“And Jesus answered him, The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord: And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment. And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these.”
— Mark 12: 29-31
Love A Child Partners are making a huge difference in Haiti. We work in many different locations and want to let you know more about these villages. You will see how your gifts help us be your “hands and feet” on the mission field. Our Outreach Programs that you support include food distributions, mobile medical clinics, churches, schools, and sustainability projects. These are all making a significant difference, and saving so many lives, especially the children. This journal is about the village of Old Letant, as they are our closest neighbors.
Old Letant
When we first came to Old Letant, it was a small village of mud and stick huts, and the people were very poor. It is located on the shores of Lake Azuéi, the largest lake in Haiti, which lies about 18 miles east of Port-au-Prince, close to the border of the Dominican Republic. The lake is also known as Étang Saumâtre. It was once a thriving area, with abundant wildlife and fish.
Like many areas of Haiti, it was devastated by the long-term abuse on the land, affecting the lives of those who lived along the shores of Lake Azuéi.
The people of Old Letant were generally fisherman, but fewer fish were being caught each year, and the people were suffering from starvation. They were unable to grow food because the soil was mostly rocks and sand. They had no other resources for work or food. The man on the right in the photograph below is Joel Estime.
When we first came to the village of Old Letant, Joel Estime, a Voodoo witch doctor in the village, made it known that he did not like missionaries. He believed that missionaries came into a village, took pictures, made promises, and then were never to be seen again. Bobby and I started to bring food to the village, and Joel was always very unfriendly. We could see that this village would be a challenge for the Lord and us. Eventually, he let us hold a Mobile Medical Clinic in his Voodoo hut. Time passed, and Joel would watch us every time we came to the village, and we brought food, medical care and the love of Christ. One day he came to us and said, “I want to go where you go.” I thought he wanted to go to the United States. I said, “No Joel, I can’t get you a passport for the States. Joel said, “No, I want to convert.” Meaning, he wanted to become a Christian. That day, Joel accepted Christ in his life, and later he became an evangelical preacher.
It broke our hearts to see the despair among the people here. We knew we had to help. Feeding hungry children and their families are the closest things to our hearts here in Haiti. This poor village was mostly “non-Christians,” and many of these people practiced Voodoo. Sharing God’s love through our Feeding Program helped the hungry people of Old Letant and was one way we won their hearts.
After some time of getting to know the people in this village, we brought in our Mobile Medical Clinic team where our volunteers treated many sick people. There were lots of people coming down from the mountains with fevers and many other illnesses. I loved being in Old Letant. Our team and our Haitian staff have always done a great job! These poor people tear our hearts out…especially the children.
Life in the village of Old Letant was a struggle. We worked very hard to help these people recover. So after years of feeding the people, doing mobile medical clinics, and sharing God’s love in this Voodoo village, they asked us for a church and a school! The village lost its church and school due to the earthquake aftermath and the rising lake. They had been using this stick and tin roof structure to hold school classes for their children.
In June 2014, we dedicated this new church in the village of Old Letant. The people there had not been going to church at all, and they were so excited about the new church! We especially want to thank David George and his partners for sponsoring this church. By the time school started in September 2014, the church had also become the new school. The children were so happy to have a new school.
Frè Sorel, a former Voodoo witch doctor, became the pastor of our new church in Old Letant. Every Sunday the people gather to sing praise to God, and they pray before each food distribution. It is a tough job, but this is “what we do.” Love Is Something You Do!
As many of you know, we often find babies and young children who are in desperate situations in many of the villages we serve. Many of those children end up in our Love A Child Children’s Home. That was the case for a young child who was basically abandoned in the village of Old Letant. We rescued a little boy named “Wisnelson” (Nelson) from a life of torture and hunger in this village. This four-year-old could not walk or stand because of rickets and neglect. He had been sitting naked on the ground next to the pigs for years, and he could not talk either. We convinced his mother to let us keep him for a little while until we could get him healthy. He was so scared…poor baby.
We brought him to the Love A Child Children’s Home, and our huge family welcomed him. All the children hugged and loved Nelson. Our room mothers made sure Nelson ate three nourishing meals each day. It didn’t take long for the food and love to change Nelson’s life. He soon began trying to walk, run and talk. Look at Nelson today! Now, he is the “sunshine” that brightens our days, running, talking, laughing and playing with his many brothers and sisters. We thank all of our wonderful partners for saving and changing this boy’s life!
Old Letant continues to struggle as fishing provides little food for the people here, and they barely manage to survive. Some try to sell charcoal by sailing it over the border during the night on small boats on Lake Azuéi. All the trees in Haiti were cut down many years ago, leaving Haiti barren, and the soil vulnerable to runoffs every time it rains.
In the past two years, Wilner Exil, who is the head of our Agricultural Projects, along with his staff and students began to transform Old Letant with trees and vegetable gardens. For the first time in the village of Old Letant, they were growing vegetables with drip irrigation. Wilner taught them how to use old tires to plant their crops, how to protect them from goats, and how to grow beautiful vegetables using just a little water! The people were so excited and proud of their plants!
As old families move on from Old Letant, new families move into this dilapidated village of mud huts. The people in Old Letant never want to leave their village, even as close as they are to the Jesus Healing Center. They don’t want to travel the short distance to our clinic, even to receive free medical help. We often do a “rapid medical mobile clinic” to help the people here. We also continue to do food distributions to this village as we are experiencing a severe drought, and many people are starving with many children showing signs of malnutrition. It has become a crisis!
Recently, a “mob” of people from Old Letant and New Letant (Kingdom Connection Village) were at the front gate. Hearing this, Kaeli and I jumped in the car! They were told they would get their food next week on our schedule, but when we arrived, frantic mothers were yelling, begging, and pleading for food!
They said, “The wind is blowing, and we cannot fish. Our children are hungry, and we have to have food. Please give us our food now!”
I said, “Well, what’s your biggest problem?”
They said, “If you don’t give us food, you’ll have to bury all of us because we will die!”
I laughed and said, “I don’t have that much money for all those funerals! It’s cheaper for me to give you the food early…How about now?”
With that, they all did their “Letant dance” and started yelling, screaming, clapping their hands, and jumping up and down…like a pack of wild cats! Kaeli and I laughed so hard! These are our favorite people. They are just “plain Haiti,” and when they are happy, they do a little “Letant dance!”
In the midst of all the trouble, we really needed this time of laughter with the poor! They went away singing, laughing and praising God!!! They all got their food that day! You will never know how much food means to the poor!!! This village has been our greatest joy…feeding the hungry!!! Thank you, partners!!!
Please pray about becoming a sponsor of one of our programs such as the Feeding Program or our Sustainability Programs. These programs will feed the people, and give them the skills to feed themselves. Love A Child is also bringing jobs to the community, which generates income and gives the people hope and a bright future. This is the kind of tremendous impact your gifts of support can have for the people of Old Letant and all of Haiti. Thank you for caring and sharing to help improve so many lives.
You may give securely online, or
if you would like to speak directly to one of our staff members,
you may contact our Love A Child Office at 239-210-6107,
or you can also email us at [email protected] and change a life, forever!
God bless you all for caring so much about the people of Haiti.
Sherry