There’s a battle for hope in Haiti. Up to half of Haiti’s gang members are children, a recent estimate from UNICEF says, and they are subject to graphic abuse.
Yet it’s possible for kids to leave the gangs. They just need help to do so.
Obed* serves with Every Man a Warrior, a discipleship ministry with Trans World Radio. He knows a boy who used to be an informant for a dangerous gang near Port-au-Prince. When Obed contacted a local pastor, the pastor sent the boy north, away from the danger and abuse of his old life.
“He said that if we didn’t come through to help him, he would not be able to be alive. Because it’s a bad situation, because [kids] are killed, they are being sometime[s] raped and all kind of bad thing[s] happen to them,” says Obed.
The boy is now at their school in northern Haiti, with a new start in his life.
But another boy involved with gangs had little hope when Obed’s team talked with him. They asked him if he was comfortable with what he was involved in.
“Do you know where I live? I live in Haiti. There’s no other chance for me, only the gang,” Obed says the boy replied.
Please pray for that boy, who Obed says may have been just 13 years old. Pray that God will rescue him from death in the life he feels trapped in and give him hope through Jesus.
Obed says Haiti’s crises have strengthened the faith of believers, compelling them to seek God more. “What’s happening, it’s so bad. But we still see God at work in many aspect[s]. Because when we consider the gang power, they have their limitation. That could be worse,” he says.
“We don’t see any way to get out of this. Only we put our trust in God. We see that God is at work providing the activity that we are doing in our ministry. We struggle a lot, but we can’t complain. God is faithful.”
Please join in praying for peace in Haiti and for kids to have a chance of rescue.
“We want peace, and we want to see God’s intervention in this situation that we are living. Also, if I can add, [pray that] may God send workers to the harvest, because it’s huge for us in Haiti. It’s beyond our strength,” says Obed.
“May God send workers, people with good will to join this movement, to help those kids to take them out of this cycle of darkness.”
*Last name withheld for security
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This story originally appeared at Mission Network News and is republished here with permission.