What is ThirstySouls Ministries & What is their connection to Source of Life?
From time-to-time, you hear us mention ThirstySouls Ministries. Our Facebook fundraiser links always say, “ThirstySouls Ministries,” the donation letters you receive from us reference ThirstySouls Ministries, and we mention that ThirstySouls is the “umbrella” for Source of Life Ministries. Who are they?
We begin the explanation of the correlation by saying that the entire history behind the founding of Source of Life Ministries is full of divinely orchestrated connections with people. One of those connections was with Pastor Vern Annis, the director of ThirstySouls Ministries (TSM), but that association began long before TSM was even founded.
The Story Begins
The story actually starts with a young man who came to the United States to escape the poverty of his native Haiti. Though he would have preferred to forget the country he left behind, God kept presenting him with needs in Haiti and tugging at his heart to help. Thus the goal of Jacques Merine and his wife Marie in 1998 was to help Jacques’ brother Jean Erol build a church in the area of Lamondrit, Haiti for a group known as “the prayer warriors.” Jacques began speaking at churches in the Gettysburg area.
Jacques Invited to Speak to Calvary Assembly of God
As the relationship between Werner and Lori Uhl and Jacques and Marie Merine developed, the Uhl’s learned that he was trying to help his brother in Haiti who was pastoring a group of people who had converted to Christ and were meeting in a field. Werner and Lori introduced Jacques to their pastor, Vern Annis, who invited Jacques to come share with his congregation at Calvary Assembly of God in Hanover (now known as Captivate Community Church). Truly no one at Calvary Assembly of God imagined, but the course of history was going to be changed in more than one way as a result of them welcoming Jacques Merine to share his mission with their church!
The time period when Jacques was invited to speak was a very unusual time in the church’s history. Pastor Vern had become the lead pastor in 1995 when the congregation was small and finances were low. The annual income of the church was only $78,000, but they made a decision to begin tithing (giving 10%) of the church’s income to missions. The outcome was supernatural. The entire congregation became captivated with missions and became a very “missions minded” church with a passion for world evangelism. Missionary speakers and events were scheduled every month, and they were helping to build churches and buy vehicles all over the world. Five years after the initial decision to tithe their income to missions, the church increased their commitment to20% and was annually giving $105,000 in mission work, which was more money than their previous annual income!
In the midst of that amazing time in Calvary Assembly’s history, Jacques was introduced to Pastor Vern and invited to share about the need of the little group worshipping in a field in Haiti. The congregation at Calvary Assembly was inspired by Jacques’ humble spirit, and they committed a sizeable amount of money for the work of Jacques and his brother Jean Erol in Haiti. Over the next couple years, the church contributed funds and sent teams to help build the church for the Haitian congregation. It is definitely an inspirational mission’s story and could have been the end of the tale had it not been for both Pastor Vern and Jacques responding to the upcoming nudges of God’s Holy Spirit in their hearts.