( a recent prayer letter from Wesley and Melina Lane, Dominican Republic)

Here is the report on my latest expedition into Haiti.

My latest expedition into the Retel community of Haiti was the toughest I have had up to date, but it was a great success! After a lot of planning, we left Jarabacoa at 8 AM for Santiago to catch a bus to Cap Haitian. We arrived in Cap Haitian a little after 6 PM and jumped into the back of a waiting pickup truck and continued on to the small town of Limbe where we spent the night at Grace Baptist Church. Saturday morning we were up at 4 AM and had the truck loaded before 5:00 but we ran into changes right away.

A gang had been run out of Cap and had gone and taken over the tiny town of Ti Bouk Oboy, our planned trailhead. Normally, we go into Retel from the west, starting at almost sea level at Ti Bouk Oboy and climbing up into the gorge to about 1,600 feet. We had already sent a lot of supplies ahead in the days leading up to our evangelistic crusade so we could not really cancel or change the plans at that point. So, we would have to go in from the east, starting at about sea level and climbing over a 3,000 foot peak and then descending down to the Retel area.

We chose to go in from the small town of Port Margot and we unloaded the truck at about 6 AM, organizing the load between about 20 porters and the men who were traveling with me. I was not really prepared for it because I was only thinking about the 5.5 hour hike up from the west side.

I had started early with no breakfast and one cup of instant coffee. I had no salt, no Gatorade and only one quart of water. We started on the trail at about 6:45 but as we were traveling in from the east, the sun was on us almost immediately. The day was very hot and it was a hard, hot climb through open country with no shade. I drank all my water and was cramping pretty bad before we got to a spring at about 2,700 feet.

We finally trudged into Retel after a hard 10.5 hour climb up and climb back down. I rested for about 40 minutes and then set about setting up the tents for our camp. I finished up after dark and went to the river to take a bath and then I was pretty beat so you can bet I slept well.

Sunday morning I preached and Sunday night we started the crusade. I slept in this camp for nine nights, having church every night and visiting every day. Once we are on a trip like this we are completely out of communication. There is no road to Retel, no electricity, no cell phone signal…nothing. I can get a signal if I am willing to hike back out, but I don’t want to communicate that badly.

I could never describe all that passed in a small letter like this, but there were many decisions made throughout the week. There were more than 250 present every night, even in the rain and more than 500 on the final Sunday night. Most importantly, of all the decisions that were made, there were 38 people who received Christ as personal Savior!

One lady came forward with a testimony of how she had spent all of her money with witch doctors and sorcerers, but her condition was only worse. We prayed and prayed with her and she took us home and threw out and burned all of her accumulated voodoo paraphernalia.

On Saturday afternoon we had a new converts meeting and nearly everyone who had made a profession up to that point showed up. We were up at 4 AM on Monday to break camp and start the climb out of the gorge. I abandoned three of the tents as unfit for further use, having been used many times for several years. We made it to Limbe by dark and we rolled out early to get to the border on Tuesday, finally arriving in Jarabacoa at about 5 PM. I was only 131 miles away as the crow flies, but it took two days to get there and two days travel to get back. Twenty-eight gallons of fuel in the generator, miles and miles of hard climbing and hiking, buses, pickup trucks, porters, sore feet and a lot of sweat and effort. But it was all worth it! Thirty-eight souls saved!!

Thank you for your faithful prayers and support and God Bless You.