Last month, Jesus in Haiti Ministries quietly kicked off ministry in a new villlage, located about a 6-hour drive from Arcahaie and 20 miles southeast of Cap-Haïtien.
JiHM’s Director of Operations, Roger, stumbled upon the village, known as Vilaj Demye, while visiting the area in September. He was heartbroken by the living conditions he found there. Kids unable to attend school. Elderly living in destitute poverty. No electricity. Spiritual darkness.
Meanwhile, Pastor Derson was feeling a strong desire to relocate his young family away from Arcahaie, where ministry was at a standstill and his family had just experienced a close call with gangs.
When Roger discussed with him the option of relocating for a one-year exploratory mission in northern Haiti, Derson was ready to accept the call.
5 Tumultuous Years
After attending Bible college for four years in Jacmel, Haiti, Derson graduated and returned to his hometown of Source Matelas in the summer of 2019. He became Victory Bible Church’s senior pastor in February 2020. He thought he would serve as a pastor in his home church for the rest of his life.
From the start, ministry was not what he expected.
The same month he became senior pastor, Derson and another staff member were robbed at gunpoint in Port-au-Prince after making a withdrawal from the bank for the mission. They escaped unharmed but it was a foreshadowing of the quickly unraveling security situation in Haiti.
The following month, COVID-19 pandemic shut down the world, and Haiti followed suit. While things settled down from the pandemic and church services resumed, he met and married his wife, Thonise, in July 2021.
That same month, the president of Haiti was assassinated. Insecurity continued to grow.
The couple welcomed their daughter in December 2022, just a month after their hometown of Source Matelas was attacked for the first time.
Then in April 2023, the young family was forced to flee their home when Source Matelas was attacked again. Though they tried to make a life in nearby villages, Derson eventually made the difficult decision to send his wife and daughter to safety in the Dominican Republic for several months. When it finally proved too hard to live apart, they settled in an area of Cabaret called Mesaye, which seemed removed from the violence.
A close call and a new calling
Then a few months ago, they had a close call. One day in September, a neighbor asked to park his vehicle in the courtyard of the house that Derson’s family was renting. Derson gave him permission, but the vehicle ended up not fitting through the gate opening, and the neighbor gave up and parked it outside his home.
At 11pm that night, Derson heard gunshots dangerously close. The next morning when he went to investigate what had happened, everyone was in a panic. His neighbor had been shot and kidnapped, and the vehicle stolen.
“If the vehicle had fit through our gate,” Derson said, “the gangs would have been right outside our home.”
That was the last straw. Derson moved his family to Cap-Haïtien a few days later. He planned to return alone to continue ministry in Arcahaie, but the gang attacks in October opened the way for a new conversation with Roger.
Moving north
Roger shared with Derson about Vilaj Demye and his vision to evangelize there, starting out with youth ministry just as they had done in Source Matelas in the early 2000s.
Key JiHM leaders gathered in Cap-Haïtien to talk about what ministry could look like. They began visiting the village to meet with the people and lead games with the kids.
“The kids were really excited about it,” Roger said.
On November 29, JiHM’s leaders held a meeting with three members of the village council, to learn more about the village and how they could best serve.
The council members shared some of the biggest issues facing their village, including physical difficulties like no electricity, unstable access to water, and difficult road conditions.
“Lots of children in this village don’t get to go to school because they don’t have money,” said Roger. “Some kids were sent home one day we were there because they hadn’t paid for the next session. Some kids were just home, probably more than half of the kids. If kids go to school, they walk to Terrier Rouge which is nearly 2.5 miles away.”
“We don’t want to make them dependent on us,” said Roger, “but to help them provide for themselves.”
He believes serving the village well will start with youth activities, particularly sports, to bring people together. Even something as simple as a soccer championship can be a valuable learning tool for spreading the gospel.
“In the north, when you have a soccer championship, it’s more than a game,” said Roger. “In fact, they will do voodoo to win the championship. Everything is a fight, and they take that seriously. The reason they see things like this is because of a lack of love and a lack of the Word of God. Most of the church leaders and pastors here are using voodoo to fill their churches.
“I told Derson, ‘It’s a fight’,” said Roger. “But there is no fight that is greater than the gospel. Back in Source Matelas when we first started ministry, there were a bunch of voodoo temples. Now you can hardly find one because the gospel became so impactful in the villages. Pastors here are using people like toys. Without love. We do have love, and we want to show it.”
“There is no church in the village,” Derson said, “so it is a great opportunity to minister there, to train leaders, teach the Bible, etc.
“As a soldier of Christ, I’m always open for anywhere that Christ sends me, even if I was so happy doing ministry in the village where I grew up. But I trust God for this new experience. I’m very excited because I can see youth and adults who are thirsty for God, and I’m the one that God chose to meet that need.”
Spreading the gospel and providing education has always been the heartbeat of JiHM, and we are excited to see how God leads in Vilaj Demye over the next several months. Pray for God to provide more clarity for this new opportunity.
The team will launch its first activity with a soccer championship on December 25.
Kristi Bucher has served as Communications Manager for Jesus in Haiti Ministries since 2014. She currently lives in Minnesota with her husband, Nathan, and two kids. Kristi and Nathan lived in Haiti from 2012–2014.