Ministry Excited to Get Moving!
Ministry Excited to Get Moving!
July 2, 2023
While it takes a group to keep Samaritans Heart Ministries, there is one guy who is at the heart of Samaritans Heart. That heart is Pastor Josue Octeus. As Executive Director, Pastor Josue is instrumental in coordinating activities in Haiti. Over the past twenty years or so, our Executive Director has traveled between Haiti and the United States repeatedly, previously in his work with Compassion International and for the past seven years for Samaritans Heart. There have, however, been unexpected difficulties that have impacted Pastor Josue’s ability to fully serve the ministry.
After the devastating Haitian earthquake of January 12, 2010, Pastor Josue was called to serve in other ways, including planting churches, starting and building schools, orphanages, and making connections in the United States with Christians who simply wanted to help spread the gospel and help those in need. Over time the ministry was formalized in what is now Samaritans Heart Ministries, Inc.
Pastor Josue’s clear mission is to reach and provide physical needs of Haitians through education, social programs, and community development to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ, hoping to advance the kingdom of God and, quite simply, help those in need. Pastor Josue’s Haiti-based initiatives are directly related to Samaritans Heart’s goals by communicating directly with pastors and principles and teachers of the schools and churches Samaritans Heart supports. Pastor Josue provides in–person discipleship, mentoring, and support, making regular in person visits to locations and providing updates and accountability to Samaritans Heart Ministries.
In addition to the ministry locations and outreach in Haiti, Pastor Josue has been instrumental as Executive Director with the continued growth in the Dominican Republic (DR). For the past several months, Josue has been utilizing his DR Visa to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ, hoping to advance the kingdom of God in the DR with the hope that Samaritan’s Heart Ministries can add new areas of DR into its support portfolio.
One of the challenges today involves Pastor Josue’s visa. U.S. visas expire over time and Pastor Josue’s has expired. Although Pastor Josue has a long record of traveling to and from the United States, he still must work through the process of obtaining proper credentials to continue. It has, quite frankly, added some difficulty to the ministry, but the Board of Directors of Samaritans Heart Ministries in hopeful that Pastor Josue’s unfailing faith and patience will be rewarded soon with the final approval of his status through the U.S. governing authority as a temporary religious worker. Samaritans Heart, its Board, and its many supporters are hopeful that Pastor Josue’s ability to travel to and from the United States will re-start I the next few months – hopefully by August.
Samaritans Heart Ministries, Inc. and our Executive Director have applied for and been approved for Pastor Josue to travel to the United States as a temporary religious worker. During his time in the U.S., Pastor Josue will lead our efforts to expand the support-base and access to resources for the our programming by doing the following things: visiting churches that support our ministries to provide updates on how their donations are being used. Josue will also be tasked with evangelizing our mission to new churches and organization with the intent to grow our financial and prayer support.
Pastor Josue has always demonstrated very strong ties to his local Haitian community, and the programs that he has built with his own sweat and tears, through inspiration from God, in support of that local community. The roots in the DR are being planted too. There are few people more dedicated to his community or more willing to sacrifice his own well-being for those he serves than our friend and leader Pastor Josue Octeus. He is the epitome of a servant-leader, and it would be completely contrary to his nature and personal integrity for him to remain in the U.S. beyond his visa term instead of returning to Haiti to continue his important work for the community that he loves.
We are humbly asking that you add the completion of Pastor Josue’s religious worker visa to your prayers. Pray for him, his family, the principles, pastors and teachers he helps, and for the U.S. government workers who are in charge of overseeing this process.