A Priest, a Vision, and a School in Laogon
Francis Landers traveled to Haiti with her husband Gardner. He ministered to cataract patients in makeshift clinics along the coast.
On a trip to the coastal city of Laogon, they met a Haitian Episcopal priest named Jean-Wilfred Albert. Everyone called him Père Albert. He took them to a school. The children there were listless. Hungry. Without purpose.
Père Albert had carried a vision for years. The mountains of southern Haiti were home to vulnerable families who could not read, and so could not read the Bible for themselves. Vodou held its grip on those mountains, not because the gospel was absent, but because the gospel had no way in. Literacy was the door.
“I Want You to Raise Money for Seven Schools.”
“Francis,” Père Albert said, standing on the side of a dusty road, “I want you to go back to Arkansas. I want you to raise money for seven schools.”
She told him it was impossible. A family from Arkansas, raising money for seven schools in the Haitian mountains.
He was not shaken. His answer became the sentence this ministry has never stopped living inside.
From One School in Mercury to Thirty-Four in the Mountains
Francis returned to Arkansas. She stood in front of churches and individuals and asked them to believe in something they could not see.
The first school opened in a community called Mercury. From 1977 to 1989, Francis worked alongside Père Albert, building what they had been given to build, starting in Laogon.
In 1989, Père Albert was transferred to the mountains of southern Haiti. Seven schools rose. The ministry answered a call to those mountains and has never left.
Today there are thirty-four schools, standing beside vulnerable families in the same mountains where literacy first opened a door to the gospel.
The Story God Has Been Writing
A Family Says Yes
Francis Landers begins working alongside Père Albert in Laogon. She teaches, raises support, and helps build what these mountains still lacked.
The Mountains Become Home
Père Albert is transferred to the mountains of southern Haiti. Seven schools rise. The ministry answers a call to those mountains it has never left.
A Legacy Passed Forward
Père Albert dies of pancreatic cancer. The relationships and structures he spent decades building hold steady, and the work continues without missing a step.
Faithful Through the Rubble
A 7.0 magnitude earthquake kills approximately 250,000 people. Teachers ask only one question: when can the children come back? Every school reopens that same year. Francis Landers also goes to glory in 2010, and Susan Turbeville steps into leadership. Faithful presence does not stop.
Called to Give More
Haitian families ask for more for their children, and HEF answers. Secondary education through ninth grade begins at twelve campuses, equipping students beyond what was possible before.
Growing Through What Should Have Stopped It
A global pandemic halts international travel. Gang violence later makes travel impossible for more than six years. The Haitian-led structure holds. The ministry does not merely survive. It grows.