NDI Founder to Depart for National Congress in Haiti
The founder and CEO of a global missions and relief organization will be departing for Haiti on Monday to speak with several hundred key leaders
The founder and CEO of a global missions and relief organization will be departing for Haiti on Monday to speak with several hundred key leaders two days ahead of the first series of meetings of the National Christian Union for the Reconstruction of Haiti.
For over 35 years, Dr. Joseph Williams–better known as J.L.–and his North Carolina-based ministry, New Directions International (NDI), have been involved in Haiti, going back multiple times every year since its musical ministry team first went there in 1969 for an evangelistic sweep across the entire island.
NDI "has always been, since our inception back in the tumultuous civil rights days, seeking to be proactively involved in racial reconciliation" and to be "an interracial ministry from the biblical standpoint," Williams said last December, prior to the Caribbean nation's bicentennial celebrations.
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During the decades that the ministry was laying its foundation there, Williams remarked, "little did we realize that it was perhaps not only for all the interim years, but for such a time as this, to stand alongside our Haitian brothers and sisters and try to be agents of reconciliation and change in the country."
In a statement released by NDI on Friday, Williams said, “Now it is time to give political expression to this spiritual revolution that has taken place. A new political party has been established known as UNCRH, which is a French acronym for ‘National Christian Union for the Reconstruction of Haiti.’ This next week they will have their very first series of meetings in Port-au-Prince, and Dr. Chavannes Jeune will be presented as the Presidential candidate for that party.”
“[Jeune] has asked me to teach several hundred key leaders for the two days leading up to the final event on April 14th, as well as speak at the closing rally,” Williams continued.
Across the years Williams and Jeune had preached together throughout Haiti–especially in the last 2 years leading up to the Haiti’s recent Bicentennial commemoration and ‘Haiti At The Cross,’ a series of conferences for men in Haiti sponsored last December by NDI, in partnership with Promise Keepers (PK).
“It will be an honor to once again be at his side as he announces his candidacy for President of Haiti,” Williams exclaimed.
“Pray that unity will prevail – beginning with the pastors and Christian leaders. And pray that God will give me great wisdom and a fresh anointing as I preach and teach,” he added.
“And then fervently pray for Chavannes Jeune, the members of UNCRH, and myself as we seek to lift the banner of Christ over these historic events. By God’s grace and sovereign power, we have a real opportunity to ‘take the Haiti White House’ for Christ! And you can play a vital part through your prayers and fasting for these events between April 12th and 14th.”
Currently, UNCRH is comprised of more than 2,000 Haitian Christian leaders and has been mobilizing in the churches and in various areas of influence for Christ within Haiti over the last 5 years. The goal of UNCRH is “to see Haiti, the poorest, most ravaged people/country in the Western hemisphere transformed by the power and authority of Jesus Christ,” according to the executive consultant and international Liaison for UNCRH, who requested that her name not be included in this report.
During next week’s National Congress, UNCRH reports that all the parties who are presenting presidential candidates will be internationally announced. UNCRH will be announcing Jeune as their candidate. Also at that time the United Nations Security Council will be present in Haiti to determine whether elections can occur or not given the severity of civil unrest in the country right now.
The elections, supervised by the United Nations, are to take place in November.
