Global Food Initiative connects with Bittersweet Ministries, Haitian refugees in Mexico

Church of the Brethren Newsline
January 31, 2017

A water tank to help Bittersweet Ministries with a daycare center in Tijuana, Mexico, as well as aid Haitian immigrants arriving in Tijuana. Photo by Jeff Boshart.

By Jeff Boshart

The following is a brief report posted this past weekend from Tijuana, Mexico, by Jeff Boshart, manager of the Global Food Initiative and the Emerging Global Mission Fund for the Church of the Brethren:

Greetings from Tijuana. I am here for a couple days with Ludovic St. Fleur [pastor of l’Eglise des Freres, a predominantly Haitian congregation of the Church of the Brethren in Miami, Fla.] and Gilbert Romero [founder of Bittersweet Ministries based in southern California, who has served on the Mission and Ministry Board of the Church of the Brethren].

We got across the border with Mexico this morning and learned later that the US government closed the border crossing.

The main purpose of the visit is to hear the stories of some of the Haitian immigrants who have been arriving by the hundreds by way of Brazil. They have stories of abuse in every country they have crossed and tales of those who died on the way.

These people now face the reality that many of them are going to the US border, being put on buses, taken to detention centers, and being sent back to Haiti. The cruel reality that they face is that many of them sold most of their worldly belongings to pay the human traffickers to get to Brazil in the first place. They now have nothing to go back to.

Tonight Pastor Ludovic gave an amazing message of God’s sovereignty over kings and presidents. A message that these travelers may not reach the promised land, but God has a purpose for each one of them, even if it is back in Haiti. After his message five people came forward to give their lives to Jesus.

So friends, in the words of Ludovic, if Jesus is sovereign over the winds and the waves, he is certainly sovereign over little presidents. Amen and may it be so.

— Jeff Boshart serves on the Church of the Brethren Global Mission and Service staff as manager of the Global Food Initiative and the Emerging Global Mission Fund.

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