Haiti Outreach Ministries: The Movement That's Working

What is a minister from Haiti doing in Rushville, Indiana? In this episode of The Hoel Truth Podcast, Bob sits down with Pastor Leon Dorleans from Haiti Outreach Ministries to talk about faith, missions, education, clean water, churches, medical care, and the long-standing connection between Haiti and local Indiana churches.

Pastor Leon shares the story of how Haiti Outreach Ministries has grown to include four schools serving more than 2,100 students, churches, medical clinics, vocational training, clean water stations, and housing support for families in need. He also explains how the ministry continues serving communities in and around Port-au-Prince, even though mission teams have not been able to safely travel to Haiti in recent years.

This conversation covers Pastor Leon’s history with Indiana, the importance of child sponsorship, the current challenges in Haiti, how schools and clinics are used to serve communities, and what it means to be blessed so we can be a blessing to others. If you’ve ever wondered how mission work continues when travel is limited, or how one ministry can impact generations, this episode is worth watching.

Learn more or support Haiti Outreach Ministries here:
www.haitiom.org

Transcript

Pastor, what's a minister from Haiti doing in Rushville, Indiana?

Well, as I said earlier, the Lord has a sense of humor, and he brought me to Rushville. But the idea is to raise money and make friends, raise money because the ministry is growing so much. And as I said, we are four schools with over 2100 students. We have a clinic, we have six doctors working, and we have vocational schools.

We also reach out to the people and the community by putting new roofs and the house or new buildings for them. All this requires money. And then the fact that we haven't had groups going to Haiti for the past five years, we need more money to to do what we would like to do,

Welcome to this edition of the Hoel Truth podcast. Today, our special guest is Pastor Leon from Haiti Outreach Ministries. Right. It's been it's been a few years. Been 12 years. Pastor Leon and Pastor Leon just kind of. So introduce yourself, your family, and then I'm going to kind of tell our backstory, and then I'm just going to shut up and let you talk.

Okay, good.

Well, I welcome all listeners. I am in the States now and enjoy my state at Mahoning Valley Christian Service Camp. I'm in Christian service camp. I'm the missionary speaker there. Not the first time, but this is the second time. I'm a pastor from Haiti, and I've been in the password for five decades, and I enjoyed it, I like it, I'm so glad to be in the States.

I love your country and looking forward to go back in December to be with my wife, because I've been away for a little over two years, so it's time for me to go back.

So I hope you learned something from the board cast, and then I will learn something from you guys as well. So my kids just got back from church camp a couple of weeks ago, and I heard that you were going to be out there, and I didn't even tell my son the story.

But so quick story. I met you, it was probably about 12 years ago. Now and then, maybe even a little longer. And we were going to put a mission trip together. And there's a lot of us, but it was kind of really headed up by me and Mary Jane Apple. And when we attended Plum Creek, which is also where I met Adam at, and also Ellie.

So two of our team members, you know. Anyway, so we, we start fundraising, we raised the money, and then all of a sudden, my wife ends up pregnant. Not real sure how that happened, but she ended up pregnant. And so she ended up going on a mission trip in February. Rhett was born in May. So, she enjoyed it, you know?

And then my son comes home, and I said, what was your favorite part about camp? And this is the second year he went to camp, and he enjoys seeing his buddies and stuff. But he said, Pastor Leo Leon, I knew I was going to call you Pastor Leo. I'm sorry. Leon. Pastor Leon, he's from Haiti. He's a pastor.

And I said, no way. So I took the time to explain to him, and he's seen the picture that we have at home where his mom's pregnant. And, you know, he didn't know where she was at. But I explained to him, so it was just he's a very young in his faith. And, you know, and I think one day he's going to like, look back and realize just how big this world really is and how truly like, how awesome our God is that you?

You know, you end up here. That's what you know. I mean, he was just he was just telling me again today about it, like just telling me the stories that you were telling. You know, so it's it's really cool, you know, just to see, to see everything come together. So I had to tell that quick story because I feel like that's that's a huge part of this.

Well, I tell you, the Lord has a sense of humor for your son to say. His favorite time at camp was being with Pastor Leon. Or listen to Pastor Leon's speech. I thank God for that.

And the sense of humor is that I have a similar experience. 40 years ago, the last time I was at the Mahoning camp, I met a girl was ten years old, Brandy.

And then I saw again a couple of weeks ago. She said, Liam, do you remember me? I said, no, she said, I was saying when you spoke at the camp and now I'm on my 50s. And she was the dean for the kid. It's amazing. So God has a sense of humor and there is something good at mountain, so who knows?

Your wife pregnant with your son. She went to Haiti. She came back to the seat, has the son. And then now, 10 or 11 years later, I met your son and he said he had a great time with me. I kept. Well, you don't know. This is not the whole story. Oh, absolutely. God is working and he's moving.

And who knows what will happen to your son, to Haiti or to her? World mission field could be even in the States. But I think something took place at the camp with your son, and I would love to see him before I leave. Absolutely. Absolutely.

So kind of, you know, explain or tell that story of how you got to know Mahoning Valley, you know, because whenever we met you at Plum Creek and I'm drawing a complete blank of who came over, who called Mary Jane up and said, hey, you guys, you should meet pastor.

Yeah. The guy that plays the trumpet, oh, Rick Williams, Rick Williams, Rick Williams is the one that, that he called us and said, hey, we need to meet. And, you know, that that kind of started that. So, how did you find this area and how long has this area supported you guys?

Well, I'll tell you what, I love Indiana as a whole because I first came to Indiana the summer of July 1972, after I met a pastor in Haiti in 1971.

He invited me to be his missionary speaker for vicars and Bible school and purely Indiana. Yep. His name was Glenn Lesson. I never forgot the Glenn Glenn maybe in his 90s now. And he lives now in Texas. So Glenn introduced me to same Ronnie Sims, who was the pastor at Center Christian Church. And when I went to Bible College in 1986 at Cincinnati Christian University, I wanted to go back home.

But I didn't have anything, no means to move around. So Ronnie invited me in 1986 to be the missionary speaker for the whole summer camp, and he said, I think we could raise money for you to buy a motorcycle. And I came. He raised the money, we bought the motorcycle, he packed it and saved it to 80. And I so much fun with the motorcycle.

And I use it as a way to evangelize friends because, well, now we have three pastors who are in the pulpit pushing in Haiti as a result of motorcycle evangelism I did in 80. And thank God God used all of us anyway he can

even motorcycle. So what? How many? So we'll kind of explain to the listeners like you guys start when you go into an area, you start with clean water, right?

First I started the church. Okay, okay. Yeah, I was always I was trained to be an evangelist or a preacher. I was trained also to plant churches. So in my life I started 23 churches from scratch. So

we always start with the church. We bring Christ to them, but we find different means to reach them, to let them know Christ loves them.

One of the means that we we use to bring Christ, we open schools because education is very important, and 80 over 30% of the Haitians could not go to school. So we find that educating the Haitians would be a good way to develop the country, and also a good means to bring the gospel to them. So we've in the schools and then we accept anybody in the community.

We don't care who you are, whether you believe in God, you don't believe in God. You eat, you poor, you come to the school first come, first serve. And then as a result, the the school is used as a means to bring Christ to the children and the children as a meeting in Christ, to the parents. And that's how the church go wherever we go.

In any community, we're working in six different communities. Arches, always the strongest church in the area for form church in Haiti, malnutrition, malaria, typhoid, high blood pressure, diabetes are very common. So we open medical clinic to reach out to the community as a way to let them know we love them because of Christ. And then when they come to the clinic, we have a model.

You cannot see the human physician without seeing the divine healer. So we have half an hour of worship service invoking Christ to be a, to be with the doctors, to be with the patients before they could see the doctor. And we use the clinic two as a way to evangelize. Then we find other ways because of the bad water, the drinking.

So we have five water stations. We dig well and we pump the water, and we put rivers, smoothies and clean the water and give it free to the community. And that brings a lot of people to Christ and let them know Christians love us. Pastor Leon is really for our good. And wherever we go, I trust is very strong.

We have four judges over well over 3000 people come to church every Sunday.

You have four churches. You're technically in port au Prince, right? Yes. So all four of the Haiti churches are in port au Prince or full of the churches we associate with the Haiti Outreach Ministries. They are in port au Prince, and they are not too far from each other either.

The fathers one could be from the others about three miles. Wow. And then we have four churches in every church campus. We also have a school. We have a clinic. Although city was very bad, it was not safe. The church still functioning there, but the school, we transfer it to another area as well as the medical clinic. We transfer it to another area.

We also have vocational schools because a lot of people would go to school in the finished high school, couldn't find a job. So we end up starting trade schools. And if you come to our school, not only you receive an education, a good Christian education, we also give you possibility to learn the trade like sewing, tailoring, computer science.

And then this year we opened a Bible college and next year we have to have electricity and plumbing. So I can't remember. You guys were just starting to build a new campus when we were there, which would have been a that's the high school, probably. Yes, the high school.

That's one of the six campuses. The high school is probably the second largest of the five campuses.

Okay. But it's definitely the most beautiful of all. It's got six buildings now, beautiful buildings. Beautiful because they were every building in that campus was built after the earthquake, you know, before the quake, we were not very conscious about build properly respecting the codes and so forth. But after 2010, the earthquake started, we are very careful how we build earthquake standard.

You need to go back. You need to go or send messages to see the that campus. It's beautiful, beautiful. So much so that is you think you are in the state? No, seriously. Inside the classrooms they are very spacious, very clean, good tables. And as a matter of fact, we have what is called a lab at the high school.

Every Americans and even Haitians who visit our labs, they said, wow, we've never seen anything like this. And of all the schools that are the only three schools that have a lab that you could practice chemistry and us is one.

God is good, brother. God is good. Absolutely. So yeah, that was that was going to be the high school because I mean, it was it was just getting started.

And I feel like. So the first time I was on two, we came back two years later, my wife had a second kid. So she stayed back this time. But because the first time we actually demoed the the old medical clinic, that was, oh yes, yes, that was damaged in the earthquake. And you guys had budgeted like three weeks worth of work.

And we got it done in that week, and we did it for like the third of the budget or something like that. Like it was you work hard. Yeah. You were. And you go determined, like, you know, you are a farmer, right? Yeah, yeah. From a hard working people. So when they, they don't pray. So that's why we were able to do that.

And my, my wife was probably one of the hardest working ones there. And like I said, she was six months pregnant. I'm praying that Haiti will clean up the act and then things will be safe. So you could go back and bring other people who are listening to the needs. Is there? We not only quit, although you cannot go, but the work needs support, the work needs prayers because we as Haitians, we are in Haiti during the work and we need your prayers and your support to keep doing the work because.

So it's dangerous right now for for Americans, okay. For you know, you would send out a 20. Yeah. I don't stand out when I'm in the States.

But you instead out if you're interested, especially in that area. Because in that area they don't used to see a lot of white people. White people. You see them in the upper class. You see the letters, you will see even foreigners who are working there either and they work for United Nations or they were for an embassy. But where we are is in the trenches.

When they see a white person, men or women, where are you from? What are you? As a matter of fact, just like it's just so funny. I see I'm in the States. If you if if I'm in the area where they are children who are, let's say one one year old or two, they look at me. Who are you?

Are you here? And whereas in Haiti, dissenting children who are 2 or 3 years old, they see you, they will run and start crying. Who are you? We don't used to see that. Yeah. So anyway, so now what? What campus did we stay at? You said okay, okay. Genoa is what we call the second campus. Okay? City solar is the first.

That's where you demolish? Yep. There was any city Soleil. Turn right. The second campus. And the third campus is what we call a a repatriate is the third. The fourth campus is the high school called by far. The fifth campus is where the Bible College is, is the largest campus. I think it is almost ten acres of land.

Oh, wow. And then the sixth campus is, is is a campus that we used to have an orphanage with 15 girls. And it's about to elevate two acres of land. But the church was supporting that ministry because they cannot go to Haiti. They said they quit. And unfortunately, we didn't have money to keep the orphanage open. So now we use the building as a Bible college school.

It's doing very great. And we're teaching English because English is becoming a very tools. You speak English in Haiti, you could find a job even as an interpreter. So we teach English to help people make a living. So how big is the high school campus? How many acres? A three and a half? Three and a half. Okay. And did you build a wall completely around.

And Haiti, that's the way it is. You build, you buy a piece of property, a piece of land. If you don't put a war in it, you cannot claim that it's yours. That's a lot of wall to put up around there. Yeah, yeah. To put a wall. If you don't put a wall, buddy, you have to find you have to have some kind of boundary.

Anyway, if you don't put a wall like a with concrete block, you put a wall with some kind of trees or bushes or something to say that, hey, this is my poverty. Nobody is allowed even good, you know, you see the goats. Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Good. So don't come in in my property or cows because in Haiti, the goods, the cows, the pigs, they are wide open.

I laugh because I remember when we, we dropped off. Maybe that was the first trip. I think we took the trusses down. Yeah, we took the trusses down. On the first trip off of the building we tore down, and we took it over to the high school. And there's a picture of Neal Apple, Mary Jane's son, chasing a chicken.

I mean, it's kind of weird. It's been almost 12 years, and I remember that. But it's funny because now things are like, you know, starting to remind me of little things that happen and people we met and, you know, and just how the kids came to school and just lined up and were so polite and, you know, but I was explaining to my son how poor of a country Haiti is.

And, you know, with just I mean, that was I think my dad did a pretty darn good job of raising me, that I'm fortunate and I'm blessed. And we have a lot in America, and there's a lot of people that are a lot worse off. But you can be raised at and hear that all your life. But, you know, when you're 25 years, 25, 27 years old and you see that you're like, holy cow.

Like, I mean, it's just yeah, we're -

This morning I was sharing with a group of high schoolers the way some people live in cities, like.

They said, please repeat it. We don't understand what you just said. I was sharing with them about the size of the houses that they live in, city Soleil, and the number of people who live in that house are the size of the house that I described were 8 to 12 people live in it. They have to sleep on shifts like you go and get four hours or five and then you get up, get out, and then I go get my for my five, because the house is too small to for everyone to sleep at the same time.

And one of the girls said, I don't understand that. And she said, that's what got me. She said, my bedroom is bigger than the house you discovered. So you're right, you're right. But I also tell her, don't take these things for granted because the Haitians don't choose to be born in 80. Neither did you choose to be born in the States.

There's a reason why you burn in this state, and I'm born in Haiti. We need to find out why. But one thing I do know the good book said we are blessed so that we could be a blessing to others. I'm best that I could come to the States and study, but the blessing is not for me to keep.

And if I keep it to myself, it's not worth much and I cannot enjoy it as much. It's just like your faith in Christ. The more you keep it to yourself, you know not to enjoy it. People enjoy their faith and have the possibility to keep it and let it go. People who are willing to share it. And I believe that with all of my health.

So wherever I could be a witness to the Lord, I do it because I don't want to lose my relationship with Christ. Yeah, yeah, it's a good thing I like Rushville. I like the Rushville area. But I tell you what, I come at a good time.

In Haiti, the experience is the experience that I'm experiencing right now, the past three weeks. It's just like a phenomenon. I came the family next where I'm staying, the crops are just being spread in the city with just that height. And then I watch it over three weeks now I'm driving.

You're talking about a war. All of a sudden there's a wall in between the two, the roads. There's a wall of corn here, and there's another side. So. And then I'm driving in between. I have a different feelings now, driving from three weeks ago and now. So I like it, I like it. I've never seen, never seen in Haiti.

My father, who is a farmer and he's considered as the second farmer who has the most lead in his area. And yearly, at 27, he was 27 acres and he was considered as the second most largest farm in Haiti. But here, if you don't have a thousand, at least a thousand.

Excuse me, you don't continue as a farmer.

So it's a different world. But I love it now. Driving with two wars someday size.

So what are privileged? It is for me to be with you. But between you and this was cars will be. People are not lessened now. He'll be. Yeah. Well animal posted. Yeah. So what what are ways that we can support you. Or if somebody is listening to this and they want like it's a missionary. So, you need funding.

Like, how can somebody how what are different ways people can help fund you guys? Well, there are so many different ways. I would say the first way is definitely, I believe in the power of prayer. Pray for Haiti, pray for Haiti outreach ministries. The needs are great. The greatest need read now we have. We have a school that has 2100 plus students, and there are 400 of them who are not sponsored, and they are already part of the school.

We take care of them as if they were sponsored. We give them uniforms, we give food, and so on and so forth. We're not going to send them away, but we think and we may not accept any new students, but we're going to keep what we have. But we pray that somebody will sponsor a child and he's forwarded an $80 a year, a year to sponsor that.

We need a lot, and we have people. You've seen these roofs. You go to City Soleil, they made out of 10 to 12, and then the sun and the seawater on them just break them into a pot. So during the day, if it rains at night, they cannot sleep because it leaks. The roof leaks very badly. And we are trying to put new roofs.

Pure family. And the roofs could cut. Depends on the side of the house from from seven 750 to $1000. There are people to who live in houses we call houses use tent and when it rains the water comes, etc. ours and they have to wake up in the middle of the night. So we're trying to build houses for them and to build a house for a family like this.

It's $7,000. We believe that was very nice house and pray, pray, pray, pray for the government. Pray for the politicians to quit being selfish. And these are the needs. And we have what we call a very beautiful website. If you're interested to know more about it, you visit WW Haiti. Haiti I o m at. Or you could find lots of information and if you know where we are to, we could I could leave some information with both some information with Adam.

I have some sponsorship applications. I also have some newsletters that I could live with. You people who are listening, they'd like to know more apart from the website. They could come soon by here and get some newsletters and some information. We have. Every year we send what is called an impact impact report for the last year, and then every three months we send a newsletter, and then every once in a while we send what you call an e-book.

But to receive this you have to have your email address with us. I don't know if I have you guys. I would like to have your email as well and put you in our mailing list. So you have 2100 students total or is that just one school? 2220 for all four schools? Okay, okay. The high school itself has 517 students and the other three school feeds, which are about 1600.

So how many grades do you do you guys have?

We go from you. From you a child to be admitted at our school, you have to be 3 or 4. Depends on the year that you were born. We accept you, you consider as a pre-K student, then you go to kindergarten. Then you stay in three of our different schools from pre-K all the way to sixth grade.

Once you are sixth grade, we transfer you to the school that you mentioned that you work on where where you work is called the high school. The high school starts from seventh grade all the way to 13 grade because we add one more grade. We don't finish in 12th grade in Haiti. We prepare the students one extra year to go to college.

So from pre-K all the way to 13 grade, you stay with us. And once you stay with us, you're ready to go to any college or university in Haiti. We consider as the d d very best school, and the government is very pleased with us every year. Our school systems. When you are not great, you have to take an exam in order to go to high school.

When you finish high school, you have to take a national exam in order to go to college. The the a success rate for the national is 48%. For the night graders. We have 100% every year. And the success for the high schoolers is 46%. We have 98. So the the the government knows about our school and people are literally dying.

They want to send their children to our school because they know they will receive a good education. How many colleges are in Haiti? Well, there are several colleges, but the statistics that 85% of the schools we have in Haiti are private, okay, and 10% are related to the government. But of the government schools, there are three of them who have high standard or reputation of good, but they pay for it.

There is no free education in Haiti. None whatsoever. You either have to pay to get in there. You don't have to pay tuition every month or every year, but there is a fee to get in and to get in. Also not on a fee that everybody knows that you have to pay, but you have to put something under the table, whomever is in charge, because there are so many people who like to get in.

Yeah, yeah. So he has lots of needs trying to do the best we can. And we've been doing it for now, 38 years. And the Lord has blessed us and he's not going to stop. But you use people like you guys to keep it going. And I'm so glad to know you've went twice. Now, Adam, you need to learn a lesson.

I pray for Haiti to come back to their senses and when it's free. And so I really would like for you to be in the list. So, you know, and you know, when you can go. Yeah, yeah, maybe Adam will lead the next one here. It'll be a whole roofing he's got. He's got he's got the talent. He's a leader.

He does have the talent. And the cool thing about Mary Jane is we do some team retreats sometimes and shows comes and cooks the meals for us. So she's kind of an honorary hole roofing employee, so I know she would jump right in. So now how old do kids have to be to come to the school? No.

Like if my son wanted to come with us. Oh, we they extended the child if it has to.

To go by himself or herself has to be 17 years old by itself. But if he's 14, he has to be with the parent. You could set at 14, but your parents have to be there, okay with you. But 17, you could go by yourself with it or the.

Yeah, yeah. How long has it been since it's been safe for Americans to the last time you've had some the last group of it was March 2020. Wow.

Last March 2020. And after that we said, guys, it's not worth it. Keep sending money. We'll do the work. And when it's safe, we'll let you know. And that's why I am going there talking about having election.

Next year. And that's why I'm going to December. See if really there's going to be an election and are safe, is going to be maybe a year or two from now. And that's when I will start resuming teams going to Haiti and safe, but not until kissing and your money, buddy. So what?

Is is there not I mean, I'm sure it's different, but like, you know, we have elections every four years for our president. Like, what's that look like for Haiti? Normally we have election every five years for a president is elected for five years in Haiti, but unfortunately, very unfortunate. 2021 our president was assassinated while he was in office and at his house.

And since that time, five years ago, they still trying to find out how did it happen? Who did it? But unfortunately, I'm pretty sure the people who are trying to find out who did it are the people who did it.

So most likely will never find out. But everybody knows. And even people who don't have a brand new who killed assassinated president who who planned it out. But since five years, we've never had a new president. He's been either a former politician, took over what they did for for the first two years. Our Constitution said the Congress will, you know, the people who are the senators.

And so but the terms was also come to an end. So there was no election for them. So now we have no Congress, none whatsoever. And later on there is a seven politicians decided to put their heads together until they're going to run the country. And every one of them was supposed to be the president of the group for seven months.

But the first one was the president of the group for seven months. He declared as president of the country for seven months. So when he finishes, the second one comes seven months. They claim said the third one, and finally the seventh one, because the president, he said, there's no one who's going to come after me. I was the last and I'm going to stay.

So he's now in charge and he calls himself as the Prime minister. Unfortunately.

The USA is pleased with him. They like him and they want him to stay in power until election comes. But when the election is come, nobody knows. So and you know this expression power corrupts. Absolute power corrupts absolutely. And that's where we are now. This guy would not want to leave. They want to stay in power. And he said, yeah.

And we don't know when for sure we will have election. But the USA said they we must have a president by 20 2028. So we hope next year we'll have election. It's hard.

So is your wife ever been to the United States? Yes. See, we got married in October 1989 and she was in the States visiting the year after, and she visited for conservative conservative consecutive years. And then after that she did not renew. So she has not been in the state for almost 30 years. And then I applied for her as a legal resident and her husband.

I applied for her to come to the States nine years ago. So for nine years visa has been in the process and now with Mr. Trump.

It's stop until the executive order could change. So that's the way it is. But since I have had a residence visa for 20 plus years, so I'm legal, I could go out whenever. So I ought to go to Haiti. What what's your wife's role with the Haiti Outreach Ministries? She's the fund of this school back in 1990. And then we started with one school, one class of 32, and now we have four campuses with 21 plus 2100 plus students.

She is now not the founder of the director. She's the superintendent of all the schools. And then every school has principal. But the principal worked with her and he was just so interesting. Every principal is a former student of hers. So sometimes I say that's not good because they respect her as a mother. Whatever she wants to see.

That's so kind of talk about that. Like what the you know, God bless your ministry for sure. But, you know, I'm a firm believer that if you look at successful people like Emily, my wife is just as much responsible for the success that we've had with this business, you know, so kind of talk about like how that how that has worked and maybe even some struggles with, like working with your spouse.

Very good good good good.

A very good question. Very good question. Definitely. I married my wife, I married up she's very smart. She went to better schools than I did. And the Lord has given a shepherd. Brandon have. She's practical, but with a brain and practical, but with limited brain. That's the way I will said. And but one thing I said, I wish I met her when I was 25 because I would have married her then because she was living three blocks away for me.

I never met her until I was 40 years old. I'll say, if there's one thing in my life that I have to have to do it again. I married her earlier, once. America. I was 42. She was 31.

You wouldn't believe how we work well together. I let her take over the schools. She knows how to do it. I take over the the churches. I know how to do it. And together we were so well.

That's how the Lord bless us. She. She does what it does very well. And I think the same thing is true with me. The only problem that we have sometimes, as many wife is that we have a board. Unfortunately, I'm the chairman of the board and as a chairman of the board, sometimes she doesn't listen to the chairman of the board.

Well, so you had that same problem.

So how to tell her, honey? This is the husband talking. UT is the chairman of the board. We want you to do this or that. And she said, well, tell the chairman of the board.

I hope it does not listen to that part. But she's good, she's good. But but there is attrition. Like she forgets. She forgets sometimes there's I'm not a husband. And when I, when the board asked me to ask her to do something, it's not the husband telling. It's tough, it's tough. So how old are you? 77. Okay, I'll be 78 in October.

Yeah, yeah, but it's fun working with sometimes. I know my limit, I know my limit. And then maybe, maybe by the time I'm 77, I'll know my limit. Because I'm not very smart there. But I tell you, there's something.

That differentiates my wife and I in philosophy of life.

I had a lot of training in the USA. I'm very affected and influenced by the way Americans think of cities, and I believe it's better than the way the Haitians do things in it. So I'm trying to apply what I learned in the States and Haiti, which sometimes I find resistance, both from my wife as well as from people who are working with me.

I'm the firm believer.

For what I do. To be successful, I have to put the right person I wrote me and then let them do it the way they feel called a qualified to do it, and don't dictate them how to do it. I believe that with all of my heart. Absolutely. Because if I call you to give you a job because you qualify, I'm not going to tell you how to do it, or else I should do it.

And then sometimes I'm accused by my wife and some close friend. Leon, you let go too much. And guess what, Bob? That's how they will grow. Because if I said, okay, Adam, you responsible for this, you need to report you to me. If you need to discuss some things that are not clear to you, but the day to day things they say, as long as you tell me what's going on, you you do your thing.

My wife said that's the American way, but not enough to think. Also, I believe I learned that from a guy by the name of John Maxwell. He's one of the Christian leaders and the professional delegator. And what I do, I'll bring you side by side with me. I show you how to do it and teach you how to do it, and then let you go.

You do it yourself, and I watch you. You do it to your liking and you do it well. I let you go, delegate you. And that's how they work. Progress process in the thing that I do most, said Leon, you are out of your mind. I'm thinking. We're not thinking. I've already announced my retirement from the administration, part of the ministry and December, and I've been doing that for two years.

Let them know they think it was a joke. And then now I'm telling them, don't send me any report. I have an executive director, I have a CEO. You work with him. But Leon, you the founder, see? No. I'm going. So what does that next step? What's that next season look like? The next season for me? I have an executive director have a board, and I'm going to retire from the board.

I'm going to do the two things that I like most, and I'm passionate about it, even at my age. And I know the Lord is going to bless me for maybe another ten decades to do it. I love to come to the States and share what God is doing with the ministry. I'm passionate about that. I'll tell you what God is doing.

And so I like to raise money for the ministry, and I love to train leaders for the churches. So as of January 2027, the administrative part of the ministry, I'm out of it. And then I'm going to take what is called six month sabbatical. I'm not going to do anything, just enjoying being with my wife, because I've been away from her for about two and a half years now.

I was six months just loving her and then prepare to teach and to come back to the States to twice a year for a month, raise money. That's what. That's when what what all states do you fundraise in now? Read. Now, my primary states are North Carolina, Virginia, Indiana, and then I have a few sporadic churches in have one in Wyoming, one in Texas and one in Georgia.

But my primarily churches are but close to.

14 churches between North Carolina and Virginia and Indiana who are supporting. And I need to see them as much as I can every year for sure. Right, right. Absolutely. Every year, because you head out of sight. Out of mind.

Yeah, yeah. And I also have well, I used to have one church in Ohio, but the church, because they cannot go to Haiti, they said.

They want to go to Kenya. So and they never three churches in Kentucky.

Yeah. Together. About 26 churches were involved, still involved with it and some big like, could you believe that? I have three churches. The three churches together. Give me $200. The three, 50, 50 and 100 for over 30 years. Wow. Except the other day I was with him. I said, God, there's a word called inflation.

Because they're not supporting the ministry. They supported me. As you know, that's my personal support. That's how I live. I said, guys, I'm close to them. I say, this is something called inflation, $50. 30 years ago he said $50 today. But I understand that because these three churches that I mentioned altogether, altogether all three, they don't have 50 members now.

But there was a time, the one who was giving me 100 for 30 years. There was a time they had close to 200, but now if they have ten people, they're happy and they're thinking about closing the doors. There are two churches I met last weekend, 4th of July visited them. Leon, you might as well prepared for that.

$50 is not going to go with you soon because we're thinking about closing. So because when we have five people were happy.

That's bad news for me. But it was worse news for them.

Yeah. Yep. So guys, I pray that God will bless your business. And apparently from what you said before raising his hand and what you're doing, and I pray that you see it more. Thank you. Pastor, for your time today. We appreciate it. We say pressure. I'm glad I am. It's good God, once he's saying he's on, stick with it.