One Heart Ministries International Interview with James Adams
Nate: James, you were born and spent your early years in Haiti. Is that right?
James: Yes. I was actually from the streets. When I was four years old I was on my own, fending for myself. I ran in the streets for about nine years, and then went to an orphanage. Long story short, God opened a door, my parents came to Haiti on a ministry trip, and the Lord spoke to them. He said to my parents that I was to be their son and that they were to raise me up as a Samuel in the house of prayer. At that point the house of prayer in Kansas City hadn’t started yet.
Nate: When was this?
James: About twelve years ago. My parents brought me to America, and we lived for around two years in Chicago, then we moved to Kansas City for school. We lived here for about a year and went to Metro Christian Fellowship, where Mike was the pastor. Then we moved back to Chicago, started a house of prayer, and did that for about six years. My parents decided to move to Kansas City, and my wife and I ended up moving to Haiti. We had been in Haiti for two months when the Lord directed us to move to Kansas City. and we’ve been here ever since.
Nate: At what age did you begin walking with the Lord?
James: My salvation story is amazing to me. About a year after I was adopted, I was radically saved. In every taxi in Haiti, they would say, “God is good.” They know how to speak the religious language. I grew up knowing to tell people what they wanted to hear. About a year after I came to America, my dad came to my bedroom one night to confront me about something that had happened. One thing led to another; I repented and my dad led me to the Lord. I began to weep, and I had a picture of fire. I didn’t speak in tongues; I didn’t know about anything like that. As a matter of fact, I was just learning English. I had a vision of fire coming from the front yard to my bedroom, and I started weeping and speaking in tongues the whole night—just weeping and crying before the Lord.
Nate: So your first encounter with the Lord was a vision of the fire of the Holy Spirit hitting you?
James: Yeah, and ever since, by the grace of God, I have desired to walk in His ways.
Nate: I ‘d like to talk to you about Haiti—your biological family is still there, right?
James: Yes. When I was adopted, I was a very bitter young man. I suffered a lot of abuse growing up; I would say 99 percent of young boys and girls are abused in Haiti. So, I was resentful and angry. I remember leaving Haiti and saying, “I will never be in poverty ever again.” Initially, I had no desire to go back. As a matter of fact, I wanted to be a pilot and travel the world. When I got saved, it was clear to me that the Lord was calling me to the nations. For about two years the Lord actually opened the door for me to work on my relationship with my biological mom. She encouraged me to help with a food program in Haiti, and our relationship was restored.
Seven years ago, I had an audible voice encounter with the Lord. He spoke to me and said, “I’m doing something in Haiti that you are going to want to be part of.”
My response to Him was, “I’ll do it if you tell my wife about it.”
Later on I said to my wife, “Hey Tab, did the Lord happen to speak to you last night?”
She said, “Actually, late last night, right before I went to bed, the Lord gave me an invitation.”
I said, “What was the invitation?”
She said, “The Lord said, ‘I’m doing something in Haiti and you are going to want to be part of it.’” I lost it. I just began to weep.
Nate: It couldn’t be any clearer, huh?
James: That was the initial call to Haiti. That week, there was a conference at our church with Rhonda Hughey from IHOP–KC. Sunday morning, my dad, who was the pastor at the time, invited us to share about Haiti. I went up and shared my story and gave a quick update. Rhonda went up and she was weeping. She said that the Lord was calling our church to make a covenant with Haiti. At the time, my parents and I were trying to adopt my younger brother. It was going to cost $10,000 to do it. Rhonda came up and began to prophesy over us.
She looked at me and said, “James, the Lord says to you, ‘Whatever you ask concerning Haiti, I will give it to you.’”
I began to weep. She took an offering, and we raised exactly $10,000 that morning. My parents were able to adopt my brother. About two years later, my wife and I started One Heart Ministry International. We launched it specifically wanting to help the large number of orphans in Haiti.
I felt like the Lord was giving us a strategy to care for the orphan, the needy, and the broken. We began working with orphanages—training their staff and bringing medical teams. We told them that if they gave us a year to train their staff and teach them from the Bible, then we would bring clothes, shoes, and other needed items.
Two years ago, I was privileged to lead the first IHOP–KC team to Haiti, and we saw wonderful things happen. The Spirit of God fell on our team and two of the IHOP–KC worshipers began to prophesy in Creole in front of 300 pastors.
Nate: No previous language training?
James: None. But they were singing and declaring the word of the Lord. A lady started prophesying back to us in English. It was an amazing trip, and we’ve been taking teams for the last six years.
Nate: So you were already at work in Haiti before the disastrous earthquake struck in January.
James: When the earthquake hit, I got a phone call from a friend of mine asking if I had seen the news. The first thing I did was to call my mom, uncles, and aunts. Nobody answered the phone. Our pastors, directors—nobody picked up. I called the head nurse of our organization to tell her that we were going to Haiti. The night before I left, Sean Malone of Crisis Response International (CRI, an IHOP–KC-related ministry) called, saying that they needed someone to help get them into Haiti, which we were able to do. Driving through Port-Au-Prince was like driving through a war zone. There were piles of dead bodies; mass graves were being dug.
Nate: I’m sure you were thinking, “I haven’t heard from my family, I haven’t heard from my pastors, I haven’t heard from anyone.” What was your conversation with the Lord at that point?
James: Everything was happening at such a fast pace that I don’t really know. Going through Port-Au-Prince, I thought for sure that my whole town had been destroyed. I’m talking about miles and miles of destruction. I stayed with CRI to make sure they were stabilized, and about two days after that, I went to my village. The first time I cried was when I was driving to my town and I began to see bodies and collapsed buildings. I said, “God, what is happening?” Two days later, I was invited to an orphanage of about eighty kids. They had been in a two-level house, and it had collapsed. It was tough, but we just did what we were trained to do. Three hospitals in Kansas City had given us keys to their warehouses and told us to take whatever medicines and supplies we needed. So we took care of patients all day long, helping as best as we could.
Right now, we are taking teams to Haiti every four to six weeks. The teams are made up of doctors, medical professionals, pastoral carers, psychologists, and other volunteers. Most of the medical teams that initially responded are now gone, so it’s small organizations that are taking care of the people now.
How to pray: Please be in prayer for James and One Heart Ministries International as they leave for another round of aid and relief for the people of Haiti. If you would like to help, or would like to contact One Heart Ministries, please visit their website at ohmhaiti.org.
