Changing A Generation
// Jeanne DeTellis Loudon
Thirty-five years ago, I saw the darkest dark and the brightest light happening at the same time when we pitched our five tents in Haiti by a small stream at the end of a dirt road on the Bay of La Gonâve.
The darkness I saw and felt was the intensity of the physical and spiritual needs of the Haitians. At that time, Haitian women were having eight or nine children—hoping a few of them would survive to give her a caretaker at the end of her own life. Children from birth to five years of age were victims of diseases; death stole the lives of 80 percent of them.
The preaching of the Gospel is a bright light and I saw the darkness dim. Great light brought unstoppable hope. There was a heart change that only Jesus could give. Now, there is no stopping this new explosive generation, and the blessings are falling on the children’s children. There is a new positive and hopeful mentality. A life has to have a heart change, and then a mind change, and then it’s like an elevator quickly rising to academic and career successes.
Our first church in Haiti, 1983, Neply, Bord-Mer displayed the banner, Haiti: Hope in God.
The starving and sick children are now adults and better missionaries than we could have ever imagined. The mentality of fatalism—listening to how they once spoke (I can’t. I don’t have. I don’t know. It’s not my fault, etc.) has passed. Now, with Christ in their lives, their mindset is: If God wills. Our Haitian students know they can. They know they have a future. They know it is God’s will that they are loved, and God’s will to fulfill meaningful purposes in their lives.
In January 1983, while living in tents, the land clearing began to pioneer New Missions in Haiti.
I am happy I went to Haiti 35 years ago—to live in a tent at the end of a dirt road by a stream—with the excitable joy to say, “Jesus loves you and hope in God.” Now, we see the amazing stories: Jean Daniel (I cut his umbilical cord at birth) is now preaching in a church in Paris!
Another graduate, Roland Henry, is a pastor in New York, and is our very first graduate to sponsor a student—and she’s even from his home village!
Our first school opened with 151 children meeting in thatched rooms made of woven palm leaves.
The blessing will continue to come to generation after generation because the Gospel seed was planted, watered, and today is being harvested. This is your mission—partnering with God and fellow believers to share the love of Christ. ~Jeanne DeTellis Loudon
