The First Mission Trip
// George DeTellis, Jr.
December 26, 1979, when I was 18 years old, I traveled to Haiti with my parents and a team of 10 people.
My father was the pastor of Calvary Evangelistic Center in Worcester, Massachusetts. Our church was supporting a feeding program through the Council of Evangelical Churches. For six cents a day we could feed a child. The first Sunday of each month, we would collect a mission offering of nickels and pennies for Haiti.
At age of 18, George DeTellis, Jr. took his first mission trip to Haiti and returned again with a team to purchase the first piece of land.
George Jr. and his father in Haiti, December 26, 1979, exploring the town of Gonaïves.
We were met at the airport by Pastor DeSarmes, and stayed at a guest house in the foothills of the capital city of Port-au-Prince, in a neighborhood called Delmas. Our first day in Haiti, we drove three hours to the town of Gonaïves to visit the feeding program we were supporting. For 10 days, Pastor DeSarmes drove 11 of us all over the country in his tiny Nissan van. This would be the first of many trips to Haiti. On one of those trips Pastor DeSarmes showed us a piece of land for sale on the ocean in Leogane for $7,500.
The first piece of land became home to our church, school, office, medical clinic, warehouses, kitchen and missions training center.
In March of 1982, my father and I went to Haiti with American Express Travelers Cheques to purchase this land to start a mission in Haiti. On January 6, 1983, seven missionaries from our church arrived with tents to pioneer a new mission. ~George DeTellis, Jr.
