Past. Martha L. Joseph
My name is Martha Leger Joseph; I was born on January 09, 1959 at La Gonave, a little island in Haiti. I was raise in a large family of seven children which I am the fourth one. I had known my father when I was about thirteen. I was abandoned by him and rejected by his family. I grow up in Baptist religious background; my grandfather was a wonderful preacher and a great man of faith. My poor mother made big sacrifices for the education of her seven children. My mother loves us a lot, but she was also very strict, being the only parent and provider she wanted to make sure that we turn out right and have a better future. Although her life wasn’t in harmony with the Christian principles, but she never stopped taking us to church with her; she always taught us to depend on God to provide when she was unable to pay for our schools. At time of great financial difficulties she toke us to a room in the church and fasted with us telling us to ask God to send money to pay for our education. God always answered our prayers. Our familial situation forces and allows us to be united, very close and protective of each other and share our joy and pain together.
My mother told me when I was a child, I was gravely sick. She traveled with me to Port – au – Prince, the Capital of Haiti, in order to get treatment. A few days later my situation worsened, I was closed to death since she didn’t have any money to pay for the funeral expenses; she secretly abandoned me at the hospital. By the grace of God a relative of my mother went to the hospital, found me alive and took me to her house so she could take care of me. That is the providence of God by sending that lady to the hospital to save my life. I praise the Lord for His mercy.
My mother told me when I was a child, I was gravely sick. She traveled with me to Port – au – Prince, the Capital of Haiti, in order to get treatment. A few days later my situation worsened, I was closed to death since she didn’t have any money to pay for the funeral expenses; she secretly abandoned me at the hospital. By the grace of God a relative of my mother went to the hospital, found me alive and took me to her house so she could take care of me. That is the providence of God by sending that lady to the hospital to save my life. I praise the Lord for His mercy.
I remember when I was eight or nine years old, my mother called three of us, my older sister, my little brother and I to ask us what we want to do when we will grow up. I answered that I want to be a missionary lady for God. My older sister reprimanded me and said: “Missionary lady is not a profession” I then replied “well in that case I will become a Satan priest.” Nobody said anything negative about. Ever since, I was raise with the desire to become one. My plan was to drop out school in tenth grade to fulfill my dream. After years when I was in elementary school, my mother couldn’t pay housing for my two older brothers, my older sister and me, she planned to bring us to her cousin house who was a Satan priest. I was excited thinking she could train and help me to fulfill my dream. One month before going to my mother cousin house, I had a divine vision. I saw several ladies dressing up in white robes with a white cover on their heads and a bright light was shining over and around them. I was very afraid and I kelp the vision for myself. As soon as I arrived at the Satan priest house, she despised me; one night during one her satanic ceremonies, she was under the spell of an evil spirit she was feeding all people attending the ceremony. When she got to me she slapped me; a few months later while my mother came back, she told her because me she did want to give hospitality to us anymore. Then I left the house disappointed and I committed myself to all kind of sexual immoralities.
When I reached tenth grade, my mother got very sick; no doctors, no Satan priests could do anything to heal her for her death was certain. The last Satan priest she consulted sent her home to wait for her death. I prayed and made a vow to God, “saying if you heal my mother, I will baptize.” God had answered to my prayer, by sending a missionary from Africa to pray with my mother and burn all the mystical objects. Thus the devil plan for me to become a Satan priest and to kill my mother failed. I continue with my studies and my mother is alive serving the living God.
Afterwards, I started going to a prayer meeting; the lady who leading the prayer prophesied over me, “God has a great plan for me and I will be married to a fine engineer.”
When I reached tenth grade, my mother got very sick; no doctors, no Satan priests could do anything to heal her for her death was certain. The last Satan priest she consulted sent her home to wait for her death. I prayed and made a vow to God, “saying if you heal my mother, I will baptize.” God had answered to my prayer, by sending a missionary from Africa to pray with my mother and burn all the mystical objects. Thus the devil plan for me to become a Satan priest and to kill my mother failed. I continue with my studies and my mother is alive serving the living God.
Afterwards, I started going to a prayer meeting; the lady who leading the prayer prophesied over me, “God has a great plan for me and I will be married to a fine engineer.”
Satan continued to captive me by using my mother’s cousin to arrange a marriage for me with one of her customers who lived in the United States. The guy after his third trip to Haiti decided to set the wedding date. One hour before the arrival of the guy for the meeting, my older sister brought home one of her colleagues, he was in his second year at the university, and his major was engineering. When the guy came with his parents, he saw that I was chatting with my sister colleague, he got upset, leaved the meeting without say one word. That was the way God chose to break again Satan plan for my life. Throughout this time, my sister colleague whose name is Guiteau Joseph was very kind and patient to wait for me till the meeting was over. When I went back to talk to him, there he was with a beautiful smile ready to continue the conversation. At that precious time of my life something wonderful was about to happen; he told me with a soft and sweet voice, “I love you,” surprised and without hesitation I answered in a positive way.
Unfortunately, my lover had to leave; I walked him out before we separated, he surprised me once more by asking me to kiss him. While I was kissing him I felt something like electric chock going through my whole body, from the bottom of my feet to the last strand of my hair. I was amazed , a phenomenon beyond my imagination; the only explanation I could find was that it was one of those April fool pranks since it happened on April 1. From that moment, some transformations happened in my life and my behavior changed.
One year after, I was going to my boyfriend’s house that located close to the Church of God of (Rue du Centre). As I was approaching the church’s gate I heard God voice saying, “Martha, go into the church to get converted.” I answered immediately knowing it was God’s voice, “Marry me first” and I walked away.
In July 1981, my boyfriend Guiteau graduated and I also received my diploma in Accounting. Even though, we didn’t find yet a job, but we were so happy, everything was going smoothly until I found out that I was pregnant. We were Afraid, not knowing what to do in that situation and how to break that news to our parents, and then we opted for an abortion, but by the time, I took some pills; after three months nothing was working, we decided to see a doctor to remove the fetus.
While Guiteau was trying to raise money, I heard God’s voice told to me, “Today is the day that you must to tell your mother about your pregnancy.” I was greatly troubled at the saying. I sat down with my mother from 7:00 AM till 12:00 PM desperately I couldn’t find words and finally, with a lot of fear I took the risk and told her that I was pregnant. As soon as my mother heard those words, she started crying and suddenly she stopped and told me last month I had a dream, “I saw that I was talking with a person that you was getting married, but I didn’t have money to do so.” In that day my mother went to that person and told to her about. She lent to my mother the money she wanted for the wedding. That night I told Guiteau that my mother was aware of the situation; he was chock for a few minutes, but came back to his senses and decided to tell his parents as well. That’s how my God had turned an awful situation into a wonderful wedding ceremony, January 30, 1982 and we lived at his parents’ house. June 7th I gave birth to my first son, Jefferson Joseph. (God is good all the time).
Unfortunately, my lover had to leave; I walked him out before we separated, he surprised me once more by asking me to kiss him. While I was kissing him I felt something like electric chock going through my whole body, from the bottom of my feet to the last strand of my hair. I was amazed , a phenomenon beyond my imagination; the only explanation I could find was that it was one of those April fool pranks since it happened on April 1. From that moment, some transformations happened in my life and my behavior changed.
One year after, I was going to my boyfriend’s house that located close to the Church of God of (Rue du Centre). As I was approaching the church’s gate I heard God voice saying, “Martha, go into the church to get converted.” I answered immediately knowing it was God’s voice, “Marry me first” and I walked away.
In July 1981, my boyfriend Guiteau graduated and I also received my diploma in Accounting. Even though, we didn’t find yet a job, but we were so happy, everything was going smoothly until I found out that I was pregnant. We were Afraid, not knowing what to do in that situation and how to break that news to our parents, and then we opted for an abortion, but by the time, I took some pills; after three months nothing was working, we decided to see a doctor to remove the fetus.
While Guiteau was trying to raise money, I heard God’s voice told to me, “Today is the day that you must to tell your mother about your pregnancy.” I was greatly troubled at the saying. I sat down with my mother from 7:00 AM till 12:00 PM desperately I couldn’t find words and finally, with a lot of fear I took the risk and told her that I was pregnant. As soon as my mother heard those words, she started crying and suddenly she stopped and told me last month I had a dream, “I saw that I was talking with a person that you was getting married, but I didn’t have money to do so.” In that day my mother went to that person and told to her about. She lent to my mother the money she wanted for the wedding. That night I told Guiteau that my mother was aware of the situation; he was chock for a few minutes, but came back to his senses and decided to tell his parents as well. That’s how my God had turned an awful situation into a wonderful wedding ceremony, January 30, 1982 and we lived at his parents’ house. June 7th I gave birth to my first son, Jefferson Joseph. (God is good all the time).
Few months after, about three months, one Saturday I went to a prayer meeting, I heard God spoke to me through the preacher saying, “You had asked me to do something for you, I did it now you should do your part.” I understood right away. The next, Sunday morning I went to the Church of God of (Rue du Centre) I accepted Jesus as my personal Savior, my Lord, and my God forever. In January 9th 1983 I started the baptismal classes and Saturday 12 the same year the devil persecuted me, telling me constantly with a voice full of rage that, “God does not exist, I am god”. The next day in my way to church I met one of my friends who reading a book titled, “Does God exist? I asked him to lend me the book. On Tuesday afternoon, February 15, 1983, I started reading the book passionately, because I really wanted to know if God truly exist. I was about 11:00 PM I finished reading the book. When I go to bed I couldn’t sleep; I heard the Satan’s voice commanding me with authority and pressure, “God does not exist, I am God; opened the door get out and acclaim me, by saying, “God does not exist, I am God”. I was very confused, puzzled, disoriented, I was looking at the door and the voice was taking to me with more and more authority. While I was in this perplex moment, I heard another voice with a totally different tone in my heart saying, ‘Grace, Grace, Grace” and a sparkly light was projected on me. I could not look at it, I closed my eyes and I passed out. I woke up very early in the morning; I started reading the book again with more interest, because I wanted to know why Satan was so angry. When I reached the middle of the book, I heard God’s voice saying, “Get on your knees and pray”. I obeyed immediately; the Holy Spirit descended on me and I was filled by the Holy Ghost, at the same time I saw a screen in front of me where I was watching all my sins; I cried out and repeated, “Lord is God, Lord is God, Lord is God”. Since that Wednesday, February 16, God had changed my life and I continued with my studies and on the 1th October, 1983 I got baptized.
Few months after In a Sunday morning sermon, God asked me to confess my life passed to my husband. After I told him who I was; he was astonished and furious and then he said, “From now you don’t have a husband anymore.” From that time on he acted as if I didn’t exist; I became an object that he was using whenever he had a need. In October 1984, I gave birth to my second child, and September 1986 I had my third. Satan was working non stop to destroy my marriage, giving my husband insatiable desire to go out with other women. The only friends I had was my God, my child, my Bible, my prayers, and my tears. In spite all the tribulations, I involved in missionary activities, Sunday school as an assistant teacher, and every morning I prayed with my husband’s parents. The Lord didn’t abandon me in the middle of that turmoil increasing every day; on night He gave me a vision to carry me on. I saw someone put my husband on a pulpit, he poured the anointed oil on his head and same thing was done to me as well.
Few months after In a Sunday morning sermon, God asked me to confess my life passed to my husband. After I told him who I was; he was astonished and furious and then he said, “From now you don’t have a husband anymore.” From that time on he acted as if I didn’t exist; I became an object that he was using whenever he had a need. In October 1984, I gave birth to my second child, and September 1986 I had my third. Satan was working non stop to destroy my marriage, giving my husband insatiable desire to go out with other women. The only friends I had was my God, my child, my Bible, my prayers, and my tears. In spite all the tribulations, I involved in missionary activities, Sunday school as an assistant teacher, and every morning I prayed with my husband’s parents. The Lord didn’t abandon me in the middle of that turmoil increasing every day; on night He gave me a vision to carry me on. I saw someone put my husband on a pulpit, he poured the anointed oil on his head and same thing was done to me as well.
A few months after my father in law passed away, I left the house without the approval of God and my husband to have my own house. Eight months my youngest son died and fifteen days after the funerals my husband traveled to the United States with the intention to never come back and divorce me. I lost my mind. The Lord asked me to stop all activities to focus on praying for my husband’s return. I spent a lot of months in prayer; God revealed to me the reason of all my misfortunes was because I abandoned the task that He had given me to pray for my husband’s family and He will forgive me if I accept to return to live with my husband’s parents and continue to pray for them. Once I obeyed to God, everything went back to normal and He abundantly blessed my husband family.
After that I had ventured as the prophet Jonah, a sad and blessed experience of disobedience to God, I clearly understood that the Lord had chosen me to His purpose I don’t have full control over my life. I surrendered myself to Him and I asked me to make me a “Virtuous woman” by living an exemplary life like the one described in Proverbs 31 and to save my husband and my two sons. Every Sunday night, I spent time to pray and study the Bible with my children inspiring them to leave a Christian life according to the Word of God. In August 6, 1989, my husband accepted Jesus Christ as his personal Savior. In March 18, 1990, my two sons accepted Jesus as their personal Savior (I thank God).
My husband plays an important role in my life because the renovation work of God into my life had begun the day of our love relationship. From that moment, some transformations happened in my life and my behavior changed and I felt the hands of God took action over my whole life.
In September 1996 my husband and I went to the Theological Seminary of Bourdon. May 17, 2001 I graduated (I praise the Lord). In May 22, 2001 we left Haiti with a recommendation letter to continue our ministry at the First Haitian Church of God of West Palm Beach, Florida. After three months I started working as Superintendent of Sunday School. My husband is a Sunday school teacher, a council member and the clerk of church. And my sons are also working as Sunday school teachers and musicians. In 2007 I went to School of Ministry of Church of God to attend CAMP and MIP. Now I am majoring in Church Leadership with an emphasis in Pastoral Ministry.
I would like to be a model of servant woman of God in speech, in life, in love, in faith, and in purity. Have more audacity to proclaim the Word of God with a clearer understanding of the specific area of the ministry that God wants me to specialize and a broader knowledge in church administration. I look forward to seeing by the age seventy my children and their family in the ministry, seeing Haiti a Christian country, and all people into the whole world know Jesus. Finally, my husband and I get ready to go Home saying like Paul, “We have fought the good fight, we have finished the race, and we have kept the faith. Now there is in store for us the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to us on that day.”
After that I had ventured as the prophet Jonah, a sad and blessed experience of disobedience to God, I clearly understood that the Lord had chosen me to His purpose I don’t have full control over my life. I surrendered myself to Him and I asked me to make me a “Virtuous woman” by living an exemplary life like the one described in Proverbs 31 and to save my husband and my two sons. Every Sunday night, I spent time to pray and study the Bible with my children inspiring them to leave a Christian life according to the Word of God. In August 6, 1989, my husband accepted Jesus Christ as his personal Savior. In March 18, 1990, my two sons accepted Jesus as their personal Savior (I thank God).
My husband plays an important role in my life because the renovation work of God into my life had begun the day of our love relationship. From that moment, some transformations happened in my life and my behavior changed and I felt the hands of God took action over my whole life.
In September 1996 my husband and I went to the Theological Seminary of Bourdon. May 17, 2001 I graduated (I praise the Lord). In May 22, 2001 we left Haiti with a recommendation letter to continue our ministry at the First Haitian Church of God of West Palm Beach, Florida. After three months I started working as Superintendent of Sunday School. My husband is a Sunday school teacher, a council member and the clerk of church. And my sons are also working as Sunday school teachers and musicians. In 2007 I went to School of Ministry of Church of God to attend CAMP and MIP. Now I am majoring in Church Leadership with an emphasis in Pastoral Ministry.
I would like to be a model of servant woman of God in speech, in life, in love, in faith, and in purity. Have more audacity to proclaim the Word of God with a clearer understanding of the specific area of the ministry that God wants me to specialize and a broader knowledge in church administration. I look forward to seeing by the age seventy my children and their family in the ministry, seeing Haiti a Christian country, and all people into the whole world know Jesus. Finally, my husband and I get ready to go Home saying like Paul, “We have fought the good fight, we have finished the race, and we have kept the faith. Now there is in store for us the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to us on that day.”
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Pastor Martha L. Joseph
Preaching at the ordination service of Past. Mercure
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