Author: Pastor Jerry Park

HAITI

As you may have heard by now, Haiti’s President Moise was assassinated on July 7. The details of this are very murky and grow stranger by the day. In any case, the people stayed home for the first few days in fear of further violence. Overall, the situation is as bad as we’ve ever seen.  Gangs seem to control parts of the country and there’s barely any functioning government. COVID is spiking and Haiti is one of the few countries that has not started vaccinating against it.

Thankfully, Sister Elsie and Sister Bonite and their ministry community are safe for now. There continues to be a threat of protests and other violence, so they are being very cautious regarding public meetings.  Our Haiti Life Center is closed for July.

PRAISE REPORT: Amazingly, the barrels that The Brooklyn Tabernacle sent to both Elsie’s and Bonite’s ministries arrived safely and intact.

Elsie: “A quick note to let you know that we received the seven barrels with great joy and lots of thanksgiving to the Lord for everyone at The Brooklyn Tabernacle Missions Ministry and the individuals who gave so abundantly to this project. Distribution will begin today. Heartfelt thanks from all of us.”

Bonite: “The 6 barrels have been delivered. Thank God and thank you all for this great surprise.  Gratefully, Sister Bonite”

DOMINICAN REPUBLIC

There’s a resurgence of COVID with the new mutation and the open tourist industry.

In April, the church reopened for in-person services for several weeks; but with the resurgence, services went back to virtual in mid-May. Pastora Cristina is planning to reopen again with restrictions, as the physical gathering together was beneficial to the people. Please pray for wisdom regarding these decisions. The church leaders also request prayer, that each church member might use wisdom in taking safety measures to protect themselves and their family members, and that they might not waver in their individual walk with the Lord.

PRAISE REPORT:

  • Florian’s whole family—Edilio, Yohana, Diana and Keren tested positive for COVID after one of the children was infected at her school. Thankfully, they all recovered well.
  • Ruben and Esperanza—Ruben was admitted to the hospital with pneumonia, although he tested negative for COVID three times. Thankfully they are doing better, but Ruben needs continued prayer, as his health is very delicate.

We unfortunately received news of the passing of two people due to COVID. Please pray for their families.

  • Julito M. passed away on Thursday, May 27th. Unfortunately, we only found out that he had COVID on the day of his passing. He had been in a backslidden state. We are hoping that he had the opportunity to reconcile with the Lord before passing and that his life will still bear fruit of the many people with whom he interacted, as he was the well-known owner of a local barber shop.
  • Chito A, the husband of Fela, a faithful leader in our church. On Sunday, May 30th, in the morning, he was rushed to the hospital with complications from what they thought was a bad cold. He actually had pneumonia as a result of COVID and passed away in the afternoon. Please pray for God’s peace and wisdom for the family.

NAVAJO NATION

Here are some prayer requests and updates from the McKellars and Theresa:

The youth retreat went well! It was a very powerful work of the Lord.

Youth Sports Camp started on July 12 and is going very well.  Navajo Nation abruptly prohibited overnight youth camps, so adjustments had to be made for groups coming from far away.

  • Please pray for the young people to know Jesus as their personal Savior and for existing believers to go deeper in their walk with Christ
  • Pray for wisdom, patience and strength for Mark, Gail, Theresa, and the other workers

Middle East

Update from David and Leah:

We have fully resumed all of our meetings and outreaches, seizing the opportunity while we can still meet and operate without restrictions. Last week we had a congregational dinner in a local restaurant with 29 participants. It was a great time of fellowship and a chance to say thank you to our dear believers who work hard for the distributions and in support of and prayer for our congregation. The way the volunteers reach out and how they go the extra mile every month are inspirational. There are always volunteers on hand to help the survivors who are too feeble to carry their packages down the stairs, and often they continue to carry the parcels all the way to their houses. Some who have cars take the Survivors home; others gather names and take 9 or 10 packages at a time and deliver them personally to their doors if they are unable to come and get them at our center. The body is truly working and healthy, thank God.

We are pleased that we have been able to move into a larger space for the distributions, which enables us to give out more food, and especially helps us to distribute expensive paper items like toilet paper and paper towels. All of our paper items in Israel are imported due to the lack of land area for agriculture in Israel, as well as the arid conditions of our weather; and so these items are costly.

On July 24th, we hope to have a baptism for 3 new believers in our congregation at the original baptism site where John the Baptist baptized Yeshua. Please pray for the plans for this day, and for the baptism to be a blessing and a special event for these new believers.


 Book Table during our distributions