Churches and Schools
// Tim DeTellis
In the fall of 1983, our first school in Haiti opened with 160 students.
The classrooms were simple and humbly made out of woven palm leaves. These thatched structures pioneered the way for 48,699 students to eventually be educated through New Missions over the past 41 years of our ministry.
Under coconut trees with the banner reading, Haiti: Hope in God, we planted our first church in Haiti.
My father, George DeTellis, was a pastor. New Missions began as a calling for his little church on 135 Belmont Street in Worcester, Mass., to have a reach beyond New England with the Gospel message. Dad was an evangelist at heart. When we arrived in Haiti on Thursday, January 6, 1983, plans were made to start our first church on Sunday...just three days later.
Today, Pastor Yaguel Nerat, a graduate of New Missions, pastors our first church in Neply, Haiti.
Upon our arrival in Haiti, we first planted a church. Then, we opened a school and this simple model has continued. Today, 100% of our churches and schools across Haiti and the Dominican Republic are led by local Haitians and Dominicans. Praise the Lord! We are seeing graduates now leading the mission 41 years later.
Our schools are where a new generation of Christian leaders are rising up to carry on the Gospel message.
As we celebrate this year’s anniversary of New Missions, we pause and say thank you. Each of our school teachers and pastors are helping to make New Missions a place where Jesus is taught and disciples are made. Lives are being changed forever because there is hope in God. ~Tim DeTellis
