Changing Haiti
Jadine Louissaint is a second-generation Haitian born and raised in the USA. While growing up, she experienced the stigma associated with her culture and ancestry, and tried to escape from that social disadvantage through education and a good career. She trained as a nurse and did an MBA in healthcare, but in 2015 realised that something was missing from her life. She began to seek God through prayer and fasting. He showed her that His will and purpose for her life was not only to embrace her culture and heritage for herself, but to seek to empower young Haitian women and girls to effect positive change in their country - spiritually, socially, and culturally. In response, she founded TransforMe Ayiti (Transform Haiti), which seeks to provide the next generation of women leaders and innovators with tools for success. Jadine’s vision is to help Haiti become a self-sustained country, by investing in its most precious resource: the youth, specifically young women.
A testimony to God’s persistence
Being a pastor's son is never easy, especially as there is a lot of pressure to do good and maintain the right image. Hillsong United frontman Joel Houston knows this feeling very well: his father is Brian Houston, senior pastor at Hillsong Church. Instead of embracing the pastor's kid image, Joel says he tried to shake it off: ‘I grew up a pastor's kid looking for an excuse, honestly, to run away from the pressure of being a pastor's kid.’ But Joel says God knew better. Try as he might to escape his identity, he always ended back at his roots. He thought he knew what he was doing, but God took all of his plans and said, ‘Watch how I'm going to make this work.’ Joel said God definitely has a sense of humour, since he ended up serving in the ministry he swore he wanted nothing to do with. He says God believed in him even during moments when he doubted himself, and he assures other lost souls that they do not need to be perfect to serve God. ‘You don't have to be super-talented, or have it all together - God is all about using people who just make themselves available,’ he says.
Friday Focus - pray for prisons
‘About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them.’ (Acts 16:25) Lives can be changed for good in prison. Praise God for all who work in prisons. Pray for protection for prison officers and their families. Also, pray for all involved in the Prison HOPE initiative to link churches, prison chaplains and organisations involved with prisoners, former prisoners and their families. Consider: how could your church pray for and link with the local prison?
(Written by Bishop James Langstaff, Bishop to Prisons)
Brexit: results of Supreme Court’s decision
On Tuesday the Supreme Court gave the responsibility for Brexit back to Parliament. The consequences of that ruling are making themselves felt, the most important being the bill on triggering Article 50 that the Government published yesterday. Yet the bill is not the very first fruit of the court’s constitutionally unanswerable decision. Until she stood up at Prime Minister’s questions on Wednesday, Theresa May was also insisting there would be no white paper on Brexit goals either. Yet, faced with a newly empowered House of Commons, Mrs May has been forced into a U-turn on that refusal too. Within 48 hours, the Government has been compelled to take Parliament more seriously. Mrs May changed her mind because of parliamentary numbers. This Government has a working majority of only sixteen: if the main opposition parties can find common cause with pro-remain Conservative MPs, that majority is threatened. Note: Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland now have no formal power of veto over withdrawal.
