freedom to witness for Christ without religious persecution.

Challenges:

Some challenges we face in serving in Zimbabwe could be turned into opportunities to reach out to more people as the demand always exceeds our capacity and resources.  There is always a demand to provide more training for pastors and to reach more needy children.  However, our financial resources and our capacity are limited. Thus, I feel like we have to do more with less.  Second, another challenge we face is the unpredictable political situation in the country, which affects the political stability in our environment.   Third, although it is joy to serve the children, this part of ministry tends to go unappreciated by the beneficiaries.  Forth, the ministry is very demanding, and because of that we tend to have no time for self-care and spiritual renewal.

Here are the reflections of an American missionary who served in Haiti and how he learned the real meaning of a “White Christmas.”

“In 1980 Christmas music filled the streets as my fourteen-year-old daughter and I sat quietly on our motorcycle.  We were waiting for a fellow missionary to keep a scheduled appointment.  As we waited, above the street sounds came the clear voice of Bing Crosby. Big black loudspeakers kept playing “I’m dreaming of a white Christmas.”

People thronged the downtown street. More than one million black people live in the capital city of Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Except for the voice of Bing Crosby, the sights and sounds of the street were strange to us since we had lived in this culture for only nine months.

While waiting for our friends to arrive, a Haitian woman took a complete bath in a two foot round pothole in the busy street stepping aside when cars and motor cycles passed by. She finished bathing by cupping her hands and taking a mount full of water. She then cleaned her teeth with her index finger and walked to a parked truck and fixed her hair while looking in the outside rear-view mirror. 

I felt helpless and homesick for Oregon as we sat in the middle of such poverty. Very few people spoke English. So why were they playing Bing Crosby and this American Christmas song? These sights and sounds did not seem to be connected, yet they were!

December in Haiti is hot and toward the end of the dry season. The busy road in front of our rented house was gravel and dust. In our home we also often sang, “I’m dreaming of a white Christmas”, but it never referred to snow. White dust covered our trees, bushes and the inside of our home. You see, two sides of our house were open concrete blocks without screens or windows.  Every night the neighbor’s cats would leave foot prints on our tables, counter tops and bookshelves – white, dusty paw prints. You could write your name in the white Christmas dust twenty minutes after cleaning a table. Even with a full-time housekeeper it was impossible to keep the house free of this white dust.

Every December, we heard Haitian radio stations play Bing’s hit, “White Christmas”. We listened as Creole-speaking people attempted to sing along. Finally, after six years living in Haiti, we learned the reason for the great popularity of “White Christmas.”

A street fellow was washing the car of our American friend.  As he worked, he sang along with Bing. Our friend asked a series of simple questions but good questions.

“Do you understand the words to that song?”

“Oh, yes!” was his reply.

“When did you see snow?” my friend asked.

“Sir, I don’t know about snow but I do understand the song.”

“So, what does the song mean to you?”

“It means that I’m dreaming of a white Christmas.  A Christmas with a house, food, a bed and presents to give to my family. I’m dreaming of a Christmas like white people have. Everyone in Haiti understands the words of this song.”

When I heard his explanation, my mind began to race back over the preceding six years. Dozens of times I had heard Bing Crosby and observed Haitians enjoying his music, we sang along with Bing too. Now I knew what the 25-year-old woman was thinking as she took a bath and sang in the middle of a street. She was singing of a Christmas most white people enjoy.”