Hayti by Henry Williams

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Washington, D.C. · Feb 23, 1905

Hayti

By Henry Williams

I THANK our Heavenly Father for his mercies of the past year toward us, and am grateful for the kindness of the Mission Board in sending us copies of readings for the week of prayer just in time so we could observe it at the time when it was observed by our brethren in the States. As it was not convenient for the sister and her children who join with us on the Sabbath, to meet with us during the week of prayer, I gave her a copy of the readings. I also sent a copy to a lone sister thirty miles across the sea on the Spanish part of the island. The important and interesting readings and the solemn exercises in drawing closer to the Lord during this special occasion have greatly helped us to consecrate ourselves anew, and have brought blessings to our hearts, with fresh enthusiasm to begin a new year in the service of the Lord, witnessing with greater zeal for the truth.

I used to say that it was a strange providence that permitted us to come to this country with its strange customs, to suffer as we have; but day after day as I realize the calling which we are filling, I am satisfied that we were not brought here without a cause. Just at this moment as I am penning these lines, Michel Nord Isaac, a native schoolmaster, comes into the room, and finding me writing, asks to be excused for interrupting me, but wishes me to be kind enough to listen to him for a while. I quit my writing, when he begins by saying: “I am a member of the Wesleyan chapel, but it is not man that I am serving. I am seeking for truth, so that I can serve God and do his will by the help of the Holy Spirit, and daily I pray for guidance to the path of truth; and I have come to tell you that the Spirit has brought me the truth of the Sabbath and baptism to my mind; that I am convinced of my error in keeping Sunday as the Sabbath, and have come to inform you that yesterday (Saturday) I kept my first Sabbath with my students that board with me; and will you allow me to worship with you on the Sabbath?’” Since listening to such an unexpected experience of victory for the truth, I am full of joy. He desires baptism as soon as possible. This young man keeps a high school, he is well informed, and a good speaker. He has begun to hold open-air preaching as leader of a society of young men calling themselves the Salvation Army. He has lately purchased a few numbers of our French Signs. I loaned him Elder D. T. Bourdeau’s pamphlet on baptism. It is the only French work of our faith that I could give him to read. He is more earnest now to fulfil the demands of the truth than when he was converted to Wesleyanism. Is not the conversion of this educated Haytian to the truth a blessed New-year’s gift to the cause in this part of the vineyard?

HENRY WILLIAMS.