Missionary Kevin Falde presents the need for missionary work and church planting in Haiti:
Upon This Foundation
Who would have thought that a lamb could rescue the souls of men? What an amazing plan, a simple plan. Salvation is simple. God keeps his promises and will never forsake you. He is yours and you are His. You are in Christ and cannot lose salvation. Christians need to understand that and as believers we only get one life to live. Whether you are a believer or not, we only have one life to live. Although we cannot lose our salvation, that security in Christ, we can get to the end of life and wish we had done more for Christ.
We need to ask ourselves some tough questions and whether we are going to look back on what we’ve done with regret or joy. No matter how you lived your life, in the end, it’s coming out in the open. Nothing is hidden anymore on that day. Your motives are not hidden anymore, your actions, your thoughts, everything about your life is going to be revealed, declared, and made manifest.
We won’t lose salvation but we can lose rewards. All the things in our life that we have acquired and that the Lord had entrusted to us, we manage, including finances. Not only are we tasked to tithe, to give back the 10% that is already His, not ours; to give to missions, missionaries, and God’s work, or special church project, but we also need to be sensitive to the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit leads us in what He has already entrusted to us because we are accountable for that.
But all that God has entrusted to us in this life is going to be put in the fire for better or for worse — the time, the finances, the talents. When we use our talent, God is glorified and others are blessed. But it is up to us to use those talents for His glory. So everything one’s life consists of is thrown into the fire, a sobering thought. All the wood, hay, stubble, the wasted years, the wasted opportunities when you knew to share your faith but didn’t, is in the fire and we watch it burn to see what’s left. Whatever is left, hopefully, some gold, silver, and precious stone, we take to the Savior to thank Him for dying on the cross to take away our sins. Thank Him for going to Calvary, for eternal life, so that we do not go to Hell and be separated from Him for all eternity. We need to go to the Savior and do whatever He leads us to do.
Work in Haiti
After church planting and pastoring in South Carolina for 12 years, the Lord led the Faldes to minister in Haiti after the devastating 2010 earthquake where an estimated 230,000 died and many more were displaced. That led to the Faldes start of church planting in rural areas of Haiti and continues to be their heart’s desire now. Haiti currently has an estimated 10% Baptist population which is considered good in comparison to other countries. His parents and others are credited to laying the groundwork for establishing strong churches in major cities there.
The Faldes are working in rural areas where 70-80 percent of the population live and need to be reached. Many of those rural communities have no church. One of the only options is voodoo, visiting the local witch doctor to employ Satan to help you or harm others. But even the witch doctors know they cannot put a curse on Christians. Sadly, sometimes the witch doctors have more respect and reverence for the God we serve than most Christians in America because they understand His great power and authority in this Earth. There is a lot of superstition and fear in the Haiti culture.
Falde’s upbringing in Haiti with his missionary parents gives him a great understanding and firm foundation to reach the people. God has blessed the Faldes by enabling them to work with pastors and new church planters with a goal to achieve 100 new churches. They are at 12 at the moment, plus one for the Haitian community in the Dominican Republic. Falde wishes to have a massive church planting in Haiti and to see the 10% Baptist population double. Their work extends to challenging Haitian pastors in the United States to commit to planting ten new churches over the next 25 years. It seems like a monumental task, but we need to do big for God, investing more time and energy that are otherwise wasted into a good cause before we go home to be with Jesus.
Even if we can’t go, we can still pray, give, and support any way we are willing to do. We should be willing to surrender our life to God recognizing that it is His anyway. God provides more than we can imagine seeing His work through to completion. In Haiti, many are illiterate in rural areas and establishing Christian schools is also a need so they can read, write and learn the bible.
Missionary Kevin Falde’s sermon starts with verses from Isaiah I Corinthians 3:11-15:
11 For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ.
12 Now if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble;
13 Every man’s work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man’s work of what sort it is.
14 If any man’s work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward.
15 If any man’s work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire.
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About the Speaker
Kevin Falde
Missionary & President Parakaleo International
Kevin Falde, pastor at Carolina Baptist Church in Clover, South Carolina, and president of Parakaleo International grew up in Cayes Jacmel, Haiti with missionary parents Keith and Kathy Falde. His vision for rural Haiti is to plant 100 churches and double the country's Baptist population of 10%.