Week two: July 21st

post haiti service

After our mission team returned from Haiti, members of the team spoke during the Sunday service on 9/17/2017 to share their testimonies from the trip. Click below to watch the service!

"I liked to think that God’s intervention with Keith and Jake was not about their service in Haiti… both events lasted a maximum of 5-10 minutes.  Rather it was about God touching them uniquely in this way to show that He saw them and hHe was with them.  Honestly, I think it was less a help to the Haitians and more of an opportunity for them to form a bond with the people.  I love when God shows us that no matter who we are, or where we’ve been, we are not that different in the end… we are all His children whom He loves.  

Here’s a little overview of going to visit people in the community:  

We broke into smaller groups each with an interpreter and began to go out into the streets of the community with the trees in our hands.  The interpreter walked us up to a home.  Some of the homes were enclosed with doors we could knock on, and others were basically just tree covered areas with small shelter huts inside them.  As we approached the families, we selected one person to take the lead at each home.  The person basically greeted the people telling them hi, and that we were from Haven Community Church in the USA, and we would like to give them a tree for their property.  The interpreter helped translate their responses and this led to a conversation about their family, their homes and their lives.  The group experienced so many powerful moments with these families, from learning of a woman who kept having miscarriages and who was worried about her current pregnancy… to an old lady who just kept holding the hand of one of our gentlemen… to a woman who’s husband had left her and she had 3 kids to feed and wouldn’t have survived if Pastor Hug hadn’t helped her.  We even had one woman sing a Lauren Daigle song for us that brought tears to our eyes.  In every case, we helped to plant the tree in their yard, and before we left, we asked if we could pray with them.  Holding their hands, we prayed as a group for them and truly experienced God in our midst.  As we left, we waved goodbye to them and asked them to come to our women’s event later that day… many of them did!  What a blessing!"

-Jill Cohen

Haven Helping Hands Ministry Leader and Mission Team Member 2017 and 2018

timeline of history and progress from pastor hug

 God is for me a Refuge and a support, a help that never fails in distress. Psa 46:1 A

1- April 2012: my family was the 3rd family to live in this area.

2- February 2015: my wife (the one who died on July 3, 2021) peace to her soul, said to me, Hug as you are used to organizing summer camps, try to launch this new project in this community.

3- May 2015: I asked Pastor Ronald Jean Baptiste, pastor of the Beraca Church in Reserve, to give me the opportunity to carry out this project at his church, and he told me no problem, my boy.

4- June 2015: Ms. Hug, Ms. Lendse, and I start advertising and start registering for the summer camp project.

5- Wednesday July 1, 2015: opening of the summer camp project

6- Friday July 31, 2015: we close the summer camp with more than 170 children

7- Friday January 1, 2016: FIDE, an organization of which I was president, and with an international NGO called Samaritan Purse we distributed gifts to more than 100 children in the Gressier community.

8-January 2016: I went to the funeral of a brother from the Betsaleel choir, a choir that I am part of until today, I said to Pastor Antoine, another member of the choir, I told him, Pastor: I need help with a children's project, there are too many of them, I have no means to support them. Pastor Antoine advised me to go see Pastor Sameson.

9-January 2016: in Pastor Sameson Dorilas' office, I asked him to help me support the children, and Pastor Sameson replied that he would come to visit me

10-March 4, 2016: Pastor Sameson was visiting me and he said that from this day on there is a meeting in this place, he called other people passing on the street and he prayed.

11- March 26, 2016: I received a visit from one of the leaders of Praying Pelican Mission named Brother Almando and he asked me for some information on the church plant, in order to work together.

12-March 30, 2016: Brother Almando of PrayingPelican Mission brought me a partnership agreement

13- April 8, 2016: meeting with Brother Almando, to plan the missionary visit of one of the Churches in the United States to my community

14-April 9, 2016: I decided not to plant a church in the community and canceled the visit of the USA missionaries.

15-April 10, 2016: Pastor Sameson lets me know if I don't want to plant a church in the community, do my best to integrate a prayer cell in the area

16- April 16, 2016: First meeting with people from the community for the establishment of a prayer cell

17- April 17, 2016: I let Pastor Sameson know that I started with meeting people from the community for the mission field, and he let me know that next year, the month of: April 2017 the church must be inaugurated.

18- April 23, 2016: first day of service in one of the 3 small wooden rooms I had for the launch of the project to plant a church in the community

19- April 24, 2016: first confirmation for the establishment of a church in the community, a message from Pastor Johnny Félix

20- June 11, 2016: second confirmation of the establishment of the church by Brother Bien - Aimé Emmanuel June 19 and 20, 2016: I spent 2 days at Boutillier Mountain to listen to the voice of the Lord and a voice told me to read the book of 1 Kings, and it is in 1 Kings 3:1 to 15 that I found total confirmation of the planting of a church in the community

21- July 8, 2016; Brother Almando let me know that I would be visiting 3 churches from the USA at once in my community.

22- July 31, 2016; 31 USA missionaries arrived in the community to work with us, and after they left, I left everything behind Really important for me:

23- December 10, 2016. Robenson Geffrard a good friend of mine, who lives abroad, asked me, if all is well for the Church I told him, I stopped everything. He answered me, Hug, I know you can work for God, it’s because you don’t want to. I prayed to God and he sent me a good answer.

24- December 12, 2016: Brother Almando from Praying Pelican Mission, called me to let me know that on February 3, 2017, a missionary group made up of 7 Americans will come to spend 7 days at my home, in my community. I was surprised, because I had no fence, no electricity, no treated water for the shower, no security measures, and this is where the 7 Americans will stay for 7 days.

25- August 5, 2017: This was Haven Community Church’s first mission trip to my community.

26- October 27, 2017: I asked the members of the church executive committee to pray for a name for the assembly

27- October 30, 2017: Pastor Jack Cohen of Haven Community Church, wrote to me to ask me that he would like my church to have the same name as his church: Eglise Communautaire le Refuge d’Haïti (Haven Community Church Haïti)

28- November 5, 2017: we sent a message to Pastor Jack Cohen, to tell him that our church has agreed to have the same name as his church.

29- April 2018 my first wife ordered me to give land to build the temple of the Lord

30- August 5, 2018: Pastor Hug is consecrated as pastor of Haven Community Church Haïti

31- September 17, 2019: preparation to begin with the temple construction work

32- September 26, 2019: Laying of the foundation stone

33- March 13, 2020; swearing in as pastor at the courthouse in Port-au-Prince (Haiti)

34- March 14, 2021: The church council and I decided to dedicate the temple to the Lord on April 25, 2021

35- April 25, 2021: the Church council, Pastor Hug, the members of the church, the community, we are gathered to worship the Lord and dedicate the temple to him.

36- July 3, 2021, My wife died April 24, 2023; Refuge d'Haiti community church for his 6th birthday friend receives the Betsaleel choir, the choir that me and my deceased wife sang

37- August 14, 22: our first meeting with Église Indigène de Carrefour.

38- January 22, 20 23: I hear the voice of God telling me for the 7th anniversary of the church, you should organize a crusade, (biblical reference: Luke 1:37)

39- February 25, 20 23: Wedding of Clauna Céus and Pastor Hug

40- March 23: for the 7th anniversary of the church, for a 2nd time, I hear the voice of God telling me to cover the roof of the church.

41- April 3, 23: Restart of the construction of the Church

42- April 3, 23; Pastor Hug applied for a bank loan for $100. 000 excluding tax (equivalent to $5,500 US on this date , for 2 years, April 2023 - April 2025), for the church construction, the crusade and the feast of the Church.

43- April 16, 23; Launch of the first day of the Le Refuge Church crusade on the Reserve grounds.

44- April 22, 23; The covering of the roof of the Church is completed.

45- April 22, 23; The bank lent us the $100,000 and we started paying the debts

46- April 23, 23; For our 7th anniversary, our Church welcomes the choir of the Cantors of the Indigenous Church of 49- waney 93, crossroads.

47- April 23, 2023; it was the big day, the day of celebration for the faithful of our church

48- May 16, 2024: With the idea of my wife, we set up a battalion at the church

49- April 28, 2024 for our 8th anniversary, we graduated our first class from the Refuge Battalion

50- April 29,2024, I received a sister Jill, Pastor Hug we would like to have a virtual mission trip in your community.

Important: our School was created on September 5, 2016 with a number of 7 students, and now we have 168.

Construction 2018