Calling to the Ministry

After my salvation, it was not long before I began to recognize a stirring in my heart as the Spirit began calling me into Christian ministry, and members of my church also observed that God was calling me.

Surprisingly, I did not respond positively to God’s calling. I said no to ministry, and I excused the calling to the point that I said that I was not fit for the ministry. I told my friends that I could serve as Sunday school teacher or deacon, but I didn't see myself serving as a pastor or evangelist. 

I had one reason for objecting to serving in the ministry: I saw some pastors in Haiti who devoted themselves to serve the Lord and people, but they were poor. Therefore, I didn’t want to be like those pastors. Instead, I wanted to be an electrical engineer to make money, to have a family, to travel around the world, to experience the good things of the world. Those were my thoughts.  Unfortunately, there wasn’t peace within me since I had rejected the call. I was still serving in my home church but without joy. I resisted the Lord, but I was the victim of my own resistance because there was neither happiness nor joy in my heart for months.

The climax of this scenario was a Saturday morning I went to choir practice, but I couldn’t sing; I was crying.  Immediately, I came out. It was as if someone said to my soul, "I call you", "I call you." Having gone out of the building, the music pastor came to me and asked me what was going on. And then I asked him, “how did you experience your call to ministry”? He toled me that he too had resisted the Lord. Then, I explained to him what was going on with God’s call in my life. He said if God doesn’t call you to ministry don’t go, but if he calls you go, that is the highest position in life. He prayed with me. And on the following Sunday, I make a public decision in my church.

I have been serving in the ministry in Haiti as well as in the United States of America for more than ten years. In Haiti, I was the coordinator of an evangelistic group that goes out to witness every weekend in different cities and towns. Also, I was involved in Sunday school, pastoral visitations, and youth choir ministry. From doing those ministries, I was convinced that the Lord was leading me in the direction of full-time ministry. Consequently, I went to a Bible college (STBEC) to be trained and ready for ministry. And then, in January 2009, the Lord opened a door and led me to the U.S. Virgin Islands where I finished my bachelor in Christian Education at Bluewater Bible College & Institute in 2012. While going to school there, I was involved wholeheartedly in the ministry at First Haitian Baptist Church of St Thomas. I was the song leader, youth president, and the assistant pastor for almost four years. Then I moved to the U.S. mainland to begin the Master of Divinity with a Biblical Counseling Concentration at Bob Jones University in 2014. During my training at BJU, I did a pastoral internship in different churches every summer just to have exposure to ministerial life. So, the Lord has been preparing to through different ministries to get me ready for his present work.

Presently, I plan to do one thing with my life. This one thing is the reason why I was born for; this one thing is the reason for which I am here on earth for; this reason is to preach, to proclaim the saving, redeeming, transforming, regenerating, cleansing word of Jesus Christ, the exclusive Savior, and the Way to heaven. I think everyone should have a passion to do something in life. As for me, my passion is to be a full-time minister of the Lord until the last day of my life.

However, when I was living in a dorm at BJU, I was tormented with opportunities that came my way. I was asked by a missionary to go to France, and another missionary asked me to consider a French speaking Country in Africa. And in the United States many opportunities came to me; Haiti was a possible option. I did not know exactly what the best solution would be. What I did was that I took that matter to my Lord for the entire semester. On Sunday Lord convicted me through Titus 2:13-14; and the Lord taught that I belong to Him, and therefore he can send me wherever He wishes. He gave me a burden for Haiti, a country whose language and culture I know. So, I believe that the Lord wants me to go to Haiti as national church planter and pastor.