Bible Class at School
// Jeanne DeTellis Loudon
We went to Haiti in 1983 to preach the Gospel.
However, when we arrived in Neply, Haiti, most of the children were not in school. Education was a privilege reserved for perhaps the oldest in the family or for a few who had relatives living abroad to pay their tuition.
Marie Yolene is in seventh grade and she’s sponsored by Nick and Elizabeth Manuel. Marie moved to Leogane to live with her aunt so she could attend school at New Missions.
Marie Yolene Anestin reminds me of the idiom “from rags to riches.” She came from a family that did farming, and lived with an aunt in an area where New Missions had a school. She was 14 years old when she first attended a Bible class. The Word of God convicted her. Marie came out of poverty into the riches of an eternal life with a good, faithful Father.
Marie’s life was changed because of God's love and the Gospel introduced to her at school.
We knew in order to love people we had to open our eyes to their needs. Our priority was to give them an education and share the Gospel message—otherwise, a person has no tools to prepare for a future. If our children know how to read and we give them a Bible, they find the treasure of life. “Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God.” (Romans 10:17)
No matter the students’ aspirations for after school, ours was and always will be for them to know Christ. “For what shall it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his soul?” (Matthew 16:26) ~Jeanne DeTellis Loudon
