Spending five weeks in Haiti this summer was, of course, better than I could ever explain to you. It’s kind of like how we can NEVER understand the beauty of heaven until we are at that gate, standing in awe at our Creator. That’s like Haiti. It is so hard to truly understand the loveliness of this country until you are genuinely loved by someone you don’t even speak the same language as.
Yes, I just compared Haiti to heaven. So that’s how I feel about that.
Within the first week of being in Haiti there was a day we were suppose to go pick up our first team at the Port-au-Prince airport. I originally wasn’t in the group to go to the airport that morning, but for some reason I had this awkward, overwhelming feeling that I should go. To meet our first team? To bond with them right off the bat? Maybe.
That next early morning three of us were picked up by Friegal, CPR-3’s hired tap-tap driver, to head to Port-au-Prince. When we got to the airport, we had to wait quite awhile for the team to land. So, that was when Friegal and I bonded. At the time I didn’t speak a lick of Creole (the language they speak in Haiti) and Friegal spoke very, very limited English. But we had a blast trying to teach each other our own languages with a translator on somebody’s phone. Laughter is universal.
I later learned that Friegal did not know Jesus. But, the way he loved us, the sacrifice he showed toward us, it seemed like he was loving us through Christ. I was pretty taken aback. You know people like that, right? His love was great. He was the one jumping into traffic to help us get across the road (no, people do NOT have the right away in Haiti), he was the first one to protect us from ANYTHING and everything, he was the first one to excitedly yell BONJOU to us every morning.
I was supposed to pray for this 35 year old man. I didn’t know why at the time, but God is kind of like that sometimes..He just lays things on your heart..that most of the time make no sense, ESPECIALLY at the time.
As our friendship got closer as the weeks went on (which is hard to even describe..because we don’t even speak the same language), I had an overpowering feeling that I was the one that was supposed to ask him about Jesus.
WHAT, ME?
The incredibly BOLD prayers started then. The word got out that I was going to talk to him intentionally about Jesus, and everyone begun praying (apparently there were even Facebook prayer request status’s about this!).
The prayer was that Friegal would accept Jesus THAT DAY.
Talk about bold.
So that day I caught Friegal laying out on the beach, on this funny little beach chair, talking with Enoc, one of our translators who is awesome. I plopped down beside them in the sand and just looked at Friegal. Of course he just smiled at me, asking how I was, like always. It was one of the few things we could say to each other in Creole. I asked him if I could ask him something because I LOVE him.
(Mind you, Enoc, the interpreter was translating all of this.) I asked him what was stopping him from accepting Jesus into his heart.
He just looked right down at me and said “Nothing. If you asked me now, I would accept him right here on the beach.”
And he did. Right there.
I wish I could tell you everything that was said, but I do know that he told me what Jesus meant to him..and he told me he believed God created everything around us, the beautiful ocean, the mountains, the sky, us. And we prayed together.
Let me tell you, Friegal did not accept Jesus because of me. Don’t mistake this story as a way to put any sort of light on myself. I wanted to tell this story, because GOD IS 
GREAT, literally…that’s it, God is SO great. God laid my feet down in Haiti because he KNEW Friegal and I would meet. I was nothing but a final door to help lead Friegal to Jesus. Many, many people had been planting seeds and loving on Friegal in the last year or so, and for whatever reason, God decided to use me in that exact moment on the beach.
God totally qualifies the unqualified, let me TELL you.
After we finished praying, Friegal looked at me and called me Se’m. Meaning ‘my sister’ in Creole.
And then we all partied. Because MAN I get to see Friegal IN HEAVEN. THAT CALLS FOR SOME CELEBRATING!!
It’s funny how God does things, isn’t it? Through watching Friegal grow to know Christ, I learned to never underestimate the power of bold and intentional prayer. Because hey, God does HUGE things. Everyday. Don’t miss them.
Brooke Angle lives in Ohio and spent 5 weeks in Haiti with CPR-3’s CIT Program. You can too! Find out more information here.
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