Missions Report

Haiti Travels, Part 2
A tale of two remote villages.
Posted by Joey Kelly

I have been privileged to work with Pastor Gabriel Wilcinot and his wife and their small group of supporters in Montagnac and Lagonbri, two villages which are located near the western end of the southern peninsula of the island nation of Haiti. Pastor Gabriel founded a church in New Orleans a few of decades back after fleeing his home in Haiti, and it was there in New Orleans that I met him. I've preached for him a number of times over the years and count myself blessed to know the man. He's suffered a lot for the Lord, both in Haiti and here in the States, and in spite of all of that his face is set like flint to see God's will done wherever he has any influence. Pastor Gabriel is from Port-au-Prince, but his wife is originally from Montagnac, which is why they've chosen to start churches in that remote area.

There are no other Protestant churches in either of the two villages, though there have been several attempts to start new works through the years leading up to the Wilcinot plant in Montagnac. These churches would struggle for a few years, only to wither and die due to various reasons. The local villagers had come to expect that no church would ever make it, but eventually they came to the conclusion that Pastor Gabriel wasn't going to quit, and it was then that the church began to thrive. I was there in 2002 and helped chip in to purchase a plot of land in Lagonbri for a planned church there. I've never had much money to spend on any of my trips, but my measly $20 paid for 20% of the purchase price of the land.

Getting to the area is no easy task. We fly from Port-au-Prince to Jeremie in a puddle-jumper then rent a tap-tap (a pickup truck with a doghouse on the back which serves as public transportation) and go about 30 miles down a washboard road and up into the mountains. We then walk about an hour up a mountain trail to reach Montagnac. The compound consists of a couple of sheds on a concrete slab that serve as a kitchen and sleeping quarters, and the church itself. Last I was there, work had started on an educational building, but I have no idea how far along that project has progressed.

The church usually hires a pastor and a school teacher, but the village is so remote that no one from Port-au-Prince wants to live there, so they have to make do with whatever down-on-his-luck preacher they can find, and hope that his wife can teach kids how to read. Pastor Gabriel and his wife live in New Orleans, so they cannot be there in person except a few times per year.

Lagronbri, the closest village, is on the other side of a large ravine and is reachable via a dangerous trail up the hill, down the ravine, then back up the other side, a journey that takes about half an hour. The interesting thing is that the school is located in Montagnac, so the kids from Lagonbri have to walk back and forth to school every day. I've made the trip a few times and it is not an easy walk, I can tell you that. But the kids happily walk to school, singing as they go, and don't seem to mind.

Jesus said that we are to go to the uttermost parts of the earth to preach the gospel. It's hard to get much more uttermost than these two villages in the jungles of Haiti. Please pray for the work there, that the Lord would give us a harvest of souls