Being the President of Zamar Ministries, I get asked, often as "small talk," "How's it going in Haiti?" As I answer, someone usually changes the subject.
The truth is: Most would rather NOT know. It is painful to see human suffering you are helpless to change. Sometimes there is nothing you can do but pray, so please do.
On Saturday, 10/17/2021, 17 Missionaries were kidnapped leaving Croix Des Bouquets on the way to Port au Prince airport. According to police, the group was kidnapped by the “400 Mawozo” gang that controls Croix Des Bouquets and the surrounding area.
No one from Zamar Ministries was included in the kidnapping, but they were from the same area. We suspended physical missions to Haiti last year, and though there is no connection, Haiti has become progressively more hellish for the past year. The country is a hair's breath from complete anarchy.
The interim government in Haiti asked for US Troops to help police, but President Biden declined. No surprise. In 1994, Joe Biden, then a senator from Delaware, spoke derisively of Haiti when asked if the Clinton administration would intervene after Haitian president Jean-Bertrand Aristide had been ousted in a military coup.
Biden told host Charlie Rose on PBS, “If Haiti — a god-awful thing to say — if Haiti just quietly sunk into the Caribbean or rose up 300 feet, it wouldn’t matter a whole lot in terms of our interest.”
On July 12, the Daly Wire reported, "... the interim prime minister of Haiti asked the United States to send members of its military to Haiti in order to help with unrest.
“The New York Times reported Friday afternoon that a Haitian official had requested U.S. troops on the island, about 700 miles off the coast of Florida. The Associated Press has since reported that Claude Joseph, the interim prime minister, has made such a request,” The Daily Wire noted. “We definitely need assistance and we’ve asked our international partners for help,” he said. “We believe our partners can assist the national police in resolving the situation.”
Haiti really has no "partners" in the world. I wouldn't call the hundreds of charity organizations partners of Haiti, even though they work there. The government doesn't really partner with NGOs, it profits from them one way or another.
It is a depressing picture. In fact the whole world is a pretty depressing picture right now, and I do not think it is going to get better before it gets worse. (see my Revelation Bible Study blog.) But we are not trying to change the world. We are a few helping a few. We can change individual lives, feed them and give them hope.
Thank you for caring. Please pray for the ministry and children of Zamar Ministries, and praise God for the blessings we have.
Jerry Riggin
10/18/2021