Today was a very special day for Idelmy, Lorvens, and Pastor Steeve, a day none of them could have imagined last spring.
On April 8, 2024, I woke up to this message from Pastor Steeve informing me that for safety reasons, he was sending his family away. Tabarre 14 was a war zone, and for days he had been debating whether or not to send his family somewhere else. The time had come.
“I am sending the kids with Sr Manoucheka to Caradeux. This is too much for the kids to bear.
I am staying.”
I knew he would stay, even as the rest of the community fled. I also knew Pastor Steeve was alone. And I could only imagine how lonely he must have felt.
As I look back at our messages during that time, I find it hard to imagine that it had gotten that bad in our little corner of Tabarre. But it had. It was that bad. And for the sake of human dignity, I won’t share the texts that surrounded the message above.
But later in the afternoon, I got another message.
“Good afternoon. Things are calm, but the community is deserted.
Idelmy and Lorvens are here.”
Idelmy and Lorvens are here. Pastor Steeve was not alone.
In the days that followed the three of them lived through times I am certain they would rather forget. But, by God’s grace, they made it through, and that horrible time is now another Ebenezer pointing them - and so many others who know the story of the spring of 2024 - to the source of our true Help, our true Hope.
Without that terrible time nearly a year ago, today would never have happened.
Without the ongoing conflict in Port-au-Prince that still rages, today would never have happened.
One day doesn’t change all the hard things going on in Port-au-Prince right now, but this one day in Cap-Haïtien is one to be celebrated, nevertheless.
