Pray for Haiti

A Message from our Executive Minister, Rev. Miriam Méndez

The American Baptist Churches of New Jersey join our Haitian brothers and sisters in prayer. 

On Wednesday, July 7, 2021, President Jovenel Moïse was assassinated in his private residence located on the outskirts of Port-au-Prince, the country’s capital. 

Rev. Dieudonné Merinvil (Danny) who serves as the ABCNJ-Haitian Ministries Representative on the ABCNJ Council, states, “Haiti was plunged into a deep sadness when, early morning the country learned in bewilderment and deep sorrow, that President Jovenel Moïse was assassinated. Prior to this horrific and tragic act, the country has been plagued by multiple random cases of kidnapping, particularly among the sons and daughters of impoverished people. Some of those kidnappings have been resolved by paying astronomical ransoms to the abductors. Some ended in the death of the abductees. Consequently, some anger and frustration mounted among the families of the victims, which exacerbated anti-government sentiments.”

Haiti’s economic, political, and social afflictions continue to deepen. The country has seen the increase of gang violence in Port-au-Prince, inflation continues to rise, and the scarcity of food and fuel plaques a country that is already struggling (approximately 60% of the population makes less than $2 a day). Amid these afflictions, Haiti is still recovering from the damaging earthquake in 2010 and the hurricane in 2016. Haiti is currently under martial law after the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse. 

Let us keep Haiti and our brothers and sisters in our prayers in the days ahead. 

Pray for Haiti’s economic, political and social conditions—pray for peace and wisdom. 
Pray for God’s healing over the people of Haiti.
Pray for our ABCNJ Haitian churches, our brothers and sisters.

Join us in reflecting on and praying these Psalms for our brothers and sisters.

Psalm 13

1 How long, Lord? Will you forget me forever?
How long will you hide your face from me?
2 How long must I wrestle with my thoughts
and day after day have sorrow in my heart?
How long will my enemy triumph over me?
3 Look on me and answer, Lord my God.
Give light to my eyes, or I will sleep in death,
4 and my enemy will say, “I have overcome him,”
and my foes will rejoice when I fall.
5 But I trust in your unfailing love;
my heart rejoices in your salvation.
6 I will sing the Lord’s praise,
for he has been good to me.

Psalm 62

1 Truly my soul finds rest in God;
my salvation comes from him.
2 Truly he is my rock and my salvation;
he is my fortress, I will never be shaken.
3 How long will you assault me?
Would all of you throw me down—
this leaning wall, this tottering fence?
4 Surely they intend to topple me
from my lofty place;
they take delight in lies.
With their mouths they bless,
but in their hearts they curse.
5 Yes, my soul, find rest in God;
my hope comes from him.
6 Truly he is my rock and my salvation;
he is my fortress, I will not be shaken.
7 My salvation and my honor depend on God;
he is my mighty rock, my refuge.
8 Trust in him at all times, you people;
pour out your hearts to him,
for God is our refuge.
9 Surely the lowborn are but a breath,
the highborn are but a lie.
If weighed on a balance, they are nothing;
together they are only a breath.
10 Do not trust in extortion
or put vain hope in stolen goods;
though your riches increase,
do not set your heart on them.
11 One thing God has spoken,
two things I have heard:
“Power belongs to you, God,
12  and with you, Lord, is unfailing love”;
and, “You reward everyone
according to what they have done.”