I originally wrote this story in 2019, the year we thought we would be building Lespwa Lavi campus….

…..it’s time to share the story

Nika Pierre-Louis

“And He gave their land as an inheritance, an inheritance to his people” – Psalm 135:12

The first time I arrived in Verrettes, the sun had just set. We’d been traveling for 3 hours, bumping along possibly the most pot-filled highway in existence for the last 10 miles, which took over 45 minutes. As the electricity-less villages along the highway slipped into darkness, we saw a bright light on the edge of the mountain ahead of us. “That’s our land,” Ricardo told me. “They must be having church.”

It wasn’t until the next morning that we learned about the source of the light. Every night that week, the church had been holding all night prayer services in preparation for our arrival. They said they had to break down the voodoo strongholds around the land. Every night, a truck pulled a portable generator with a spotlight attached to it like a flagpole up the mountainside to light up the prayer meeting. On Sunday morning I took my first walk around the land. It occupied the side of a mountain that we would learn was not only a traditional voodoo ceremonial site, but home to some of the poorest people in the country.

The Bible talks a lot about land. Land, inheritance, heritage. God was very specific when he assigned land to the people of Israel, which has always sort of baffled me. I mean, God could have turned the unoccupied desert into a paradise right? Or he could have turned Egypt over to the Israelites rather than having them journey to the Promised Land. Why is it that a particular piece of land can be so important? I think maybe land becomes significant when God attaches a promise to it.

The promise of land is so significant throughout scripture – as theology professor Chris Bruno puts it “the land is ultimately not just about a place to set up borders or to mark out territory in distinction from a bunch of other countries. The land is a place where God dwells with his people.” So land is a place of promise, of peace, of rest. If there is one thing Haiti needs, it is for God to dwell there, right?

Sometimes it seems God chooses the most unlikely pieces of land for his people. I think He wants us to understand how to be conquerors. We are to learn to be rulers and to fight for the promises He has given us. Remember the story of Caleb and Joshua in the Bible? If not, give it a quick read, Numbers 13-14. They were the only two people who had enough faith that God would bring them into the Promised Land, and they were the only two who got their inheritance. But they still had to fight for it. “Now give me this mountain, that the Lord promised me that day” declares Caleb in Joshua 14:12. And he went up and conquered it from the Anakite giants.

I love the story of Caleb. God granted him a promise, an inheritance, because he followed Him wholeheartedly. God is still in the business of making promises today, and He made a promise to Lespwa Lavi and the people of Verrettes.

All the way back in 2017, Ricardo Pierre-Louis began sharing his vision for a school with the community leaders in Verrettes. At that time, he had no idea where it would be built. You see, land is a tricky thing in Haiti. Most of the land is ancestral – passed down from family to family – but there is typically no legal documentation. It’s something that the government can come and take from you – at any time. In fact, one of Ricardo’s grandparents was killed in a land dispute with the government. And then there is voodoo land. In areas where voodoo is very active, the mountains are considered sacred and are used most frequently for voodoo ceremonies. There is darkness there. You don’t go there.

With all this in mind, you can imagine our shock when the community of Verrettes donated 6 acres to us - complete with a deed - less than a month after we announced the plans for a school. Later we learned that one of the community elders had a vision of Lespwa Lavi Academy and prophesied that it would be “a light on the hill, a light to the community.” A very poor man named Moise, who lived adjacent to the land, immediately cleared the land of brush and garbage. Soon after, the community came together and built a little church out of sticks and mud. They said “If this academy is going to happen, then God has to do it.” Then the community decided we probably needed more land and donated another 6 acres for a full size academy.

Now back to that first Sunday morning walk on our Promised Land. We hiked up the side of the mountain where a lone palm tree was the only survivor of the decades of deforestation and overgrazing. Several scrawny goats pawed around, looking for something green. From under the palm tree, we stood at the top of the land site and looked out over the Artibonite valley below, imaging the school buildings springing up out of the limestone. An amazing team of 11 architects and engineers from Engineering Ministries International designed a beautiful, functional campus. We interviewed the most experienced construction teams in the country and launched our fundraising plan. We had a great big glorious vision, and we couldn’t wait to get started.

When God attaches a promise to land, it becomes significant. Lespwa Lavi means Hope for Life, and we do intend to be a light on the hill, guiding the youth of Haiti out of darkness. “Now give me this mountain,” we echo Caleb as we continue to plan the Lespwa Lavi campus. But remember that Caleb had to fight a few giants to occupy that mountain?

As we left Verrettes on February 9th, 2019, protests were breaking out across the nation. A roadblock just outside Verrettes prevented us from taking the main highway. In a 20-year-old Nissan SUV we skirted back country roads to try and find a way out. At one point we had to stop and the driver walked ahead to see which way to go. As we sat waiting, I realized we were next to a cemetery. I’m not superstitious, but in Haiti cemeteries are not always places to lay the dead to rest and leave them in peace. This was a voodoo cemetery. This was a place to wake the powers that American Christians don’t understand. Suddenly, it seemed almost as if the sun darkened slightly, and I heard a voice in my head tell me “I will fight you. This is my land. I see you. I will fight you.” Then the driver got back in the car and we continued on. My colleague in the same vehicle later told me he experienced the same darkness I felt.

When we got back to the States, we all realized that the Haitians were right. If this academy is going to happen, God has to do it. God made a promise, God gave us some land, and only He will help us occupy it. We’ll fight giants of discouragement, doubt, fatigue and money in the US, while the Haitian team fights bigger giants of famine, dirty water, corruption and fear. Together we’ll fight the spirit on that mountain that wants to keep it in darkness. No more darkness. No more ignorance. No more poverty.

“The land on which your feet have walked will be your inheritance and that of your children forever, because you have followed the LORD my God wholeheartedly.” Numbers 14:7-9

Over the next few days we’ll be sharing what we’ve done with the land!

You don’t want to miss an update.

The Land Story