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Thach Winslow – On Call in Haiti
“It just so happened that…” a young New England native and son of a stockbroker fell in love with the Wyoming mountains and the rural lifestyle so much so that my career became focused on livestock production and agriculture communities.
I grew up in a typical “religious” family, going to church on the important holidays and when time allowed. Never properly schooled on God’s word I was more than satisfied with a very strong belief in an all-knowing all-powerful creator and had no use for the arguments between differing faiths. My faith was self-centered rather than God centered - I believed that God was here to serve us, not that we are here to serve Him.
I lived and worked in Virginia during undergraduate and veterinary school opening a large animal practice upon graduating. On call 24/7, Virginia remained home for me and my family for seventeen years as a practice owner, and another five with the VA Dep. of Agriculture, still not knowing Christ. Yet God remained faithful to me, showing ever abundant mercy, as He spared my life in a flash flood, and eternal grace blessing me with a great practice, family, work ethic, and career.
The Lord then directed my steps back to Wyoming in 2013 as Assistant State Veterinarian for the Wyoming Livestock Board where I “just so happened to” fill in for a colleague at a meeting in Mississippi and met a Christian who “just so happened to” ask about my faith…. And this began my transition from believing in God to knowing Him. I accepted Christ as my savior in 2018 at the Lander Free Church through repentance, faith, hope, and love as I vowed to live my life for Him.
In 2019 He sent me to Tennessee as a Beef Cattle Technical Consultant with Elanco Animal Health where I found and attended Calvary Chapel Smoky Mountains, a church that “just so happened to” have a mission in Haiti. And I “just so happened to be” - “On Call”.
After my first short-term missions in Haiti I felt the Lord directing me to sell my condo to be debt free and ready for change, and on the second trip to Haiti in June 2022, He made it clear through another series of divine encounters that I was to move to Haiti and serve there long-term.
On my third trip in January of 2023 to finalize plans, I was baptized. My words to my pastors there, from the song Goodness of God, were “With my life laid down I'm surrendered now I give You everything”. I arrived on May 15th, 2023.
January 2023 Kaliko beach in Port Salut, Haiti
“With my life laid down I'm surrendered now, I give You everything”
Listen to: The Goodness of God
View my testimony March 2023 at Youngs Chapel Baptist Church in Mouth of Wilson, VA by clicking HERE.
The majority of Thach’s time was intended to be working with the American University of the Caribbean (AUC) in Les Cayes which offers both college-level courses and certifications to residents of Haiti. The primary objectives were to develop and teach certification and credit classes in animal husbandry with a focus on cattle and collaborating on their CEMARCH grant.
Thach was also committed to support the work of Housetops for Haiti, a mission in the Les Cayes area planted by the pastor of his sending church, Calvary Chapel Smoky Mountains. Thach lived with a Haitian family of the pastor for Calvary Chapel Mercier, a strong and growing church plant of House Tops near Les Cayes. He was to act as a liaison to the Housetops and CCSM leadership overseeing a project to build a guesthouse and other facilities in the surrounding areas. However, in a very responsible response to the current events and conditions in Haiti at the time, Housetops shut shut down all in country operations indefinitely in Jan 2024.
Additionally, Thach was to support the Good Vison Farm, a mission of the Apostolic Church in Torbeck, Haiti providing crop services, a milking center for local farmers to bring their cows, and processing facilities to enhance milk sales. Thach was to provide veterinary services, training, and outreach to the farm and the people it serves.
Plans are plans, and then there is God's plan: Thach spent the majority of his time with the church expanding the facility to include the addition a a shipping container with two bathrooms, solar power, and storage as well as installing shades and benches for pavilion in which they met. He worked hand in hand with the church members, digging, building, praying, worshiping, eating, and learning each other's language. (They did better than he did).
There is a story to be told of how God used that and how He used Haiti to change Thach. You will find this as you read through his blogs.
Both individually, and as a whole - not just the oppressed, but the oppressors too. I ask that on each day you stop and pause just a brief minute, set aside the engrossing affairs of your life, and be thankful for all you have, no matter how much or little that might be, and then promise yourself to tell at least one person how much you love them… and then show it. I ask that you think of one person you have ignored, shut out, rejected, or dismissed and challenge yourself to break down that wall with grace, forgiveness, acceptance, mercy, and even love if you can. These are the gifts God has given us and the ones we are to share.
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Thank you!