Team One.27

 

 

 

 

“Divine Ministries in Hope for Children” is the name of Daniel Jean’s ministry, aka “Family” in Haiti.  It began in 2001 as a simple act of faith and obedience on the part of Daniel to take into his care a small group of orphan street children in the Port Au Prince region of Haiti.  It has grown today to include well over 150 adopted orphan children, Daniel’s beautiful wife Marjorie and their two children Christo and Madalia.  Daniel’s mission now encompasses three “Homes of Blessing” in two regions, an entire local church, a team of paid employees, and an enormous local impact in their community as a living witness of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

 

     The basic mission of pastor Daniel Jean from the beginning of his outreach was to reach out in the Love of Christ to the desperate children in his area.  Daniel understands this to mean that each child should have a safe place to live, loving-adult supervision, daily food, necessary clothing, education, and training in what it means to know and follow the Lord Jesus Christ.

 

We intentionally describe Divine Ministries in Hope for Children as a “Home of Blessing” ministry and NOT an “Orphanage” because they function as an enormous church family and not as an institution.  The unique ability of the body of Christ, the Church, in providing care for these children is the fabric and care of a large “Family”, hence our reference to this end of our partnership as the “Family” end.  Daniel began a church simply to accommodate the large number of children in his care that he couldn’t afford to transport to another local church, so he started his own.  Now well over 100 neighbors and friends attend the church, serve as pastors and elders, and are often seen throughout the week checking in with the kids.  From an American perspective, they are more like a small church that lives together as a family.  Another reason we don’t refer to Divine Ministries as an orphanage is that although adoption for these children may be a future possibility, it was never an expectation given to them when they were taken in by Daniel.    In fact, they ARE adopted.  This is their family, and with our help they are growing up with a healthy opportunity to break free from the cycle of poverty.

     Daniel’s testimony of faith is one based on God’s daily, miraculous provision.  With no property of his own, no financial savings, and no secure source of income, Daniel has simply followed God’s promptings to care for those in need and has trusted the Lord to provide the resources to meet each day’s needs.  Amazingly, the Lord has never failed to provide what was needed.  Sometimes the supplies came in the form of anonymous checks, sometimes in the gifts of food from neighbors, churches, or agencies, but always in a way the proved God’s faithfulness.  To meet Daniel Jean in person is to experience a passionate faith.  Daniel summarizes his joyful account of his story by testifying, “God always provides everything we need to carry out what He tells us to do.”

     Even now that ongoing resources have been committed, all who are involved still keep their trust in the Lord’s provision (not man’s), and under Daniel’s leadership continue to expand by faith to reach more Haitian children in need.  Daniel repeatedly tells us, “The more resources that I have available to me, the more children I will be able to reach out to and help.”   His actions have proved the truth to this statement.   As one example of this continued faith expansion: when money was first pledged to meet the baseline needs of the orphans in Daniel’s home in Daquini, in faith he immediately began plans for a second home in Cayes where the rural children were in desperate need.  To get to Cayes from Daquini is an arduous 5 hour drive one way over broken highways.  To highlight how urgent Cayes’ need was, in the two month interval between when he began making routine trips to to Cayes and when he was able to move the children into a rented home with supervision, two of them had already died.  Daniel’s service to the Cayes region came just before the disastrous effects of the 2008 hurricanes, and he was able to see all 35 children in his Cayes Home of Blessing safely through the floods and subsequent water-born illnesses.