Hearts Lost, Hearts Found
By Mark and Valerie Colie OMS Special Assignment missionaries

I went to Haiti to help teach preschool teachers several years ago because my daughter volunteered me. I got a text message, “Mom, they need someone to teach their preschool teachers at Cowman. I told them you could do it.”
My faith faltered, and I wasn’t sure what I was doing there. I discovered, as many find after a trip to Haiti, that God did a huge work in me. The children won me over at first sight. The adults were more formidable to this introvert; however, within a day, I was won over completely.
After two years, I retired. Once again, I received a call from my daughter, “Mom, they need a substitute at Cowman, I told them you were retired and could do it.” God was working again. My husband had been to Haiti several times without me. He helped with maintenance needs, evangelism trips, and built homes at Bon Repos.

I knew this was a God appointed activity. The three and a half months we were there, I taught and watched teams come and go. Hearts were won as the homesick and the reluctant were transformed. Within a short week, each had an overwhelming passion for Christ who brought them to Haiti.
Haiti grabs hearts, and God has a greater goal for you. Now we are special assignment missionaries with One Mission Society, a position we never expected. God captured us with our Haitian experience and called us to a work and a place I rarely considered.

I hate heat so I drank lots of water; snakes but they avoid people whenever possible; illnesses and never felt better while in Haiti. There is an excellent clinic and doctor on the compound.
Haiti has powerful spiritual forces at work, and we saw the struggle for souls in a real way. Is the experience so moving? Is it shining light through Haitians that moves us? Is it the hope in Christ that shines through the poverty that grabs hearts? There is something that grabs hearts and keeps them focused on Haiti and longing to return.