**Due to the current state of Haiti and the Lord’s leading we (the Lancour Family) have not been back to our Haiti home as a family since September of 2022. Jesse has taken four trips back during our time away and the following is his update from his most recent trip.
Arriving at our home in Haiti used to be a "simple" 3 ½ hour drive from the capital out to Gwo Cheval, our mountain village. Now we avoid gang territory by traveling through the Dominican Republic for a day and then driving the beautiful yet rigorous 3 ½ hours up the mountain to our house. Our truck in Haiti hasn’t been able to get all the required maintenance it needs so some friends of ours picked me up at the border and drove me to our Haiti home.
During the week our property is beaming with life. Students running, playing, learning, swinging, falling. Teachers corralling, helping, preparing, teaching. Lunch ladies washing, rinsing, laughing, hauling. Administrators typing, meeting, counting, dreaming. When I arrived late afternoon, just a handful of people remained but I knew the significance of what was happening on that holy ground day after day. Jesus was there. He was the joy in that day’s recess. He was the wisdom in that day’s lessons. He was the hope for tomorrow in the heart of our students. He was the provision of food on the table and water in the basin. He is what makes Cornerstone Haiti’s campus a city set on a hill that brings glory to our Father in heaven.
I was welcomed into our home by a lot of dust and mold growth. After removing a layer off of most things I was also welcomed by the presence of the Lord there and a deep desire for our whole family to be in that home again. There is so much work to be done in maintaining our home and the school facilities, one day we’ll catch up.
A clear message that Jesus gave me to share was part of the history of one of Haiti’s founding fathers, Toussaint L’Ouverture. He was a slave that received freedom and in his leading of the revolution still had compassion for his enemies. This led him later to be captured by Napoleon who sent him to prison in France to die. Jesus has freedom in store for Haiti, He’s eagerly waiting for His church to “Preach…the unsearchable riches of Christ…to the intent that now the manifold wisdom of God might be made known by the church to the principalities and powers in the heavenly places” Eph 3:9-10.
My 12 days in Gwo Cheval were full of connection and joyful embraces, mutual honor and love, encouragement and vision for our future. God has begun a mighty work in our midst and I feel as though we are just now scratching the surface of His plans and desires. I will continue defining success through our collective awareness of Immanuel, God actually with us, and not a western view of success which tends to neglect the heart of a people. In that measure of success, I think we are right on track! We praise You Jesus!
All for Him,
Jesse Lancour
Co-Founder & President of Cornerstone Haiti