We are asked many times how did a soul winning mission organization become involved with orphanages. The answer to that is simple and was not part of our plans, but was a part of God's plans. It took seeing 32 poor, hungry, dirty children that were sleeping on a dirt floor of a one room hut to open our eyes to a greater need than we had planned on.
The Orphanage Ministries of White Fields Overseas Evangelism began in 1978 in a little village a Mapou Lagon, Haiti. You see, Haiti was, and still is, the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere. Besides that, the nation had suffered a 5-year drought which further devastated the country with starvation and dehydration. Also, the nation of Haiti was under control by the feared dictator, Francois Duvalier and his secret police, the TonTon Macoute. All this adds up to one heart-wrenching, awful, scary place.
Reggie Thomas went to Haiti in 1972. While there, he met a preacher named Jeanrilus Delicat. In 1978, Reggie returned to Haiti, but also took his wife, Esther. Jeanrilus begged them to come to his parent's house; he had something to show them. Little did Reggie and Esther know what they were going to see or what was going to happen from that one visit. When they arrived in Mapou Lagon, Haiti, they saw a small, one room mud hut and 32 half-clothed children sitting around the yard. Some of these children were malnourised and sick, some where healthy, but hungry and without parents. Mama and Papa Delicat were going to have to send the children out on the street, because they could not feed them. Reggie and Esther left there heartbroken and decided to pray. A month later the Mapou Christian Home and Orphanage was started. The Summer of 1978 they took their daughter, Lori, to Haiti for the first time.
Since it's beginning, the Mapou Christian Home and Orphanage has helped hundreds of children. Two of the original children are back at the orphanage helping us.
In 1989, Reggie and Esther decided that they needed to retire from the orphanage. It was becoming a full-time ministry of its own and was distracting them from their desire to go into the unreached nations of the world. Lori decided she wanted to continue the orphanage work.
As White Fields Evangelists travel the world, they have seen the need for many orphanages. Because of this need, we have increased our vision that we had for the 32 children at Mapou, Haiti, back in 1978. We have increased the ministry to include 8 orphanages around the world. We are able to feed, clothe, and teach hundreds of children each day.
We are happy to see that the vision of the Orphanage Ministry is still growing and being passed on to yet another generation of children. Lori's daughter, Lacey, loves to go to Haiti and visit the children at the Jesus Loves Me Home. Also, several more of the children we are helping have expressed their desire to become a part of the ministry and help future children as they were helped. Several of the children have expressed an interest in going into full-time ministry to preach the Gospel to the unreached of their nation!